Could use some help - Please

Taranto12

First off, I'm a 57 yo going through the "why didn't I stay with it, when I was a kid?" I tried playing the clarinet when I was in 5th grade and lost interest. I play keyboard, pipe organ and soprano recorder, so I'm not a newbie to music.

Now, I recently found a Vito Reso-tone 3 clarinet at an estate sale. It appeared in excellent condition and for $90, I couldn't resist. I replaced the mouthpiece with a VanDoren B45 Traditional and got VD Traditional #2 Reeds. I've not ventured into the Clarion register yet (working on the Complete Method for Clarinet, Gustave Langenus and the "New Tune A Day" series.) So far so good; lips are a bit sore, but my embouchure is starting to come along. I play about 2 30 minute periods a day.

I've noticed that there is condensation in the mouthpiece and body. It's not dripping wet, but how often during the session should I mop out my instrument?

I am considering a wooden clarinet, eventually. How does one protect the wood from the moisture? Doesn't the moisture effect the tone and pitch as the wood swells?

Normally, I would ask a teacher; however, I live in the middle of nowhere, Montana and the closest instructor is about 1 1/2 hours (one way) away.
 
re mopping: do it whenever you think that water has accumulated where it shouldn't. Do it at the end of your session. I don't do the former but consider the latter "clarinetiquette".
Wooden clarinets don't swell easily as their wood is very dense, but "standing water" should be avoided, so use the rag before putting the instrument away.

Not sure about the tuner - use your ears, maybe sporadically check during a session to learn about your instrument's tendency to go flatter or sharper after warming up. A metronome, however, is a good investment, especially one that is shatter-proof. ;-)
 
On the tuner Ben is correct, you use it to see what notes "for your instrument" are problem children. I chart them using plus or minus and the cents, like the throat note A is always 20 cents flat. I can adjust a note 5 to 10 cents without thinking about it. For 20 cents or more, I look for an alternate fingering. YMMV.
 
Thanks...I did get a tuner/metronome combination. Being new, I guess I used the wrong term "mop," rather than "rag." I use the rag after each session.

I do use a tuner, especially when I'm doing long tones and exercises. I don't have perfect pitch, but have a descent relative pitch.

I forgot to ask. Is it OK to leave my clarinet on the stand (without mouthpiece/reed/barrel) or should I dissassemble it every time? I do dry it out after each session.
 
Left on a stand, a horn can much more easily be damaged by someone passing by - that's not the case in a case. Also, I've run into wooden horns that have been left assembled, and of which the bell has been cracked due to the amount of force put into it to disassemble it. The key work can also be bent during such exertions. You're a long way from the nearest repairman.

I swab my wood horns after every use, but I know others who never do. Leave too much moisture on pads for an extended period of time and you may have trouble.

Using a tuner at first is great, because you have to learn your way around an instrument and they all vary. However, don't turn into one of those players who sits with the tuner out on the stand in front of them during performances. Once you get proficient on the instrument, you should do fine without it.

Using the metronome is another thing entirely. If you don't get accustomed to playing to a regular tempo, you run the risk of developing what I call "church organist syndrome", where a player used to setting their own tempo tends to surge in easy passages and slow down in hard ones. We just ate my wife's birthday brunch at an expensive hotel brunch buffet with a pianist playing in the background, and the whole experience was marred by her amazing interpretations of Gershwin, with some tunes being pulled off at MM=160 and above.
 
SOTSDO said:
the whole experience was marred by her amazing interpretations of Gershwin, with some tunes being pulled off at MM=160 and above.
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There's a version of Rhapsody in Blue somewhere on YouTube, where the director notes that it's supposed to be played at come un pipistrello dall'inferno speeds. It does sound unusual, because most other recordings of Rhapsody are much, much slower.
 
Somewhere I've got a recording of Gershwin himself doing the Blue. If that is what he intended it to be done like, nobody is doing it correctly these days.

It was hot, not this lush sappy thing we all know.
 
Carl H. said:
Somewhere I've got a recording of Gershwin himself doing the Blue. If that is what he intended it to be done like, nobody is doing it correctly these days.

It was hot, not this lush sappy thing we all know.
Click to expand...

I know the recording, it's outstanding and quite different.
 
Taras12 said:
Thanks...I did get a tuner/metronome combination. Being new, I guess I used the wrong term "mop," rather than "rag." I use the rag after each session.

I do use a tuner, especially when I'm doing long tones and exercises. I don't have perfect pitch, but have a descent relative pitch.

I forgot to ask. Is it OK to leave my clarinet on the stand (without mouthpiece/reed/barrel) or should I dissassemble it every time? I do dry it out after each session.
Click to expand...

If you leave it assembled all the time the corks on the tenons will not last as long. The cork gets compressed and aftre a while it stays like that. Personally, I leave mine assembled but I have learnt how to replace tenon corks. If I had to put it away all the time I wouldn't play it much.
 
Jim, where the heck did you find a clarinet with a throat A that flat? Have you tried cleaning out the A and/or Ab toneholes with a Q-tip and checking the key heights? You should get it looked at, you're having to work too hard.
 
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