It's the Vandoren 56s I think you're referring too, but unfortunately they no longer come in the nice box. I ordered a box the other week because I adore the sound they produce and was upset to see they just came in a bog standard box. I can only imagine it's because of the atmospheric cointrol they have on them; before the control would only be there until you opened up the box, so effectively your 9 other reeds would go back to being in the same conditions the basic reeds would be in. Now they are all individually wrapped so that you don't change the conditions they are in until you actually open up each individual reed. Because of this wrapping the box is also now slightly longer. But I think the reeds do seemt o play better now they have changed this (unles I just got lucky with this box!!!)

About reed strengths; it all depends on your mouthpiece. It is a falacy built up by jealous/competitive beginners (as far as I'm aware anyway) who say that the harder the reed you play the better you are as a player. Usually, if you play an open mouthpiece you use a softer reed, and if you play a closed mpouthpiece you use a harder reed. However, closed mouthpieces are also used with soft reeds for beginners as they are easier to play than the open-tipped variety. I would say that a 2.5 reed should be just about right, although you may need a strength 3 or 3.5 when you come to want to play the altissimo notes above say top E.

Hope this helps explain a few things....

I think that Purple Dolphin has hit the proverbial nail ( or reed) on the head.

The reed is just a piece of dried grass. If it's individually packed, it will change to the local humidity/temperature as soon as its opened.

The macho business about the stronger reeds is true. It all depends on your embouchure, your MP, barrel and instrument.

I have learned over the years that you have to try every reed with every mouthpiece. The MPs come with open/close tips, but also long/short facings, so it gets a little more complicated. Don't assume anything. Just experiment!

I have one MP that I thought only liked reeds of 2.5 or less. But I discovered that it plays well with stronger reeds - if I smooth and balance them properly.

What I mean is that you hold the reed up to a light and check that it looks perfectly symmetrical. If one side lets more light through, you sand or scrape the other side to thin it.

Then you rub the whole reed on paper to smooth the side that sits on the MP.

Should work..... Honest!

Steve

I used to hate Vandoren because it is quite tough to get a sound out of it. My previous teacher allowed me to use any kind of reed. But my new teacher is insistent that i use only Vandoren reeds and he wants me to use size 3. For a long time, I found myself out of breath but recently, I seem to be able to use the reed without much difficulty. The advantage of using a harder reed is that it's easier to play a high note. I don't go out with the higher notes. I used to sound very flat when I was using a Rico or Mitchell Lurie but now I'm ok with Vandoren size 3. I need to use more breath, that's all.

Baermann's Adagio is really lovely. I will most certainly do it for Group A of my clarinet exam.

Why do clarinets squeak?

I read somewhere that only clarinets squeak. Flutes and oboes don't. Is that true? Why is that so?

I think it's a reed thing.

Bad/worn/unsuitable reeds, poor embouchure, poor breathing techniques, fingering problems, instrument defects, all these can cause squeaks.

I made an oboe squeak once, which I understand is quite an achievement!

I think that getting any sound from an oboe is quite an acheivement.

I too made an oboe squeak, but that was with a reed that was split in about 4 places...

Missed something out in my post above - tonguing problems can also cause squeaks...

I like the instrument defect excuse. When my clarinet squeaks, I'll blame it on my not having an R13. Hehe.

But why is it that the other instruments don't squeak or if they do squeak, it's supposed to be quite rare and rather an achievement? The oboe is almost like a clarinet. But the clarinet seems like it's so sensitive.

I've been playing clarinet for a few weeks now and I must say it seems impossible to get it to make any sound when the right hand becomes involved! Still, I must admit!




I LOVE MY CLARINET!

i guess its because of the shape of the mouthpiece/reed combo. saxes squeak about as readily as clarinets because (i suppose) of the fact that their mouthpiece/reed combos are very similar. it is impossible to produce a squeak on a flute though...

so far, I haven't had many squeaks. I think i only squeaked once or twice in a lesson..

I'm learning the upper register andI learnt the C but i didn't squeak and teacher was really suprised. and make me keep playing but the whole time I never squeaked. That's apparently is quite an achievement as she used to squeak all the time and so did the students she taught.

can I ask did you, or any of your students ever squeaked at that upper register C ?

Hi, I'm sure by now, everything should be OK. I used to have a problem with the right hand too.



Hi, I didn't squeak but I could not produce any sound when I first started playing the Upper Register C. That's the one where you don't cover any hole at all except for below the clarinet, right?

Has anyone played Baermann's Adagio? I think this is the older Baermann. The piece is in the syllabus of Grade 6 Trinity College exam. I'm perfecting it for my exam and I think I'm getting the hang of it. It's not so bad for me because it's slow. The exception is one part when I have to play really fast. I think it goes on to demi-semi quaver. Anyone has tricks on how to play fast? When I do so, I either garble up the notes or skip one or two. And even if I get it right, it's more like fluke; there's no guarantee I'll get it right on exam day.

I need to do well in the pieces because I'll probably fail my aural. I haven't got a musical ear.

I have a pupil preparing a different piece for Gr 3 (Waltz from Sleeping beauty), which has a fairly fast passage in .....fast for my pupil). We just begun very slowly...with a metronome, at a speed she could manage reliably and then gradually increased the metronome speed by beats a minute at a time. We just practiced the hard passage.... and within a few weeks she got the passage from 60 beats to 140. It's very slow at first, and then suddenly muscle memory developed and we could increase the speed by 5 , then 10.
If you begin very slowly, you don't get into the habit of garbling the notes and by increasing the passage slowly, you don't panic and rush!!
I learn a fair amount of the difficult parts of my piano pieces this way!
When you are practicing, remember you need to practice the hard bits and not necessarily all the easy bits every time.
Also ask your teach for advice. I'm not familiar with the piece and don't know if there are fingering difficulties that need certain fingerings.......

Thanks, Clari Nicki1. That's very good advice. It's just that I find music exams very stressful. It's make or break and unlike a sit-down exam with pencil and paper, there is little room for error.

And of course I fear my aural exam. It's a sure fail.

So ask your teacher to do more work on it with you.... or as it's TG have you comsidered the alternative?

Hi sbhoa,

I'm already doing the alternative for scales. Trinity allows me to do Orchestral extracts in lieu of scales. But can there be an alternative to aural? If there is an alternative, I'm sure to do it. Hehe.

You can do improvisation instead if you are good at that.
Look on their site for the syllabus.

Oh no!!! I knew there was a catch somewhere. I can't do improvisation to save my life. The trouble is I'm not a real musician. My musical abilities are far inferior to my interest in music. I am one of those rare and unfortunate chaps who have a lot of interest in music but very little ability and almost no talent. That's why aural is something I think I'll fail. But improvisation is way beyond me. I just had a look at the syllabus. I think it's easier to do a relatively successful guessing game for the aural exam than for the improvisation.

Thanks folks!!!

So how much work are you doing with your teacher on the aural?
Have you told him that you would like to do a little every lesson?
It's part of the exam so it's not unreasonable to expect a teacher who is preparing you for that exam to cover ALL of the syllabus with you.
You seem to have decided that you just can't do it in a way which is beginning to sound more like 'won't' or 'can't be bothered'.

What is it about the aural that you find particularly difficult? You can ask your teacher to give you more help in that area, and there are website etc. which you can use to do more practice on some areas.

Hi,

He has asked my Mum to teach me. He will spend more time on the clarinet bits because he's the principal clarinettist in the orchestra and I think he's quite happy my Mum will take me for aural.



For grade 5, I could not sing the notes after the examiner has played the first note.

I can't tell something has a cadence of V to I for example. I can't tell a note is a dominant of another note after the tonic has been played for me. Is this tone deafness?

It's good that your mum is able to help to prepare you... this means you are likely to be able to do some work on it with her more often than you would with your teacher.
If you get the sample tests book it will give an idea of what is needed and then she can find more music to use as examples too.
I doubt it's tone deafness, just that you've not learnt what the sounds are yet.
This is something that ideally needs to be built up slowly..... if your mum is able to work through the aural with you she will be able to do this.

TG aural tests are VERY different to AB... I don't think there is any singing involved.....
I would get the books etc and start at a much easier grade anddo little and often... I have pupils like this who aren't confident at aural... my youngest is like it too. She is 9 and very clever academically and I think she panics in aural. She is doing gr 3 violin next session. I asked her Piano teacher to do aural with her every week.... 10 minutes every week.... and she is now doing Gr 2 and just about to start to start Gr 3.... she has got lots better. Please, get the book and material and plod through the earlier grades as TG aural is different.

Hi everybody,

Thanks for your suggestions. They've been very helpful. I'll get the aural books and work on them with my Mum.