About a month ago I broke down and purchased a metal clarinet. I had always wondered what these sounded like, since I have heard some Turkish musicians that use these, and like their sound. Question was, how would it sound to me?
I always look in Craig's list at the musical instruments, a bad habit of mine that leads to spending money. In there I saw an ad for some metal clarinets, one brass - which I had never heard of - and one silver plated. No more info than that.
I called and left a message for the guy, and nothing happened for about two weeks. Then in the middle of a company meeting at work, my cell phone goes off and its this guy. He apologized for not getting back to me, and I proceeded to ask him about the horns. To my amazement, they were both Noblets, just like my beloved wooden horn.
I should say that I had been eyeing some metal clarinets on ebay, and was close to bidding on what looked to be a nice Pan American, another brand from Conn, when the fellow called back. This was great since I could actually hear what the thing would sound like. Its not as if there are many of these vintage instruments available, so I would not at least have to buy a pig in a poke.
I was dying to try out the horn and finally its Saturday and off I go, up to Washington state, a bit of a drive from Portland. I get to the guys house and its pretty sad, looks a bit like a crash pad but what the hell?
Inside I look at both horns, the brass and the silver. The man explained to me he had had the silver horn rebuilt at some point in the past. It seems to me that he just put it away at that point. The silver was very tarnished, unlike the brass horn, which just looked amazing.
I had brought my own horn with me for comparison. First I played the brass horn, which was OK and then silver, which was way better than OK. Then I compared them with my wooden clarinet. As I kept switching back and forth, I began to realize that the dull silver horn was a much finer horn than the brass, and in fact was close in sound to my wooden Noblet. In fact I was thinking, maybe I shouldn't even buy this it doesn't sound that different.
But still - maybe cause I could imagine how shiny it would be, if I could clean it up. And it did sound nice.
So I bought it, headed straight to Portland music, very excited. I showed the brass guy there - not the weekday brass guy, who I know really well - and he said well it could clean up. He also said mostly these go for $50 or so. I had just paid three times that, didn't really want to hear that!
I got a mouthpiece and most important a cleaning rag and off I go to polishing.
It turns out to look wonderful, once I put the work in, and yes, it sounds really good too, just a bit different than the wooden horn. I actually think that in the upper ranges, it sounds a bit better than wood. But even the lower octave sounds very nice, not tinny at all. Later I took it into the music store again, so my friendly brass guy could play it – he is a fine musician too - and he said, 4 out of 5 of these should just be hung up as decoration - but not this one.
I was very pleased with that! Now when I practice I alternate between the two horns, and really, I love them both. Its good to have a choice!
So the little things I was speaking of:
I am finding, as I teach myself this instrument, that there are many very subtle things to be learned about the fingerings. Of course, if I was smart I would just get an instructor and would be farther ahead, but I don't want to go there just yet, until I get past feeling good about all the scales and arpeggios.
A couple of frustrating things with fingering have now passed over to the oh-I-understand-it-now phase. On the B flat horn, the fingering between the A and the G# is done by the first finger. What was driving me crazy was the delay I would always get when moving between these notes.
Finally I figured out that instead of bending my finger, I just keep it rigid and straight - problem solved! It goes right back to what I always say to my student: minimum movement principal - the less you move your fingers to get where you need to go, the better. Sometimes its just hard to see this!
Another example that drove me up the wall: the E-F# (or B-C# in the upper range) always sounded horrible, that dreaded squeak. These keys are oddly shaped, and one is slightly higher than the other, at least on my horns. I was trying to move laterally across the keys with my pinky, which would move my thumb just enough to cause bad notes.
Then I finally sat down and thought, I should try this another way. Even though my instructor said, don't ever look at the keys, I did any way. Somehow I had never considered any other way of moving my finger but straight across. Once I looked at the keys and my finger, I had the idea of moving my pinky downward instead of across. Amazing to me, this actually worked! Now I have to think about this consciously, but soon the muscle memory will kick in, and I won't think about this at all.
I am sure I must have gone thru something similar when I was learning to play the sax, but I realize now indeed with the covered keys that it is a much simpler instrument to play.
Now if I could only figure this kind of thing out faster! But once you get it this way, the hard and honest way, you don't forget. It is the little things, the little victories, that count.