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Starting clarinet again after 30 years ‘off’!
- Thread starter Preston
- Start date
Suzy and I had 25 years off and now play in 4 ensembles. Yeah, we're retired from the work grind. A good two hour practice with the right group can seem like 5 minutes. Picking a mouthpiece is a *very* personal thing. We got an instructor who had boxes of mouthpiece for us to try. And we'd try it over a week because it takes time to really test a setup. My wife's perfect mouthpiece is absolutely horrible for me and vice versa. Good luck and enjoy the adventure.
Another opinion for you to ponder.
Like Gandalfe, I took some time off and came back to playing. I played a theater gig where I ended up needing to replace my main clarinet I had played since college due to very hot lights shining on one side of the instrument causing some expensive to repair cracking. I put down that instrument and did other things. When the need arose for clarinet again I had other instruments so I grabbed my familiar/trusty mouthpiece and went through the assortment of clarinets in the closet. None of them seemed to play, so I grabbed my bland but good old Bundy mpc and found that they all played pretty well with that mouthpiece. My mouthpiece wasn't a match for any of them.
Lesson learned - don't judge a new instrument based on what you used to play. + part B + Don't judge a new mouthpiece based on 1 crappy reed in a store. Not all reeds are playable and you could be missing out on a gem.
My old piece was a very nice piece, but now it sits in a box somewhere or I gave it away, I don't remember. I ended up trying out many different mouthpieces along the way to ending up with my current setup - which is mine and of no use to anyone else so I'm not telling. I had several pieces I thought would do until I took them out of the house and found them to be lacking in areas I didn't explore while practicing at home. So the quest continued until I fell into my current setup which I liked well enough to send it out to be copied/duplicated for my A clarinet setup.
Don't think of a piece as a tool to build chops, you're missing an opportunity. If it works for you, why upgrade? If it isn't working why keep on playing it?
Don't overlook pieces based on price either. I've gotten several nice pieces which were discarded into junk boxes because of assumptions that they were student junk - the plain old Bundy signature piece, Wm Sumner pieces, other random unknown pieces which played up a storm but were bought for $5 or less. My main Eb mpc was found in this manner and the ligature I use cost more than I paid for the mouthpiece.
Just play everything you come across with several reeds in various venues until something feels right.
Like Gandalfe, I took some time off and came back to playing. I played a theater gig where I ended up needing to replace my main clarinet I had played since college due to very hot lights shining on one side of the instrument causing some expensive to repair cracking. I put down that instrument and did other things. When the need arose for clarinet again I had other instruments so I grabbed my familiar/trusty mouthpiece and went through the assortment of clarinets in the closet. None of them seemed to play, so I grabbed my bland but good old Bundy mpc and found that they all played pretty well with that mouthpiece. My mouthpiece wasn't a match for any of them.
Lesson learned - don't judge a new instrument based on what you used to play. + part B + Don't judge a new mouthpiece based on 1 crappy reed in a store. Not all reeds are playable and you could be missing out on a gem.
My old piece was a very nice piece, but now it sits in a box somewhere or I gave it away, I don't remember. I ended up trying out many different mouthpieces along the way to ending up with my current setup - which is mine and of no use to anyone else so I'm not telling. I had several pieces I thought would do until I took them out of the house and found them to be lacking in areas I didn't explore while practicing at home. So the quest continued until I fell into my current setup which I liked well enough to send it out to be copied/duplicated for my A clarinet setup.
Don't think of a piece as a tool to build chops, you're missing an opportunity. If it works for you, why upgrade? If it isn't working why keep on playing it?
Don't overlook pieces based on price either. I've gotten several nice pieces which were discarded into junk boxes because of assumptions that they were student junk - the plain old Bundy signature piece, Wm Sumner pieces, other random unknown pieces which played up a storm but were bought for $5 or less. My main Eb mpc was found in this manner and the ligature I use cost more than I paid for the mouthpiece.
Just play everything you come across with several reeds in various venues until something feels right.
I recently bought a Rico Graftonite Bb Clarinet mouthpiece in size B5 mainly for jazz work. These are no longer made I gather, so it was an NOS (new but old stock). Earlier I bought a Bari Esprit mouthpiece, but it's tenon is of a slightly larger diameter, which did not fit the barrel of my Boosey & Hawkes Edgware intermediate clarinet. The Graftonite fits.
I heard on the various woodwind forums that the Edgware was considered the poor "Ramen eating" (new term I learned for a starving musician)
clarinet for a saxist to use to double on, because they are large bore and sound overall decent, but can be had for a few hundred dollars or less in decent condition.
Here in US they seem less popular, so I am game for cost effective instruments, being fully retired as of 13 years ago. My E-Bay purchases (US prices): $50 (2015), $87 (2020), $120 (2025).
This 3rd one I bought earlier this year is in all Grenadilla wood and is in the best shape, (you get what you pay for), so I plan to have it serviced by Tarpley's Music Store in Lubbock, Texas. The other 2 I'll get around to it down the road. The bargain one for $50 needs considerable work, the $87 needs some but not bad. Interestingly these 3 have different body materials.
Now that I have a true Grenadilla wood one after 50 years, (I was a clarinet player with the 264th Army Band, Fort Shafter, Honolulu, Hawaii, played a wood Buffet then), come to realize that with TLC required of wood, the "ebonites" (plastics) weren't bad after all. The Reserve Bands aren't funded as well as the active Army. Back in 1986 I was issued a brand new Selmer Bundy plastic clarinet. It was the first clarinet that played well in tune, better than the early Buffet professional one.
Active Army, we were issued 2 instruments, a pro model and a beginner model. The beginner model was for venues where one did not want to damage the professional instrument, like outdoor gigs - street parades and sporting events where there was possibility of rain.
As a band we sounded good in either, people couldn't tell which instrument we were playing.
Anyway, it will all come back to you, like riding a bicycle. Good luck!
I heard on the various woodwind forums that the Edgware was considered the poor "Ramen eating" (new term I learned for a starving musician)
clarinet for a saxist to use to double on, because they are large bore and sound overall decent, but can be had for a few hundred dollars or less in decent condition.Here in US they seem less popular, so I am game for cost effective instruments, being fully retired as of 13 years ago. My E-Bay purchases (US prices): $50 (2015), $87 (2020), $120 (2025).
This 3rd one I bought earlier this year is in all Grenadilla wood and is in the best shape, (you get what you pay for), so I plan to have it serviced by Tarpley's Music Store in Lubbock, Texas. The other 2 I'll get around to it down the road. The bargain one for $50 needs considerable work, the $87 needs some but not bad. Interestingly these 3 have different body materials.
Now that I have a true Grenadilla wood one after 50 years, (I was a clarinet player with the 264th Army Band, Fort Shafter, Honolulu, Hawaii, played a wood Buffet then), come to realize that with TLC required of wood, the "ebonites" (plastics) weren't bad after all. The Reserve Bands aren't funded as well as the active Army. Back in 1986 I was issued a brand new Selmer Bundy plastic clarinet. It was the first clarinet that played well in tune, better than the early Buffet professional one.
Active Army, we were issued 2 instruments, a pro model and a beginner model. The beginner model was for venues where one did not want to damage the professional instrument, like outdoor gigs - street parades and sporting events where there was possibility of rain.
As a band we sounded good in either, people couldn't tell which instrument we were playing.
Anyway, it will all come back to you, like riding a bicycle. Good luck!