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Humour You Brits Don't Know What You're Missing

This is a real marching band---complete with an accordion. :p

 
Now we know how a clarinet sounds when it is played with a saxophone embouchure. o_O
You're assuming that these guys have ever played a saxophone. As far as I'm aware the saxophone is a relative newcomer to the Indian wedding band and the clarinet has normally been the lead instrument for the past few decades, superceding the traditional double reed shanai. The clarinet having been introduced by British military bands and been absorbed into Indian culture like so many other things.
Of course playing an Indian made Albert System clarinet that retails for about $12, using reeds that need considerable adjustment to make them even remotely playable and managing to make music as good as this isn't an easy task. A western orchestral clarinettist would have a job playing in the noisy streets of urban India for several hours. These guys have leather lungs, you can hear them several streets away, through the din of car and motorbike horns and all the other chaos.
Nor would it be right to judge the playing styles of people from a totally different culture by western classical standards. Asian musicians have their own sound, at least as distinctive as the French, German or English classical tones.
Should we wish all players around the world to sound the same, homogenised by eurocentricity, or should we take delight in the nuances of other people's cultures?
You Yanks don't know what you're missing...:D
 
You're assuming that these guys have ever played a saxophone. As far as I'm aware the saxophone is a relative newcomer to the Indian wedding band and the clarinet has normally been the lead instrument for the past few decades, superceding the traditional double reed shanai. The clarinet having been introduced by British military bands and been absorbed into Indian culture like so many other things.
Of course playing an Indian made Albert System clarinet that retails for about $12, using reeds that need considerable adjustment to make them even remotely playable and managing to make music as good as this isn't an easy task. A western orchestral clarinettist would have a job playing in the noisy streets of urban India for several hours. These guys have leather lungs, you can hear them several streets away, through the din of car and motorbike horns and all the other chaos.
Nor would it be right to judge the playing styles of people from a totally different culture by western classical standards. Asian musicians have their own sound, at least as distinctive as the French, German or English classical tones.
Should we wish all players around the world to sound the same, homogenised by eurocentricity, or should we take delight in the nuances of other people's cultures?
You Yanks don't know what you're missing...:D
Ouch! Altissimo. You really took my post the wrong way. I was not being disrespectful of that player or the style of music, in fact I quite enjoyed that video. My "technical" remark had to do with the mouthpiece being inserted straight into the player's mouth as on a saxophone. This results in playing below the top of the mouthpiece pitch which produces a completely different tone than playing at the top of the pitch which (for good players) produces the characteristic "symphonic" clarinet tone that we are familiar with in the west. Again, to get that "sound" on a clarinet all one has to do is to play the clarinet like a saxophone. True statement---not meant to be offensive to anyone.
 
by what other means should one insert it??

To produce the "characteristic" classical clarinet sound as we know it, the clarinet mouthpiece is inserted into the mouth at about a 45° angle. The saxophone, on the other hand goes straight into the mouth (see Paul Desmond).



Some of the other major differences are listed below.

Clarinet
  • plays near the top of the mouthpiece pitch
  • the bottom lip is stretched thin and the chin is flat
  • generally is played with fast cold air
  • the mouthpiece is inserted at a 45° angle
Saxophone
  • plays closer to the center of the mouthpiece pitch
  • the bottom lip is less tight and the chin is slightly rounded
  • generally is played using warm air
  • the mouthpiece is inserted straight into the mouth
 
oh, you mean inserted into the players mouth at a straighter angle... rather than directly
Well, I've never had to get a protractor out when I pick up a sax or clarinet..
Some of the New Orleans clarinetists seem to have gone for a higher angle than shown in your photo and there are several famous sax players who've succeeded admirably with the mouthpiece at a less than straight angle.

I've just tried varying the angle of my clarinet and I couldn't hear much variation in tone, but I don't have an anechoic chamber handy to do proper tests.... and I've played my alto at all kinds of angles when I'm slouched on the sofa or lying in bed. For some things, playing alto with the mouthpiece at an angle can help....

The people I learned about music from would never tell me not to do something, they'd just grin and let me try it and find out for myself... and then tell me what worked for them and why. So I've never had any fixed ideas about how things should be done, so it's never occurred to me to worry about what angle I'm playing at, although that's probably determined by intake of intoxocants...
 
Returning to the theme of bad music (deliberately so in this case), these two are brilliant. I particulalry like the piano breaks in this one:

 
Returning to the theme of bad music (deliberately so in this case), these two are brilliant. I particulalry like the piano breaks in this one:

That's 2 minutes of my life I'll never get back. :eek:
 
Jbt, the Ophir State Marching Band would certainly stand out at the Rose Parade in Pasadena! In a class of their own.
 
I am surprised nobody mentioned Florence Foster Jenkins.
Around 2'40" it gets hotter
 
The glory of the human voice has caused some panic - senior management heard it and went looking for one of the dogs shut somewhere. I jest not!

Dave
 

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