| ANOTHER
NEW MOUTHPIECE?
So it's
time for a new mouthpiece (that would be anytime, right?) and lucky
for me I was able to try some of the latest Eddie Daniels mouthpieces.
For me the most important thing is how the mouthpiece FEELS while
you're playing. I've played on many mouthpieces that sounded pretty
good but seemed to fight me a bit or were too touchy with reeds. All
of these new mouthpieces felt great, and after choosing a couple I
was anxious to give them a try in a symphony rehearsal and performance.
That night I decided to play the mouthpieces in a Chamber Orchestra
of Albuquerque concert. We were doing the Dvorak Serenade and the
Deems Taylor "Through the Looking Glass." Ordinarily I wouldn't
risk trying a new mouthpiece on a concert without rehearsing with
it first, but I was so overwhelmed with the ease and sound of the
Eddie Daniels, I just went for it! The best part was that I was so
at ease. Everything felt so nice that I completely forgot about the
mouthpiece and enjoyed performing more than ever. Soft attacks up
high weren't even an issue, and the slow solo in the opening of the
Taylor just seemed to soar out of my clarinet. I loved it!
Later that week, I was thinking that this mouthpiece is too good to
be true. Maybe I've just lucked out with a great batch of reeds? So,
on to rehearsing and performing the Dvorak New World Symphony with
the Santa Fe Symphony (SFS). Our principal bassoonist (formerly with
the New Orleans and Minnesota Symphonies) noticed the new sound immediately
and was blown away with the ease of it and also the bigger sound,
especially in the lower range. The octave clarinet duet in the Scherzo
of the Dvorak was a breeze, as was the triple high B at the end of
the "Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives.
This past week, I tried the mouthpiece on another big solo, the cadenza
from the Tchaikovsky "Mozartiana." Our principal oboist
commented after the concert that she loved the sound, and asked what
I was doing differently. To me that was the ultimate test: she had
no idea that I was even trying a new mouthpiece!
The same weekend we were performing the "Rhapsody in Blue"
with the New Mexico Symphony and I was asked to play a little jazz
solo with the pianist and cadenza into the glissando. Originally I
had planned on using a different mouthpiece for this concert, but
the "Mozartiana" that weekend was so much fun that I went
ahead and played with the Eddie Daniels. Yikes! The glissando practically
played itself and I was able to get so many different colors on the
solo I almost felt like a jazzer.
For me,
the main benefit of good equipment is that you forget about the equipment
and enjoy the music. How many times have I settled with an OK reed,
knowing that I probably sounded fine, but that I could have had so
much more fun if things felt better? I've been playing and performing
3 weeks now on the Eddie Daniels mouthpiece and I'm not worried about
finding a reed! I know that several of my reeds will play great and
that with minimal work I'll have a couple of gems. Here in the high-altitude
climate of the New Mexico desert, this is NOT the usual case, so I'm
elated!
Lori
Lovato, clarinetist
New Mexico Symphony Orchestra
Santa Fe Symphony
Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque
New Mexico Woodwind Quintet
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