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Great video, John! Loved your detailed insights into the ligatures. By the way, the piece you played during the demonstrations sounded fantastic-what was it?

I've played it about 10 years ago and got standing ovations after the piece !

I'm getting back into clarinet playing after 20 years, and I originally had one of the first Rovner Eddie Daniels ligatures with the metal ends on the flaps and plastic rails between the leather and mouthpiece. I can't find that model anywhere, so I bought the Versa - the successor to the EDII. It was such a let-down! I checked the reviews on Amazon, so I thought it was just me being 20 years out of practice. I picked up a standard Rovner Dark ligature and while it's a bit freer, I wanted more out of my ligature. I'm glad to hear your thoughts echoing mine. I picked up a Vandoren Optimum ligature a couple of months ago and I'm very pleased with it!

Don’t you have some advice, how to practice this excerpt? I am so frustrated. I’ve been practicing it for a month and I am still not satisfied with results..

Wisdom for anyone learning anything demanding. Small steps, slow progression, dedication, regularity, and simple and clear goals. I don't know if metronome is necessary for learning to sail a racing dinghy.... but probably! :D Master Kurokawa, I am especially thankful for your point number 14!

I find your conclusion that Vandoren cane is "inferior" to be quite interesting. I've seen a lot of clarinetists come to this conclusion, so I thought I'd explore a the nuance in this argument. I do balance my reeds as well, but I do it while polishing every part of the reed and sealing the pores. (If anyone's interested, this is Steve Williamson's method). Whether a reed changes from day to day has, really, nothing to do with the quality of the cane, but rather, how it is cured. What I'm gathering from this video watching it the second time around is that Woodstone reeds appear to be cured differently, or perhaps do not require the same kind of sealing due to how or where the cane is grown and/or dried. Perhaps, from this perspective, Woodstone reeds have "better" cane. However, I find it very difficult to come to that conclusion myself for a different reason: time. More specifically, the time it takes the reed to be playable out of the box and how long the reed lasts I play Vandoren V12s myself, and after around 2 days of working on reeds, I get 9-10 reeds per box in the summer and 6-8 in the winter that are playable for the next 1-2 months in 90% of scenarios (some reeds just have different color characteristics than others, and I don't always feel inclined to bring out the reed clipper or more advanced tools). This comes from someone who practices and rehearses 4-7 hours a day, and I rotate between 2-3 reeds depending on the repertoire. This isn't a "flex" or a "brag" to anyone who is reading, just a perspective. If I was traditionally breaking in my reeds over two weeks, I would absolutely agree that Vandoren consistency, at least for V12s, isn't something anyone would praise, unless their mouthpiece is incredibly reed friendly. (I find Traditionals a lot more consistent, but they don't pair as well with my current mouthpiece.) From that perspective and from what you've said in the video, I could conclude that Woodstone reeds certainly are more consistently cut out of the box, and more consistently stabilized, but I doubt the actual cane is that much noticeably better, or that Vandoren cane is "inferior". Rather, Vandoren's cutting methods and selection process appears to prioritize the stiffness of the cane and thickness of the heart when it comes to grading their reeds by strength, as opposed to the actual resistance of the reed and balance across the tip. Another thing to keep in mind is we all perceive resistance differently. There are some setups that some of my colleagues find to be very free blowing and I find almost impossible to create a sound, and vice versa, and there are other setups that we almost completely agree with. The resistance aspect plays a role in my perspective too. Players who prefer more closed facing mouthpieces often find the strength/rigidity of the tip to have a larger impact compared to the strength of the heart. Players who prefer more open facing mouthpieces seem to rely more on the strength of the heart. This has to do with the relationship of the facing curve to the reed. Closed facing mouthpieces tend to have more exponential curves leading up to the tip, while many open facing mouthpieces have a more gradual curve. This will also affect the experience of reed stability. This topic is quite nuanced, and I'm glad you pointed out where many commercial reed companies are grossly failing, especially for those of us who don't want to only sound one color all the time. Thank you so much for making this video, Mr. Kurokawa!

I hope you kept it 😊 what a combo!

You have such a beautiful ringing tone, but man that Rovner is stifling

Great video as always John. Usually your sound in the videos is to die for. However, in this video you sounded a little airy and yet you say the reeds played really well. As a person who is returning to clarinet after 35+ years, I watch you in awe and try to learn from all your tips. When I play, should there be an airy sound or do you think in this case, it may have just been the recording?

switched from vandoren m15 to bd5 earlier this year and sounded a lot better (hopefully it lasts lol)

Great work thank you! As u said ur an expert on mouth pieces could you please advise me? I play a b flat buffet e13 and im searching for a very sharp noisy and edgy mouthpiece which blows a lot of air through it. Thanks!

Love it Thanks

thanks😍 but I could not find the book :(

OK, I just played my first recital (today at Sinclair!) and I feel good about it! Besides my teacher at Sinclair, I definitely have you and the advice in this video to thank. What helped me the most was playing in front of as many people as I could in the 10 days or so before my performance. I felt like an idiot doing it and, in most of these run-throughs, I sweated, fumbled, apologized, started over a couple of times, had a terrible time fighting off intrusive thoughts as I played, and even practically hyperventilated on more than one occasions, but I did really NAIL it a couple of times. At this performance, my first in well over 40 years, I, to my great surprise, was fine. I didn't even break out in a sweat and managed to play through a little squeek or two and at least one flub without missing a beat. Anyway, thank you SO MUCH, Mr. Kurokawa!

I just rented one last week from Kincaid's in Springfield for a recital I gave today at Sinclair. It's a BIG improvement on my Buffet B-12!

Any advice on synthetic reeds?

I’ve been thinking of getting one of these do you know what brand I should get like buffet?

there ought to be clowns.

Did you try it with 3.5 V12? Maybe would perform better..

Got my Yamaha ycl 650 in 2016. Older model used on eBay but it’s my preferred sound. Its centered bright tone is excellent for solo classical work and acoustic jazz settings. I’d get something else if I needed to blend in with strings.

I'm be playing my first recital in ages soon. These are very helpful tips!

Excellent lesson! You make me want to try this today! 😃

Sorry after doing all that, how should you press the reed, raise the teeth together with the lip or press the reed horizontally or vertically, how should the lip touch the reed, that's the whole problem

I might give these a try. Just bought one box each of D'Addario 3.75s and 4s. Every reed in the box of 3.75s was heavier than the 4s. It was really shocking and disappointing, I used to really like those reeds.

it is my clarinet! which was bought in 2014

My daughter has a piece of music that says only Clarinet Audition Music Set 2. We have been searching for a tutorial or performance of this piece, but with no title it’s nearly impossible. Any thoughts?

John, I'm looking for a step up mpc for one of my HS advancing students. She's currently playing a beginner grade Giardinelli on a #3 Vandoren Blue Box. The BD2is on my radar for her. My goal in her sound is to open it up, with more projection and focus. She's new to my studio and is good technically but opening up her sound is where I am focusing with her. Your comments would be most appreciated.

Amazing fluidity in your playing. Your analysis is interesting too. Would love to see you compare some Rovner or fabric ligatures as well. Does it matter if the ligatuure is a single screw or double screw? Any preference?

I’m never playing before with that mouthpiece. I use only Vandoren but now I would like to try one I think would be super!!! Also which ligature you use?

I was one of those players who ended up playing on what was basically plywood. It was only when my tension got so bad that it hurt to talk that I started the process of slowly finding a more sensible set-up. There was a good while that I just couldn't play. When I finally could start playing again, I had to go for really soft reeds and only do short sessions of playing. I'm finally able to play for extended periods again without tension or discomfort. I'm now playing Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic #3.5 reeds on a Vandoren BD4. I learned the hard way that playing a harder reed doesn't make you a better player. In fact, after a point, it can actually make you worse.

One other potential downside I can see to handmade mouthpieces is that if you've found a maker whose work you like, and they stop making mouthpieces for any number of reasons, you might find yourself in tough spot while you try to find someone you work well with for mouthpiece maintenance or replacement.

Sergei Rachmaninoff Symphony No.2 Adagio clarinet solo

Thanks for playing this! I love your way! Which ligature is this?

Oboe?

All of them sounds amazing.

I tend to switch ligatures when I feel like it and then after just couple of days I forget that I changed the ligature. Among them is this Eddie Daniels/now Versa ligature. Yes I do hear a difference between it,the Charles Bay Rhodium,Vandoren leather ligature and Vandoren optimum ligature to name few in my collection. But they all do the job and just sound myself after using each for couple of days. Best quote is what the renowned clarinetist John McCaw said in a masterclass in 2001: A bad ligature can ruin a good mouthpiece. Ps. I'm sorry you already said the same thing about ligatures in the first part which I hadn't watch when I commented.

11:09 OOOOOOHHH HE SAID IT!!

Charles Bay mouthpieces are the best I've owned. Sadly he is not making any mouthpieces anymore and I don't know if he is alive or if his son is still making mouthpieces. My favorite one is from 2001. Brown one with MO-L facing and Vandoren V-12 3.5+ reeds. I miss the most important thing here at least in my mind: How did the mouthpiece tune ?

Thanks for this helpful video. I found the segments on water removal especially helpful. As a new clarinetist I am constantly trying to learn and add instrument care best-practices to my practice routine. I bought the best (IMHO) new instrument that I could afford (Yamaha YCL-650II) when I started playing at the beginning of this year, and it is the first wooden instrument that I have ever owned, so I want to do everything that I can to protect my investment, and minimize barriers to my learning. Thanks again for your videos. They are much appreciated.

I'm not even a clarinet player (saxophonist actually) yet I'm still glued to these videos. Your explanations help me get a good insight in what to keep in mind testing other ligatures and what you out of them. Thank you for presenting the information so clearly. I'll be following your ligature saga closely. (I wonder if you'll try out the Brancher gold plated ligature in your metal video, I always think it gives such a clear sound and response.)

Ishimori?

I have been doing the paper trick for way too long, whoops!

Bravo 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 ❤

You said the best ligature is your thumb. So what I did was put a piece of bicycle inner tube rubber between the reed and my Yamaha ligature. What a difference. No more note splitting in upper clarion, no more miss-notes in altissimo. Wow!

Wodkowski is much better!! Bravo!

Returning to clarinet after many years off, and I've been enjoying the videos you and Jay put out. This video speaks to my experiences as an undergraduate while I was still a music major. So many in the studio used a Pyne, a Vandoren, or a few Lomax. We were fortunate to have Lomax in town, as my undergrad studio was in Springfield. I never had much play experience with Vandoren after beginning band, so I wasn't drawn to them. I tried some of the Lomax mouthpieces, looking to move on from the Woodwind Company K10 (yes, I'm old). I just couldn't fall in love with my sound with them, so I tried Pyne. This is not a place for long stories, but I fell in love with my Bn. I still have it, and this video has me thinking I should ask them if they can check it out for me. Joel Lomax looked it over for me while I was in Springfield (again long story), but it was played a lot after that, before being put in a case for 12 years. Anyway, the others who became principal clarinetists in our orchestra, Wind Ensemble, etc., all had different mouthpieces. It comes down to what you like. Price plays a role too, especially for high school or for people playing in their communities but not professionally. Thank you for entertaining and informative content, it's keeping me motivated through the frustration that I'm extremely rusty!

Nice video. Many aspects of your approach are familiar to me, but I noticed your specific direction--reinforced in the video demonstration--to lay the reeds flat-side-up on the table after wetting them, which I have not heard before. If I may ask, what's the reason for this?

You guys did an amazing job! I wanted to ask if you have ever made a video on backun mouthpieces. I’m thinking about getting the McGill Signature Mouthpiece. I’ve owned a Vocalise H for quite and as a high school player thinking about submitting more auditons and taking it further I just wanted to see if you think this would be a good investment so to speak

Thank you for the great video! In my opinion, Wodkowski mouthpiece sounds more colorful and crispy than BD2. BD2 gives some stability but sometimes sounds bored.