[LazySaxman]

I know to develop your sound on a saxophone, you need to listen to a lot of great players and play along with them. I assume this works the same for clarinet. But, let's say I want to sound like Jimmy Giuffre on clarinet (like I do) but I listen to Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane about 80%+ of the time. Will the Coltrane and Dex sound be working itself into my clarinet sound (I'm talking about the aggresive, big sound. I know I won't sound like Dex on a clarinet), even though I'm aiming for something else?

I've noticed that doublers have a similar style on clarinet as on saxophone (again, Jimmy Giuffre is a good example). And when I say about 80% of what I listen to is Dex and Trane, 15% is probably Jimmy Giuffre, and that's probably the ratio of how much practice time I put in on each.

I'm having some difficulty getting the thought out of my head the way I want it to go, so if someone can say it better, go right ahead :tongue8:

 

[Carl H.]

They probably sound the same when playing in the same idiom, and why wouldn't they? Same style would be approached the same way by most players. Now if those cats sat in with a symphony as a section player, I'd think they would sound quite different.

I play and approach Copland much differently than, say, Moonlight Serenade. I think history has a great deal with how a player approaches any piece of music. Long tones is still your best bet.

(Margo's Forehead - Did you join the band?)

 

[Roger Aldridge]

Lazysaxman,

My clarinet sound is not influenced by my saxophone heros...or even by my own saxophone sound. I approach each of my horns individually and even have a different playing style on each one. One of the great joys I've had in music is that of developing a tonal conception for each of my horns. It's been a process of discovery.

One thing that helped to shape my tonal conception on clarinet is the particular quality of sound I get with a Kaspar style mouthpiece. The Kaspar did more for me than years of listening to my clarinet heros.

Roger

 

[ismail]

I could really imagine worse things to worry about.
Why would I stop (your post at least implies that) listening or reduce the time I listen to a certain artist just because of the influence they have on me!?!?
Why would I deny that influence?!?!
If there is an influence, it´s good.
If there is an influence on your playing it obviously means that you have kind of absorbed some of that players music, meaning that it is important to you.
A player which you don´t like (like for me most typical smooth jazz saxes) is not likely to have an influence on you at all.
But if you listen to Trane & Dex like 80%, I don´t think you don´t like them and I don´t know why you worry about being influenced a bit.Anyway, I can assure you that your clarinet won´t sound like a howling monster unless you really aim for it...

Hmm I could go a lot deeper into this topic but I´ll leave it at that and welcome your questions if you have any.

good night!

 

[LazySaxman]

I could really imagine worse things to worry about.
Why would I stop (your post at least implies that) listening or reduce the time I listen to a certain artist just because of the influence they have on me!?!?
Why would I deny that influence?!?!
If there is an influence, it´s good.
If there is an influence on your playing it obviously means that you have kind of absorbed some of that players music, meaning that it is important to you.
A player which you don´t like (like for me most typical smooth jazz saxes) is not likely to have an influence on you at all.
But if you listen to Trane & Dex like 80%, I don´t think you don´t like them and I don´t know why you worry about being influenced a bit.Anyway, I can assure you that your clarinet won´t sound like a howling monster unless you really aim for it...

Hmm I could go a lot deeper into this topic but I´ll leave it at that and welcome your questions if you have any.

good night!

Well, I certainly wouldn't stop listening to the players I like on saxophone. But I'm talking solely about tone, nothing about technique and style. If I could play with the technique of Trane, style/hipness of Dexter, and the tone of Mr. Giuffre,... Well, no complaints. but for now, I'm just trying to 'go for the tone'.

And no, I didn't join the band Carl, but maybe someday...I just realized that everyone who's anyone has a smart-alec 'location' or title.

edit: I forgot to mention that I think it'd be TOTALLY worth it to listen to 100% jimmy giuffre all day for a few months if it would help my clarinet tone and not 'soften' my tenor.

 

[Roger Aldridge]

Lazysaxman,

Are you studying with a clarinet teacher? A good teacher and lots of pratice time will do wonders in developing your sound.

Roger

 

[Bootman]

The simple answer is no. My clarinet sound is separate and distinct to my sax or flute sound. The same basic areas of tonal work is required on clarinet as for sax. Listening to great clarinet players can help but your clarinet sound is influenced by the type of clarinet you play, the type of mpc you play and how much classical work you have done on the instrument.

Roger's comments about studying with a good teacher will help out much more than anything we can say on the forum here. Get stuck into trying to produce a nice pure, clear tone on your clarinet (as the name of the instrument suggests) and work with a good clarinet teacher in your area. My most influential clarinet tonal development of late has been the principal of the Sydney Symphony Frank Celata who has the most beautiful clarinet tone I have heard. When playing with him I find myself unconciously trying to emulate his sound........

The main things to remember with clarinet is eveness of timbre across all registers, clarity of tone and articulation, a balance of the woody/nutty sound and darkness in your sound. To my ears, the clarinet tone must have all these qualities within it, not fluffy, no over vibrato nor sliding between notes (unless being deliberately used as a technique).

Definitely try some lessons with your local pro Classical player, you will find these of greater benefit than anything I can say here!

Best of luck with your quest for a great clarinet tone. Also note that the more time you spend on the clarinet, the greater the benefits to your sax playing.

 

[bandmommy]

I gotta say NOPE.

I have my own sound on clarinet, similar to some player, different than others. I will vary it according to the type of music sitting on the stand in front of me though. Regardless of style the quality is still pure, rich, and woody.
If there was a clarinetist that I HAD to sound like it would probably be Arti Shaw.
Sorry Benny.

 

[RS]

One great sax player who's clarinet sound was much like his sax sound was Lester Young. Unfortunately he recorded only a couple of cuts on clarinet. But he got a great sound. It was almost like an extension of his tenor sax.

 

[LazySaxman]

Lazysaxman,

Are you studying with a clarinet teacher? A good teacher and lots of pratice time will do wonders in developing your sound.

Roger

Yes, I do take lessons from a clarinet professor at a nearby college (I bike there ) but not as frequently as I would like. I don't have the money to take weekly saxophone lessons and weekly clarinet lessons, with the occasional lesson from a trumpet player that I really dig. But hey, I'm trying. I was thinking of possibly setting up some lessons with a local performer that is a phenomenal Flute/Clarinet/Alto/Tenor/Bari player, as I think he would understand more where I'm coming from.

I love Lester on clarinet, and on tenor he's great too. But I would like to sound like him on clarinet and not quite as much on tenor.

 

[Carl H.]

I was thinking of possibly setting up some lessons with a local performer that is a phenomenal Flute/Clarinet/Alto/Tenor/Bari player, as I think he would understand more where I'm coming from.

So where are you now?

 

[LazySaxman]

errr, I'm not sure if you're joking or if you're serious, so I'll just pretend you're serious.

I think that the Saxophone/Clarinet player would have an easier time explaining things to me, and I would be able to understand them better. The professor seems to have no interest in jazz, and almost sounds as if he looks down on the saxophone.

 

[dburlone]

I agree with you that a doubler that has experience in many different genres of music on multiple instruments, would be a person that you'd want to go to. I do, however, agree with most of comment here; that your clarinet tone will (maybe even should be) different on your clarinet than a saxophone. In my limited experience with formal lessons, I have met some teachers that are exactly as you say... There are some teachers that DO teach sax, but their primary instrument might be clarinet (I know several of those) and a few of them DO look down on the validity of saxophone as an instrument. You can probably learn volumes from these sorts of people... It might not be as fun as you'd like, but you will learn. I OTOH would perfer to have a teacher who's primary instrument of choice is saxophone (and who is reasonably decent on clar.).

Also remember that you'll probably have different tonal concept (on both sax and clarinet) when you're playing some heavy classical versus jazz versus traditional jazz (I know that I do). Really the bottom line is... You play a clarinet like a clarinet and you play a saxophone like it's a saxophone. Hope that all makes some sense. I'm still just young and naive

 

[Carl H.]

errr, I'm not sure if you're joking or if you're serious, so I'll just pretend you're serious.

Which school are you attending and with whom are you studying?

 

[LazySaxman]

Which school are you attending and with whom are you studying?

Well, I'm still in high school. Dr. Michael Thrasher is the clarinet player that I take lessons from. The Clarinet/Flute/Sax guy is Harley Sommerfeld. He's a real 'old school' kind of player, a retired school teacher, you might even know him from when you lived here.

 

[Carl H.]

I know Harley, played many gigs with him. Good guy with decent chops and a great work ethic. You can learn much from him.

If you want to talk to a serious doubler John DiFiore is serious monster on sax. He used to be one of the monsters from Mike and the Monsters. I studied with him for a couple years a while back. Very quiet and humble man. He went to the Manhattan School of Music on clarinet because sax wasn't considered a real instrument and later played sax with Basie. If you listen to him you can learn more than you are aware of. Most of my classmates were too busy asking him stuff to bother listening to what he had to say.

You have some good players in town to study with. Don't let the local mentality cloud your vision, there is much you can learn there.

 

[stevesklar]

My clarinet tone has no correlation to my sax tone. Learned clarinet from a clarinet pro eons ago.

Most clarinetists who frown on the sax seem to be strictly symphony/ orchestra players. And Thus since a sax is not in an orchestra they don't think it's a real instrument.

 

[clarnibass]

Most clarinetists who frown on the sax seem to be strictly symphony/ orchestra players. And Thus since a sax is not in an orchestra they don't think it's a real instrument.

Maybe, but not all. I play clarinet, and once in a while I think I want to play sax too. I play a sax for a little bit and after a few minutes it is boring and I don't want to play it anymore, alhough there are some things I/you can do with saxes that are not really possible with clarinets (which is why I sometimes want to play sax). Clarinets never get boring to me. I don't play symphony music, and I don't think sax is not a real instrument. I actually like a lot of sax players! Just a perspective of how it is possible to not like to play saxophone without any negative towards anyone who does.

 

[LazySaxman]

I know Harley, played many gigs with him. Good guy with decent chops and a great work ethic. You can learn much from him.

If you want to talk to a serious doubler John DiFiore is serious monster on sax. He used to be one of the monsters from Mike and the Monsters. I studied with him for a couple years a while back. Very quiet and humble man. He went to the Manhattan School of Music on clarinet because sax wasn't considered a real instrument and later played sax with Basie. If you listen to him you can learn more than you are aware of. Most of my classmates were too busy asking him stuff to bother listening to what he had to say.

You have some good players in town to study with. Don't let the local mentality cloud your vision, there is much you can learn there.

I wish I had the money and focus to be able to take lessons from all these guys, I'm kept pretty busy just with Patnode. I like DiFiore's playing a lot, although I heard lately that he's fallen into some bad habits, and it has altered his playing a bit.

Thanks for all the replies, I'm glad to know that I can get the clarinet tone I want without killing my saxophone. Time for some more long tones.

 

[tictactux]

...nearly twenty posts, and no one mentioned Kenny G. Hey, whazzup, folks?