Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org!

Klarinet Archive - Posting 000239.txt from 2004/08

Subj: Re: [kl] Objective of the Ligature
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 13:29:42 -0400

In a message dated 8/9/2004 9:45:38 AM Central Daylight Time, writes:

<<Several people have talked about ligatures "allowing the reed to vibrate
freely".....etc. I'm not sure I understand this concept. How does it work?
What part of the reed are you allowing to "vibrate freely"? Why would one
ligature allow a reed to vibrate more "freely" than another?>>

This is again an example of bad or unclear thinking. Besides the purely
mechanical function of holding the reed securely on the mouthpiece, the function
of the ligature is to promote the vibrations you want, and dampen the
vibrations that you don't want.

So the best thing to say about a ligature is that it allows the reed to
vibrate in a way most conducive to producing satisfactory musical sounds and to
dampen or eliminate those vibrations not conducive to producing a satisfactory
musical sound.

Think I can get a position in the marketing department of Vandoren or

<<I'd like to hear from everyone/anyone about what they think the objective
the ligature might be.....and from those well versed in physics on what
might best be the best objective or approach when building a ligature.>>

Hold the reed on, keep it from squeaking, reduce warping, don't damage the
reed or the mouthpiece!

<<Also....from the mouthpiece makers....what do you guys think a ligature
should do? How does it work? How is selection of ligatures effected by
mouthpiece table type?>>

Seriously. The ligature is a clamp. Nothing is worse than a loose clamp. I
like metal ligatures (although sometimes I will use my Rovner on the bass
clarinet). I prefer the screws on the back (reversed).

I have two ligatures I keep going back to. One is my Bay Rhodium ligature. I
use this 90% of the time. It's one drawback is to bring out a slight metallic
or bright aspect to the tone if the reed is too light. My fallback is a 50
year old Boosey&Hawkes heavy metal ligature that I just use backwards. Nothing
else I try seems to be as satisfactory as one or the other of these two. I
tried the Vandoren Optimum and it just seemed to heavy and complicated for me.

I have tried the Peter Spriggs floating rail ligature on the bass clarinet
and I have liked several of these.

Walter Grabner
World-class clarinet mouthpieces

Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc.

     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact