#alec6895

My musical musings have moved to a new blog: The Pessimistic Clarinetist

I am currently in the process of transferring my old music posts to this new one.

This blog shall remain as a fandom/interests blog. Activity should decrease as the new year progresses.

I'm fed up with tumblr; I came here with hopes of getting connected with fandoms, band memes, discussions about music stuff, and looking at gorgeous artworks. But all I ended up with was heated arguments, hatred, and many a ruined day.

I thought tumblr was supposed to be a wonderful place, but I guess it's not.

Well look what's here! I got to recording and overdubbing myself again, and this time it's from the good ol' hymn book (Hymns of the Christian Life, 1986), on an alto clarinet quartet.

I have been playing these hymnals for quite a while now, and I love them. Not only are they good for the soul, but they are fine examples of 4 part harmony. With all the excitement and fire and energy of contemporary Christian music, it's also nice to take some time and try these solemn hymns as well.

Since these hymnal arrangements are for 4 voices, it's no wonder that they work wonders when performed by a quartet of any instrumentation. I got the idea for playing from the hymn book from Edmund Wells. They tried the same thing with Christmas hymns back in '12 (see: http://edmundwelles.bandcamp.com/album/hymns-for-christmas).

But why alto clarinet? Firstly, it's because I love alto clarinet. The ranges of most of the parts fit very nicely in the alto clarinet's range. Granted, some bass parts do descend too low, but I do not have access to anything lower than an alto clarinet right now. 

My choice of instrumentation and hymn was inspired by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59zPtejrbNY

I also transposed the hymn a half step down from E major. I could have played it in the original key (and it wouldn't have been a hassle at all, actually), but E-flat major sounded warmer, darker (in a timbral and tonal sense), and more solemn. Plus, the video that inspired me was also in E-flat :)

Set-up:

• alto clarinet - Noblet 55, Bundy mouthpiece, Vandoren inverted ligature (I don't know what it is; it just says Vandoren…), Rico Royal #3

• recording equipment - GarageBand 11 Version 6.0.5 on an iMac

Of course, metric system is superior, but we need to switch to SI units.

Firstly, mass ≠ weight. Mass in kilograms, weight (and by extension, force) in NEWTONS!

Distances in meters (or any derivative, e.g. kilometer, centimeter, etc.)

Next, all speeds and velocities should be standardized with meters per second.

Celsius, not even close. Kelvin is the way to go.

radians, not degrees

Thank you so much! Personally, I prefer orca. I think "killer whale" has negative connotations to it. Sure, transient orcas do kill whales, but when you first hear the term "killer whale" you think of a scary beast of a whale.

This is my attempt at sevenstars0828’s arrangement of Kurousa-P's famous song Senbonzakura. I overdubbed myself playing each part (except for the contrabass part, see explanation below)

Original video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AWxNG7ueY&list=TLGKutG7hWB4MAqH7r7FlLoYmrGcuhJ_FW

They were generous enough to provide links to download the sheet music in the video description. The arrangement is for a clarinet sextet: 1 E-flat, 2 B-flats, 1 alto, 1 bass, and 1 contrabass.

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    Anyway, I will say it now. This was bad. Very BAD. My attempt at recording myself playing all parts merits no comparison at all to their video. First off, this was done while I had more important school stuff filling up my schedule; I only got to practice and record when I had free time. Secondly, this was all the effort of one guy. I didn’t have anyone else help me when I played this arrangement, so obviously it is very sloppy. Thirdly, the only recording equipment I used was my home computer and GarageBand.

    I had access to school instruments, but many clarinetists will laugh till Kingdom come upon seeing my mouthpiece, ligature, and reed setups. Plus, the alto clarinet was incredibly out of tune throughout its whole range: very flat in the lower chalumeau, super sharp from upper clarion upwards. Also, do you hear all the tempo and intonation issues? (Sigh, there goes any of my musical merit.) Worst of all, that is not a contrabass clarinet you hear. It is me playing the part on bass clarinet and taking the audio down an octave. I think this discredits me from being allowed to ever touch a contra clarinet…

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     Even then, I am still proud of this little side project of mine (I am satisfied with the tone I have on the Eefer). I just couldn’t resist trying it. And I know that overdubbing myself is a little hobby that I will continue to do.

I hope I can get together an ensemble one day to play this arrangement right!

Set-up:

• E-flat Sopranino* Clarinet (Buffet E11, Vandoren B45 mouthpiece, stock ligature, Rico Royal #5 reeds)

• B-flat Soprano Clarinet for both clarinets 1 and 2 (Buffet R13, Vandoren 5RV Lyre mouthpiece, Bonade Inverted ligature, Mitchell Lurie Premium #5 reeds for clarinet 1, Vandoren V12 #4 reeds for clarinet 2)

• E-flat Alto Clarinet (Selmer Bundy, Yamaha 4C mouthpiece, stock ligature, Rico Royal #3 reeds)

• B-flat Bass Clarinet for both bass and contrabass clarinets (Buffet Student Model with a hole in the bell to allow low D, stock mouthpiece, stock ligature, Rico Grand Concert Select #3.5 reeds)

What is one of your least favorite smells?

Isn't this a lovely question?  Hehe.  My answer is equally lovely - VOMIT.  Bleh. :P

Here are your responses:

manicmargo answered: Strong cologne. It equals into major migraine and a pair of irritated nostrils :(

kittensforbutts answered: Bad breath. I don’t mean from onions or garlic cause I don’t mind that, but just truly bad breath.

alec6895 answered: Public bathrooms…:(

hellohappylisa answered: gasoline and marijuana. Oh my god, the two together is pure, nasal hell.

lahijadelaluna answered: cigarrete smoke, doesnt let me breath

bubble-tea-for-two said: Rice that has gone so bad that it’s fermenting.

laniusdirge said: Deep fried pahok. The smell makes me gag.

thisissimplyjess answered: Smoke. I really hate it when people burn stuff around my house. I end up just hacking and coughing for days!

caminc said: Sour fruit, which I luckily have little to no interaction with.

unnecessaryfundamentals answered: My laptop overheating. Overcooked rice (smells like cheese). Fish.

astralheat answered: mango rum. After a bad incident in college, I feel sick every time I smell it.