Articles of Interest

I have authored all of the articles below. They represent some of my areas of interest pertaining to the clarinet, particularly acoustics. Some of them reside at Sneezy, the clarinet machine. I am a sponsor and it is great place to explore.

Frank Kaspar

Many people don't know that there were two Franks Kaspar. The elder was active in Chicago until he moved to Ann Arbor, MI. His cousin? came into the business in Chicago and retired to Cicero, Ill. where he made some of the most stunning Kaspar mouthpieces.

Intonation

Issues dealing with intonation and the acoustics of clarinet design have always been of interest to me. I wrote an article in "The Clarinet" in 1986 that discusses problems of intonation related to the clarinet and physical ways to address them. This article discusses some of those problems and also discusses tone.

Mouthpiece Nomenclature

Talking about mouthpieces requires developing a common vocabulary so that we can converse with eachother and our students without becoming thoroughly confused. I have tried to identify the many aspects of interior and exterior design that comprise the clarinet mouthpiece.

Synthetic Speed Tonguing

This article describes my method of speed tonguing. It is a "synthesis" of double tonguing and single tonguing techniques. The article includes a good discussion on how to practice double tonguing and incorporate it into my method.

Intonation Basics for Young Clarinetists

I spent many years at the beginning of my carreer teaching young students. These are ideas developed for teaching proper intonation as a function of good tone production.

Tuning and Voicing the Clarinet - Procedure and Techniques

An informative (but long) article on specific intonation problems of the clarinet and how to correct them. Also a brief discussion on intonation problems associated with mouthpieces and barrels. This is a reworking of my 1986 article for The Clarinet with additional new information about voicing.