i'd love to play jazz..i am having a very good attempt..
is there any thing i should know..
like should i have a particular clarinet/ mouth piece...
i got a yamaha ycl 650...sounds great....
it has the original mouth piece...
yam 4c....what are the differences if any...
i did get gr 5 (uk) years back...
so i can play

I would get an open mouthpiece. Then you can really play the glissandos, falls etc. that you use in jazz. Vandoren are famous for making great mouthpieces and they call their 5JB mouthpiece the best jazz mouthpiece (perhaps because it's their only "just made for jazz" mouthpiece).

I don't have anye idea of how the yamaha mouthpieces are. I've only used it on my first plastic yamaha clarinet, and that mouthpiece wasn't half as good as the vandoren I bought 4 years after

oooo i am such new learner...open mouthpiece?
am gonna check out what you have told me thanks...might nip to woodwind shop tomorrow....
thanks for replying...

mmmm didn't realize mouth pieces varied like that....
local music store has pomarico crystal jazz...
but i wouldn't know 1 tip opening from another...
how does it play to have a bigger opening...soz..i do not understand all the posh words.....
do you just blow?
can't wait to try one out..

I've never really had any trouble playing jazz music on my normal clarinet. Ofcourse it's only my second instrument so I'm not willing to pay a lot of money on it. It's a yamaha, pretty decent.

If you've ever heard the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue you know what a glissando is

Bending is like if you fór example play a C then you can bend it down to a B or up to a D by not moving your fingers. You do that all the time when playing jazz

So that's what the tip opening can help you do better I would ask in the local music store!

thanks ida...that was helpful...i will ask if i can try some out...don't think i am that clever...but who knows...

but i have dug out Gershwin music and cd....
i must be geting better i couldn't play this before....this yamaha 650 does have good tone...however i still feel happier with a 1 1/2 reed...should i be using harder ones or can i stick to these..

If you have a hard time getting the high notes out and you feel as if it is to easy to play the lower notes, then you know you should switch to a harder reed

thank you....i'll bear that in mind....

ok...been to shop tryed out 4....
the pomarico crystal and the vandoren 5jb.+ 2 others
i was surprised at the crystal...looked more like an old milk bottle,,,didn't impress me much.
i gor the 5jb and have gone to a number2 read....practise practise..am getting there..thanks for your advice..it was so helpful.

reeds...no one told me they are differnt according to makes!
so come on ..which reed for jazz...

Well... I don't know about that one. I generally use more soft reeds when I play jazz, so I can bend and so on... But it is still the same reed size I use, so... I know that Vandoren doesn't make any jazz-reeds for clarinet (they do for saxophone though).

I played clarinet in jazz band before I learned Tenor Sax, and I never had any trouble on my regular mouthpiece. One good preparation is to listen to recordings of jazz clarinet parts, such as the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue, so that you can get a feel for the clarinet sound in jazz, which differs from the classical tone.