Hi all. I am an intermediate level alto sax player and I'm now taking up the clarinet. I have some success on the instrument pretty quickly because of the sax experience.

However, I'm having an issue with the pressure that builds up inside my head when I blow this clarinet. I have a Clark Fobes Debut mouthpiece and use number 3 vandoren reeds. I can get all of the notes in the Clarion register, and also the lower one. But when I blow, my face turns red and I can't continue. It also feels like there's pressure inside my eyes. Very uncomfortable.

My music teacher said that a Vandoren B46 is a much more free-blowing mouthpiece and should be fine with a number 2.5 reed.

I would like to know if there are other really low-restriction mouthpieces out there that will work, and how do they sound compared to my present setup?

In other words, what do you give up by going to a low-restriction mouthpiece and softer reed, when compared to what I now have?

I have the same mouthpiece for my sax and it blows much easier than the clarinet.

thanks for any clarification.

Dana