$2 Shoelaces or a $70 Vandoren? The ultimate Ligature showdown.
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- Опубліковано 3 лют 2014
- Do ligatures make a big difference in your sound? I test 4 "regular" bass clarinet ligatures, and compare them to a bunch of crap I had around the house that can hold a reed on the mouthpiece.
Watch and decide for yourself whether they make a huge difference - or whether it'd be better to focus elsewhere on your quest for the "magic bullet" of sound production.
It doesn’t matter what he uses as a ligiture he’s just so god damn good
He doesn’t even need a ligiturr
@NBtelethia
(plays without reed)
My favorite line "Yeah, its got a bit of a brighter sound... if that's what you are going for" --- brilliant.
Same!! so good.
This is a riot.All of them worked very well without much difference at all in tone quality
Ligatures don’t make a difference in your sound at all. A good ligature is one that keeps your reed in place
@@TWO20 This. Borrowed a 200$ ligature due smashing mine flat and the reed rotated about 3 degrees mid performance. Wish I had worn laced shoes.
@@TWO20there's a difference between them lol
Wow! Where do I buy that shoelace?!?
It is a Backun shoelace. They sell those also in Mahogany brown.
thssantoro I got mine at my local music store.
Lol
Ahhhh, I just LOVED his red cable tie. Wow!
I buy my artisanal silk shoelaces from Rome. You get what you pay for 👌
I just recently forgot my ligature at home right before an audition, and I ended up having to use scotch tape, which actually ended up sounding fine. Needless to say, my band director was very confused.
😂😂😂
Back in May when I first started Bass Clarinet I didn't have a ligature for Marching Band practice. So I used a hair tie for around 1 month..
Believe it or not, that's super common. Outside of a hose clamp, that's probably the most used ligature that's not actually a ligature
Bro same when I lost my Silverstein Hexa alto sax ligature 😭 luckily I found it but apparently they thought it was a Clarinet ligature XD
2 dollars for a shoelace is a lot
But it's an acoustically fine tuned shoelace
It was a bootlace, he lied about that . Far too long for shoes.
It has a special coating on the ends that keep the vibrations from flying off of the ends.
@@ChrisLeeW00 BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSKDKDKSDJSJ ✋😭💀🤣
That's easy for you to say five years ago.
Thanks for the feedback.
We will keep on improving our ligatures!
+Florian Popa When am I going to see you again Florian???? It's been too long my friend.
Earspasm Music I'm indecisive on mouth piece I should get
BunnyRap Gaming, go for the shoelaces
A true pro can play any mouthpiece, including shoelaces!
The crap stuff sounded great. Uh-oh.... People will now will start looking after Buffet luggage tags and Selmer pants with price tags. :-P
BD- you're sounding a bit dry, liven up a bit
Me- ok hold up *pulls out a tag off of my jeans*
I was known in college for using my shoelace when my ligature broke in the middle of an orchestra rehearsal (it got crushed while switching instruments). I just pulled the lace off my shoe and got right back to work.
Everybody laughed. It worked just fine.
I kept it in my case as a backup for years. The ligature is an important piece of gear - important that you have one. Which one is up to you. I have used the same ligature on my bass for 20+ years. Changing mouthpieces makes a bigger difference to me - but it is still a smaller difference than most people will admit. (at least for me)
Thanks for the experiment Mike. Good stuff.
When I watch comparisons of Mouthpieces, and this video about Ligatures, I'm reminded of one similarity. I don't hear any difference in the sound. Not really. Not enough to matter. I appreciate the fact that you took the time to produce this video. It brings home an important point that all woodwind instrument players (new and old) should remember. It's the PLAYER, stupid!! (lol).
nutmegger1957 It’s not the horse, but the raider
This is a shoelace! ... I'm dying hahaha
same
This is a bla bla bla Vandoren ligature. This is a professional thingy ligature. This is a very expensive one of a kind wooden ligature.
This is a shoelace.
i'm sold shoelace all the way...
Favorite ligature video ever!
Hey, remember the '80s? When saxophonists at certain colleges would shell out $300 for a Winslow gold-plated "floating reed" ligature, with patented air-glide customizeable piston technology" ? ! :-) Wonder what ever happened to those...
Well said! You've got a great instructional approach, something every talented musician may not necessarily possess. Please keep the videos coming! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this great video! Very informative and helpful for beginners. Hope to see more of these from you.
Let the throw down begin!!.. .
Seriously, I'm so glad someone did this. I've always believed what you hear is not what the audience hears. The player gets vibrations through the jaw, skull, and inner ear. This is the same reason your voice sounds different in a recording than it does to you. A small piece of equipment like a ligature can make a difference to the player and how he/she hears and feels the instrument but the difference to the player is minimal if any.
And you are a fantastic player by the way!!!
Your voice sounds different because you're partially thinking it in your head, before you hear your voice out loud.
I generally say that really fancy ligatures are a waste of money, but I do think there is an argument to be said about how good something sounds to the player will affect how they play, even if it's not directly changing their sound
You had me in stitches and finally answered a question I have wanted to know the answer to for years!
Subscriiiiiiibred! and Thanks!
As a bassoonist I loved this - for me the cable tie was my sound preference, but as you say it's all personal.
your... bassoon ligature?? are you aware those do not exsist?
+Andrew Goss Yes Andrew, I was saying which sound I preferred in this video. As for the bassoon, the bocal/crook + reed debate is interminable...
Another bassoonist here, and I agree. I liked the reedy sound of the cable tie.
Thank you so much for posting this. Really nice to have such clear common sense demonstrated.
I think most people would agree that the reed is important because it is the primary device for producing sound (along with breath and inner embouchure, etc ) And what is the most important thing in a reed - how it vibrates on the mouthpiece - and that is why I personally think that ligatures are very important and as you mention they are very inexpensive to change (not like changing a mouthpiece or clarinet) - and just so you know I have been playing the same set-up for about 30 years, except I have tried a few different ligatures and a couple different mouthpieces. I really think it is such a waste of time and effort trying to find the magic piece of equipment that all of a sudden makes you a fantastic musician - it doesn't exist !!
Also I really like your playing - beautiful - it almost makes me want to try bass clarinet (my double has always been Eb) which is something because I have never been much of a fan of this instrument but you make it sound wonderful and very musical.
Priceless. Great video Michael and such a good perspective. Enjoyed your "gear wars" videos too.
Todd! Thanks man. Love your stuff too (a lot!)
My 11-year-old daughter just started on alto sax, and when her stock ligature wasn't working, I used the time-honored covered hair elastic. She was all "You can do that?!" ;)
On that note, I am trying the cable clamp and the luggage tag sometime! That's awesome.
Save on something else, but respect a young saxophone player and buy your daughter a proper ligature. Clarinets and saxophones are VERY different instruments. This video is about ligatures on a clarinet, and its conclusion cannot be applied on saxophones. Clarinet, due to its thick wooden body (wood has sound dampening effect) is not the right instrument to discuss a lot about ligatures. The saxophone is more critically responsive to the change and the quality of ligatures and reeds because it is a woodwind - BRASS - instrument. The saxophone is one giant, super-responsive amplifier. It picks up and reacts even to the tiniest vibration changes in the mouthpiece-ligature-reed combo, and the body and horn then amplify all of it. You would be surprised how much the tone changes on a saxophone.; there, a rubber band ligature sounds like it: cheap, weak and horrible.
When I was in the USAF Bands, for 23 years, one way to kill boredom during a super long rehearsal was to experiment with different type of saxophone ligatures. We experimented with wide postal rubber bands, pop cap (water bottle) plastic rings, hair tie elastics, parachute cord, ribbon, bootlaces, leather straps, fishing line, 2 screw, one screw, key rings with rubber tubing, velcro, tape, rubber bracelets, rovner, nylon webbing, silk cord, boot laces, different types and sizes of string and twine ,cotton and even hemp rope. All were great, all worked, but the very best was the hand tied piece of shoe string.or boot lace.
I have watched this video over and over, not to see ligatures, but to listen to that piece of music over and over
This is one of the best gear videos I've ever seen. Also, great sound! =)
Quite a vertuoso Michael! Great videos!
this may well be the best video on youtube ever, good stuff, thanks
Genius! You "ligaturised" lots of things :) as a saxophone player (and owner of many ligs) I completely agree with you, most of difference are very little and sometimes just the player can ear them, nice channel!!
I just ordered a £10 Rovner clone and wondered if I should have spent more. Thank you for the reassurance!
I thought hard and I think the pants tag is right for me. Thanks for this great video
I've appreciated👌 very much your way of introducing this subject. Nice!
As a tenor sax man my special thanks to you for some common sense here. My friend who plays a 1935 Selmer balanced action sax with Berg metal mouthpiece swears by his hardware store c-clamp as ligature! At present I am very satisfied with my Vandoren Optimum lig.
Made Me think of 1960s cartoons. That bass clarinet sounds very pleasant. Thanx 😎
I find ligatures having less impact on the sound of the instrument than on my temper when it takes hours to put on a reed
Very informative video! I really enjoyed it! My 12 year old son thinks you're great. He is a beginning bass clarinet player.
This is the greatest proof of the ligature version of Chops in a box. I've used green rubber bands from broccoli, rubber O rings from the plumbing supply store and a couple of homemade varieties for my various sax mouthpieces. I tie my own with this kind of plastic cord they sell in crafts stores to make lanyards for summer camp projects. I can tie one in less than a minute and it plays as good as my Rovner Lights. On soprano sax I use a napkin ring type lig....like that expensive wooden one you used---that I cut from a bicycle handlebar foam grip. They sell them as replacement grips in Decathlon. I had an extra that I wasn't going to use and cut a slice off of it and it has the perfect diameter bore for a soprano mpc. Slides right on and stays there because it is grabby rather than slippery. The foam also puts pressure on the reed so it doesn't move, but still can vibrate. This gives the best sound I have gotten out of my setup, so maybe ligs do matter a bit, but most anything works as long as it fulfills the basic parameters. And that does not require spending a bundle to get.
they all sound the same to me and you sound great on all of them. I like the M/O
I like the cable clamp and the (normal?) clamp. Deep sounds! :))
I just watched this again and have to say that your are one great musician and on top of it a very funny guy. Great no nonsense narration and well made video too. And it confirms my own experiments to be real....I was in fact looking for info on the Optimum when I stumbled on this video and now I realize that I do not need yet another lig to get my sound, simply because it is my lig. I already have Rovner, Selmer 2 screws, FL, RICO H, napkakin ring type, and 3 homemade type ligs, so why would I really need yet a different magic bullet design except for it being a case of GAS.
+King Pleasure right on. btw what's GAS?
Gear Acquisition Syndrome....it's a disease that afflicts saxophonists and guitarists in major part. You know, guys with 10 saxes and 50 mouthpieces and guitarists with 50 different types of pedals and 15 guitars and 5 amps, I of which goes to 11.
+King Pleasure It's so nice to know that my malady has a name!!! :-)
Your playing is bomb🤠🤙🏼
Lol the thing that holds the pants was my favorite, love the bright sound but i play mostly jazz bass clarinet, and a sax primary, so not gonna lie love that bright sound over darker.
What fun! Can't wait to try other household objects! More seriously, if you have a failure on a gig, it's good to know a shoelace will do!
String was used in the 1890's and is still being used today in the German Clarinets (Made by Wurlitzer).The reed is totally free to fully vibrate. Believe it or not, Parachute cord is also a fantastic material for a hand tied string ligature.
Love all of your videos!
You are a magician, you destroyed the industry in a few minutes lol
Beautiful and informative! Thats a great shirt too
Heartfelt laughter, good stuff
Helpful? You bet! that was a fabulous video that dispels a lot of the myths for someone starting out. I will be going with the aesthetics it has on the instrument in that case! : )
Haha the best advice and demonstration about ligatures ever. And according to all the comments below its effect on all
is undeniable :)
I'm a bit late to the party, but thank you so much for making this, I've been saying this for so long, and I really appreciate it. I've actually heard that ligatures are more of a placebo than anything else, you spend $100 on a ligature, of course you think you sound better, gotta get your money's worth.
In orchestral playing there simply isn't time to remove the reed. Rovner ligatures are popular as they stay on the mouthpiece when changing instruments. And they are a lot cheaper than a second mouthpiece, second ligature, second reed that dries out.....
Instructive and damn funny. Great combination. 10/10
My ligature for tenor sax is a two screw with the screws taken out and a string run through the holes and around the lig. I just put the thing together to take some time out of my setup routine.
I like using Clarinets as lamps too
HAHHAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ✋😭💀🤣
I've used a shoelace in an emergency. But a bit annoying to put on. I now use a Rovner - because it doesn't catch my facial hair like ligatures that have the screws on the bottom do. (This is on a soprano where the ligature is much closer to your chin than on a bass.)
Looking forward to your review on swabs. :-)
I remembered losing my ligature many years ago and setting up the clarinet for a rehearsal! Used a rubber band, worked perfectly! That was the moment when I realised- the ligature really doesn't matter much.
One of my favorites. Thank you!
Older ligatures from the 1920's were made from German Silver,( which has no silver) German Silver is an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel, (sometimes also containing lead and tin, but rarely) German silver is extensively used because of its hardness and resistance to corrosion. It was discovered by a German ... E.A. Geitner in the early 19th century. other ligatures are made from silver plated Brass, lacquered brass, gold plated brass and solid silver
honestly i loved the tag
I like the cable clamp best!, though you seem most comfortable with your Vandoren.
I was done with the pants tag lol. Nice sound on all of the unconventional ones. I knew the shoestring and rubber band would work (bc I've done it before) but I was surprised at the others working so well.
Guitar capo's work great as well.
when I used to play Bb clarinet, my school band (9 people) was on stage when I was adjusting my ligature and a screw snapped so on stage everyone in the audience watched me take off my ligature and put a hair tie on my mouthpiece
Excellent stuff. If you search You tube for 'Tying a clarinet string ligature' the guy shows you the perfect way to do it. I enjoy using it from time to time on my sax mouthpieces ..... it works brilliantly and its really satisfying to do.
Good player! and a super video very informative thanks.
I remember when I was in my sixth grade band and it was concert day I forgot my ligature and used a band aid. It sounded fine.
Love the pants tag!
Haha my ligature of six years just broke and I checked out this video to see what new one I should buy. Looks like it doesn't matter too much lol. Also, I can confirm that I have used a rubber band as a ligature before (my ligature fell out of my case at home and I didn't have it when I opened my case at school) and it worked beautifully.
As a guitar player who does not believe in tonewood (Eeeegad) I find this video so refreshing and honest. Thank you so much. Have to go, there are a bunch of strat players with pitchforks who made it past my moat.
Great lesson!
This is the most fun I've had watching a youtube video -- I like this even better than cats playing the piano! :) I've had several saxophonists want to know what my strange ligature is that sounds so good - it's two zip-ties.
honestly the pants tag tone was pretty killer
Ahhhhh, I'm jelly you play so friggin well
Great video!
woah the cable clamp was damn good
I think that's really the point that he was making -- albeit a bit mockingly. The ligature is basically just a clamp. Although the uniformity of that clamp can make a difference in the quality of the sound. That difference is insignificant at the least, and minimal at best.
I am going to try this on my instrument!!
Man! Great video, you should make more videos like this for people who is sick by set up. I can understand cause been sick also. I was spent a lot of money for ligatures, mouthpieces( Thank God with horns is different story😂😂😂) but it's really doesn't make any sence!!! Long tones more helpful in this case))
This is beautiful lol! I miss playing bass clarinet now. :(
I recommend the LS9R ligature. That has a big difference when compared to the metal ligatures.
the 2nd wooden one is so nice
M/O ligature fan here. Because of the one screw and the reed channel and the lightweight. Sounds identical to my old two screws Selmer ligature but really quicker and easier to use. The only difference I noticed between different ligatures it’s with a soft leather Rovner : less treble it seems.
LOL at the pants tag. This is why I always keep a shoelace in my case. If my ligature ever breaks I've got a cheap, quick fix that can't possibly also be damaged. How can you "break" a shoelace?
Gosh, hillarious, i love the point!
Great video
The luggage tag was my favorite.
Point taken! I though the red cable clamp had a really nice and well rounded sound, better than any Rovner or Vandoren!
belle mise au point et belle leçon de réalisme : les ligatures sont , en tout premier lieu , de petites machines à faire du fric !!! Il y a tellement peu de différence audible entre une belle ligature de marque bien connue et un lacet de chaussure que , vraiment , il est totalement inutile de faire des frais parfois assez lourds pour acheter une de ces petites merveilles très attirantes. Evidemment , il y a le plaisir de dire " regardez ce que j'ai acheté comme lig. Quel son incroyable j'obtiens avec elle !!! " Achetez- la donc si vous avez un gros budget et que vous voulez vous faire plaisir.....et si vous voulez faire le gros malin..... mais ce n'est pas elle qui vous donnera un son comme celui de Bechet , Getz , Coltrane ...etc...etc. Si vous n'êtes pas trop riche, que votre budget est serré, laissez tous ces jolis petits jouets de côté et soyez réalistes et sans regrets.....Ce sera vous le gagnant !!!
I WAS JUST WONDERING ABOUT THE SAME THING. THE REAL SOUND COMES FROM YOU! GREAT IDEAS FOR THE NEXT TIME I LOOSE A SCREW OFF MY LIGATURE. LOL
Awesome video Michael! People just wanna make money with their "best ligatures" you proved your point with expertise 👍😎
The Wood thing was dope.
This made me laugh several times. Back in college, one of my professors kept a ball of string in his office for when ligatures died. I think I used the same piece of string as my bass ligature for about two years.
I was crying during this video. Because people instantly believed ligatures are worthless investment on all woodwind instruments. However, this video is not true for saxophones - at all.
My MO bass clarinet ligature broke just less than 1 year of playing. Maybe i will switch it up and use a baggage tag.
I loved the sound of the luggage tag....
The shoelace sounds best by a wide margin. It looks stunning as well.
this video is so awesome
of course, I come across this video the day AFTER I order a $22 ligature for an about $300 mouthpiece for my bari sax that was given to me, when I could have just used a piece of fucking string... Why is my life so cruel?!?! Hey, atleast I can use the mouthpiece before the ligature gets here lol.
Alright man I need to know the make of those glasses. I need them in my life.