Week 2, Day Four

Padding

The introduction to padding came by explaining the makeup of clarinet pads.  The Cardboard backer and felt cushion is surrounded by a bladder skin or another synthetic skin material and placed into the pad cup.  I was sure to only melt a reasonable portion of glue onto the back of the pad before setting the pad and rotating it in the pad cup.  With our feeler gauges, we practiced feeling for leaks in a clockwise pattern.  Reseating the pads was finicky, but when I got the result I was looking for, it was an accomplished feeling.