Graham hits all the right notes (From Gazette & Herald)

Graham hits all the right notes

HE is among only a handful of musicians throughout the world to perform jazz on the bassoon. He has produced up to 70 albums of woodwind music, selling something like 500,000 copies. He has even written a book which may have played a small part in the opening of peace talks between America and the Soviet Union.

But the design of a new clarinet for children is perhaps the most satisfying achievement for 65-year-old Graham Lyons, of Kirkbymoorside. The Lyons C clarinet is a product invented by Graham in response to difficulties children experience when learning the instrument. Graham said: "I was a woodwind teacher for 20 years and became very frustrated seeing countless children struggling with an instrument which was too big and heavy for them."

He decided to solve the problem and came up with a new design, launched in 1990 - a smaller, lighter clarinet, with plastic clip-on keys and smaller mouthpiece, to be played in the key of C rather than the B flat of a traditional clarinet. The product was easy to assemble and manufacture, which meant it could be sold at half the price of a B-flat clarinet.

Be it in the classroom or the family home, the Lyons C clarinet can accompany a much wider range of other instruments - including pianos, flutes, guitars, violins and recorders - because it is in the key of C rather than the traditional B-flat tone.

Graham's instrument has been endorsed by several clarinetists from leading orchestras and music colleges, including Richard Addison, principal clarinet with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at the Royal Academy. Famous jazz musicians Humphrey Lyttelton and John Dankworth are also keen supporters.

Yet, despite these acknowledgements, Graham said there had been some negative reaction to his product. Some of this may have been due to initial teething problems when the product first came out, but these were quickly ironed out. Graham believes the stumbling block is simply in the mind of many tutors.

"It looks so different and feels so light that those who have grown up with the standard B-flat clarinet with metal keys simply cannot believe that it can sound good." He added that people wrongly believed the plastic keys on his clarinet meant the product was fragile. On the contrary, he claims. "It is robust and should anything go wrong, it is dead easy to repair. Also, because it's in the key of C, people don't think it's a proper clarinet, which is not rational."

Graham believes sales of his clarinet, which is manufactured at McKechnie Plastic Components in Stamford Bridge, have yet to reach their full potential. With current sales of around 1,000 a year in this country, he is looking to break into overseas markets because, as Graham says: "My clarinet will fit very nicely wherever people learn musical instruments, which is most of Europe, USA and the Far East." Graham said he was looking to find someone with the capital and business expertise to help him make such a move.

As already mentioned, Graham has more than one string to his bow. In 1976, having researched the way history was being taught in Soviet schools, he published a book called The Russian Version of the Second World War. In it, he claims that the teaching there was very anti-militaristic. In 1980, the Pentagon bought 5,000 copies of the book. Three years later saw the beginning of peace talks between Reagan and Gorbachev. Graham said: "There were lots of hard-liners at the Pentagon, who were very militaristic. I'd like to think my book played a small part in changing those attitudes."

Graham Lyons also has the distinction of being one of only two recognised performers in this country to play jazz on the bassoon (and possibly one of only five or six worldwide). Unlike a modern instrument, such as the saxophone, the bassoon is 300 years old and designed purely for classical music. To play jazz on it is particularly complicated. On most instruments, the thumb only has to play one or two keys, but with the bassoon, it has to play up to 11. Graham has performed on the bassoon with his band, the Graham Lyons Jazz Trio, at the Helmsley Arts Centre.

Graham is from London but came to live in Kirkbymoorside three years ago, after being introduced to the area by Gazette & Herald columnist June Emerson, whom he met through the music publishing industry.

As well as looking to launch the Lyons clarinet abroad, Graham plans to release a tuition manual for his product on CD-rom. He is organising a music course for adults wanting to visit the area and combine their learning with walks on the North York Moors and in the surrounding area. And Graham recently completed clarinet and flute albums for learners, which will be published in September.

If all this doesn't seem enough, Graham, at 60, also studied the history and philosophy of science at University College, London. How science works is a particular passion of his and is something that has benefited him in his work. "It has helped me be objective and not become wrapped up in my own preferences. It has helped me to simply look at what works," he said. Graham's highlight of his career is quite a simple one: "Going into schools and seeing young children, who use my clarinet, treating it as an everyday part of their lives because it works so well."

He is interested in adapting the flute and the saxophone along the same lines

as his Lyons C clarinet in the future. Watch this space.

Anyone wishing to contact Graham Lyons regarding his clarinet can e-mail him at usefulmusic@aol.com. For more information visit www.firstclarinet.com

Updated: 09:45 Thursday, June 20, 2002