Klarinet Archive - Posting 000240.txt from 1997/09

From: deerich@-----.net
Subj: Re: Clarinet is pretty easy (was How old is too old?)
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 1997 10:35:21 -0400

Alexis L. Grant wrote:
>
>... Maybe I'm just weird, but I thought clarinet wasn't really that hard to
> get a good sound out of to begin with.
> And I don't think I remember hand-position problems, either. I'm not
> suggesting that you're wrong, just that perhaps your perspective does not
> apply to *everyone*...

Actually everyone one will have different experiences on the clarinet
(or any other instrument for that matter). It is often true that
someone who has not played any instrument before can get a decent sound
out of the clarinet right at the beginning as compared to flutes,
trumpets, etc. But that is usually only in a limited range. Even then
if the student has small hands, they may not get the holes completely
covered and there goes the tone.

Like you, I never had hand position problems that I can remember
either. Many people do and the specific problem will vary from person
to person. Both my daughters did. The older one simply had really thin
fingers when young. Unless her position was absolutely perfect, she
would leak. So moving from throat tones to notes with most fingers down
was a problem. My younger one has problems keeping the fingers arched
(there were some postings on a similar problem some weeks ago), so this
means she misses the holes when moving several fingers (she does have a
really nice motion to and from the throat keys though).

The main thing though is that no one is too old to learn the clarinet or
any other instrument.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD
deerich@-----.net