Klarinet Archive - Posting 000588.txt from 1998/05
From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: RE: [kl] C Clarinets, and mixups
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:18:36 -0400
Justin wrote:
>I think I have picked up tendonitis in my left and right wrists. (The left
>being more painful) Anybody have any recommendations on ways to decrease
>discomfort associated with playing? I have a doctor's appointment, we'll
>see what they say. I figured while on neckstraps and harnesses somebody
>might have ideas to help me.
Tendinits means an infection of the tendons. Justin may have that, or he
may be suffering from repetitive stress injury, which can cause the same
painful symptoms, and is even more disabling and difficult to cure.
Besides playing the sax, clarinet, piano and organ, I'm a writer by trade,
and spend many hours a week at a computer keyboard. My fingers earn my
living, and consequently I've devoted a lot of thought to my computer
setup. What I learned was that the best guide to reducing repetitive stress
there and also on the sax and clarinet was the posture taught for the piano.
The muscles that operate one's fingers run through hollow bones in the
hand, the carpals, and on into the forearm. Picture a string threaded
through a ring. If the string is pulled straight back and forth through the
ring, it doesn't abrade. If it has to turn a corner and rubs against the
ring, it eventually frays.
Piano players, and people who were taught to type correctly (there aren't
many of those left!) minimize this by keeping their elbows higher than
their wrists, the back of their hands flat, and their fingers relaxed into
a natural curve.
Translate this to the clarinet, or the sax, and you get a posture with the
elbows well away from the body, so the wrists are bent very little to bring
the fingers to the keys, or tone holes. Saxes should be supported by a
strap adjusted so when a musician pushes out and away from his or her body,
the mouthpiece comes exactly to one's mouth with the reed flat on the lower
lip, and no weight at all is borne by the hands. The soprano clarinet is
rarely played with a neck strap, and normally has no place to attach one.
Its weight is balanced on the ball of the right thumb, which bears nearly
all the weight. On either horn, nine of the ten fingers have to be
liberated almost completely from the job of holding the instrument.
This, by the way, is a primary reason for the classic way of holding the
clarinet with elbows out and at a 40 to 45 degree angle from the body - a
question that was discussed on Klarinet-L a few months ago. Some of us who
argued against holding it more vertically were derided, on the grounds that
there were famous orchestral clarinetists who didn't do that.
Forgive me for stating such obvious facts at a tedious length. We all
probably learned those things in our first lessons on the instrument. But I
have known fine musicians who have injured themselves by not paying enough
attention to these basics. You can still play very well indeed without a
proper posture. It may not hurt your playing, but it can really hurt your
body.
Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>
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