Klarinet Archive - Posting 000509.txt from 1998/07

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re:remove Eb/Bb key L.H.
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 18:49:54 -0400

Fred Jacobowitz wrote:
>I don't "condone" the idea but I don't recomend that my students use the
>sliver (AKA Banana) key. I find that in fast passages it is ergonomically
>inefficient compared to using the RH index finger key, which is operated
>by a much more facile finger at a more comfortable angle.

I think it's all a matter of habit, Fred. If I understand what the
sliver/banana key is - the one between the C/G hole and the D/A ring,
right? - the only use I make of it myself is in descending chromatically
from B3 or E2 through A or D. Ascending, I use the right hand Eb/Bb key.
However, I think it is perhaps the most nearly useless alternate fingering
on a clarinet. I could live without it, and I don't teach it either. In
discussing alternate Bb/Eb fingerings, I demonstrate it and have a student
try it, then recommend the right hand key or the fork fingering.

Once I had a student who for some reason had been taught that was the
normal fingering for Eb/Bb, and it took a month or more to break him of the
habit.

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