Klarinet Archive - Posting 000511.txt from 1998/07

From: "Dee Hays" <deerich@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re:remove Eb/Bb key L.H.
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 20:35:49 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Date: Saturday, July 18, 1998 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] re:remove Eb/Bb key L.H.

>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.

The use of the sliver (or banana key) is perfectly "normal" for scale type
runs (unless of course the note just below is also a flat). The fork
fingering is perfectly "normal" for an arpeggio type run. The side key is
perfectly "normal" for other types of runs and intervals. I find all three
fingerings easy and natural. I select the fingering for a particular
situation on the basis of what is most practical in that piece of music that
will minimize the amount of hand motion.

To me, these are all equally essential fingerings and should all be taught
as such. None can truly be called an alternate. Although my teacher in
school was only a public school band director (and not even a
clarinettist!), I was required to drill on ALL THREE FINGERINGS.

You say the banana key is not ergonomic but I find that very difficult to
believe. It is, theoretically, easier to coordinate the middle and ring
fingers on the same hand rather than any two fingers on separate hands. In
addition, for the right hand side key, the finger must move a greater
distance even when the hands are perfectly positioned. Of course practice
can solve almost any coordination problem.

I have large hands yet find none of these fingerings to be a problem on a
standard soprano clarinet. Why? Because I practiced them and consider them
all essential, basic fingerings.

What distresses me is that I have been in some community bands where I have
known students with several years of training yet know only ONE fingering
for the Bb/Eb and then wonder why they can't play the passage. Not only do
they not know the fingerings, they don't even know they exist and wonder
what you are talking about when you tell them there are alternates and to
check their fingering chart. Worse yet, I was in one band with an
instructor of clarinet from a nearby college and he didn't know the trill
fingering for the clarion Ab/Bb trill and could not play this trill
smoothly. He had to ask me how to play it! I admit I did not know how to
play it until I looked it up in the trill chart but at least I was bright
enough to go look.

In any passage that still seems awkward after several trial runs, I will
check to see if I have forgotten or perhaps never known another fingering
that would alleviate the situation. Many times that is all it takes. If
that doesn't do it and the passage is very fast, I'll go look and see if any
of the trill fingerings could be used. That solves another big group of
problems. Of course there are instances where nothing really addresses the
problem and you just have to do your best to compensate. (The sequence of
clarion F, Gb, Eb comes to mind. Each choice has the inherent tendency to
be less than smooth.)

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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