Klarinet Archive - Posting 000529.txt from 1998/07

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Kooiman Thumb Rest
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 13:56:59 -0400

Ted ( tjanossy@-----.net ) wrote

>Thanks for asking the question since I've been wondering the same thing. I
>haven't used it but from the picture it does look like it would provide
>quite a mechanical advantage to supporting the weight of the instrument and
>stabilizing the right hand position. I know people who use neck straps, or
support >the bell on their knees to relieve the weight, especially if they
have joint or tendon <problems.

I don't know if these remarks are relevant or not, because it's impossible
to tell from an e-mail message, but it sounds (not for the first time) as
if there are many clarinetists who play with the instrument too close to
the body and too nearly vertical, with the result that the weight of the
instrument is borne by the inner side of their thumbs.

Look at the pictures in the front of most clarinet methods, and you'll see
that the instrument is at 40 degrees, minus a couple or plus two or three,
to the body, and the player's elbows are two or three inches away from his
sides. The clarinet is balanced on the ball of the thumb, and steadied by
the embouchure, and the fingers other than the right thumb are completely
free to do their real job, playing, and (this is most important) the
player's wrists are only very slightly bent.

It is possible to play the clarinet very well indeed with an incorrect
posture, but it is courting medical problems of the kind several
subscribers have been reporting --
repetitive stress injury, carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis. I have a
student whose school band director does not know that, and tries to compel
his clarinet players to hold the instrument at a shallow angle to their
bodies. I'm afraid he's not the only teacher who makes that mistake. If any
of his students keep on playing as they grow older and their musculature
becomes less elastic, they may suffer for what he taught them.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

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