Klarinet Archive - Posting 000573.txt from 1998/07

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Kooiman Thumb Rest
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 04:25:59 -0400

This makes sense to me.
rjs

On Sun, 19 Jul 1998, Lee Hickling wrote:

> Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 13:56:59
> From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Kooiman Thumb Rest
>
> 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>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------