Klarinet Archive - Posting 001267.txt from 1998/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Big clarinet
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 09:35:40 -0500

Barb Levy barb073@-----.com wrote:

>>One of my clarinet students brought what appeared to be a late-model Vito
bass cl. to her lesson today. She could play from the lowest E to throat Bb
with no problems, but the minute she crossed the break, nothing but squeaks
and
squawks. Could this be caused by a leak in the pad right above the register
key? Or is it something she is/is not doing? She was having similar problems
with another, older BC with a straighter neck that she could barely handle
without contorting herself. The subject student, BTW, is a 7th grader who has
played clarinet for just over a year. She can handle up to C3 on soprano
clarinet.>>

A pad leak can cause squeaks, but since you mention that your student is a 7th
grader barely big enough to handle this horn at all, I suspect something else
that's been a problem for me on bass sax, since I have very small hands. I'm
not familiar with that particular bass clarinet, but on some instruments, you
can't just rock your thumb slightly onto the register key. You have to reach
for it and really press it down to engage it, and for someone with short
fingers, that's hard to do without moving the rest of the hand. Maybe she's
not opening the key enough. If she's cracking it open just a sliver, it will
squeak instead of giving her a good note. Also watch how the position of her
right hand changes when she presses the register key. Does she move her other
fingers or the palm of her hand? She may be touching another key and opening
it just enough to let in some air, or lifting her finger slightly away from a
hole that needs to stay tightly closed.

It's great to hear that a small kid is getting a chance to play a big
clarinet. I remember that at her age, I got so sick of "squirt" and
"pipsqueak" and being told I was too short to do this and too weak to do that.
I hope you and she can solve this problem so she can stick with the big horn
if that's what she wants to play, even if it really is a bit TOO big.

Lelia
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"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."
--Johannes Brahms
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