Klarinet Archive - Posting 000014.txt from 2000/07

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] extra keys & fingering question
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 12:47:51 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: jim & joyce [mailto:lande@-----.com]
>
> And if you have a standard boehm, do you ever use the banana
> key between the second and third fingers of your left hand
> (d#/f#? -- or have I missed the purpose entirely?) I find
> it very awkward to hit and never ever use it.
>

Well, first off, it plays d#/a#, if I understand which key you mean. It's
useful for many players in passages that move specifically between clarion A
and Bb(A#). Some players with very pudgy fingers avoid it entirely. Most
method book authors recommend it for chromatic passages through this range
and it can be used as well in passages based on F major or Bb major scales.
It *is* awkward to move between Bb/Eb(A#/D#) and any note that requires your
left hand 3rd finger (G/C) to be covering it's hole because your 3rd finger
would need to jump between the hole and the "banana" key.

I often have students who come for private lessons after having started at
school who've been taught this fingering and *not* the right hand side key,
usually by a well-meaning trumpet player or percussionist (don't follow this
up - remember I'm one of those "generalists" at school with respect to any
other instrument but clarinet or sax) who stuck "by the book" when the
lesson on clarion Bb was taught. It's then sometimes hard to get a young or
teen-aged student to learn the right hand fingering. Contrary to popular
theory, teenagers can be the world's staunchest conservatives. A single idea
(in this case a fingering) once adopted is often the only one they'll accept
no matter what the evidence that there's a better way.

Karl Krelove

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