Klarinet Archive - Posting 001243.txt from 2000/10

From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Excess movement while playing & resting horn on knees.
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 00:19:51 -0400

Klarinetters -

Admittedly my playing experience is limited, but looking back to my student
days and early and brief professional career, I believe that almost all
oboists that I can recall seemed to be extremely "active" in swaying, and
rhythmic bobbing and weaving, both with their bodies and their horns. I've
also noticed this oboist tendency in televised orchestral performances. It
is really most distracting to those musicians sitting near or within line of
sight of such an oboist. My recent experience in our local non-professional
orchestra brought this home to me again. The oboist is a very nice lady and
a fairly good aspiring professional player, but sitting behind her really
required the nth degree of concentration not to be totally distracted. (I'd
like to blame some sloppy entrances on
her bobbing and weaving - but that wouldn't be nice.)

Am I being too hard on oboists and making an unjustified generalization, or
have others noticed this same tendency towards "ballet" in oboists? (I
don't mean to imply that clarinetists are not also guilty of this, and some
violinists seem to be all over the stage - don't get close or you might get
stabbed by an errant bow or decked by a bobbing head.)

Horn on knees --

When I returned to playing in 1996 and before resuming private lessons in
1998, I had never considered resting my horn on my knees. However, I was
having trouble with excess tension and arthritic wrist pain in my injured
right hand and my teacher (Scott Ellington) suggested that resting my horn
on my knees might be the answer. And it was. Scott plays a lot of
orchestral gigs and also has a wrist problem so he has found that the knee
support is vital to his playing.

By taking most of the weight of the clarinet off my thumb, my hand remains
much more relaxed, thus increasing my right hand's technical abilities. As
far as the necessity of a "connection" between the thumb and teeth, of
course this is axiomatic, but I have found that this "connection" may not be
as essential as might be thought. I have found that when my arthritis in my
wrist is acting up or after a long practice session, I practice for a while
with my knees supporting all or most of the horn's weight. It really frees
up your right hand. Your right hand is almost like playing a piano or
(shudder) an accordion. I don't detect any difference in my tone,
articulation or general playing ability when doing this. I guess I
instinctively adjust the weight, balance and stability of the horn among my
knee support, embouchure and a slight amount of left hand control but with
almost no weight bearing.

As noted in the earlier posting, the knee support is widely used by
"double-lippers" in order to provide better stability for the horn. As a
recent convert to double-lipping, I believe that my experience in using the
knee support made my switch to double-lip very easy and almost immediate.

Granted that body dimensions and proportions affect the use of knee support
for some players, but to me knee support is certainly far superior to any
kind of neck strap.

Just my observations on these items. I don't want to start any arguments.
I'm too old for verbal fire-fights.

Gene Nibbelin

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