Klarinet Archive - Posting 000839.txt from 2000/12

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Fingering Help
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 08:47:12 -0500

Frank P. Galiani wrote:

>I would appreciate some help with a fingering I have encountered in a
>velocity study. How should I go from c#1 to f1 to g#1 without sliding
>my left hand little finger from c#-g# to f-c yet having my right hand
>little finger free to go to g#-d# for the g#1? Am I missing something
>or making it too complicated? TIA for any help. Frank

Frank -

That is truly a nasty slide, but unfortunately, there's no way around it.
You'll also need it in the broken chord exercise in Ab (see Baermann Part 3).
For the pattern you ask about, I've found that sliding the right little
finger from the low F key up to the low G# key is easier than sliding the
left little finger from C# to F. The Oehler system instruments have rollers
to facilitate this, and it's possible to get them installed on a Boehm
instrument. (I've seen them on Wurlitzer's Boehms.)

Rosario Mazzeo designed a mechanism that gave complete duplication of all
little finger keys, with the standard stuff and also a series of levers that
opened the low C# key when the right hand low G# key was pressed and the
right hand rings were open. Unfortunately, it increased the necessary spring
strength on the low g# key so much that it became a worse hazard than sliding.

So, as with several other combinations, you just have to learn to slide.
It's the price we clarinetists pay for playing an instrument that overblows
at the 12th and so needs extra keys to bridge the gap.

There's nothing morally wrong about sliding. Bassoonists (not to mention
violinists) do it all the time. It's part of your technical equipment, and
you should get comfortable doing it both ways.

Another particularly common slide is with the right little finger, from G#/D#
down to F#/C#. When you play the scalewise groups of four exercise in
Baermann Book 3, you need this in keys with four sharps or more, and four
flats or more. There's only one place you can do it -- if you miss, you have
to jump *up* -- so you have to get it "in your fingers."

Everyone has to learn to do it. Practice is the key. See you in Carnegie
Hall.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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