Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2001/04

From: Anne C Benassi <acb@-----.is>
Subj: [kl] fingering options for beginners with small hands
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 04:30:05 -0400

Dear List,

I have inherited two students (currently 9 and 12 years old) who were
quite young - and physically small - when they began their clarinet
lessons. For this reason their former teachers let them begin playing
f / c" with the little pinky of the left hand. When e / b' came
around, of course they used the right hand little finger. It goes
without saying that they are, by this time, extremely dependent on
these fingerings.

Now for the life of me I can't see any logical reason why this should
be a suboptimal way to get used to fingering the clarinet. It even
makes a few things easier in the long run. But I can't help it - I
suspect that this fingering pattern slows their technique (if one can
call it that at their level), interrupts the flow of their scale
passages, and so on. If these little kids had been my students I would
have been tempted to begin them on E-flat clarinets and use the
"standard issue" fingerings.

I've been arguing back and forth with myself about this for most of
the school year, and I'm stuck in a rut. I am unable to convince
myself from a logical standpoint that it's an inferior fingering
choice for their everyday playing, and I'm equally unable to settle in
and work with these fingerings. I want to change them, but then I
think, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Do you all have experience with this? Opinions?

Many thanks for your input, now as in the past,

Anne

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