Klarinet Archive - Posting 000254.txt from 2001/06

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] curved fingers
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 17:08:41 -0400

On 5 Jun 2001 08:15:01 -0000, J. Shouryu Nohe wrote:
>
>On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Anne Lenoir wrote:
>
>> When the band plays in A major, that means that I'm in B major (5
>> #'s), and all the work I did with my pinkies playing a repeated E scale
>> in the lower register, is still a significant portion B major,
>> (finger-wise) throughout the entire range of the clarinet. ANNIE
>
>What tunes do you play in A major? Granted, I've only worked out of about
>half of the Real Book and half of the Real Book Vol.II...but off the top
>of my head, I can't remember having to play anything in five sharps except
>when playing alto sax (Wave, Make Me Smile, My Favorite Things...but
>that's actually in minor...).

Interesting point, that. I had thought the practice of writing in an
artificial key to "help" the clarinet player ended centuries ago, but I've
re-encountered it recently.

In our community band, we're playing a simple but pleasant Broadway medley
called "Bright Lights On Broadway". It includes Everything's Coming Up
Roses, There's No Business Like Show Business, and Comedy Tonight. At one
point, the piece modulates from concert Ab major to concert A major (on its
way to a concert Bb resolution) just in time for the ascending scale in No
Business, where the words say "everything about it is appealing". It is a
simple ascending scale, from one note below the tonic up through the tonic
above. Instead of writing it for clarinet in B major with five sharps as a B
major scale, they left it in Bb major with accidentals: Bb, B, C#, Eb, E,
F#, Ab, Bb, B. Every time I see it, I have to force myself to think "it's
just a B major scale".

Now, maybe all those years of piano have made me more tolerant of odd keys
than many, but I'm offended that they felt I was too dumb to handle advanced
concepts like A# and D#.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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