Klarinet Archive - Posting 000231.txt from 2002/07

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] switching between fingering systems
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 10:26:21 -0400

Re. switching to Albert system, Bill Edinger wrote,
>... [I]t's taking me some time trying to get used to
>another fingering system after over 40 years of playing
>Boehm system.
> The fingers have a mind of their own, and I still am
>wondering about that old, basic question: how do people
>train their brains to be able to switch between such similar
>fingering systems?

My preferred method is to avoid showing my brain and fingers any music for an
instrument that's similar to (but critically different in pitch or in keywork
from) the one I'm going to use for that music, unless I play that music on
more than one instrument right from the get-go. Once I start memorizing (and
for me, memorization begins with sight-reading--it's astonishing how fast I
can teach myself a wrong note!), then my fingers will automatically reach for
the same fingerings next time, whether the keys are there or not. If I do
learn a piece thoroughly on just one clarinet, this kinaesthetic memory can
take years to go away.

For instance, if I learn a piece on Bb clarinet, then switch to playing it on
a different brand of Bb clarinet that has its intonation problems in
different places, it's hard for me to remember to "lip up" a particular note
on one clarinet and not on the other. But if I start right out switching
between *both* clarinets on that piece, then I'm teaching myself a set of
alternatives, instead of one "right" way to do something. Frequently
rotating practice sessions on different instruments helps prevent me from
getting stuck on just one way of doing anything.

I have a terrible time trying to learn any given piece in more than one
pitch. I don't have perfect pitch, but I do have relative pitch for music
I'm working on currently. In high school, I got myself into a mess a couple
of times, because I didn't like to schlep both my Bb clarinet and the
school's clarinet in A back and forth between school and home with me every
day if I had to work on music for both instruments. Alas, if I learned a
piece on my Bb clarinet at home, I couldn't play it on clarinet in A at
school to save my life! If my brain learns a piece in only one pitch, then
hears "wrong" notes, my fingers start compulsively scrabbling around for the
"right" notes, even though they're out of tune with the ensemble. But if I
start out by switching between different clarinets during the earliest
practice sessions on a given piece of music, then I can always switch, as
long as I refresh the kinaesthetic memory by playing through the alternatives
occasionally.

The bigger the difference between instruments, the easier it is for me to
move from one to another. Switching between a high-pitch and low-pitch Bb
clarinet during the same practice session causes me the worst trouble. The
easiest clarinet switches for me are between Eb soprano and anything else, or
Eb alto and anything else (and I imagine the same would be true on Bb bass
clarinet, which I don't own), because they sound and feel so different that I
can really shift gears. The saxophone that gives me trouble is C Melody,
which is midway in size between Bb tenor and Eb alto and shares many
characteristics with both of them.

There may be another way I can trick my memory. I like to work on technique
with the Klose exercises. Over the years, they've been published in several
different editions. When I bought my own clarinet in A for the first time
this spring, I hunted in used book shops until I found an unmarked edition of
Klose that's a different size and typeface from my old books that I've used
for years on Bb. The paper has aged to a different color, too. Before I
ever played a particular exercise on the clarinet in A, I would read through
it at the kitchen table (an unfamiliar context, since I practice clarinet in
my attic office) and mark any new fingerings I wanted to use. (I wanted to
learn several new fingerings, because my clarinet in A has keys I'd never
used before, such as a left hand Eb/Ab side key that gives an easy, smooth
transition between clarion Eb and C or chalumeau Ab and F.) The first time I
played any exercise with the clarinet in A, I set up a portable music stand
down in the kitchen, again dislocating from my habitual context, and forced
myself to slow way down--to ignore patterns and *really read* each note
separately, as if I were sight-reading some impossibly difficult passage.

After nearly three months, this frustrating discipline is paying off. I can
work on Klose tolerably well on clarinet in A now, as long as I don't try to
play Klose on both Bb and A clarinets in the same practice session. Maybe
this strategy would work for me with Real Music, too, but I haven't tried it
yet--can't afford either the money or the storage space to keep buying
duplicate scores, so I'm not letting the clarinets in Bb anywhere near my new
music for clarinet in A! ;-)

Lelia
LeliaLoban@-----.com

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