Klarinet Archive - Posting 000008.txt from 2010/10

From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Old fingers
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2010 06:42:46 -0400

Dear friends,

I am very sorry that you are all feeling under the weather. Having
been away from the clarinet and never having learned the scales with
lots of sharps and flats very well, I am definitely having trouble
keeping them straight. E, B, F# and C# major... Plus I tend have
trouble keeping the scales even in general. Bits speed up and slow
down. That is when it is time to get the metronome out and work on
evenness. I will shift my starting points too. For example, starting
on C all the time tends to make you accent the notes on the beat
unduely (CdefGabcDefgAbcdEfgaBcdeFedcBagfEdcbAgfeDcbaGfGabcDefgA etc.)
so I do DefgAbcdEfgaB... and EfgaBcdeFgabCd... and FgabCdefGabcDef...
etc. sometimes just to mix things up a bit and start on different
notes of the scale. Then practice the scale in thirds
(CdeFgaBcdEfg..., DefGabCdeFga..., EfgAbcDefGabCde... etc.)

Circle of fifths

# of flats # of sharps
C C 0
G G 1
D D 2
A A 3
E E 4
B B 5
Gb 6 F# 6
Db 5 C#
Ab 4 G#
Eb 3 D#
Bb 2 A#
F 1 F
C

# of flats # of sharps
C 0 C 0
G 11 G 1
D 10 D 2
A 9 A 3
E 8 E 4
B 7 B 5
Gb 6 F# 6
Db 5 C# 7
Ab 4 G# 8
Eb 3 D# 9
Bb 2 A# 10
F 1 F 11
C

On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Alan Zimmerman <azimmerman1@-----.net> wrote:
> After returning to my Bb clarinet after a 55 year absence, I too find
> frustration in restoring muscle memory.
> particularly critical in the altissimo keys and certain bridge keys.
> Practice is helping, but oh so slowly.
> Alan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <DGross1226@-----.com>
> To: <klarinet@-----.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Old fingers
>
>
>> In a message dated 10/3/2010 8:59:10 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
>> peter.gentry@-----.uk writes:
>>
>>
>>> I have noticed recently that I am increasingly failing to fully cover t=
he
>>> right hand third finger on the C/G hole especially when fingering clari=
on
>>> G#
>>> also a habit is creeping in of partly opening the register key with a
>>> slightly misplaced thumb.
>>>
>>> This seems to be associated with old fingers loosing "fingerprint" and
>>> becoming rather shiny or it may be a result of playing Bass. Does anyone
>>> else (seniors amongst us) =A0have this problem?
>>> regards
>>>
>>
>>
>> Peter,
>>
>> As a 70-year-old clarinetist whose primary instruments are bass, contra
>> alto, and contrabass, I would vote for your "problem" being the result of
>> playing plateau-keyed instruments. =A0I also play soprano clarinets with=
a
>> community orchestra and whenever I have to return to playing A, Bb, and C
>> instruments, it takes me about a week of practice to "unlearn" all the
>> "bad?" habits
>> that can result from the ease of playing instruments with plateau
>> keys...like
>> not properly curving my fingers to ensure I cover the tone holes.
>>
>> When I retired and went back to university to study music formally and
>> take
>> lessons from my professor who routinely played with the LA Phil and the =
LA
>> Chamber Orchestra, she would forbid me to touch any of my "pedal
>> clarinets"
>> for at least a week prior to my juries that we were required to perform =
on
>> soprano clarinets.
>>
>> Granted, while playing bass clarinet, you can "imagine" you're playing
>> open
>> tone hole instruments and try to incorporate all the things you've ever
>> learned about finger position, but I submit that the two instruments are
>> totally different and it just takes time to adjust your motor memory to
>> handle
>> each of them.
>>
>>
>> I'll be interested to hear the thoughts of other "senior" players.
>>
>> Don
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