 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jim
Date: 1999-06-28 19:35
I am trying to teach my daughter (10) to play the
clarinet. After a couple weeks she has the left hand
notes under control, does great at sight reading, and has
suprisingly good tone.
She is getting discouraged at the difficulty of playing
the right hand notes, though. She can't seem to get
her right index finger on the hole without hitting the
side key.
I am at a loss as to how to best help her. When I play,
my right elbow has a right angle bend in it. Her arms are
so much shorter that her right elow is much closer to being
straight meaning that her fingers hit the clarinet at an
angle that makes it difficult to snake around the side keys.
I have tried to move here wrist and fingers into a better
position, but it feels like they really don't want to go
that way. Should I consider a smaller clarinet? Is there
such a thing? (Are E-flats smaller or bigger?) Any other
ideas?
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Author: Ray Swing
Date: 1999-06-28 20:43
Check out the Buffet "Kinder Clarinet". It is smaller for small children and pitched in E flat. Cost in "Woodwind Brasswind" Catalog is $250.00.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-06-28 20:45
The Eb soprano is smaller than the standard Bb clarinet but most people do not recommend it for beginners as it is more difficult to control pitch and tone quality. The Eb alto is, of course, larger.
It sounds like your daughter may be a bit small. If so, perhaps the clarinet is a bit too heavy for her and when she tries to support the weight on her thumb, it twists her hand out of position causing her to bump the side keys. See if resting the bell on her knee, or some other support, helps her get a better hand position. If this works, then I would suggest getting a neckstrap for her. Actually a neck strap might be a good idea anyway as it takes the weight off the thumb and allows the students to develop good hand position from the beginning. The thumb wasn't really designed for this job.
The thumbrest should straddle the thumb right at the base of the thumbnail (center of rest right where the nail meets the skin). Due to the weight of the instrument, beginners(especially children) will often slide their thumb completely under the instrument. This makes it difficult to reach the keys properly and puts a severe strain on the wrist (possibly leading to wrist problems in the future if not corrected). If beginners develop a bad hand position to support the weight of the instrument, it is VERY difficult to correct later.
One author of clarinet manuals (Robert Lowry) advocates neckstraps for clarinets as a standard practice.
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Author: Kevin Bowman
Date: 1999-06-28 21:01
I'll second everything Dee said about neckstraps. I have ALL my beginners purchase straps and use them. Later, some of them opt for discarding the stap (after a year or two, when the right hand *and* the upper register is well established).
I'd like to offer another peice of advice regarding beginning clarinetists with small hands. When approaching the pinky keys for low F and E, I have had much success teaching LH low F and RH low E as the first fingerings for these notes. These fingerings tend to require less "stretch" by the pinky fingers and therefore help the student keep the first three fingers (especially the 3rd finger) down and covering the holes. This also works to the students advantage when learing Eb in the clarion register as Eb-C intervals are much more common than Eb-B intervals and therefore the LH B/E & RH C/F fingerings need not even be learned until a little later. In other words, the student is _already_ prepared to navigate the all the intervals in the Bb major scale without having to learn any
new fingerings (except Eb). One caveat is that the student will have to learn the alternate fingerings at some point (I usually do this when introducing the chromatic scale).
Kevin Bowman
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Author: J. Butler
Date: 1999-06-29 11:52
Thanks Kevin. I agree with your left had approach to the low notes. I have been doing this for a long time with my students and have been roused by my colleagues for "improper teaching" methods. I'm glad to see someone concurs with me. I also advocate the use of a neckstrap when the student relies to heavily on the use of the right hand to support the instrument. I've had students place the knuckle of their index finger under the side Eb key to help support the clarinet. It leads to many problems. The neck strap seems to help with the control of the instrument.
John
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Author: Daniel
Date: 1999-06-30 00:52
I have had this problem with a couple students who were smaller than average beginners. If you have a different horn for her, you might try having the thumbrest moved up a little. The position of the thumbrests is soooooo bad ergonomically speaking. The position of the hand, as a result, is very unnatural.
The only problem i've thought of with starting a kid out on Eb clarinet is that intonation is bad enough as it is. Especially in the chalumeau register.
Another option, if you haven't bought her a clarinet yet, and you have a little money to spend, is ordering a plateau system clarinet from one of the makers (i think Leblanc is the only one that i've seen advertise actually making one). They show up on eBay from time to time.
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Author: Merry
Date: 1999-06-30 02:31
"Kinder" clarinets are Eb clarinets but they have been specifically designed for young beginners and are easier to pitch correctly than the "real" Eb clarinet. I have tried one and they are very easy to blow and to finger, even though they are missing a few keys. As these keys are missing they are not suitable for extended use but by the time the child is ready to progress off them they are usually big enough to handle a full sized clarinet. I think they sound pretty screechy but they do seem ideal for little fingers. They are also extremely light so are easily held with the thumb in the correct position.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-06-30 04:19
You might want to try a bunch of used Vitos or other beginner clarinets with you daughter. I now have 5 Bb clarinets in the house (well one is Albert system), and the size and spacing of the holes varies significantly. I had started my son (about your daughter's age) on the old Bundy, which has rather large holes and he hated it on those right hand notes. I let him play my Buffet Festival and he got clear down to the low F, straight away. I did not like that glint in his eye - which said 'I'll play mom, if you let me use this one.' I got him a used Vito and he's doing great on it. It plays stunningly well. I let him try out a bunch of used clarinets with me (each our own mouthpiece). I paid too much- but it was way less than the kinder clarinets price.
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