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RE: Stubborn?And Fast Chromatic Scale

Author: paul
Date: 1999-09-17 21:19

Jeff:

As I said above, I have the LH Ab/Eb key. I practice chromatic scales as a fundamental part of my warm-up drill every night. I do chromatic runs with it and without it up and down several times during the warm-up. I am learning the basic scale drills with an 18 key/6 ring (18th key is the LH Ab/Eb key) horn because it's the only horn I have. I personally see no significant difference between the 18th key and any other. I use it when I can and I avoid it when I need to. As an adult novice with limited practice time, it's taken me years to get where I am right now, but at least I know this key's strengths and weaknesses on an otherwise Standard (i.e. 17 key/6 ring) Boehm system clarinet.

There has been and probably will always be a raging debate on the utility of this key. So, let me put this debate into historical context. I have a popular clarinet drill book that was originally published in 1918. The writer specifically referenced the 18th key and said that he didn't see any particular benefit to it. Yet, the 18th key survived through the years and it's now standard equipment on some of the popular brands and models of recent and current vintage premium pro-grade horns. That means there is an obvious market demand for it. Go figure.

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Stubborn? new

1999-09-14 22:43