 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Magsman
Date: 2009-01-24 20:04
I'm hoping, humbly, for some free technical advice.
I studied clarinet extensively as a kid and teenager, advanced to a pretty high level for my age, then discovered beer and women and set it aside for 35 years, and am now getting back into it. (I've discovered there's room for all three after all.) Yet as I relearn the instrument I'm experiencing what appears to be an elementary problem I don't recall having as a young student: When descending to the right side B in the clarion register from left side C or C# I get, about half the time, a high pitched honking sound where the B should be. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. It doesn't happen when ascending to B from the chalumeau register. It never happens with left side B. The clarinet (a relatively new Buffet Vintage B flat) has been checked out several times; there's nothing wrong with it. I've double checked to make sure my fingers are covering the holes - they're in exactly the same position as they are (a) with left side B, which is no problem, (a) when ascending to right side B from lower pitches, and (c) when playing low right side E in the chalumeau register, where this problem never arises.
Can anyone help me out? I assume that whatever I'm doing wrong it's an elementary mistake but for the life of me I can't figure it out.
Many thanks.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2009-01-24 20:11
Look at your fingerprints and make sure that the right hand ring finger is sealing. Also your left thumb (and other fingers, but those are the most common fingers to leak air - usually on the right side of the hole.
Have a Clarinetist finger the notes while you blow (turn the barrel around) just to verify that it's only your fingers.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2009-01-24 20:19
Likely a finger problem, as David suggests.
If it's not a finger problem... you say it's been checked multiple times. Were these all by the same technician? With all due respect to your tech, a second opinion can often make a huge difference.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: D
Date: 2009-01-24 20:44
Any chance of finding a clarinet playing friend, you try their instrument and they try yours. Might help pin point something that way - and it's free.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2009-01-24 20:53
?A too-low thumbrest and the "hand-twist" it causes? I have had the problem of uncovering the 3rd finger ringed-tonehole Right hand, with poor acess to the right LF F/C touch also and solved it by raising the TR about 1/4" often by just inverting the usual TR. I suggest your trying to play your "problem range notes" with your thumb ON Top of the TR, to explore this possibility . Luck, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Magsman
Date: 2009-01-25 02:43
Thanks for all the advice. I will try everything suggested, including trading clarinets with someone if I can find someone to trade with.
Yes, it was the same tech who has done all the adjustments - very good idea to try someone new if I can't pinpoint the problem in my fingers.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-01-25 02:55
I think you're probably moving your right hand to reach the middle B key. It's a little bit of a stretch downward and outward.
You may be rotating your right wrist to bring the little finger lower, or bending your hand outward horizontally at the wrist to bring the little finger further out. In either case, this can open the right index finger hole, probably at the top or around under the fingertip. Watch yourself in a mirror and learn to detect and prevent movement.
It may help to slide your right thumb slightly out, so that the thumb rest fits between the joint and the bottom of the thumb nail. This will give your little finger more room to maneuver. It's uncomfortable at first, but you can build up a callus there.
If you're moving the wrist a lot, you may also be touching and slightly opening the lowest side key.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2009-01-25 15:52
Good advice, Ken, it made me reread and wish to change the "poor access" reference to the Rt LF E/B, where the C/F touch may be "in the way". Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Magsman
Date: 2009-05-08 05:10
After many months of struggling with this I thought I'd pass on, for what it's worth, the solution to this problem last January.
It turns out that on certain descending passages (e.g. E-D#-C#-B in the middle register) my very wide right middle finger was brushing up against the F#/B key, opening it ever so slightly and causing the clarinet to refuse to sound the C# and B. I learned this by taking a lesson (finally) with a superb and well known SF Bay Area player, who spotted the problem and sent me to a great technician, Daniel Deitch in SF, who is most definitely The Man. Daniel fixed the problem quickly by grinding the sides of the F#/B key to make it narrower, and by stiffening the spring that activates that key so it wouldn't be so sensitive to inadvertent contact. Voila! It works, total perfection. So glad it was the instrument and not the fool at the end of the mouthpiece, who creates enough problems without having something like this holding him back.
Thanks again to all who suggested solutions to this.
The lesson: Lessons. I'm restarting with this instrument after a 35 year layoff and it's never been more fun or satisfying.
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Author: William
Date: 2009-05-08 14:27
As Ken suggested, you may be moving your hand to facilitate the lh little finger "stetch" to the B4. In addition to disrupting finger coverage of the tone holes, it may also be causing you to take in too much mouthpiece (it doesn't take much) for that particular note which might result in the honk. Make certain your embouchure is always steady (along with your wrists & hands) and hopefully the sound will disappear.
Interestingly, at a local clarinet conference a couple of weeks ago, Eric Mandat suggested--during a clinic session on muli-phonics (he is a master performer & composer) that by learning how to make these sounds happen, you also learn how to *not* make them occur inadvertainly. By learning muli-phonics, you gain more control over tonal production on the clarinet and are more able to avoid the sqweeks, sqwauks and honks when you don't want them. So, perhaps practicing the "honk" on your B4 might help you learn to not do it. Give it a try........
Eric Mandat is Professor of Music (clarinet) at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. <cmandat@siu.edu>
Post Edited (2009-05-08 14:40)
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