 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kilo
Date: 2010-04-04 14:34
Much of my working career has involved wrestling with heavy pieces of wood and absorbing all sorts of shock and vibration from machinery and as a result I often experience considerable discomfort in my right elbow after playing my clarinet for long periods. This pain was even worse when I played soprano sax and led me to sell my Mark VI.
Why not use a neck strap? Because they don't work for me — they make the condition worse by forcing me to push the instrument away from my body. I've fashioned some braces based on the PHRED system which work but are sort of clumsy to set up and take down. Resting the bell on my knee helps a bit but most of the time I just accept the inevitable pain.
Over the past few weeks I've been playing in a pit orchestra and the elbow was really beginning to act up. So here's what I did — I took an old black silk necktie and tied it in a loop with a sheet bend. Slipping it over my head and onto my left shoulder I then slid my right elbow into the other end of the loop, as one might do in a sling for a broken arm, but it only cradles the elbow. A few adjustments to the knot and the loop was the correct length to support my right elbow perfectly.
It doesn't hang around the neck like a sax strap, it doesn't hook on to the clarinet. It provides just the right amount of support and resistance to keep the clarinet at the right angle and when I put the instrument down there's no pain whatsoever. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have done something like this but a search only brings up sax-type neck straps to address thumb and wrist pain. The price was right and the fix effective so I thought I'd share it with the board.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2010-04-04 15:37
Thank you for the tip.
I share your sadness over the loss of that Beautiful Mk VI Sopo. A colleague has one, and like "my" old tenor and alto, all you have to do is pick it up, point it at the music; and it plays itself.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2010-04-04 19:49
There is a useful tennis elbow strap that, strangely, goes just below the elbow, although the pain is typically just above the elbow. At any rate, it's length of a non-elastic light canvas about 3" wide with a fold-back end held by Velcro. It takes some adjustment to get it tight enough to relieve the pain, but not tight enough to hurt. I've used one for actual tennis elbow, clarinet elbow pain and other repetitive stress pain.
Kilo's solution is ingenious. It's all about finding the angle and length that works.
Ken Shaw
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