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Re: Well-trusted Fingering Chart

Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2011-11-30 13:46

Ridenour goes to E7 but he notes that "the response and tuning of the notes of the extreme altissimo [B6 and above, in his book] are precarious and much more contingent on the variable of reed, mouthpiece and embouchure than lower pitches." FYI, he offers 14 options for C7. That he has fewer options for notes D#7 and E7 is probably more due to the fact that he hasn't gone looking for them than that his are "standards."

I think you are looking at the chart at woodwind.org the wrong way. It sounds like you are looking for "standard fingerings." But there really aren't any standard fingerings in the upper altissimo. It's a frontier. Good fingerings will vary from clarinet to clarinet and player to player. You just have to experiment and find something that works consistently for you in a particular context. (Ridenour includes 7 pages of blank charts for you to fill in with your own findings.) Eventually, if enough people find that certain fingerings are more stable than others across a variety of platforms, those fingerings may achieve acceptance as "the best." That may or may not happen though because, frankly, clarinet design doesn't focus on that range and design choices made to optimize performance in the lower registers probably have unintended consequences on the overtones that make up the upper altissimo on a given clarinet. In the meantime, having a lot of fingering options to choose from is a blessing, not a curse -- and most of the players whose experimentation has led to the suggestions are good players.

Best regards,
jnk

Post Edited (2011-11-30 13:52)

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