 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: buckeye75
Date: 2012-04-09 03:39
I have had a lot of playing experience over the years. Recently I've had increasing difficulty reaching the lower side keys with the little finger of my left hand, and the low E key with the little finger of my right hand. I have bent several keys to make them easier to reach, but still have some difficulty. This is very frustrating. When I use these keys in a run, I tend to not completely cover all of the holes. I'm not sure if I need to do more key bending, or if it is possible to increase flexibility with finger stretching sessions. Has anyone else had issues with this?
Thanks
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Author: bethmhil
Date: 2012-04-09 05:04
I have similar difficulties, which is why I did clarinet instead of piano! My best piece of advice is to take the clarinet to a highly regarded repair technician and talk to that person about your problem and see what can possibly be done. I don't recommend altering the keys yourself...
For saxophonists with large hands, simple palm key risers are not enough, and they have custom palm key risers made and installed for them. I don't know why something similar couldn't be done for clarinetists. I once took heavy plastic tubing (not sure what size it was or what it was used for? It fit perfectly over the left hand pinky keys) and was able to lengthen the keys that way. It looked terrible, so I took them off.
I'm not sure if this would be at all possible, but a repair technician might be able to heat the metal up enough to stretch the keys up further, or maybe even add more metal to the keys? It will probably look very unattractive, but it might be worthwhile.
Also, Leblanc clarinets for whatever reason have THE best keywork in my opinion, because those pinky keys are so easy to reach.
BMH
Illinois State University, BME and BM Performance
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2012-04-09 08:03
You MUST be really careful here. Bending keys can offset the pads, the height of the pads causing leaks and trouble playing in tune, bent rods, sticky keys and even the metal breaking at the soldering points.
I'd strongly suggest getting these repaired by a good tech.
Where do you live? Perhaps there are good repair people near you. If you are in Los Angeles give me a call. There are some great guys in town.
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Author: Campana
Date: 2012-04-09 09:14
You say this is a recent happening, so you could reach the keys at one time? If you have arthritis developing then bringing the keys to the fingers may be the only way to go. Other than that I would say that muscle stretching exercises are the more elegent solution. It's amazing how much muscles can be stretched i.e. dancers doing the splits. However even in the short term muscles can be stretched, if I try to touch my toes I can get about halfway down my shins. However if I sort of bounce up and down for a few minutes I can eventually get there.
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Author: buckeye75
Date: 2012-04-09 12:12
Thanks for your responses. I did not actually bend the keys myself. There is a talented woodwind repair person with 30 years of experience in Lansing Michigan. There are still a few key modifications available. I will discuss your suggestions with him. I am 61 years old. The difficulty reaching keys probably started a few years ago. I do not have arthritis, but have simply lost a little flexibility.
I will pursue the possibility of stretching exercises. I have a friend with a masters in physical therapy. He may be able to help.
Thanks again for the suggestions.
J.E.F
Post Edited (2012-04-09 12:19)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-04-09 12:25
What make of clarinet is it?
I had someone come to me recently with a Yamaha YCL-250 as she was having trouble covering the RH3 chimney when she used the RH pinky keys. I angled all the RH keys upwards and filed down the lower ring key pillar to get the touchpieces in further so she could reach them much easier as well as repositioning the thumbrest which also helped. There was plenty of room to bend the keys at a more upward angle (but still in the same plane as they were) but taking the width of the ring key pillar down and at an angle gave a couple more millimetres, as well as filing a recess in the RH E/B touchpiece to allow it to be brought in much tighter to the F#/C# touchpiece without catching on the crows foot.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-04-09 13:27
MY suggestion would be to CHANGE THE ANGE OF APPROACH. This is TOO simple for the Left Hand where you only need to have your fingers approach PERPENDICULAR to the clarinet......or even angling up !!!! This will necessitate the curling of the pinky but makes so much about the 'hole-covering-vs.-key-grabbing' easier.
The same can be done for the right hand, but this requires a 'thumb up' position. That is, if you follow the line from the base of your thumb to the nail of your thumb, the nail will be pointed more towards the ceiling. THIS may be tricky particularly on older limbs (I know !!!). But what happens is that you must move the thumbrest higher on the lower joint and your whole hand is actually LOWER to the rest of the lower joint.........you wind up curling your pinky as in the above example and doing a bit more 'reach' with your index finger.
A possible solution to the stress of the right hand change (if you try this.... an Elsa Ludwig-Verder technique mind you) would be to add a neck strap to ease the transition.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: William
Date: 2012-04-09 16:12
Two suggestions for your RH: 1) move the thumb rest up on the lower joint. This will free up your RH little finger dramatically--it helped mine; and 2) Tom Ridenour markets a "thumb saddle" which slips on over your thumb rest. It opens up your hand a bit and frees up the little finger.
For your left little finger, all I can think of is to bend the keys until they fit--kind of like the famous car muffler solution.....lol. I bend keys at will and have never broken one yet.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-04-09 17:30
If you can't get the keys into a comfortable position, you might try a jump-key Leblanc, which has the keys in a much better position for my big hands. I particularly like the short-lived Infinité model, which had a bore like the Buffet R13.
Susan Eberenz makes beautiful key extensions. She trained at Haynes and practically re-made Jeanne Baxtresser's flute to let her keep playing.
Ken Shaw
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Author: bbrandha
Date: 2012-04-10 00:51
I know this probably won't be what you want to do, but when I played the bass clarinet in college and couldn't reach the low Eb key, I grew out that pinky nail and kept extra thick polish on it. Truly, I did. It worked!
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Author: Wes
Date: 2012-04-10 05:51
To make keys easier to reach for some persons, I've glued thick cork on top of the key. Another technique is to make a nickel silver key extension and silver solder a piece of metal under it to be soft soldered under the key to be extended, allowing it to be removed easily. The solution must fit the problem.
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