 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: AW Hall
Date: 2012-09-10 14:55
Hi, I've been playing saxophone for 2 years but decided to switch to clarinet as I prefer the tone. I've just started out on a Yamaha YCL-450 but am finding the fingerings a good deal more challenging. I know practice is usually the best solution, but am having misgivings about whether I should have bought the YCL-450E with its additional left-hand Eb lever (at a price increase of only 10%) instead.
It's too late to take it back to the store now - I tried - so I'm wondering whether..
a) All beginners these days are advised to start with a LH Eb lever, as the thread here seems to suggest: http://test.woodwind.org/oboe/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=210742&t=210742
and b) Whether it would be easy to get used to the LH Eb lever if I get to a level which would justify getting a more 'professional' instrument that happens to be equipped with it.
Thanks alot for any help!
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2012-09-10 15:11
Most players manage to get by perfectly well without this key, but if you feel that you need it then go for it.
Tony F.
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2012-09-10 15:17
The overwhelming majority of beginners and intermediates do not have LH Eb levers.
Although some pros do -- I believe most would report that it's nice to have but not a "required" addition.
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-09-10 15:23
Don't worry about it. 100% of beginners start on clarinets without the extra lever. Until it became standard on professional clarinet models, 99%+ of professional players did not have it. Today, a substantial number of pros remove the lever on a new clarinet, saying that it interferes with the placement of the left little finger.
Advancing clarinetists work hard to learn to avoid the "you can't get there from here" traps caused by the lack of the lever, and it soon becomes automatic. They also learn to slide from one key to another where necessary. It's no more difficult than learning to go from low Eb to low C on the sax or managing the palm keys.
Lack of the lever affects only a few note sequences. There are hundreds of intervals and sequences you must learn how to play automatically and without thought. You do that by practicing scales and arpeggios from the Baermann Method Part III. Keep it on your music stand and devote the first 10 minutes of each practice session to learning a single exercise, playing very slowly to "engrave" the finger movements into your muscle memory.
Ken Shaw
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Author: William
Date: 2012-09-10 15:50
I think every student clarinetist should be required to perfect the section from the Advanced Method, Voxman/Gower that deals with tricky finger patterns. Just about everything you need to know about little fingers, sliding and side keys is covered there.
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Author: AW Hall
Date: 2012-09-10 16:57
Thanks so much for the advice and recommendations everyone..! I'm feeling much better about not having the lever now. Yup, I'll go to work on the sequences and transitions like I did with the palm / spatula keys on the sax. Hopefully it'll come naturally to me given time and some method books (:
Post Edited (2012-09-10 17:00)
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2012-09-10 18:10
I for one - being over the age of 50 - wish that the LH Eb key had been part of the clarinet I used when I began playing clarinet.
Yes, it is true. One can play well without it. I actually removed my LH Eb key from my Prestige R13 since I never used it. Like an appendix.
However, any young student that learns how to use it correctly will be ahead of the curve since there will never be any reason to slide if one uses it correctly.
In addition, bass clarinetists must master the use of the LH Eb key to be effective in their craft, so it is important for some segment of the clarinet population.
The younger a player learns how to use the LH Eb effectively the better. Because if one becomes accustomed to sliding, then it is near impossible to get comfortable using the LH Eb option as an older player.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-09-10 18:21
I'm also over 50, but have managed without this additional lever while playing mostly bass clarinet for the past 40 years or so. I guess that means that I sort of disagree with Dileep on this issue ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
I don't feel that sliding is inherently bad, we do it on saxes all the time, and on German-system clarinets and oboes as well. Why is there some sort of stigma attached to the sliding technique?
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2012-09-10 19:26
Try as I may, I can not find a photo of this extra key, and I can not even conceive of what it is used for. There is already one way I know of for playing the Eb below the throat tones without using the right hand, and three more if one uses the right hand. Can it be that this key offers a third fingering for the same note with the left hand alone? If I were the questioner, I would be much more concerned with intonation, tone, warmth, going over the break with ease, timing, posture, relaxation, breathing. Worrying about some arcane extra key that pro's seem to regularly remove anyway seems like buying a race car and worrying about not getting extra floor mats.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
Post Edited (2012-09-10 19:31)
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Author: Lorenzo_M
Date: 2012-09-10 19:47
It's nice to have. I have it on my A clarinet, but not my Bb. Suffice to say, I use my Bb like 10X more than my A clarinet, and can play without it. It's useful in a handful of situations.
If you're a beginner and have that key, learn to use it. Just be aware that this lever typically is only available on more expensive clarinets, so I'd be surprised a beginner or even intermediate player has an instrument that has it.
There's a few tricks people learn to get around it. There's sliding ... easier than on saxophone, IMO because the clarinet mechanism will usually require less finger strength. There's the "fast pinkies" trick, where you quickly switch left/right pinkies to access the correct hand in a passage. Difficult to make this sound great legato. Then, when going from Eb to Db (or vice-versa) you can use the middle of your right pinky to press Db and the tip of your pinky to press Eb. Also difficult to sound good legato (and not sure if anyone else does it but me....) but can be handy. I rarely use this in classical, but when I play jazz, and am in the moment, this fingering often gets used.
Note, the above are difficult to get a smooth flowing legato...but not impossible.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-09-10 19:55
Garth, there is a mechanism that was an optional extra fitted to clarinets (but not offered by the big names anymore) called the forked Eb/Bb mechanism which was a 7th ring for LH finger 3 so Eb/Bb can be played as xox|ooo - here's a photo of the forked Eb/Bb mechanism I fitted to my plastic Yamaha: http://www.clarinetperfection.com/galleryclar/Keywork/CP2/10.jpg
But that's an entirely different mechanism than the one mentioned which is the LH Ab/Eb lever for the LH pinkie with a touchpiece that sits above the existing LH levers so low register G#/Ab and upper D#/Eb can be played with the left hand instead of the right. In other words, all the RH pinky keys are duplicated for the left hand.
The 2nd movement of the Saint-Saens sonata has a couple of instances where upper register Eb-Db-Ab occurs - on a standard clarinet you'd have to slide from Eb to Db, but with the LH Ab/Eb lever you'd take the Eb with the left, the Db with the right and the Ab with the left. This was in the ARBSM Grade 6 syllabus - when I took my Grade 6 I had my old Selmer rebuilt which had the LH Ab/Eb lever as well as the forked Eb/Bb mechanism and articulated C#/G# and found use for all those extra gadgets at the time which I still use now.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2012-09-11 15:12)
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Author: allencole
Date: 2012-09-11 04:42
I really wish all clarinets had that extra lever, and sometimes regret not getting it on my last set. I'm even a little jealous of some of my students who have them.
But if you do have the xtra lever consider this: What about playing on a borrowed instrument? To my thinking, we need to be able to cope with the clarinet as it's most commonly found--because one day you're going to be stuck with one at a critical time.
I generally encourage students to use the lever as they wish in etudes, but to make sure that they can do without it when executing basic technical exercises.
BTW, a great way to deal with those can't-get-there-from-here passages is to play the triplet section of "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" in every key. The busier the key signature the better.
Allen Cole
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The Clarinet Pages
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![[Eb5]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/eb5.gif)
