 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2012-11-10 02:04
As a long time clarinetist, I am very familiar with keeping the right hand fingers down on open G, etc. As a teacher I know the frustrations of constantly telling students to keep the right hand down... But I have a new student, a beginner, whose band director has just skipped the whole notion of an open G and has all the students keeping the RH down for EVERY G. Now I find myself when working through the Rubank Elementary Method telling the student NOT to use the RH, especially when going back and forth between F and G for instance.
Then, I began to think of the importance of learning the clarinet with a true open G, supporting the clarinet with only the thumb and embouchure. It seems like a terrible idea to introduce the RH down to early, because it can cause a lifetime of bad hand positions.
Have any of you encountered this? What are your thoughts?
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Author: pewd
Date: 2012-11-10 04:18
I agree.
I encounter it all the time - I prefer it open for beginners, otherwise a lot of them keep it down on a F, as you said. And a lot will have the right hand resting on the lower joint keys while playing, with all sorts of resultant weird hand position issues.
But I see the students for 1/2 a class period per week, the band directors see them for 9 times as long, so the band directors win. Once they get past the beginning clarinet class, I attempt to fix all the fingering problems.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-11-10 12:37
I'd favour the RH down for "going up" because that makes the infamous "break" far less an issue than when the student has to hit (or miss) all the keys simultaneously. At least one hand should hold the clarinet at all times. (This is especially important for vertical instruments such as alto and bass). So, open G better had RH down, but I see the potential pitfall with F and the like.
(Besides, the RH down adds a good bit of resonance to those rather thin "short" throat tones.)
--
Ben
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2012-11-10 18:42
tictactux,
I know the good reasons for it; I use the RH just as you describe. My point was that starting a brand new clarinetist with this is probably not a good idea.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-11-10 19:04
On many clarinets putting RH down on G really does affect the tuning and/or timbre adversely. Fine for fast passage work but not for held notes and especially not for beginers.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-11-11 00:29
Keeping the RH fingers down should be introduced sometime after they've learnt to cross the break, definitely not at beginner level as it will only make things more complicated than they need to be so early on.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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