 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: moute
Date: 2017-05-31 20:21
I have a really tense fingers (particullary my ring and my little finger) when I play and I was wondering if any of you know any exercices and strechings to relax them?
Thank you!
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-05-31 22:19
How old are you? More specifically, are you old enough to have any arthritic or nerve problems in your hands? As a recently turned 70-year-old, I'm sensitive from my own experience to this kind of problem with specific fingers, but if you are a teenager or younger adult, my experience will probably have nothing to do with your question.
Karl
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-05-31 22:28
Let's assume, maybe incorrectly, that Karl's caveat of medical or geriatric condition affecting play is not an issue for you.
If that is the case, the answer is to work religiously with a metronome, ridiculously slowed down to a trivially handled pace that causes you minimal stress.
Work at the pace, relaxed until flawless.
Once you've mastered that tempo....
Stay there for a while. (Don't rush)
Over time move the metronome up one click at a time never playing faster than you can handle error and stress free.
Prepare to move "2 steps forward and one step back" on the metronomes: you will have good and bad practice days.
Perfection and relaxation is a marathon not a sprint
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Author: Claudia Zornow
Date: 2017-06-01 01:58
I find it helps to use different visualizations of exactly how to relax. For example, I might think about relaxing my wrists, or relaxing the backs of my hands and fingers. Or I might imagine that my fingers are filled with mercury. (Substitute your favorite gooey substance here .)
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Author: moute
Date: 2017-06-01 02:27
I'm 17 so I don't have any problem in my articulations Thank you for all your answers!
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-06-01 02:55
moute wrote:
> I'm 17 so I don't have any problem in my articulations Thank
> you for all your answers!
Probably not a nerve or orthopedic problem, then.
Dave's advice is basically a good approach, except that I never recommend playing so slowly that the whole nature of your finger movement changes. You need to cut back to a tempo that allows you to play a passage without extra tension, which allows you actually to concentrate on your fingers and not on playing the right notes. Once you have a passage worked out at a tempo that doesn't induce the tension you're describing, then you can start to inch the metronome up a click or two at a time, concentrating always on not allowing your fingers to tense up. If they do, go back a couple of clicks and regain the relaxation you had.
The last two fingers are not very strong and are difficult to control independent of each other. Pianists do a lot of exercises for those two fingers to try to gain independence and there are clarinet exercises in most of the popular method books. You can easily enough make up some to practice on the clarinet, but play slowly enough to be conscious of how the fingers feel.
Karl
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2017-06-02 07:09
Quote:
If that is the case, the answer is to work religiously with a metronome, ridiculously slowed down to a trivially handled pace that causes you minimal stress.
Work at the pace, relaxed until flawless.
Once you've mastered that tempo....
Stay there for a while. (Don't rush)
Over time move the metronome up one click at a time never playing faster than you can handle error and stress free.
Prepare to move "2 steps forward and one step back" on the metronomes: you will have good and bad practice days. That's what worked for me. Working on just scales and patterns (can NEVER get enough of those, right?), at a slow enough tempo that I didn't have to worry about the notes and I could just concentrate on moving in a relaxed manner, lifting the fingers enough to let the note sound, not letting them "snap" on or off keys.
I've still got more to go, but this has helped a lot, and it helps me play better. I recently had a coworker mention that she when she first started playing with me, should would laugh because I looked so relaxed playing at times that it looked like I was falling asleep while playing.
To be fair, after the millionth time of playing WWQ liberty bell, or marching band His Honor, or any other "standard" for a military band, yeah, I probably COULD play it in my sleep.
But being relaxed means training at a relaxed pace, and increasing that pace over time.
Quote:
The last two fingers are not very strong and are difficult to control independent of each other. Pianists do a lot of exercises for those two fingers to try to gain independence and there are clarinet exercises in most of the popular method books. Do keep in mind however, the role of the fingers in clarinet vs piano. Pianists have to be able to spread the last two fingers AND move them up and down independently. On a clarinet, the fingers won't spread much at all, and the up and down movement doesn't need to be too high so I would think piano exercises for those fingers are overkill. I think focusing on minimizing how high the fingers move off the rings and keys will help keep those two fingers controlled. Yes, they're connected and want to move together, but you don't need a lot of independent vertical movement to play the clarinet, and even LESS lateral movement of those two fingers.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2017-06-04 17:40
Here's an exercise I've used myself and in my teaching. Start with your fingers on the F on the bottom of the staff. Very slowly lift your first finger up as high as possible and then come back down again very slowly to the E. I'm talking very slow and relaxed. Very high, up and down, and very slow. Then do the same from E to D, lifting the second finger only, then D To C lifting the 3rd finger only etc until you get to the lowest notes. Then start again but this time always stay on the F and do the same but to the D, then the C then the Bb etc. so you raise and lower more than one finger at a time till you go from F to the low F or E. You can repeat starting from the E instead of the F as your starting point. Or change daily. It takes concentration and a few minutes but I must emphasize it only does good if you lift your fingers very high and go up and down extremely slow and RELAXED.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-06-04 18:31
Ed Palanker wrote:
> I must emphasize it
> only does good if you lift your fingers very high and go up and
> down extremely slow and RELAXED.
>
Ed, your students must find this approach useful or you wouldn't keep using it. But I don't see at least on the surface how this kind of finger action relates to real-world playing, especially faster technical passage work in which the fingers can't lift very high or move very slowly. My experience in my own playing and with students is that the tension begins to develop and interfere at precisely the point where the notes are too fast or too awkward to play with high, slow movement.
Given that this "just works," how does a player using this approach transition to moving faster with less motion - what does the learning process look like in your students?
Karl
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-06-04 19:36
I asked a question that I've now figured out and erased on how Mr. Pay's link, in his above post, ended up in threaded mode.
it was the
"&v=t"
as in view equals "f" flat, or "t" threaded in the URL he linked.
Post Edited (2017-06-04 19:52)
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2017-06-05 17:00
Karl, I've used that technique to help students play a very smooth legato and to relax tense fingers, It's an exaggeration excersise for the purpose of leaning to control your fingers 100%. One can relate that to running five miles in order to easly run one. There may be better examples but I can't think of one now. You might notice some players lift their fingers very high when playing slow legato, i've noticed it with some. Although I've never encouraged lifting the fingers very high in real time playing, just being able to have 100% control on the lifting them up and placing them down as smoothly as possible without a snap when required. As Russioff used to tell me, sometimes you want a 'snap" and sometimes you don't. (something like that). As far as playing fast, NO, I don't encourage lifting the fingers high, actually the opposite. I've always encourage keeping the fingers close to the keys to avoid excessive movement. The fastest way between two points is with little effort and lifting as possible but I'm amazed when I see some players with fantastic technique playing fast and lifting their fingers high. I've always said " try to feel the keys" when playing fast. The whole point I was making is to learn to control the movement of your fingers, complete control. I hope this clarifies my meaning.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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