 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Stephen Williford
Date: 2017-06-28 02:15
So, I've been looking into EWIs lately due to interest in their use for funk and fusion, and I'm wondering if anyone knows of any model that uses a clarinet fingering system. I play sax and am quite familiar with its fingerings, but I'm much more proficient on my clarinet, and if I were to get one of these instruments, I would like to be able to play it at my optimum level.
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Author: smokindok
Date: 2017-06-28 05:22
I use a Yamaha WX5, which has 4 fingering settings, three of which are "sax" style and one is "flute" style. The Akai instruments are similar in having multiple fingering options, but all of them are based on acoustic wind instruments that overblow an octave.
The WX5 uses a system of 4 octave keys, two above the thumb rest and two below. Pressing them singly or together gives you a three octave up and a three octave down range from your middle octave. Creating an EWI that moves 12ths instead of octaves would either really limit the range, or get very complicated. I doubt that there would be much of a commercial market for a "clarinet fingered" EWI, so unless someone has done a one-off creation, I doubt it exists.
They are a lot of fun and the WX5, with a Yamaha VL70m and Patchman's Turbo VL upgrade chip, gives you loads of great sound options.
John
Edited to add:
And you will find that playing an EWI has a technique of its own. A familiar fingering system is convenient for getting started quickly, but there is a limit to how much acoustic wind instrument technique really transfers to the EWI.
Post Edited (2017-06-28 05:26)
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2023-06-24 07:16
I’ve played wx5s for 20 years I’m now transitioning to a Roland AE30. It’s very similar to the WX but it has built in sounds and is currently being manufactured.
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