Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-02-19 06:20
Over the past year or two I've noticed that my fingers, especially on the lower joint of my A clarinet, are not stretching out easily to cover the tone holes reliably. My RH index finger tends to slip down, uncovering the top hole of the lower section, especially when I play D5, C5 or B4. Sometimes RH ring finger (G3/D5 tone hole) starts to slide up toward the index finger. It all makes RH B4 and C#5 a little unreliable.
I think the stiffness, or lack of stretch, is probably age-related. I don't think my fingers are arthritic, they just seem less flexible than they once were. I'm trying some stretches I've found online. Meanwhile, I've been experimenting a little with moving the thumb rest around. I've already turned the one on my Bb clarinet upside down and found that it helps, but the real problem is on my A clarinet, which has as a stretch of almost a half inch more from index to ring finger than my Bb has. I think I've found by experimenting a little more tonight that moving my thumb higher to align right behind or maybe even a hair above my index finger actually seems to help noticeably.
This is higher than the adjustable thumb rest on my A clarinet will allow, and flipping it isn't as convenient as it is on my Bb, which has a fixed thumb rest (with no adjusting screw in the middle). The center screw on the adjustable rest is where my thumb sits when I turn it upside down. So if this turns out to be a useful change, I'll probably need to have the thumb rest on my A clarinet moved higher on the instrument.
Just for historical background, I long ago took the thumb rest completely off my bass clarinet for the same reason - it freed my whole right hand up. But I use a floor peg to hold the bass still and don't really need my thumb to support it. Playing a soprano clarinet without a thumb rest isn't as convenient.
This sparks my curiosity about where other players prefer their RH thumbs to be.
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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