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Re: 30-Year Gap

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2018-12-29 03:09

A couple of thoughts:

> It has only been a week, but I was lucky enough
> to have a neighbor loan me their daughter's Selmer (cannot
> remember the model # off the top of my head right now).
< <snip> I also found that my
> hands were killing me after practicing for about 2 hours the
> other night.

A 2 hour practice session within your first week of playing? You're going to add a repetitive stress injury to whatever else you have going on. Even with healthy, younger hands and wrists, that would be a lot of playing time right away. Whatever else you do, back off the time and build your muscles and tendons up a little more slowly. Break your playing up into shorter sessions.

> My problem is, I broke the bone below my right little finger
> (the metacarpal) when I was 20. Well, it didn't heal straight,
> and my little finger turns in a bit (making a fist, the little
> finger goes under the ring finger a bit instead of directly
> next to it). I have found this to make hitting the lower keys
> a bit difficult. I know the left little finger keys do the
> same thing (minus one of the right ones).

Once you have your own clarinet, you could work with a skilled tech to modify the keys to accommodate your RH pinky better. The possibilities really depend on how difficult it is for you reach each of the individual keys. If you can get to one or even two of them, you might be able to have the other touch pieces moved or extended. If there's no arrangement of the RH pinky keys that you can get around comfortably, you can have an Ab/Eb key added on the left (some clarinets come with them). It will be awkward trying to get around to all four keys with only the left hand, but I imagine it's possible if you work at it.

Karl

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