 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2020-03-04 22:38
Nowadays I feel more comfortable resting my clarinet on my knee when playing sitting down; but if I'm wearing dress trousers the bell ring has very little stability unless carefully controlled. You need a bit more friction than that between the metal and the shiny cloth.
A good solution is to buy, or cadge, a mountain bike inner tube from your cycle shop (they sometimes have a couple of surplus ones.) Then, cutting off a small cylinder, you find that (with some effort:-) you can stretch that over the end of the bell – problem solved.
If you think that you SHOULDN'T rest the bell on your knee, or if you have some aesthetic judgement about modifying your beautiful clarinet, then of course, don't do this.
Tony
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-03-04 22:54
Interesting. I have to admit that I've just discovered that I often rest the horn on my right knee during basic "tooling around sessions" of practice. Before this self discovery I would have vehemently denied needing extra support!
Getting old is not for sissies!
...............Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2020-03-05 04:19)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2020-03-04 23:32
>> Or you could use neck strap.>>
Thanks very much. Do you have any further suggestions that I might not have considered over my career?
Tony
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-03-04 23:34
Tony: What about wedged in between the knees? That's what I do, and it seems to create some optical illusion, as nobody notice it. The down side: it slightly lowers your low E, which hardly needs lowering. If I have to hold this note, I lift up the clarinet.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2020-03-04 23:36
>> Getting old is not for sissies! >>
A characteristic post, bringing the subject back to himself.
Tony
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2020-03-04 23:38
>> Tony: What about wedged in between the knees? >>
Well, it can help that too.
Tony
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2020-03-04 23:41
Tony, I assume you've tried holding the bell between your knees. Have you found a down side to that that led you to look further?
Karl
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2020-03-05 00:28
You know, I didn't make the post in order to get advice or information from nonentities like Paul Aviles.
I made it in order to make a contribution to the BBoard members.
That contribution wasn't very specific: the idea just helps stability of contact (between bell and leg) of any sort.
When I play the Mozart concerto or other basset clarinet pieces, though, it has helped me considerably, because I have always rested the instrument between legs crossed at the ankle, so it's an 'old' solution for me, since 1984.
I thought it would be worth sharing here.
Perhaps I was wrong.
Tony
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Author: Ed
Date: 2020-03-05 02:05
Cool idea. Often shops have discard tubes around from repairing punctures. Great way to repurpose those.
Post Edited (2020-03-05 02:06)
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Author: jim sclater
Date: 2020-03-05 02:11
"You know, I didn't make the post in order to get advice or information from nonentities like Paul Aviles."
For the life of me, I can't see why people have to post things like that on this site, or anywhere, for that matter.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2020-03-05 09:40
>> If you think that you SHOULDN'T rest the bell on your knee, or if you have some aesthetic judgement about modifying your beautiful clarinet, then of course, don't do this. <<
Reminds that old joke about the person who is having pain in many places...
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2020-03-05 11:05
Dear Tony,
Thanks for sharing that idea for people who like to rest the bell of their instrument on their knee.
At this point in time, I believe that it is better not to rest the clarinet on the knee, for reasons which I will go into below. Of course, I'm willing to be proved wrong, so please tell me if you disagree with anything I write.
My height is 1.73m. Nowadays that is probably slightly below average for a man. If I sit upright on a chair, the distance from my mouth to my hips is 66cm. With a modern B-flat clarinet the distance from the exit point of mouthpiece to the tip of the bell is 64cm. (I just measured these now out of interest). So if I am sitting upright and my head is looking forward, my clarinet bell can not make contact with my leg, even if I hold the clarinet in the most vertical position possible. The only ways I can think of the get the bell to rest on my knee would be to:
1. Lean forward
2. Tilt my head downwards
3. Curve my upper torso forwards
1. feels quite uncomfortable and directs my vision downwards somewhat. Given that I often need to look up at conductors, this leaning forward would probably eventually cause me to tilt my head backwards and shorten the neck. This would have a negative effect on my sound. 3. would also have a negative impact on my sound. I think 2. would also, but I need to test that to be sure.
I may use a combination of 2. and 3. if I need to produce a particularly low pitched long B natural, using my knee to somewhat cover the bell. But other than that, I can't see that resting the clarinet on my knee is a particularly good strategy for playing?
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2020-03-05 11:16
I like suggestion and will give it a go. I like to rest the bell on my knee too, and I think that I'd have more freedom in my fingers if the instrument was really stable. I do use a neck strap, but one disadvantage of that is that there is a limit to the range of angles that I can hold it at, which has a knock-on effect on embouchure. I think this is a great suggestion and I'm glad it was made.
The sarcastic posts are a bit weird, and I'd be glad to hear the moderators weigh in on that. From experience on other forums, I know that a little light sarcasm can turn into nastiness all too easily.
Jen
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