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Pinky Tuscadero

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-03-04 07:41

Remember her? Fonzie's "main squeeze" from the 1970's TV show Happy Days?

No? No problem. It's just the best cutesy title I could find for a pinky dilemma I'm having.

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Notes like full fingered D# and C#, particularly C# played with the left pinky can be issues for me to voice.

"Take in more mouthpiece, relax the throat, make the embouchure squeeze from all sides, curved your fingers so that they don't cause the clarinet to rotate from left to right and mess up the embouchure."

These thoughts are part of my inner monologue as I approach etudes like the ones in Kroepsch II I was playing today in keys with lots of accidentals.

Here's the thing. If I finger a full fingered C# with the left pinky while fingering the full fingered D# with my right pinky I'ii voice, no surprise, the D#.

Then, if I take my right pinky off, reliably, there's my C#.

But if I leave me left pinky off and finger the D#, then swapping pinkies to make the C#, depending on my reed (softer ones are more likely to be problematic here), there is a better chance that I'll squeak.

Slowing down the action: if my left pinky tends to come down microseconds before the right is fully released I'm good too.

On a good reed: not a problem. Faster tempo: more likely a problem. Lowest register: never a problem.

I do not think its my gear. Both joints get "good seal." I think it's me.

What I'd like to know is what's happening here, and why do these problems seem more indicative of full fingered notes?

Thanks for your time and expertise. I do NOT think this a problem of the clarinet rocking. Once and for all I'd like to put this problem to bed.

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