Author: brycon
Date: 2021-03-18 01:35
Quote:
I like Paul's idea of "hovering" and have used that term myself when teaching. I also have advised keeping fingers as close to the holes as possible without affecting the note's pitch. Again, the less movement you need to get to the next note the better. That is also my theory as to why I think playing Eb clarinet it a tiny bit easier for speed, since fingers are all closer together.
It's important to keep in mind we tell some things to very young students because they tend to develop all sorts of crazy habits. I'm sure when I used to teach young students, I told them to keep their fingers near the keys to which they belong. (But I also had to remind a few that the left hand goes on top!)
With more advanced players, though, a blanket "the less movement you need, the better" approach is a bad teaching and playing strategy. Good technique is the result of, among other things, proper finger motion and rhythm.
As an example: If you play an F major scale beginning on throat-tone F and going upward, your right hand doesn't have to do anything until you reach C. If we're playing F major in continuous 16th-notes, then, the right hand is up on beat one and closes on beat two; it moves, in other words, in a quarter-note pulse. Teaching a student to feel the rhythm of a quarter-note in the right hand and moving the fingers from the large knuckles will give him or her good technique here. Stressing keeping the fingers as close to the keys as possible can screw up both these aspects and introduce unnecessary tension in the hands.
When I studied piano, my teachers were always commenting on finger rhythm and motion. We'd do scales very slowly and feel the upbeat pulse in the fingers as well as the motion from the large knuckles. But they never mentioned keeping my fingers as close to the keyboard as possible. With piano, rather, you need a range of finger motions and finger heights to express the music (legato, staccato, weighted accents, etc.). It would be rather silly to say, "just keep your fingers as close to the keyboard as possible." And I think the same is true of the clarinet as well.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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