Author: kdk
Date: 2023-12-10 02:03
Maylana wrote:
> The middle C and B on the staff (On the break)always have this
> weird trilly squeak, especially when I play them solo. [snip] I think I might
> be blowing too much but when I
> try and do it less it doesn't come out. I get sort of tense
> when I play them and I'm not sure how to stop doing that. I'm
> not sure if I am doing it wrong. It's also not my clarinet's
> fault.
>
> Also, when I play that one high note where it is just the
> octave key and my thumb and then take both off instead of going
> down to an F it goes up. Not to a squeak just a higher note.
> Does anyone know why?
>
> and I have a problem with my
> finger liking to stray pretty far away from my keys, but I'm
> not sure how to fix it.
That's a lot. You realize, I hope, that your questions are like my phoning a car mechanic who has never met me nor seen my car and asking why it makes a ticking noise when I go from 20 to 30 MPH and why it takes a long time to start and what makes it so bumpy to drive in? It would be much easier for the mechanic to have my car in his shop to diagnose any of that. You really should try to have someone who plays clarinet listen and see if he or she can help with this.
Let's take the easiest one first. High C (C6 - thumb and register key). When you open the thumb hole and close the register the note you should get is a throat G(4), not an F (unless you're talking about concert pitch). What you're getting is the twelfth above G (concert F), D (concert C). Inertia makes the air column tend to stay at the same harmonic given its 'druthers.
The "trilly squeak" sounds like something that might happen if you take a little too much reed into your mouth. Try backing the mouthpiece out of your mouth a little at a time and see if the squeak goes away.
I'll take your word that it isn't your clarinet making the problems, but I'm not sure how you know.
Fingers "straying from the keys" has to fixed by consciously practicing to keep your fingers rounded (flexed) and lifting them as much as you can straight up and down without letting the middle joint straighten. You need to practice the motion slowly at first and gradually speed up without allowing your fingers to straighten.
High notes easier than low notes may be too strong a reed, or it could also be that you're taking in too much reed.
Karl
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