The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Newer Topic | Older Topic

hand workout

Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-03-27 04:30

My grandfather left a hard-cover copy of the Carl Fischer "de Luxe" edition of the Lazarus clarinet method. I've played from it off and on for 60-something years. It's in bad shape now, all raggedy with the cover boards taped on.

In Part Three there's a section titled "25 Grand Studies for Advanced Pupils," with Lazarus indicated as their composer. Number 24 is a 2-page piece in b-minor, moderato 3/4, all sextolets, mostly in the clarion. There's quite a bit of pinky work. My hands get tired toward the end, when pinkies reaching for middle B or lh C# tend to pull the index fingers and even middle fingers of both hands off their respective tone holes. Just a little, which is, haha, absolutely too much. The range and key and duration of the study all seem to have something to do with that.

I've never had a problem with fingers not covering tone-holes before, so maybe aging is a factor. I've also not worked on a study quite this intensive that way, either. The study (which isn't without musical interest) has lately been part of my regular practice, not every day, but every two or three days, in part just for the hand exercise. Improvement is there.

Reply To Message

Avail. Forums | Threaded View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

The Clarinet Pages

For Sale
Put your ads for items you'd like to sell here. Free! Please, no more than two at a time - ads removed after two weeks.