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RE: Thumbrest, right hand and pain

Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2001-09-06 02:06

Please understand that this is not advice nor a recommendation, but rather some suggestions that may be utterly useless for you... but they might help. Ken's comment that
>The whole idea is to decrease "physical movement"
bears careful consideration. I would add that ensuring the greatest comfort for the player is also very high on the list. The clarinet is manufactured so that the tone holes produce the proper notes, *not* so that it willl fit your hands. The right hand of the "perfect" clarinetist would be larger than the left, so as to fit the instrument better, if that were the primary goal. As no one I know would opt for hand surgery in order to accomplish this, seek to have the instrument fit your hand in the best way possible, rather than doing it the other way around..

I once had an instrument which simply did not work properly with my right hand. So I removed the thumb rest, found a hand position that fit me most comfortably and seemed to work, then reinstalled the thumb rest with new screw holes. Only moved it a couple of millimeters, but it made a great difference in my ease of playing that clarinet. Any clarinet is intended to fit *any* hands, which is obviously an unattainable goal. So if needed, customize the instrument so that it fits *your* hands better.

With the adjustable thumb rest, who knows -- it still may not be as "adjustable" as required for you. Perhaps you need to do something a bit heroic, such as moving the thumb rest, or bending into it a small change of angle, so that the instrument is a better match for your hand.

As for bending your thumb, do whatever is most comfortable for you that still allows your fingers the opportunity to move at their best and still cover the tone holes and strike the keys. If that means bending your thumb, by all means bend it. If you work best with your thumb straight, keep it straight.

My right little-finger has a bit of a "locking" problem also, which has become somewhat more pronounced with age. Fortunately, any such difficulty with my left little-finger is not nearly so noticeable, so it does not interfere too much with my playing. But I suppose no one is immune to using fingerings that are at least in part dictated by greater comfort and finger facility.

For the pain in the thumb, you might try a rubber thumb cover, available from most stationery stores. These are used to provide friction for thumbing through large stacks of paper. They are rather cumbersome, just under a millimeter thick and full of holes, but one might help by spreading the load a bit and cushioning the thumb. If it does not help, or if you feel it is too bothersome to use it, you have wasted only a few pesos.

Good luck!

Regards,
John

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