Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-06-04 09:11
vboboe,
My Yamaha had the worst thumbplate fitted - it was an earlier version (821TP) and the thumbplate was small and uncomfortable - probably the
[ Portions deleted. Chris P. is an employee of Howarth's and did not disclose such until much later. My apologies for missing this and letting Chris P. misuse this BBoard. Mark Charette ]
I still have the old bits of keywork lying around, never to be put back nto service.
But since then Yamaha have wised up to how thumbplates should be - they now have a huge thumbplate and the 3rd 8ve touch in the correct place for dual systems!
But with conservatoire system, rolling onto the back 8ve isn't comfortable, which is why you see conservatoire players lifting their thumb. The extra thickness the thumbplate adds to the body joint is definitely more comfortable, and it's a rolling movement to open the back 8ve key - like on a sax.
I rented out my (Marigaux) cor anglais to the principal oboe in a local orchestra for a show her was doing, he's a pure conservatoire player (one of a few UK players I know of that are) so I removed the thumbplate and 3rd 8ve so he could take it with him straight afterwards. I played the concert on my cor in it's original conservatoire form and I noticed I was lifting my left thumb for the back 8ve key as well. But I didn't find it a problem.
Also, when I bought my Marigaux cor it didn't have a thumbplate fitted, so I got used to playing it with conservatoire fingerings for a while, but I definitely needed the adjustment on the top fingerplate as this had to be held down - I like to lift my LH finger 1 for C#, D Eb and high C# to F. So I had all the keywork done (thumbplate added, repositioned 3rd 8ve and adjusting screw for the top fingerplate) at the same time.
"... why do teachers insist on beginners technique that pros discard?!"
Yeah, it never ceases to amaze me watching pro players with bad posture, flying fingers, etc. when that's the sort of thing that any student would be crucified for doing, and the thing is, these pro players all get away with it! It's not a good example to set!
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