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HELP - Clarinet fingering

Author: AS
Date: 2008-02-17 18:44

I recently returned to clarinet after quite a break for a couple of decades. I was surprised how little time did it take to catch up. After a couple of hours of playing it seemed like there has been no brake at all. Well, almost... except the reed strength.

I have problem though with transition from the the middle C to C#, from C# to D#, from B to C# and vice versa. The problem is due to the fact that when learning and playing before I had a clarinet with different keys with rollers. It was easy to roll the pinky over, say, from C to C#, etc. Now I switched to a Leblanc Bb clarinet that has four different keyys for the right pinky which is feeling very uncomfortable about this.

I figured out that it is possible to switch from C to C# without lifting the tip of the pinky from C (because lifting causes interruption) but rather by pushing the C# with the upper joint of the same pinky. Stilll not awfully comfortable (obviously training is needed), but it works.

However I realize that it might be wrong and I do not want to develop wrong technique that will be difficult to gett rid of. So, could anybody share their secret techniques of the pinkies?