 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-01-22 20:48
What’s the rhyme or reason, if any, to some of the upper altissimo fingerings?
Background
Even to many novices, the idea that lifting each finger, closer and closer to the mouthpiece, raises pitch seems, in not obvious, then to at least make some sense in comparison to what we know about the world around us.
As a youngster, even unappreciative of how the clarinet air column flows primarily out of the next open tone hole, [rather than every note finding its way to the bell as its primary outlet,] it seemed to make sense to me that I was shortening the path the sound needed to travel. Perhaps my basic understand of guitar prior, and how shortening the length of the string with fret adjustment resulted in higher pitch, provided a good segue to the most basic understand of clarinet acoustics—or maybe it was just a slide whistle
birthday party favor that helped the concept click.
With advancement, I came to understand how the register key essential blocks the fundamental note from being played/heard, and allows the 3rd harmonic, an octave above to be heard instead, as compared to the same fingering without the register key. An octave (8) plus a 3rd made it clear to me why adding the register key raises a note by a [as I understood after taking music theory, a perfect] 12th even if I couldn’t explain why as well as a clarinet acoustician.
Still more, when it comes to the altissimo, I get how use of the register key combined with the opening of L1, got a note to play the 5th harmonic [as I understood after taking music theory, a major 6th], an octave above what the 3rd harmonic of the register key had already produced.
Okay, so that’s a [as I understood after taking music theory, a perfect] 12th, plus [as I understood after taking music theory, a major 6th] a 5th, which translates to a [as I understood after taking music theory, a major] 17th.
Welcome to music, where a [perfect] 12th, plus a [major] 6th equals [a major] 17th.
12 + 6 = 17?? (This was touched upon in a recent post)
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So pretty much up to the upper altissimo F#, clarinet fingerings sort of make sense to me. You’ve got, on the one hand (no pun intended) a situation where you lift fingers closer and closer to the mouthpiece, shortening the pipe and increasing pitch, combined with placement of the left thumb on its tone hole, followed by its removal (throat tones), and then its placement on the register key, followed by the simultaneous lifting of L1, to play higher and higher pitched notes.
But when it comes to the multiple fingerings for notes from say G6 to C7 and beyond, it seems as if, “all bets are off” regarding fingering making [at least simple] logical sense. Is this because we’re “controlled squeaking” the clarinet in this range, trying to elicit certain harmonics? And how did people come up with these fingerings? Was it pure trial and error, or was their some method to at least what set of fingerings might best be tried to get such a high note to voice?
Post Edited (2015-01-22 21:34)
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2015-01-22 21:14
I am just grateful that over most of the clarinet's range, adjacent notes mostly finger in a similar fashion. But man- up high?- you're lucky to get 2 adjacent notes with similar fingerings that work. After several years at this, I've got everything up to double high C on automatic, at least my most commonly used fingerings, so I no longer have to think about them. In certain situations I've discovered that alternates make certain high notes more reliable and make it worthwhile to switch, though those fingerings aren't good enough to become my standards. I had to learn not to be too stubborn in either direction.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2015-01-22 21:46
Indeed, in altissimo sometimes the normal idea of opening a hole to get the higher note actually works backward. The easiest or even possible overtones available for two adjacent altissimo notes are not always based on adjacent fundamental notes. Perhaps some of the fingerings were found by more or less random experimentation, but maybe some were also derived from systematic exploration of overblowing different fundamentals.
The good news is that straightforward perseverence can overcome the most complicated fingering demands.
An annoyance I have is the need for different fingerings on some altissimo notes between my Bb and my A clarinets (both R13s). Intonation, reliability, or basic sound can vary too much between them, notably Bb6, C#7, and D7. Of course, there's similar variations on notes in other registers too, but on those I can at least use the same fingerings between intruments.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-01-22 21:51
thanks Phillip. It's not like I'm doing much chromatic work up there, and I know some of the fingerings lend themselves better to it than others, but voicing some of these "bad boys," let alone with respect to intonation, often has to take priority to ease of fingering adjacent notes.
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Author: TomS
Date: 2015-01-23 21:21
Doc Severinsen was here in Little Rock, about 40+ years ago for a large master class.
One of the student's in the crowd asked "what are the fingerings above high C?"
Doc replied: "to be honest, I don't know ... anything might work"
I think he was slightly kidding, but I guess that brass players might have as many options in the stratosphere as clarinet players.
Tom
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