 The Clarinet BBoard
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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.
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Author: Reformed
Date: 2026-03-30 13:40
While I've never tried the Lazarus method, I am increasingly getting probelems with my RH first finger covering the hole properly and with RH little finger lowering the E/B touchpiece when I am playing an F/C.
I've found the Kooiman Etude thumbrest to greatly help as I can raise/lower the thumbrest readily to find a working position.
Aging is definitely a factor but I can't remember if is a physical or mental problem....
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Author: ruben
Date: 2026-03-30 14:44
Hi Philip: Years ago, I had a book published: Melodic Finger Twisters for Clarinet. It has recently been republished by Cifton Editions in England. What I did was insert all sorts of really tricky finger twisters in fun tunes: tangos, blues, Hungarian music, etc. And then I follow each passage with a brief comment about the difficulties involved; some physical, some psychological. I would be glad to email it to you..free of charge, of course. You have my email address. This type of work is sheer drudgery, so I tried to make it somewhat fun.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
Post Edited (2026-03-30 18:06)
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Author: MarkS
Date: 2026-04-14 22:33
Philip,
Reading your post made me finally admit that I needed a plateau clarinet. About three years ago, I noticed that my clarinet seemed to become suddenly resistant when I was playing certain notes (e.g., C5#) above a certain speed. At first I blamed my clarinet, then tried to overcome it by practicing more. Neither worked--and it took away all the fun of playing. After reading your post, I realized that I was fighting a losing battle, and ordered a Uebel plateau. After playing it for 5 minutes, I could tell that it completely solved the problem. I am breaking it in slowly, but the change to plateau is much easier than I expected. Apart from the plateau aspect, I am finding the Uebel to be a very nice instrument to play. Had never tried one before.
I wish I had done this a couple of years ago.
Mark
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