Author: JonTheReeds
Date: 2015-05-20 15:32
I have struggled with finger speed and smoothness for a long time
Originally this was definitely down to tension but this is no longer a major issue. I thought it might be a question of ‘muscle memory’ – although my brain ‘knows’ where the fingers should go, the fingers themselves have other ideas. As I got to know my way around the keys this was also less of an issue (but still needing much work). I practised scales, exercises, etudes, isolated difficult transitions, tried playing slow, tried forcing the fingers by playing quickly (people said that the fingers would have to move smoothly at speed – all that happened was that I couldn’t play accurately). And still my fingers were slow and ragged
The way I was originally taught, and the way so many books and internet advice teach (and other clarinettists), is to flex the fingers from the knuckle and keep them curved, so the fingers go up and down. For instance:
“Finger action actually originates from your arms! Use your big knuckle joints to wiggle your fingers and watch the muscles on the top of your forearm near your elbow. There should be some movement that you can see. In technique, most of the finger movement occurs from your big knuckles. It also shouldn't change the curve of the other joints in the fingers. Fingers should move straight down onto the keys and tone holes swiftly, but not forcefully.”
This works well but, especially when moving the index fingers, this is slow and tends to move the whole hand – “jazz hands”, “hot keys” and “fingers on holiday”, all ways people have described my hands! Also it is underlined that the student must close the holes with the pad of the finger
I have been experimenting over the last few months with finger movement, in particular how I open and close keys/holes and how I position the hands. I have changed my approach from the technique I was taught in the beginning to a new way, and things have improved and my fingers have started looking like fingers of players I admire or who play professionally. The only way I can describe it is that the fingers sort of ‘press’ into keys, rather than articulate up and down
The way I have been experimenting is to anchor the left and right index fingers to the clarinet so that they actually flex at the first joint from the knuckle, and not at the big knuckle itself
Not only does this make the index fingers much quicker in movement but it also means that the other fingers move much less and are more economic. Finger movement is minimised – really only one finger moves at a time, rather than sympathetic movement from all – and this seems to make it much easier to play arpeggios – almost as if the fingers know where to go, whereas when flexing from the knuckle and lifting fingers cleanly up and down, the arpeggios ‘make less sense’, perhaps because fingers - other than the actual finger that closes the hole - are moving sympathetically (although they have no sympathy from me!). This technique of anchoring the index fingers also means that my right index finger closes the hole not with the pad, but with the part of the finger close to the joint line
When I point out to good players that they don’t move their fingers in the way they prescribe, they normally say “well, the proper way is to flex from the knuckle” and then demonstrate it by playing very slowly. Is it a case that they actually aren’t aware how they move their fingers – they have one technique in their head that they were taught as beginners, but when it comes to playing normally they use a different (better, more efficient?) one that they have discovered along the way?
So questions:
1. Am I on the right track?
2. Is this how you play?
3. Why does so much information, in books and on the internet, advise flexing from the knuckle? Is the information wrong, or is this they way beginners should play then, when they have the basics sorted, move on to a more advance technique?
4. I was told a couple of years ago by a profressional that I needed to learn ‘legato’ fingering, although they didn’t really explain very well what they meant. Could this be it?
5. Obviously different techniques suit different players. Artie Shaw definitely didn’t have minimal movement, but then we’re not all Artie Shaw and there may be a dominant technique that suits most players?
I should point out that I started with one teacher and moved on to another – perhaps this change in technique was missed out?
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The older I get, the better I was
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The Clarinet BBoard
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