 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2017-01-28 04:55
Dear all,
Does anyone have experience teaching very young kids who are restricted to playing exclusively in the chalumeau register, because their left thumbs are too thin to cover both the thumb hole and the register key? What study material would you use with them?
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Author: Justin Willsey ★2017
Date: 2017-01-28 07:49
Randall Cunningham's 21 Chalumeau Studies are nice.
Post Edited (2017-01-28 07:50)
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Author: greenslater
Date: 2017-01-28 08:42
'Below the Break' by Alan Frazer has a basic collection of simple tunes. If you ordered the AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) books Preliminary Grade from series 3 and Grade 1 from series 2 also all stay below the break.
Also maybe of interest, in the Galper Clarinet Method books there are several warm up études that stay in this range but they are not for beginners.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-01-28 17:38
I haven't seen them for decades (and not sure if it's still in use or in print), but I think the Demnitz book has a lot of lower register studies.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-01-28 20:09
You don't say how young you mean. But in general this is why I am always very nervous to hear of teachers who take on clarinet students who really can't cover the holes or reach the keys on a standard clarinet. In my experience, the longer a student is allowed to stay exclusively in the chalumeau, the harder it is to get them to make the "leap" over the break. There's too much that becomes firmly habituated about the chalumeau - note-to-fingering associations, possibly slack embouchure approach, position of the tongue and other parts that we can voluntarily control inside the mouth.
There are changes that have to be made to play the clarion notes. The most obvious one is that all the fingerings have different names, but also faults in tone production that can be gotten away with below the break become more obvious and need to be corrected for higher notes, especially as you approach A5-C6.
Teaching a student who is borderline and finding things to do for the weeks or months (the fewer the better) it takes for their hands to grow into the clarinet is defensible. If your student falls into this category, more chalumeau material may be useful. I'm interested to see the suggestions you've gotten.
IMO if "very young" means 6 or 7 year-olds (or younger) who will not foreseeably be able to cover or reach things for years, I'd start them on something else and wait for them to grow instead of trying to temporize with chalumeau material.
Karl
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-01-28 23:06
They do with some teachers. I've always questioned that tactic, too, because, at least in my experience as an adult, smaller clarinets are harder to play - they're more resistant and harder to play in tune as you go higher than a standard Bb clarinet. Besides, you have a transition later to the bigger instrument that a young student still may resist.
Kids are really not much different from adults (excepting 20-somethings who want to change *everything*) in not wanting to give up what they're used to.
Karl
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2017-01-29 06:59
This particular student came to me a week ago. He is 8 and has played the clarinet for 2.5 years. I am very much against starting on a woodwind instrument this young. However, there are plenty of local teachers who are happy to take on students as young as 5. There's why I am living under the poverty line.
And no, even at 5 they are not beginning on smaller instruments. I have seen plenty of 6-year-olds playing full-size bassoons.
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