Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-06-03 04:55
Alternate fingerings are important and fall, IMHO, into 3 categories of use:
1) To facilitate play
2) To prevent "you can't get there from here" situations, and
3) To facilitate quality note production.
I
An example of the first lies in the low B/middle F# production with the right pointer and right middle finger on the fork lever, rather then the right middle finger solely on its tone hole. Such uses work well in trills or chromatic work, and are best used when the music is already known, so as to prevent "you get there from here" situations when a, for example, low "B" is played forked, and the player's next note needs to be 3 down on each hand.
..or maybe you're in the altissimo and just played a forked D# rather than one with the middle finger and "boxed yourself in."
Good clarinetists learn to read ahead, and know to favor certain pinky fingers and slides in certain key signatures (which is one of many reasons why scales are so important). For example, playing arpeggios in Eb major, the skilled player (who lacks a left pinky Eb lever--just as probably many do) knows to take mid C with the left pinky as the Eb with the right pinky follows during the ascent.
Sometimes I prefer going from mid staff D# to F# using chromatic fingerings for both--so sometimes player comfort plays a role. But players should, I think, train with all the possible fingerings (stratospheric notes being the exception) at least in etude work.
When a student has the choice to use a left or right pinky in, say, a 2 line etude exercise, I have them take it both ways.
Sometimes I'll have the student not use the right fork and do an even right index to right middle finger flip even when forking is okay, just to get experience at doing this cleanly.
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II
Speaking of "you can't get there from here situations," top on the list is the need, on most Boehm system clarinets (which and because they mostly lack a left pinky mid Eb/D#, low Ab/Gb key,) that require production of such a note immediately after, say, a mid C#.
Playing the C# with the left pinky becomes a must.
Freeing up this left pinky can sometime mean that a mid note pinky swap is necessary, depending on the prior notes in the music. We see this in one of the Spohr Concertos and the Messager's Solo de Concurs' Cadenza's first phrase. Sometimes we can slide the right pinky down, from mid D# to C# or mid C to B, for example, to address these issues.
A mid note swap, might for example be a situation where you where forced to play a mid "B" with the right pinky, given the notes that came before, and the next note is a "D#." Switching to the left pinky "B," if time permits, while voicing the note may be necessary. Sometimes the pinky swap can occur in different places in a passage where the player gets to choose.
And some of the scales with more accidentals require such slides and chromatic fingers. Take Gb major for example, where C and B are flat. When descending, it's best you take that low "Cb" (i.e. B) chromatically to handle the upcoming Bb.
There are other examples in this 2nd category, like IMHO, using the side keys to play a throat F# in a chromatic scale. Otherwise, moving from left thumb to left index finger, and not hitting open "G" is tricky.
III
Alternate fingering's final place lay in note production. Sometimes, when playing in the upper altissimo, we need a fingering that won't simply satisfy "you can't there from here" limitations but plays in tune, or even plays. And returning back to earth to our friend throat Bb, not only do some fingers down on the left hand often improve its sound, I'm a big fan of playing it as a left hand throat "A" with the right hand playing the second from top chromatic side key on the upper joint. It seems that the number of fingers for a note is almost directly linked to how high it us: upper altisimmo ones offering trades of clarity, intonation, and fingering.
How do you decide which to use:
...it's a product of what you're comfortable with if you have a choice, or what you must do to avoid "you can't there from here" situations, note production, note production in tune , or poorly sounding notes. The music being played dictates all but maybe the throat Bb--no, it dictates that too. Play a fast throat Bb, and you may be forced to use the simple 2 left finger fingering for the ease of doing so, as much as quick movement off the note leaves no listener focused on the stuffy sound it can have when only 2 fingers are used.
But use of alternative fingers is often not an option, but a necessity.
Post Edited (2017-06-03 05:10)
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