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Re: Play Without Thumb Rest?

Author: abrogard
Date: 2019-08-23 04:50

I would say that man has it wrong.

It is not 'just the thumb' but rather the grip on the machine.

If you hold it in such a fashion that it is 'only the thumb' then you're looking for trouble potentially - doing your hand physical damage potentially and perhaps even making playing more difficult.

Of course it is all 'horses for courses'. All players having different hands, different strengths and weaknesses and so on. On top of that all machines are subtly different. I have three clarinets, all different.

So I am certainly not trying to make any general assertions.

Except perhaps I'm tentatively asserting that surely if you are going to hold a stick to your mouth then wouldn't it make good sense to find the way your body most naturally would hold a stick to the mouth?

And holding without a thumb rest will do that.

It will enable you to find how your body wants to hold the thing.

That's all I'm 'asserting' if I'm asserting anything at all.

Yes, I do believe I can assert good pressure upwards, as much as is needed. And I don't really think much is needed actually.

But I'd content that holding the 'stick' without a thumbrest gives a better 'grip' on the stick and therefore makes it easier and more natural to exert directional pressure on the thing any which way you want it to go - up, down or sideways.

And the grip is better. It is not just 'laid' on the hand. Not at all. Without a thumbrest it has to be held. It has to be gripped. And it is held most particularly by the right hand with the triad and/or triangle of the three fingers - the thumb, the first joint of the index finger and the little finger.

With a thumbrest, contrariwise, it can be s imply 'laid' on the thumb and can roll about or loll about there, the whole weight simply laying on the thumb and there being no specific 'grip' on the thing at all.

To such an extent that in my short previous career as a student I developed quite a large callus and strained the musculature or ligaments or something within my hand to such an extent that it became constantly a great pain to hold the thing.

For me at least the essence of the whole thing seems to be that the rest forces my thumb to take the weight in whilst in a 'downward' position which is not the most effective way for the musculature of a thumb to take weight, strain.

Whereas without a rest the thumb adopts a position which is more 'upward' and seems to enable the musculature to better take the strain to such good effect that my hands, the right hand, now badly affected by joint pain, feels no pain whatever from clarinet practice, is never aggravated by it.

I find it very difficult to make effective photographs showing what I mean so I've resorted to a video. But unfortunately that's not very good, either. To amateurish, not showing what should be shown well enough at all.

Sorry. I will try to do better for my own sake at least, I'd like to make a good depiction of it all, of the theory.

But for the moment this is the best I have to offer and perhaps if interested parties download it and manipulate within their own video editors it may prove to be of some use:

ahh... cannot add a video or even a link to one, I think.

I will try to put the link here I would say that man has it wrong.

It is not 'just the thumb' but rather the grip on the machine.

If you hold it in such a fashion that it is 'only the thumb' then you're looking for trouble potentially - doing your hand physical damage potentially and perhaps even making playing more difficult.

Of course it is all 'horses for courses'. All players having different hands, different strengths and weaknesses and so on. On top of that all machines are subtly different. I have three clarinets, all different.

So I am certainly not trying to make any general assertions.

Except perhaps I'm tentatively asserting that surely if you are going to hold a stick to your mouth then wouldn't it make good sense to find the way your body most naturally would hold a stick to the mouth?

And holding without a thumb rest will do that.

It will enable you to find how your body wants to hold the thing.

That's all I'm 'asserting' if I'm asserting anything at all.

Yes, I do believe I can assert good pressure upwards, as much as is needed. And I don't really think much is needed actually.

But I'd content that holding the 'stick' without a thumbrest gives a better 'grip' on the stick and therefore makes it easier and more natural to exert directional pressure on the thing any which way you want it to go - up, down or sideways.

And the grip is better. It is not just 'laid' on the hand. Not at all. Without a thumbrest it has to be held. It has to be gripped. And it is held most particularly by the right hand with the triad and/or triangle of the three fingers - the thumb, the first joint of the index finger and the little finger.

With a thumbrest, contrariwise, it can be s imply 'laid' on the thumb and can roll about or loll about there, the whole weight simply laying on the thumb and there being no specific 'grip' on the thing at all.

To such an extent that in my short previous career as a student I developed quite a large callus and strained the musculature or ligaments or something within my hand to such an extent that it became constantly a great pain to hold the thing.

For me at least the essence of the whole thing seems to be that the rest forces my thumb to take the weight in whilst in a 'downward' position which is not the most effective way for the musculature of a thumb to take weight, strain.

Whereas without a rest the thumb adopts a position which is more 'upward' and seems to enable the musculature to better take the strain to such good effect that my hands, the right hand, now badly affected by joint pain, feels no pain whatever from clarinet practice, is never aggravated by it.

I find it very difficult to make effective photographs showing what I mean so I've resorted to a video. But unfortunately that's not very good, either. To amateurish, not showing what should be shown well enough at all.

Sorry. I will try to do better for my own sake at least, I'd like to make a good depiction of it all, of the theory.

But for the moment this is the best I have to offer and perhaps if interested parties download it and manipulate within their own video editors it may prove to be of some use:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MF8obF8unpusaUR39

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