Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-11-06 18:36
rgoldem wrote:
> How
> do you possibly slide from a right hand natural B to an Eb on a
> 17 key clarinet? The fact that you should have first played the
> natural B with the left hand does not help once you missed it.
> This is a situation that can easily happen when you are
> sight-reading or improvising and then you are in a street
> without exit.
>
Well, you don't slide from RH B to RH Eb, although if you cover the connection by articulating the notes, you can jump. If you're actually caught sight-reading this and end up on RH B and the note speed is not very fast, you can try during the B to switch to the LH B key.
But more to the point - that's why you don't perform at sight. You should before a performance have first prepared the part and then rehearsed it with whatever ensemble you're performing with (if you're playing in an ensemble). Being caught that way should only happen the very first time you read through a piece, not in a performance. After the first time through you'll know that it's coming - if you're conscientious about it, you'll have marked it, maybe with an "L" over the B to remind yourself.
If you're improvising, you always have choices to make in real time. If you end up on a RH B, don't play Eb after it, or tongue it. Most of the time you'll be playing some kind of chord or scale pattern, and if you're fluent with scales and arpeggios, you'll probably use a convenient fingering out of habit.
I bought a C clarinet 10 years ago that had a LH Ab/Eb. But I had been playing without one for 50+ years and found it more trouble than it was worth to use it. In addition, it made it harder for me to locate the other LH lever keys - the Eb key kept (from my point of view) getting in the way. So I confess that I took the key off (it still lies in a desk drawer).
Now, what I'd find more useful (I think, depending on where it ended up on the clarinet) would be an alternate RH C#/G#. It is possible in a pinch to play G#5(Ab5) with TR XXO|XXO, but that's a little unstable, muffled and out of tune - only good in fast passages. I suppose it would have to be operated by the RH index finger, like the side keys on a standard 17-key Boehm clarinet, which might, like the LH Ab/Eb, be more awkward than it's worth if you're used to working without it.
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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