I have had some great difficulties with pain in my right hand, much pain ending in tendonitis, and went thru a period when I used a neck strap. This was OK but still felt clumsy. I even tried a Ton Kooiman extended thumb rest, but it was really akward and huge on the horn - I hated it instantly. As I tired to attach my normal thumb rest back on the horn, I lost one of the screws! To make matters worse, the music shop did not have a repairman there on Saturday so I had to wait till Monday before I could get it fixed. I had to work all day Sunday but had lots of sitting around time, so I practiced but ended up having to balance the horn on my knees. To my utter surprise, this had the effect of relaxing my right hand almost completely. Of course there was no weight on it, but more than that, I wasn’t trying to do the death grip on the bottom of the horn.
So now I am doing what Kirt often does, playing with the horn balanced over to the side, and sometimes playing with the horn in the middle, between my knees. I have to remember to move the knees apart for the low notes; esp. if you play standing up, you can hit some choked notes. This position also gives you good upright posture. I also am holding the horn at a bit of a greater angle, slightly more away from my body, using this technique, which Kirt said is a good thing.
Note this first little exercise;
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all this is is what Kirts teacher always used to play when he first picked up the horn. Some things to remember - get the pure Bb to match with the side Bb - also note that the F above staff is the purest tone on the clarinet, which is why we play it for long tones. The transition should be seamless.
Venting of notes - where you hold down keys in the lower stack even though you don't have to. Recall that for Bb you can hold the whole lower stack down to make going over the break easier. Its not quite the same sound as unvented, but you can make it pretty close. For instance in the little warm up piece, going from Bb to F you can hold the F key down as soon as you hit A. I find that if I do this incorrectly, my entire left arm can tense up, something to look out for.
A note on the anchor points: I am trying to make more of an effort to rely more on feeling the anchor points of both fingers (on the left hand, always being in contact with the A and Ab keys and on the right, finger resting on the bottom two side keys. This doesn’t mean that I don't still use the mirror, but you can't correct mistakes if you can't see them.
And a quick thought on the thumb: just make sure that the knuckle is just to the right of the thumb rest -its bad to have the thumb any farther to the left than this. Please note: this is slightly different than what I wrote in a previous lesson, sorry if there is any confusion on this.
On the D minor scale, as well as on going over the break exercise #5 from Not Quite Lesson 12 , we are using the straight right hand finger for the B natural directly above the break, as opposed to the left hand B natural for this. On the D minor, I had figured out the fingering incorrectly: the classical technique in this case is to use the Right hand B natural (make sure that your right finger is straight, slapping the key) and use the Left hand for the C#. This is part of the principal of using R-L or L-R for fingering combinations to avoid moving between two left hand keys or two right hand keys for two adjacent notes. You can see why this makes more sense, and you can use this in almost all situations. Kirt showed me a couple of exceptions to this, but its a good way to conserve motion in your fingering. Note: a bonus with fingering the D minor scale this way is that you can leave the right hand B down as you play the C#, its not an issue.
I must admit however using the right hand for the B natural is for me, a bit tougher, it has a tendency to pull my right ring finger off the hole. However, if I have my right hand flattened against the horn, especially if I have the index finger laying across the side keys, as I should always, it makes this position much easier to play. Just something else to train your hands to do, eh?
As I continue trying to keep my hands closer and closer to the horn, what Kirt often says comes to mind: the simple way is the easy way. So when I pick up the horn, I make the position for the G but consider this: all the fingers are directly above, floating, just the slightest amount, the correct keys. It looks from the outside as if you were fingering a low E.
Something to be mad at myself for! I have a instruction video to learn some Klezmer tunes, and in looking at the basic sheet music I managed to transpose in the wrong direction, and learned the tune that way! I took the music in to my lesson, Kirt looked at it and said, oh for music written in concert (C) you must transpose up a major 2nd, not down a maj 2nd. So I took the time to write it out, and then listened to the original recording and sure enough, that’s it. Damn! Now I get to learn it all over again, but maybe at some point practice will make it perfect. Should I live that long!