[Ronish]

I`m having a battle trying to play the clarinet as there are finger placements for me that I`m finding difficult because of a little finger (R) that I can`t straighten.
I have the std. clarinet books that list alternative positions for some notes but I`m trying to get as comprehensive list as possible. There must be lots of tricks people have resorted to over the ages. Things like "keeping R hand fingers down on G A & Bb when alternating between high and low regs" Thanks.

 

[Chris J]

http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/cl_alt_1.html

is a good site for a collection of fingering. A good teacher should be able to help individual needs

 

[SOTSDO]

With a disability like a deformed finger or finger joint of a little finger, better results might be obtained by having the keywork modified. For example, the keys serving either little finger can easily (save only the LH F/C key) be extended and angled to compensate for such a disability.

The end result will look a bit like one of those ducks that has the feathers protruding from its side, but the function will be there, which is the important thing. Even those who only have short fingers or fat fingers can take this route, shaving down and shortening the "sliver" keys.

This is nothing new, and such modifications were (relatively) common in Europe following World War I, which was a great maimer of human flesh. There was even special music written during the post-war period for pianists with one hand.

Extending keys and modifying their shape isn't that difficult for a good technician with a well equipped shop. You can even get the end result plated so that it looks like it belongs, at a cost of course.

Other digits (particularly the thumbs and first fingers) are harder to compensate for. I once worked with a baritone player who had a broken and poorly set ring finger RH, and he could not play a note on the clarinet as a result. I suggested one of the plateau horns from the Leblanc branch of the Steinway/Selmer empire, and he had progressed pretty far until he died of heart failure.

 

[dirty]

If you want a really good solution and have an excellent tech (and an excellent bank account), you might want to look into getting rollers put onto the RH pinky cluster, like on the left hand pinky keys of a sax, or on a full boehm clarinet. My clarinet teacher started on sax in middle school and, to this day, complains that they don't put rollers onto clarinets (and he doesn't like the way any full boehms that he's played sound or feel). I think rollers could open up a whole world of technical possibilities on clarinet! Or maybe it'd just be another headache to spend hours working through in a practice room. Maybe both.

 

[bandmommy]

Hey dirty,

Rollers are found on Albert and Oehler(German) system clarinets. I have a set of Selmer Brevets' that are full boehm. NO ROLLERS.

Full Boehm means more keys than a standard boehm and an extended range to low Eb.

 

[littlemanbighorn]

A good tech can add rollers to the keys of a Boehm clarinet, though.

 

[tictactux]

Rollers are found on Albert and Oehler(German) system clarinets. I have a set of Selmer Brevets' that are full boehm. NO ROLLERS.

Ha! Mine does. And I love them.
(but as you said, Boehms have no rollers, regardless how full they are)

 

[clarnibass]

Boehms have no rollers, regardless how full they are

If you roll them in it they will be full of it

 

[dirty]

Hey dirty,

Rollers are found on Albert and Oehler(German) system clarinets. I have a set of Selmer Brevets' that are full boehm. NO ROLLERS.

Full Boehm means more keys than a standard boehm and an extended range to low Eb.

hmmm...My mistake. He did make reference to a full boehm with rollers, but it must have been a special one-off or custom kind of thing that he found.

 

[Isle of Jazz]

That's one nice horn, tictactux.

 

[tictactux]

That's one nice horn, tictactux.

Thank you, shotgun. Took me one and a half years to track one down; they're not really abundant.