Three rules for better technique! (A-Z of Clarinet: Fingerings)

We often have a choice when it comes to fingerings. These three simple concepts will help you think about your technique more carefully, and choose fingerings that serve you and the music better!

[@edbettex3998]

Fantastic ! Thanks

[@williamsanborn9195]

I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I was in marching band and I played a piece that made me go from C#, D#, E, G# in the clarion register. Muscle memory had me switch between C# and D# using the bottom side key on the right hand. Unfortunately, the spring under that key snapped moments prior, and I panicked. Now, I use the same D# as left thumb-1, right 2 since that’s considerably easier.

[@RemunJ66]

Just bought myself a second hand Buffet Crampon E&S Bb clarinet. I still have a lot of practice to do after not having touched the clarinet for more than three decades and your tips will certainly come in handy. So thank you for the very informative videos.

[@philipeverall6]

Thank you so much! I’m glad you found your way back to the clarinet - it will always be there for you… please reach out if I can ever be of assistance, and enjoy the journey!

[@QuickStartClarinet]

This is such a great idea for a series. I love it!

[@philipeverall6]

Thanks so much! I’m having a great time doing it. I appreciate you taking the time to watch :)

[@SirWhiteRabbit-gr5so]

I haven't played my Bb Clarinet in over 45 years. I don't remember fingerings being that complicated...though I misspent several years playing Eb Alto Clarinet. (Mostly self-taught through elementary and high school, not very demanding music environment.) Our skill band director never taught any music theory, just make notes. Only recently delving into music theory and composition.

[@philipeverall6]

Yeah - it’s a minefield. Once you get past the standard “Left-Right” decisions, up in the altissimo register you often have an overwhelming number of choices! Do you ever venture up that high on the alto? It’s sounds beautiful up there!

[@whoitisnot]

Thanks for a very good video. I mostly agree. A few questions/quibbles. 1) Why NOT use that high F# fingering? It's well in tune with the banana key for everyone in my studio. The overblown Bb seems to vary much more from person to person. 2) "We can always find a way to make the fingering work, technically speaking." Sometimes, but certainly not always. That long high F# fingering is not going to work in really rapid scales, and in those situations evenness is going to take precedence over the most precise intonation. 3) Often an out of tune fingering becomes a good fingering at either end of the dynamic range. That seems like it should come before even how one might adjust for the note of the chord. Thanks again, looking forward to checking out the rest of the alphabet!

[@philipeverall6]

Thanks for the comment! Absolutely - I gotta admit I was being a bit of a troll… of course it depends on how you play, but for me it was always on the flat side - but the overarching concept is to just be aware and make informed choices. 2) yes we can! I’ve seen people do some bonkers fingerings with ease… but I definitely see the point that it’s not always so simple. You’ll notice I said “I use it when I’m desperate” - and that’s exactly the reason, there are times when it’s just not feasible to use a better in tune fingering. 3) you are absolutely right - and I hope to talk about it in a later video!! (I’m thinking I for Intonation!) Thanks so much for the really considered and respectful comment! I appreciate you taking the time.

[@philipeverall6]

I forgot to mention re: the second point, I also didn’t even touch on the concept of staying in the same register/partial as much as possible, so that’s also a big consideration. When trying to keep videos concise, some things need to wait for another day!

[@joewhitcombe1365]

Thank you for your responce. My enquiry was not for printed pages depicting fingering. I’m looking big. Some years back I wandered through the Barker College music tutorial class rooms and along the walls were huge plastic posters on the walls depicting fingering for brass, wood winds, strings etc, where at a glance the student referred to the image and memorized it. They were colorful and enormous. That was thirty years ago. Any supplier ring a bell for you? Love your presentations.

[@philipeverall6]

Thank you! No, doesn’t ring a bell - I’ve seen similar things but not for fingerings. I’ll ask some of my old teachers though - they’d know!

[@zathrasnotzathras9435]

I’m just getting back after 25 years away from my clarinet. I’m getting ready to join a community band locally. I agree about the term alternate fingerings. I’m learning the fingering used depends on the notes around it. Especially when it comes to the use of left and right pinkies or resonance fingerings to make the throat tones sound better.

[@nancyfiskemusic]

Is that an Opperman barrel? Did you study with him? I did years ago and your barrel looks like the ones he made.

[@chrisperyagh]

I've seen a trend for some local players to use the LH F/C key as their main fingering when going from low register G-F or upper D-C instead of keeping all the notes in the right hand. I asked them why they don't just use the RH F/C instead and they usually say that's how they were taught. While some may find it easier to do that, it's not going to bode too well if they want to play any other woodwind instrument as hardly any others (besides different members of the clarinet family) have a LH F/C key. I've just rebuilt an old 6 key clarinet and the prospective player has no experience with non-Boehm clarinets, so I've printed out a basic fingering chart (with some fingering choices for several notes) to get them started on it. They'll have to get to grips with tying the reed on with string before they can get that far though. I play full Boehms (Selmer CT and Series 9) and have a multitude of choices when it comes to certain fingerings depending on the situation. My clarinet teacher wasn't too happy with me making the most of the extra gadgets and other players have warned me not to use them as I "should just use the 'normal' fingerings", but to me it would just be a waste of the time and effort for the maker to have fitted all that extra keywork if it's going to be overlooked. I especially like the LH forked Eb/Bb fingering (xox|ooo) as it's in tune in both registers, unlike long Bb (xoo|xoo) which is sharp as a lower register D#/Eb. I've even added it to my plastic Yamaha (for outdoor use) and my C clarinet as I use it a fair amount. For me, these full Boehm fingerings are "the normal fingerings".

[@philipeverall6]

Interesting point about playing other winds (especially saxophone) - I hadn’t really considered that. I think at the end of the day we should just be comfortable using all the options so they’re there when we need them. Thanks for all that info! The six key sounds interesting… an old boxwood one, or 20th century?

[@chrisperyagh]

@@philipeverall6 Yeah - it's an old Metzler boxwood one with ivory rings, presumably from the early 1800s. The original ebony mouthpiece is badly damaged with the tip rail gone and split down both sides. I was looking for a replacement or even resorting to making one from scratch as it has a ridiculously long tenon (the barrel is just one big socket with no bore), but that would probably end up costing more than the owner would want to spend. I then tried an Eb mouthpiece to see if that fitted and it's got near enough the same bore and tenon size as well as length, so that worked out well. I made a spacer to take up the gap in the barrel and the good thing with this old clarinet is it plays at 440Hz no problem. I got a Yamaha 4C Eb mouthpiece for it and cut some grooves around it like German mouthpieces so a string ligature can be used, as well as using regular Eb clarinet reeds. It also fits perfectly in a Schreiber German/Oehler single Bb case and I had a spare one of them which I was using with my Yamaha Oehler (YCL-657-24II).

[@philipeverall6]

@@chrisperyagh wow - that's awesome. I've been dreaming about dabbling in making/restoring instrument as I do a bit of woodturning and love making things... but it certainly is a rabbit hole! glad you found some good solutions.

[@LeoBercoff]

Great concepts! Where can I get a table of all those "alternate" tuning fingerings? 😀 Thanks a lot!

[@philipeverall6]

Thank you! My go-to is Frederick Thurston’s “The Clarinet”. It’s old-school, but a great reference.

[@Stooky_Person]

What a stooky and a very interesting video Phil. I find this quite interesting as I thought the string instrument (Harp and Piano not included) has the enharmonic equivalent system going on, but I guess Woodwind has that feature as well, which is very stooky. No puns today, because I cannot think a *G*eesy puns

[@philipeverall6]

Thanks Wilbur!

[@Stooky_Person]

What can I say except... Your Welcome@@philipeverall6

[@Evan-kj6ye]

Great video, very informative. By the way, what mouthpiece are you using?

[@philipeverall6]

Thank you! It’s a D’Addario Evolution LE. What are you playing on?

[@Evan-kj6ye]

@@philipeverall6 Hi! Im currently on a Vandoren M13, and its starting to show its wear after 7 years. Was looking for some new mouthpieces and you sound great on yours!

[@lamprete]

Hi Philip, thanks for the nice clues! I'm a medium grade player, struggeling somewhat, cause I started only at age 57 (having played recorder and piano before) about six years ago and living in Oehler-country but playing only Böhm system. My teacher plays Oehler and it's difficult finding some good teacher anyway. Here's my question: once you found a certain good fingering (Böhm system) for a passage and want to mark it in the music, is there a good, consistent way to write this down, other than drawing like in the diagrams you show in your videos? Like e.g. for the piano (more complicated of course), indicating digits, letters, diacritics and the like?

[@philipeverall6]

Great question! I use a kind of short-hand for writing fingerings. Words like “side” or “sk” for side key, “LH” and “RH”, and “short” or “long” are also clues. I think if you have a few favourites for each note, small markings like this will give you enough information in the context to pick the right one. Then of course is practice! That sure helps you remember! I’ll record a short video on this soon - it’s a great question, thank you!

[@lamprete]

​@@philipeverall6that would be very nice! I started of course with jutting down "R" and "L". For other notes I had the first fingering I learned noted as "I", the second as "II", etc. However, over time, I realised that a certain "I" fingering was not optimal in terms of intonation. So I demoted it to "II", but got confused subsequently, also because in music I played earlier, the two meanings were reversed. Also, I come to learn more and more third or even fourth fingerings, so just enumerating them doesn't seem to be such a good idea anymore. However, I also see the need to be economical in these writings, thus focusing on the characteristics, but not usually on completeness. Love to hear your system!

[@philipeverall6]

@@lamprete ahhh yes I see. That’s a good idea, but as you see it has its limitations… I’ll start working on a short video about it. Thanks!

[@krey_ton]

Sometimes it is needed to slide on the clarinet with the german system, due to, when there are the notes low e to f# or f to g#. :D

[@philipeverall6]

The main reason I’m glad I play French system! I do love the German sound though…

[@knutini]

I’ve always called the “banana” keys, SLIVER keys. Maybe it’s an American thing?

[@philipeverall6]

That’s it!! I knew there was a more correct word for them. I have definitely heard that - and I thought it was a British thing (I used the Thurston method through high school), but wouldn’t surprise me if it was American. I think “Banana” is more an Australian thing…. Because we’re all a bit weird… thanks for watching :)

[@wolfgangroth6265]

This is all very true if you practice written music, scales and patterns. But what about Improvising ? If you use pre-practiced stuff (as you admittedly do a lot in improvising) fine: you use the pre-practiced „correct“ fingerings but if you really come up with a new Idea (what hopefully also happens in Improvisation occasionally) wouldn’t then f.i. A „default“ C helpful?

[@philipeverall6]

That’s a really good point. Even when you’re improvising, intonation and finger facility are still important right? So practicing certain fingerings in certain keys or modes is a good idea. But you’re right - it would be crazy to say we shouldn’t have go-to fingerings for pretty much every note. We’d be constantly paralyzed by choice! Thanks for the comment!

[@joewhitcombe1365]

Where can I get a large wall chart clarinet fingering, in color. The charts in books look like new York subway maps with codes that vary from book to book . An easily referenced color picture stays in the memory. Thank you.

[@philipeverall6]

That’s a great question. I’ve been using digital charts for some time now (my PhD project was a fingering database), so don’t know of any printed ones… but I’ll have a look around! Thanks for watching :)

[@ronm3245]

Every time I hear a clarinet player talking about different systems like Albert, Wurlitzer, Dingblatter, Snoffgigglebottom, and the like, I wonder why not just talk about the one system that 99.9999999% of all clarinets use?

[@philipeverall6]

I get your point (that’s why I only spoke about the French system) but there is a growing number of people using German system - even outside of Europe…