Re: Woodwind Fingering diagrams problem

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

On 01/30/2013 09:42 AM, Wim van Dommelen wrote:
> That is why the "low-bass-clarinet" stencil exists. That is (as I reverse
> engineer it) intended for bass-clarinet toward low-C (the concert model) whereas
> the "bass-clarinet" is the low-Ees (streetmodel).

Well, my point is that "low-bass-clarinet" doesn't necessarily cut it, because 
you have multiple different extended members of the clarinet family, and even 
within the same manufacturer, their fingering systems vary.

For example: going by the images and information on the Buffet Crampon website, 
their basset horn comes with an alternate left hand Ab/Eb key; their basset 
clarinet doesn't.  I also suspect that their basset clarinet has only one thumb 
key (for low C) while their basset horn and low-C bass may have more.

So, if we're REALLY going to ensure that diagrams are accurate, then we probably 
need to do a careful survey of the fingering mechanisms for basset clarinets, 
basset horns, and low-C bass, contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, for each of 
the main manufacturers (Buffet, Selmer, Leblanc, Yamaha).

I think it's probably sane to limit ourselves to current models -- to try and 
address the past would be to open a huge can of worms -- but even with this 
limit, there's a fair number of different diagrams to potentially cope with.

In any case, at a minimum you need 3 different diagrams:

    -- regular clarinet (to low E)

    -- full Boehm (to low Eb)

    -- extended (to low C)

... and that's before you even think of trying to support Oehler-system 
instruments.


> > There may be more, but I think that's it.  If you like, I could see about
> > making a scan of a page or two from Philip Rehfeldt's "New Directions for
> > Clarinet" which indicates appropriate key names and has examples using a
> > key-name based fingering system.
> Mmmhh, sounds interesting.

I'll get that scan this weekend.