Clarinet Playing Advice – Alternate Fingerings (Video 2/3)

This is Part 2 of our Clarinet Playing tips series with Nicholas Carpenter (former Clarinet Principal London Philharmonic Orchestra). In this video we discuss SELECTED (not all!) clarinet alternate fingerings. Including throat Bb, long Bb, second register F# and High G…

Alternate Fingerings

We can’t stress enough that there is no such thing as the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ fingerings for certain notes in all situations. It can vary depending on the variables of player, instrument, mouthpiece and also the scenario. The trick is to get yourself familiar with the various options on your instrument and test the quality of these notes. Also practice using the different fingerings in certain circumstances depending on where you may be coming from.

If you’re not sure about some of the fingerings used, why not pause the video on the graphic demonstrations to help. As ever, practice makes perfect and it may be that you need to re-train your fingers to a new option if it sounds better.

Big thanks to Nick Carpenter for his time on these videos. We’ll be back with video #3 coming soon…

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