POSTURE &  HAND POSITION

The goal is to align your body, so your lungs are fully open and that you maintain a controlled, relaxed body structure. It is important that your instrument is brought to you, not the other way around. You should view the instrument as an extension of your body. Key terms to use: freedom, balance, poise, stability, natural movement…

CORE POSTURE PRINCIPLES (SITTING & STANDING:

TORSO & SPINE

  • Sit or Stand Tall: Maintain a straight, relaxed spine. Think of a string gently pulling the top of your head toward the ceiling.
  • Shoulders Relaxed: Allow your shoulders to drop naturally. Avoid hunching or tensing them up toward your ears, as this restricts airflow and creates tension in your arms.
  • Open Chest: Your chest should be slightly open or "radiating out" to allow for maximum lung capacity and strong, controlled breath support.

HEAD & NECK

  • Head Level/Neutral: Keep your head level, looking forward toward the music stand or the horizon. Do not tilt or drop your chin down to meet the mouthpiece or look at your fingers. Dropping your head compresses your throat and restricts the airflow, making your sound weaker or flatter.
  • Clarinet Angle (The Sweet Spot): The clarinet should come up to your mouth at a comfortable angle—typically about 30 to 45 degrees away from your body.
    • Tip: If you hold it too close to your body, you'll have to tilt your head forward, which restricts air and creates sharpness. If you hold it too far out, it causes arm tension and creates flatness.

ARMS & HANDS

  • Elbows Relaxed: Your elbows should hang loosely at your sides, not rigidly locked out or glued to your torso. A slight bend, near a 90-degree angle, is often ideal, allowing the arms to hang naturally.
  • Fingers Curved: Keep your fingers gently curved (like holding a small tennis ball) and use the fleshy pads of your fingers to cover the tone holes. Your hand should look like a collapsed letter ‘C’.
  • Fingers Close to Keys: Keep your fingers hovering just above the keys and tone holes. Lifting them too high causes wasted movement and slows down your technical passages. Fingers should be in a controlled, relaxed state avoid of any tension.

Sitting posture

When sitting, your lower body provides the base for your air column.

  • Chair: Use a chair that is firm and flat, without armrests. Sit toward the front edge.
  • Feet: Both feet should be flat on the floor (not crossed, hooked, or dangling). This grounds your body and stabilizes your torso.
  • Clarinet Bell: The bell of the clarinet should typically be about knee level. Make sure you do not help stabilize the instrument with your thighs, knees or on the edge of the chair. The clarinet is stabilized by the right thumb snugging up towards your teeth and with a snug embouchure.

standing posture

When standing, your stance is critical for balance and mobility. It is important to practice the clarinet standing as frequently as you practice sitting. A standing position promotes greater stability, freedom of movement, and reduced physical tension.

  • Weight Distribution: Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, with your weight distributed evenly across both feet. Avoid locking your knees.
  • Instrument Angle: Keep ca. 30-45 degree clarinet angle to allow the reed to vibrate freely, bringing the instrument up to your mouth.

Variations: drastic overbite = smaller angle/underbite = larger angle

HAND POSITION

Proper hand position is key to clean technique but especially to move across the break with ease.

(Add hand picture- left hand and a right hand)…R1/RT, R2…L3,L2…

Left Thumb (or L1)

- angled, pointed at 2 o’clock. Make sure to roll the thumb to open the register key and not slide it upwards along the key. It helps to always be touching the bottom portion of the register key.

EXERCISE (for fluid movement of the thumb):

  • hold the instrument away from your body so you can see the backside.
  • Roll the thumb to open up the register key while maintaining your pad on the ‘F’ hole.
  • Do several times until it feels natural.
  • Now bring the instrument to you and play a chalumeau C (C4), open up the register key to produce a ‘G’ (G5).
  • Do several times until it is a fluid motion and a clear transition from the C4 to G5.

 

-All other fingers (L2, L3, L4) should stay in a relaxed curved position, in the shape of a collapsed letter ‘C’ with the pads of your fingers hovering above their respective holes.

-Your left pinky (L5) should rest above your chalumeau E key (E3)  (also considered your left pinky guide key). This helps line up the fingers above the proper holes.

 

EXERCISE (for fluid movement to throat tones):

1- finger a low C (C4) and notice where on the index finger that the A key is closest to. You may find the fingers work best with a slight downward slant. Remember to keep your pinky resting or hovering about the Low E key (E3)

2- now play the low c note while opening up the A key (this is a training exercise to coach the proper movement of the index finger (L2), this is not a real fingering/note)

3-Do several times until it starts to feel comfortable

4- Next, play an actual throat tone A (A4) from the C (C4) by keeping the raised fingers as close to the holes as possible. Doing this in front of a mirror is helpful!

 

TIPS

*Make sure to continue to use the side knuckle to open the A key and that your fingers do not fly high off the keys. Keeping arched fingers.

*Make sure there is a nice straight line from the elbow, through the wrist to the hand. A relaxed wrist is crucial. Some rotation is necessary to facilitate smooth movement around the throat are of the instrument but avoid excessive twisting of the wrist.

Right Thumb (or R1)

-it is important to check placement of your thumb on the thumb rest (see TEST below).

            -carries the bulk of the clarinet’s weight via the thumb rest.

            - as a guide, the thumb rest is resting on the thumb ca. between knuckle and nail.

 

If the student has an adjustable thumb rest:

TEST (for proper height adjustment of thumb rest):

  1. Form an imaginary finger puppet with your right hand (moving fingers to the thumb as if the puppet is speaking), fingers moving vertically
  2. in the open position, rotate the hand forward as if to place your hand on the lower joint (the playing position)
  3. take note of where your thumb is located. If your pointer finger (R2) is more horizontally lined up to your thumb, your thumb rest might be adjusted higher. If your middle finger (R3) is more lined up to your thumb, then the thumb rest might need to be lower.

 

-All other fingers (R2, R3, R4) should stay in a relaxed curved position with the pads of your fingers hovering above their respective holes, make sure R4 can fully cover the third open hole.

-Your right pinky (R5) should rest above your chalumeau/low F key (F3) (also considered your right pinky guide key). This helps line up the fingers above the proper holes.

 

If you have a fixed thumb rest, some adaptions can be made:

  1. If it needs to be lower, you can add a thick thumb rest cushion or have a thick cork mounted on the bottom side of the thumb rest.
  2. If it needs to be higher, an adjustable thumb rest can be added. If it is a wooden horn, the thumb rest can be raised on the instrument by a proper repair technician. There are also new ergonomic style thumb rests:

-https://www.clarinetmouthpiece.com/product-page/behn-clarinet-thumb-cushion

- https://tonkooiman.com/ (more suitable for intermediate to advanced players)

 

TIPS:

 *fingers are horizontal (HINT: roll your right thumb’s nailbed towards the clarinet which will align the fingers more horizontally so your finger pads can fully cover the holes, and the pinky is able to maneuver around the 4 pinky keys).

*the wrist is not bent, that there is a nice straight line from the elbow to the fingers.

*Shape: a collapsed letter ‘C’, similar to a handshake.

 

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