[Dixielandjazz] plateau clarinet

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

It was probably me.  It's a closed hole clarinet.  A few years ago I 
took a fall on the ice and damaged some nerves that lead to the last 
three fingers on each hand.  The same vertebrae that Chris Reeves broke 
in his fall.  I was a lot more fortunate than him but I can no longer 
play Banjo, Guitar and have difficulty with clarinet,  Leblanc makes one 
primarily for little girls who have not grown enough to cover the 
holes.  Bass and alto clarinets are Plateau clarinets normally.  I 
mostly play soprano sax now instead of clarinet.

I have modified the Plateau clarinet some because my hand position 
sucks.  I tend to get out of position and bump the sliver keys so I took 
a piece of duct tape and permanently closed them.  I also got some rough 
stair tread tape and punched 1/2" circles out of it.  I took the tread 
material and stuck it to the keys.  I can now somewhat feel the key 
under my fingers, my hands don't slip so bad and the black circle makes 
it look like a regular clarinet.  The only problem that I am still 
having is the B key on the left side isn't high enough and I bump the C# 
key below it and muff the note.  I need to get that key raised 
eventually.  I don't have that problem with my selmer but then I can't 
always hit the holes right on it.

The plateau clarinets (bass, alto and mine) all seem to have a problem 
with F# in the middle register.  That note is stuffy on these closed 
hole jobs.
Larry Walton
St. Louis

Barrie Walter Marshall wrote:
> I have been trawling through the DJML archive and somebody mentioned a "plateau clarinet" what on earth is it? 
>
> Barrie
>
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