For those of you who play with the normal (curved) (classical) (Rockstro) left hand grip, do you play with your middle finger curved inward or laid down straight or laid down and curved backward?
I still try to picture what’s the main problem with the roll on B with the classical grip. I realised I play with my left middle finger laid down and curved bakcward (pressing on the hole) and it makes it almost impossible to tap the A hole since I really have to press to cover the hole properly.
Maybe if I’d play with the very tip of the middle finger (curved inward), it would be easier?
From your description it’s hard to picture the position. Middle finger bent backward? Sounds painful. Whatever the position of your fingers it should not take “pressing down” to cover any of the holes. You should be able to cover the holes with a light and relaxed touch, otherwise you will never have the suppleness required to play this music at tempo with the appropriate ornamentation.
I would suggest that it doesn’t matter much what your position is as long as a couple of requirements are met. 1) All the holes must be easily covered with hands relaxed 2) The flute is well supported and braced against the lips even when all the holes are uncovered. Do whatever you can to make this happen and you are golden.
When I say bent inward or backward, I obviously speak about the last finger joint only (the one closest to the tip of the finger). Sorry, my english is not perfect yet!
I understand your wondering Clark…I try to picture the guy whose able to play flute with is fingers bent backward and god…It must be paintful!
All the pads of my fingers (the end joints with the fingernail) are flat on each hole. The smallest exception might be my RH1 ~ it’s a little less flat against the tone hole. But that’s just me ~ you’ll need to find your own best way WITHOUT HURTING YOUR HANDS, WRIST OR NECK!!!
Bending that joint backwards is a bad idea all around. It leads to imprecision – like you say, there’s no way in hell you’d be able to tap that way – and possibly injury as well. I keep the left index and middle fingers curved and cover the holes with the very tip-ends of my fingers. (The other fingers are flat.) Doing the tap off B in this position is still kind of hard since you can’t get the kind of bounce you get with flat fingers, but you can make it a little easier by tapping with both the second and third fingers, which gets a little more of the weight of your hand into the equation.
