Muscle memory

As part of the big clear out, S hauled my clarinet out from under the bed and said I should sell it. I know he's right -- it's been under there untouched for 15 years, and I wasn't very good when I did play it (though I did manage to pass a Grade 2 exam). Something tells me I'm never going to be a virtuoso now. 

So I got it out of the case to photograph it. Of course I couldn't resist checking whether I could still get a sound out if it. I could, I found, even with the ropy old reed that was in it. And then with my fingers on the keys, I discovered to my surprise that they remembered the fingering for a B-flat scale (the basic scale for a clarinet because it's a transposing instrument). And no, it's not just a matter of lifting contiguous fingers one after the other :)

But no, I must not dig out the music and start trying to play it again! It's going on eBay.