Category: Getting Started

Standing and Playing the Clarinet

Most of your solo performing in front of an audience will be done standing up, so part of your practice time should be spent in this position as well so that it is as comfortable as sitting when playing. (more…)

Sitting and Playing the Clarinet

Right from the beginning the idea of sitting and standing correctly needs to be ingrained as a fundamental approach to playing any musical instrument.

Basically, no slouches allowed here. Try to sit in a chair that allows your legs to stick out horizontally and flat feet on the ground. Chairs come in many shapes and sizes and some are not suited to playing a musical instrument in. Avoid chairs with arms or sloping backs. (more…)

When a student comes for their first lesson, all they want to do is blow the thing and get a noise out of it, so whatever else happens they have to be given a chance to do this.

In the short half hour that comprises the first lesson I cover the following topics:
Assembly and disassembly of the instrument. (more…)

The clarinet is a wind instrument and as such requires a constant supply of air under pressure to create a smooth and flowing tone.

Taking a breath to play the clarinet is not like the breathing we associate with talking or normal respiration. The full breath I am talking about is like the one you take when you sneeze, cough or yawn; the kind of breath you would take before you dived into a swimming pool to do a length underwater. (more…)

There has been a lot written and spoken about the clarinet embouchure since 1700AD and rightly so. The 50 or so muscles that make us smile, yawn, frown etc., need to be retrained to form a seal around the clarinet mouthpiece and stop the air escaping, which is the embouchure’s primary function. Its second function is to support the reed from underneath and provide stability and control to the tone. (more…)

Articulate with the tongue

Definitions of tongue on the Web:

• a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity
• natural language: a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language
• any long thin projection that is transient; “tongues of flame licked at the walls”; “rifles exploded quick knives of fire into the dark”
• a manner of speaking; “he spoke with a thick tongue”; “she has a glib tongue”
• spit: a narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea
• the tongue of certain animals used as meat
• the flap of material under the laces of a shoe or boot
• articulate by tonguing, as when playing wind instruments
• clapper: metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side
  * lick or explore with the tongue

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Talk the Talk

Learning the clarinet requires some additions to your vocabulary. Unlike the piano teachers that teach counting fingers using the thumb as one and index finger as two etc., I prefer counting from the index fingers of both hands only. (more…)

Taking a clarinet apart is basically the reverse of putting it together.  Start at the very end of the assembly process: undo the ligature, lift it off the mouthpiece and put it in your case. While you’re doing this, keep your left thumb on the bottom of the reed to stop it falling on the floor. (more…)

The clarinet is fairly easy to assemble only needing extreme care around the bridge key area between the upper and lower joints, where incorrect assembly or disassembly could result in damage to the keywork. A detailed approach to assembly appears further down this page. (more…)

If the beginner is very confident and commited to learning the clarinet and money is no object, then buy a nice new student instrument. Try to buy one from a specialist woodwind supply shop that can offer good advice about makes and models, of which there are plenty. I would suggest one of the following name brands: (more…)