Are you a beginner clarinetist looking to enhance your skills while having fun? Learning to play songs with simple chords is a great way to build your confidence and musicality. Here, we’ve compiled a list of 10 easy clarinet melodies that feature simple chord progressions, making them perfect for new players. Grab your clarinet, and let’s dive in!
1. “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
This classic nursery rhyme is an ideal starting point for beginners. With its straightforward melody and repetitive structure, it’s easy to memorize. The chords are simple, often revolving around C, G, and F.
2. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”
Another beloved children’s song, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” uses basic chords like C, F, and G. Its familiar tune will make it easy for you to practice and play along with friends or family.
3. “Hot Cross Buns”
With just three notes—B, A, and G—this song is perfect for absolute beginners. The simplicity of the melody and the chord progression allows you to focus on your breath control and tone.
4. “Ode to Joy”
Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” is a favorite among musicians of all levels. The melody is uplifting and recognizable, with simple chords that often include C, D, and G. It’s a great piece to add to your repertoire.
5. “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers
This classic song features an easy chord progression that repeats throughout. The chords (C, E, Am, and G) are straightforward, allowing you to focus on playing the melody smoothly and expressively.
6. “Let It Be” by The Beatles
A timeless hit, “Let It Be” has a simple yet beautiful melody. The chords (C, G, Am, and F) are easy to grasp, making it a great choice for clarinetists looking to play popular music.
7. “Scarborough Fair”
This traditional English ballad features a haunting melody that is simple enough for beginners. It primarily uses a few basic chords, allowing you to focus on the lyrical flow of the song.
8. “Amazing Grace”
This iconic hymn is not only easy to play but also deeply moving. The chord progression is simple, often utilizing G, C, and D, making it a perfect choice for beginners looking to add emotional depth to their playing.
9. “Jingle Bells”
Just in time for the holiday season, “Jingle Bells” is a fun and festive song to practice. With easy chords like C, F, and G, you can bring joy to your family gatherings and holiday celebrations.
10. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
This simple round is a great way to practice your timing and coordination. With just three chords—C, G, and D—it’s perfect for honing your skills while enjoying a classic melody.
These ten easy clarinet melodies with simple chords are perfect for beginners looking to build their confidence and musicality. As you practice, remember to have fun and enjoy the process of making music. With each song you master, you’ll find yourself becoming a more skilled and expressive clarinetist.
Over the course of its history, the clarinet has had many fine players. These 14 defined the development of the pedagogy of the instrument, its performance practices, and in later years, its marketing to the public at large.
14 Most Famous Clarinet Players of All Time
Anton Stadler
Anton Stadler was born in Burgenland, which was the easternmost state in Austria. He grew up in Vienna, and Mozart composed both the “Clarinet Quintet,” K.581, and the clarinet concerto, K.622, for him. He was obviously a virtuoso, which is made even more clear by the fact that he played these difficult pieces on a clarinet that had only six keys whereas the modern clarinet, where these pieces are still considered difficult, has a combination of 22 rings and keys. Stadler also played the basset clarinet in A, and both replicas and improvements to that instrument are available today.
Heinrich Baermann
Heinrich Baermann came later than Stadler but was not only every bit the virtuoso as the older player but also a great teacher of the instrument. In fact, it is his pedagogy that formed the basis for a standard method of instruction. He, like Stadler before him, insisted on the mouthpiece position with the reed against the lower lip instead of the other way around, which was the norm regarding the chalumeau and earlier clarinets. Baermann might have been the greatest clarinetist ever, but the opinion on that title is both genially and heavily debated.
Carl Baermann
Carl Baermann was Heinrich Baermann’s son. He was a prodigy and was regularly performing with the Munich orchestra when he was a mere 14 years old. He played second clarinet to his father and succeeded him when his father retired in 1834. He held the chair for the next 46 years. Carl was a great teacher like his father, and his method books are still in general use today because of the improvements to the instrument that occurred during his tenure. While his father’s books were perfect for clarinets with fewer than 10 keys, Carl’s books are still relevant today. Every advanced and professional player has a copy of them.
Hyachinthe Klose
While the Baermann’s and Anton Stadler were the driving forces in clarinet playing in Austria and Germany for nearly 100 years, Hyachinthe Klose, born in Greece, was the driving force in France for his whole professional life. His “Complete Method for the Clarinet” is regularly referred to as “the clarinetist’s Bible.” The technical studies included therein run the entire gamut of what is possible on the clarinet. He, too, was instrumental, so to speak, in the development of the clarinet, and it is his improvements on Boehm’s system that continue today. Like the Baermanns, he was a well-known and influential teacher.
Cyrille Rose
Rose was Klose’s student, and “everybody who was anybody” in the clarinet world studied with him at one time or another. His “32 Etudes” and “40 Etudes” are staples in clarinet instruction to this day. In fact, in the same way as piano players trace their teachers’ “pedigrees” back to Liszt and say they “studied with Liszt,” many clarinet players do the same with both Rose and Klose. Rose played in the Paris Conservetoire orchestra like his mentor. Many of his famous students, like Paul JeanJean and Henri Selmer, developed their own pedagogy or crafted exceptional instruments.
Karl Leister
Possessed of a sweet, dark tone and mind-boggling technique, Karl Leister was the principal clarinetist in the Berlin Philharmonic for three decades. He played the Oehler system clarinet, which was developed from Baermann’s improvements. Even after leaving the orchestra as the principal after retiring, he taught and performed all over the world in chamber ensembles and as a featured soloist with many other orchestras. Karl Leister is the first person on this list to be still living, and he is currently 84 years old.
Harold Wright
Harold Wright was the principal clarinetist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1970 until his far-too-early death in 1993. His warm, vibrant sound was unmistakable in recordings. Audiophiles could immediately tell it was a Boston Symphony recording by hearing him play the first clarinet part. He also played with the Dallas Symphony and the National Symphony of Washington, D.C., prior to taking up his greatest position. As noted as he is as an orchestral musician, he is equally famous as a chamber player. As a teacher, he inspired students at both Boston University and at the Tanglewood Center.
Robert Marcellus
Robert Marcellus was to the Cleveland Orchestra what Harold Wright was in Boston: an unmistakable virtuoso who beguiled audiences with his superb playing and inspired students with thought-provoking instruction. Marcellus’s recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra is considered definitive. As a teacher, he is recognized as the greatest of them all from 1950 onward. Tragically, diabetes took him far too early, and in his later years, when the disease robbed him of his sight and affected his embouchure when he lost a few teeth, he focused on teaching rather than playing.
Stanley Drucker
Stanley Drucker is still alive well into his 90s and set the record for service as a clarinetist with a major symphony orchestra after playing with the New York Philharmonic for 62 years. Notorious as prickly when instructing and also for his world-class articulation, he was a leading figure in the music world for his entire career. It is doubtful that anyone will surpass his record of playing more than 10,000 concerts with the orchestra, chamber groups, and as a soloist. His wife, Naomi, is a clarinetist, too, and many clarinetists think that she’s even better than he was.
Anthony Gigliotti
Anthony Gigliotti served as the principal clarinetist in the Philadelphia Orchestra for 47 years. He was renowned as a teacher and made his immortal contribution to the field by designing and developing his eponymous ligature, which helps the player produce a bright and clear sound that resembles what he also strove to achieve. He founded the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet. It’s one of the most highly regarded chamber ensembles in the country. Both he and bassoonist Bernard Garfield arranged many other pieces for the quintet.
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman is as unconventional as he is famous. He has more than three dozen solo records that have performed very well on the classical music charts. He is the first soloist to have made a wide and powerful impression on the masses. People who aren’t really classical music fans, let alone devotees of the clarinet, know his name. He has done numerous “crossover” concerts with musicians as varied as Chick Corea, Claude Bolling, and Judy Collins. Stoltzman uses a heavy vibrato in his playing, which is the chief reason his playing is controversial in the industry. Still, his combination of artistry, popularity, and slick business practices kept him at the forefront of the world of clarinet for many years. When Liszt battled Thalberg in their famous duel, the countess who sponsored it said that, “Liszt is unique.” The New York Times awarded the same title to Richard Stoltzman.
Benny Goodman
The “King of Swing” was a powerful presence on stage in many different genres. He was a champion of jazz of all kinds, and his 1938 performance at Carnegie Hall in New York was and is seen as the beginning of jazz as “respectable music.” Benny Goodman changed with the times too. After the decline of swing music, he switched to bebop even though he didn’t care much for the style. He even studied clarinet with Reginald Kell to beef up his classical chops. It was a tough go, and he had to remove calluses from his fingers that he had had for decades. Still, he was successful, and even though his recordings of both the K.581 and K.622 are not seen as paragons of the art, they are still widely respected.
Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr
Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr is primarily known as an educator, and she ruled the halls of Michigan State University with an iron disposition that was necessary for her to survive in a field supremely dominated by men. Her Verdehr Trio has been a cutting-edge performing ensemble since its inception. Perhaps her most famous performance came in the legendary 1958 recording with the Eastman Wind Ensemble when they played the Mozart “Gran Partita,” K.361. This is one of the greatest recorded performances of the 20th century, and she was a mere 22 when it was recorded.
Sabine Meyer
In 1982, the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, handpicked a clarinetist to join the ensemble: Sabine Meyer. The nature of her association with the orchestra, which bypassed the normal audition process, caused great controversy within the ranks. Nine months after she joined the group, she left the orchestra to pursue a solo career. The vote regarding keeping her in the orchestra was 73-4 against her. Their excuse was, “She doesn’t blend,” but most people realized it was misogyny and prejudice that forced her out. There was really no way to complain about her playing, which is phenomenal. She has had a worldwide solo career ever since her departure in 1983.
At first glance, there isn’t much difference between an oboe and a clarinet.
In most cases, professional models of each are made from various kind of wood, usually grenadilla.
They both have many keys, and they both use reeds to produce their tones.
In reality, however, they are very different instruments with very different histories.
Facts on Oboe vs Clarinet
The Oboe
The precursors to the modern oboe include the sorna from Persia and the aulo from Greece. These were very simple instruments with just a few holes. The aulo also had a drone pipe attached to it and was much like a bagpipe chanter. Both of these instruments are thousands of years old.
In the 12th century, wind musicians in the Middle East refined these earlier instruments and created the shawm. The shawm became the first instrument used en masse in military bands when the Janissaries used it to bolster troop morale in the field. These Christian slave soldiers to the Sultans would often march with 20 or 30 shawms into battle, as well, striking fear into their enemies.
Although more advanced than either the aulo or the sorna, the shawm had no keys like a modern oboe. Shawm players also did not put their lips directly on the double reed. There was an intervening piece of wood called a pirouette where the player would blow.
Five centuries after the development of the shawm, some unknown instrument maker added a single key to the shawm, doubling its range. About 80 years later, a French instrument maker named Martin Hotteterre designed what he called the hautbois, which is the first instrument that fully resembles the modern oboe. He removed the pirouette from the equation and added keys to give the players more facility. For the first time, players had a formidable range of more than two full octaves.
Even from its earliest beginnings, the instrument had a conical bore, which means that it started small at the top and flared gradually outward throughout its length. The conical bore meant that the addition of a register key could produce octaves using the same fingerings.
There are two chief schools of oboe building today: the Viennese and the French. The fingering systems are much the same, but the Viennese differs from the French when it comes to certain notes in the middle range of the instrument. The Viennese oboe uses what are called “long fingerings,” which use many fingers to cover many holes to produce the notes. Conversely, the French oboe uses a single whisper key and only a few fingers to produce the same notes.
The tone of the two oboe styles differs too. The French oboe has a more piercing, brighter sound than the Viennese, which is darker and blends more easily with the other woodwind instruments.
The Clarinet
Unlike the oboe and its earliest versions, which were known in 500 BCE, the clarinet is a mere youngster.
Johann Denner, a German instrument maker, took the chalumeau and added two keys to it to create the first clarinet. The chalumeau itself hadn’t been invented very long before the clarinet.
Both the clarinet and the chalumeau used a single reed attached to a mouthpiece. This is the chief difference between the oboe and the two newer instruments. Both the woodworking techniques and the necessary tools for making the mouthpieces didn’t exist before the period near the turn of the 18th century.
Although the exact date of the emergence of both the chalumeau and the clarinet is not known, it’s nearly universally accepted as being between 1680 and 1700.
The second major difference between the oboe and the clarinet is the shape of the bore. The clarinet is a cylinder instead of a cone. Aside from the bell, which is flared, it is the same diameter inside for its entire length.
This creates a unique situation among woodwind instruments. The physics of a cylinder that is closed by a single reed are such that the clarinet cannot produce even-numbered overtones.
It is therefore necessary for the clarinetist to change fingerings to produce octaves. This means that the timbre of every note’s octave will be different than the original note. The clarinetist produces a 12th by depressing the register key. For example, if the player plays a C and depresses the register key, the resulting note will be the G above the C octave.
This idiosyncrasy is what gives the clarinet its distinctive and unique tone. It also means that the clarinet has the largest range of any of the woodwind instruments; three-and-a-half octaves. It also has an incredible dynamic range, able not only to cut through an entire orchestra but also to play incredibly softly and mysteriously even in the highest of registers, which rival the flute.
The clarinet also has two chief fingering systems: the Oehler system and the Boehm system.
The Oehler system is used in Germany and Austria, and it very much resembles that of the oboe. In fact, many of the necessary alternate fingerings used for certain musical passages are the same.
The Boehm system is used almost everywhere else. It, too, has alternate fingerings, but unlike those required in the Oehler system, without which certain passages would be impossible, those in the Boehm system are for convenience’ sake.
Conclusion
The differences between the two instruments make them indispensable in the orchestra. The color that each brings to a performance gives composers great flexibility in expressing themselves.
The two instruments blend magnificently, particularly when it’s a Viennese oboe.
The darker color of the Viennese oboe matches the prevalence of the sevenths in the overtone series produced by the clarinet.
Like any musical instrument, the clarinet is difficult.
The operant saying is, “There is no easy way into the band room.” The saying applies equally to the orchestra rehearsal hall.
There’s an old children’s game of patting one’s head while trying to trace a circle with the opposite hand on one’s midsection.
Playing clarinet is a lot like trying to do that with four arms and six hands.
The Foundation: Embouchure
The pedagogy of playing the clarinet is a lot like a tower. Without a foundation, a tower would collapse. Without a proper embouchure, nothing else that’s any good will happen. The most common mistake is to bunch the lower lip and wind up biting the mouthpiece. Biting the mouthpiece will cause the reed to be constricted and only to make disagreeable sounds. It will also cause pain in the player’s lips.
Instead, the lower lip should be placed on top of the teeth. It should not be stretched into a smile nor should it be too far “over-the-top” so that the skin of the chin is on the teeth. It should also not be in front of the bottom teeth. The cheeks should be pressed tightly against the molars so that no air leaks through the teeth to create pockets inside the mouth. Then, the chin should be flattened and pointed.
The player forms this embouchure around the mouthpiece with the teeth touching the top of the mouthpiece about 1/4-inch from the tip. The reed should rest upon the lower lip on top of the teeth. The lip forms a cushion for the reed, which supports the instrument and keeps air from escaping. There should be no jaw pressure upward at all. All the pressure should come horizontally on the sides of the mouthpiece, exerted by the cheek muscles.
The Importance of Breathing and Airflow
If you tell someone to take a deep breath, the chances are that the person will shrug the shoulders and struggle to expand the ribcage to breathe. This does not provide a truly deep breath for two reasons:
There is no lung tissue in the shoulders.
The lungs cannot expand comfortably by trying to press themselves through the ribcage.
Instead, the person should contract the diaphragm, which will then create extra space downward inside the chest cavity. Creating this extra space allows air pressure to force air into the lungs and expand them downward. No shoulder movement is necessary nor even desirable. The pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch is more than enough to force the air into the lungs simply by creating that extra space.
To get used to diaphragmatic breathing, the player should sit with feet shoulder width apart and then bend over at the waist with the head dangling below the knees. Then, the person should breathe deeply. In that position, it is impossible for the chest to expand. Therefore, the abdomen will expand easily. To sense this expansion, the person should grasp the side of the abdomen as if pinching it and feel the fingers expand during the intake of breath.
To make sound on the clarinet, the player must exhale air through the mouthpiece and reed. The air should always move at great speed. The player should not try to force the air out by constricting the neck muscles or pursing the lips as if blowing out birthday candles. The constriction of the neck muscles will restrict the airflow, and the pursed lips will destroy the proper embouchure. Instead, the person should keep the throat open as if yawning while maintaining the proper embouchure. To create the airflow, the person should pull in the diaphragm, forcing the air out of the lungs at a high rate of speed.
Neither slow air nor air that has been diffused by an improper embouchure into static pockets in the cheeks will produce a good, characteristic clarinet tone.
Counting Rhythms
It is crucial to be able to count both beats and rhythms so that the player knows when the notes are supposed to happen. Before playing more than simple long tones on the clarinet, the player should work with a rhythm primer to practice clapping rhythms correctly.
The beat is also known as the pulse. How quickly the beats progress is called the tempo. The slowest tempos are about 30 beats per minute while the quickest are more than 200 beats per minute. The rhythm is the collection of notes that surround the beat. Some notes last longer than one beat, and some notes last half of a beat, a quarter of a beat, or even less. The general practice is to count beats while saying the rhythms and clapping them simultaneously. The scope of this article is too small to go into a full examination of rhythms. That’s why the player needs a rhythm primer.
Practicing the Notes
Once the player understands where the notes fall, the next step, or “floor of the tower,” is to begin to practice different notes. On the clarinet, there are 17 keys and six rings. The hole under the third finger of the left hand has no ring. To produce the different notes, the player depresses or releases keys in certain patterns. The player must learn which collections of depressed and released keys produce which notes and practice them to commit them to muscle memory.
It is important to note the concept of voicing. The tongue must be placed in the correct position inside the mouth. If the tongue is wrongly placed, then the notes produced will be disagreeable in tone, out of tune, or both. The correct position of the tongue is for the tip to hover near the reed at the tip of the mouthpiece and for the back of the tongue to arch toward the roof of the mouth without touching it.
The higher the notes to be played are, the higher the back of the tongue must arch. Notes that are produced by opening the register key are overtones, so a tongue position that is too low in the mouth will yield a “vuh vuh vuh” or “vvvvvvvvv” sound. Only when the tongue is correctly placed will they sound true.
Here’s a great video showing how to play your first three notes:
Articulation
Articulation is the separation of notes from one another. Many times, the player connects all the notes without moving the tip of the tongue. This is called slurring. Sometimes, the player will separate all of the notes from one another. Other times, the player will produce patterns of slurred and separated notes. The proper method of articulation is to touch the right half of the tongue to the left half of the reed, which will stop the reed from vibrating, creating a break in the tone.
It is essential not to stop the airflow when applying the tongue to the reed. Think of it as a turned-on faucet. If you slice your finger through the flowing water, there is a slight break, but the water keeps flowing. The airstream produced should emulate that flowing water, and the tongue striking the reed takes the place of the slicing finger.
The most complicated passages in music combine all of these techniques at the same time. This is why there is no easy way into the rehearsal hall or band room.
For this list, let’s consider a beginner to be someone who has progressed past the basic tenets of a beginning band method, perhaps with a year’s experience.
The following pieces are all good choices for someone of that level.
They offer pleasing melodies, and they reinforce several techniques that clarinet students will learn in a beginning band method.
Intermediate students may have progressed to the second volume of a band method or to an intermediate solo method book.
This famous jazz standard is arranged for just the first five notes that all clarinet players learn whether they start in the school band or with a private teacher. They are the notes C through G and are played exclusively with the fingers and thumb of the left hand.
The performance notes on this song indicate that the player can alter the rhythm slightly to be “in style” with the New Orleans jazz medium. The player can also change the tempo to speed up and slow down as preferred.
Tchaikovsky’s masterwork ballet comes to life in this charming arrangement for clarinet and piano. This piece falls into the easy intermediate category. The tessitura is high, so the player will have to voice the parts properly by controlling the shape of the inside of the mouth and the arch of the back of the tongue. The higher the notes go, the higher the arch of the tongue in the back of the throat must be.
The technical demands are not overly difficult, but the player must pay attention to the accidentals. These are notes that do not appear in the key signature of A minor. Examples include the F#s and C#s that appear throughout the piece. There is a theory among clarinet teachers that says, “There are two kinds of music: songs and dances.” With this piece, the player gets to “dance” in collaboration with the pianist.
This piece is quite simple on the notes, but it challenges the budding player to stretch to understand the complex rhythms of compound meter. The student must count the six beats of each measure in two equal groups of three to get the famous song’s rocking feel.
In some of the measures, there are clearly marked duples where the student stretches the time to play two notes in the same time that it would normally take to play three. Whereas “Swan Lake,” being a ballet, is a dance, this famous traditional piece is a song. Many popular music single artists and groups have recorded this song.
This is perhaps Beethoven’s most well-known piece. Every piano student learns it at one time or another within the first two years of studying the instrument. Here, the clarinet takes the lead in playing the melody. The player has a good challenge when it comes to the technique.
The movement from F# to E#, or F-natural, requires the use of two different fingerings. In fact, this is a terrific piece for the advancing beginner to use to learn the alternate fingering for the F# in addition to the normal fingering. The requisite patterns repeats several times throughout the piece, giving the playing ample practice at this important skill.
This song is a swing tune, meaning that the eighth notes aren’t played “straight.” They “bounce.” The song introduces the concept of blues harmony, the aforementioned swing rhythm, and improvisation. For several measures during the piece, using the notes provided, the player gets to play any desired rhythm or pattern. Making it up as one goes along is fun!
The best part is that the player can do it differently each time. Every person who improvises has a distinct style. Some players emulate others while others craft their own sound. Beginners who have spent a lot of time learning notes and patterns will be able to let loose and put their own stamp on this tune.
The Sonata No. 14 in C# minor is almost as famous as Für Elise. This arrangement simplifies the key considerably for the beginning clarinetist. This tune is longer than the first five on this list. The idea is to strengthen the student’s breath control and sense of phrasing.
The student must pay great attention to the spots where a breath makes sense. One shouldn’t breathe in the middle of a phrase. A good policy is always to strive to play four-measure phrases. If the student has above-average breath control, then eight measures are possible.
Another swing tune using blues harmony. This one offers another chance at improvisation but uses chord changes that present the student with different groups of notes upon which to improvise. “Dallas Blues” doesn’t have an accompaniment for piano, though, so it is a true solo.
Players will be able to hear the chord progressions of the standard 12-bar blues as they improvise on the given notes. They can then compare those sounds with those in the sections marked “play as written.” Despite the apparent complexity of this song, it is not difficult to play once the student has a thorough understanding of the concepts therein.
It’s not a coincidence that we keep coming back to Beethoven. He wrote some of the greatest themes for the symphonic stage of anyone ever. The “Ode to Joy,” set to Schiller’s famous poem, speaks of the brotherhood of everyone under the spread, comforting wings of an all-powerful Creator. The student should strive to achieve that kind of sound throughout.
The melody of this piece uses higher notes than the others on this list all the way through. Beginning students should take care that their embouchures are strongly and correctly set and that they play with proper breath support and correct tongue position within the mouth.
The “Mexican Hat Dance” is more difficult than the other tunes on this list, but it’s not impossible for an intermediate player to learn it. Like “House of the Rising Sun,” the piece is in compound meter. As a reminder, that means that each beat is split into three eight notes that are played equidistant apart in the space of that one beat.
This tune is faster than the others on the list. Presto is one of the two fastest tempo markings. Only prestissimo is faster. Presto is about 176 counts, or beats, per minute or faster. Beginners who work on their technique up to the intermediate level will be able to play this piece quite well, and their hard work will be worth it.
This beloved hymn sits just right under the fingers of the clarinetist. It’s a soulful prayer about how God’s grace uplifts the singer or player. The beginning player should play it with the same feelings to be musically true to the piece even if the person is not a believer. “Amazing Grace” is also very well-known, so when people play it, others might sing along!
Conclusion
These songs should be a starting point for the students who want to branch out from exercises in their method books. As the students progress, they can move on to easy pieces from the classical literature, such as Karl Stamitz’s clarinet concertos. Also, students should explore world music from many cultures and countries.
There is a whole world of countries with extensive musical traditions that go beyond mere folk songs. All clarinetists, from beginner to professional alike, should avail themselves of all that the world has to offer them musically.
The clarinet is a versatile instrument in bands, orchestras, and jazz ensembles. It is also a solo instrument.
In the concert band, it takes the place of the string section. In the orchestra, the clarinet usually appears in pairs and plays both lyrical and technical passages. Many jazz clarinetists also play saxophone and flute especially those who play in pit ensembles for stage shows. Some even play oboe and bassoon too.
Still, the clarinet is a crucial member to any ensemble in which it takes part. Its unique timbre and overtones give it its characteristic sound, which can be expressive and loving as well as fiery and thrilling.
The clarinet comes in many sizes. From the tiny Ab sopranino to the gigantic sub-contrabass, each version uses the same basic fingering patterns.
All use a single reed held onto the mouthpiece by a contraption called a ligature. Some of these have screws while others are simply bands of string or other elastic material. Some even just use bare string that fits into grooves in the mouthpiece.
What is a Clarinet and More Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Is a Clarinet?
As stated, the clarinet is an instrument closed at one end by a single reed. The most common clarinet is the Bb clarinet. When its five pieces are fully assembled, it measures some 60 cm, or 23.6 inches, in length. The clarinet has a cylindrical bore that only flares somewhat at the bell. For this reason, the clarinet cannot produce even numbered overtones. That is why it produces an octave and a fifth when the player presses the register key. This necessitates the changing of fingerings to produce octaves, which is in contrast to saxophones. Saxophones have conical bores, and they can produce the even-numbered overtones. Whereas the clarinetist must switch as many as seven fingers to achieve an octave above certain notes, the saxophonist merely has to press the octave key.
Clarinets are made from a variety of materials, including wood, resin, and even metal. Metal clarinets are sometimes fashioned in a single piece and don’t require assembly or disassembly. Wooden clarinets are made from blackwood, grenadilla wood, boxwood, rosewood, and cocobolo. Grenadilla wood is incredibly hard. It’s so hard, in fact, that using a chainsaw would break the blade. It must be hewn by an axe, and teams of cutters alternate because the wood dulls the axe after a few chops. Cocobolo and boxwood are softer woods and produce markedly different tone quality than grenadilla wood. Boxwood was used extensively when the clarinet was created because European instrument makers were either unaware of grenadilla wood, or they lacked the proper tools to work it. Grenadilla must be spun on a lathe with the hardest metal cutting attachments to add the toneholes. While the lathe has been around since ancient times, the alloys necessary to cut grenadilla have not.
When it comes to the larger clarinets, like the alto, bass, and contrabass, the materials are the same a lot of the time. Many contrabass clarinets, however, are still fashioned from metal because of their curved construction. Some contrabass clarinets are straight, but they are prone to bent keys because of the need to disassemble the instrument for storage. Without disassembly, the case would be nearly 3 meters long, making it unwieldy. Metal contrabass clarinets coil that 3-meter length into something much more manageable.
The reeds are usually made from the outside layers of bamboo. They are cut and beveled to fit squarely and snugly against the flat part of the mouthpiece. The player blows air through the aperture created by the tip of the reed and the tip of the mouthpiece. The vibration of the reed sets the air inside the bore to vibrating, and these vibrations are what produce the tone.
Some reeds are created from synthetic materials. Historically, these artificial reeds have been godawful, but lately, companies like Legere are producing top-quality synthetic reeds. These reeds, though not indestructible, last far longer than cane reeds. Many players, even top pros, are using Legere reeds these days, and they’re achieving at least the same results as players who cling to their natural cane.
2. Who Invented the Clarinet?
The man who invented the clarinet was named Johann Christoph Denner. He was born on August 13, 1655, in the city of Leipzig. Both he and his father, Heinrich, were instrument makers. The elder Denner was famous for crafting beautiful hunting horns and signaling whistles. Being a horn tuner as well as a craftsman, Heinrich Denner had a keen ear and was famous for his workmanship in Saxony.
He passed on this keen ear to his son, who would change the historical development of the orchestra. Johann Christoph also had children who would become famous instrument makers. Their names were Jakob Denner and Johann David Denner. In addition to making improvements to their father’s instruments, notably the clarinet, the sons crafted bassoons, flutes, flagolets, recorders, and even oboes.
Johann David mostly worked with the double-reed counterparts to the clarinet: the oboe and the bassoon. His elder brother worked with the clarinet and the instruments that didn’t use reeds. He was also a very fine performer and played his brother’s oboes to great effect.
Unfortunately, their clarinet-creating father died very young on April 20, 1707, and never saw his sons realize their full potential. He was their inspiration, however. What Johann Christoph did was to take a known instrument, the chalumeau, which had no keys, and add two keys to it.
The first key was a register key, which was played with the thumb and caused the instrument to overblow at the 12th. That gave the performer much greater flexibility than before and created a whole new octave of notes to play. The second key was added so that the player could create the notes between the highest note without the register key and the lowest note with it. Both sons kept improving the instrument throughout their lives.
3. When Was the Clarinet Invented?
Johann Christoph Denner first altered the chalumeau in roughly 1690. At that time, the player played with the reed under the top lip rather than on the underside of the mouthpiece. Over the next 10 years or so, Johann Christoph played around with the improved chalumeau, adding a key here and a key there. Still, in his lifetime, he never really got the clarinet to a recognizable point. His sons, however, refined it more and more, and by 1710, the improved chalumeau began being called the clarinet. The older term disappeared quickly.
The name clarinet comes from the Italian “clarino,” which is a “little trumpet.” Indeed, with their small bores and undoubtedly soft reeds, they sounded a little bit like a trumpet.
When manufacturing techniques for the wooden mouthpieces improved, and the ligatures improved as well, players noticed that if they switched the reed facing from the top to the bottom of the embouchure, they could produce a more pleasing tone than ever before even with a small bore and a boxwood body.
From the period between 1710 and the time Mozart composed his clarinet quintet, K.581, and his clarinet concerto, K.622, for Anton Stadler, the clarinet remained largely unchanged. It was a six-keyed instrument and was usually pitched in A. As with many orchestras at the time, the tuning of the instrument varied by the maker and fell between 415 and 440 cycles per second.
In 1751, Johann Sebastian Bach’s son, Johann Christian Bach, introduced the clarinet to London the year after his father’s death. During that time, when people in London talked about “Bach,” they were talking about Johann Christian and not “Papa.” A little more than a decade later, when Mozart came to London on tour with his father, Leopold, he met Johann Christian Bach. Undoubtedly, Mozart heard the clarinet being played in the many concerts he both attended and played while in London. He studied with Johann Christian Bach for nearly a year, learning composition, theory, and keyboarding on the harpsichord.
Mozart was just 8 years old at the time, and Johann Christian Bach was 29 years old. Bach became sort of a “Big Brother” to Mozart, such as from Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Mozart was alone in a strange city with no friends, and the friendship between the student and master was both fast and lasting. In 1782, when Johann Christian Bach died, Mozart was despondent and remarked, “What a loss to the musical world!”
Mozart acknowledged the influence Johann Christian Bach had on him. He based many of his harpsichord and piano works on that influence. And, in turn, the Denners’ most famous instrument had an influence on him. Indeed, many clarinetists believe his concerto to be the pinnacle of the form.
4. Where Was the Clarinet Invented?
The clarinet was created in Germany. Johann Christoph Denner, after all, lived in Leipzig. His sons lived in Germany after their father was dead too. When it comes to orchestral wind instruments, woodwind or brass, the clarinet is the youngest of them. The oboe dates to ancient times as the shawm, and the brass instruments, not requiring sophisticated woodworking techniques with metals that had not been invented yet, existed nearly as far back.
The clarinet’s rise from humble beginnings in 1690 to a solo instrument that demanded the utmost musicianship from its players leads directly through Mannheim. The orchestra that came together in 1720, numbering more than 50 musicians, was like nothing the world had ever seen. During the early Baroque period, ensembles numbered five or six musicians, perhaps as high as 10. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, composed the year after the founding of the Mannheim orchestra, only required 17, and that was thought to be a lot.
Clarinetists were included in the Mannheim orchestra, although they were much like the trumpets of the time, which did not have valves, and they played parts that weren’t lyrical or soloistic. Once Johann Stamitz took over the orchestra in 1741, it began to develop into the premier ensemble of its type in the world. Stamitz did what were daring things, such as the famous Mannheim crescendo. Before 1741, almost all pieces had what are known as terrace dynamics. Music was loud and then suddenly soft. The opposite was also true. Stamitz had the idea to have the orchestra get louder gradually.
Audiences were thrilled, and people came from all over to hear this unheard-of phenomenon. By this time, the clarinet was outfitted with six keys and could play all manner of lyrical and technical passages. Also, the clarinet’s single reed and cylindrical bore enable it to play softer than any other instrument, and its part in the Mannheim crescendo was prominent.
Other instruments went through changes at the same time as the clarinet. Trumpets were given keys similar to those on the clarinet, and they could then play lyrical and technical passages in the lower registers rather than having to rely on the overtone series. Sakbuts got slides and became trombones. Oboes got more keys. Stringed instrument makers began winding their catgut strings with copper and other softer metals. In the beginning, they did this with the G string, and as technology improved, they began winding other strings too. Steel and synthetics came in during the very late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Because Mannheim was in Germany, these innovations all came about in that country. Johann Stamitz’s elder son, Karl, became a famous composer and wrote quite a few clarinet concertos. They were not the equal of Mozart’s masterwork, but they are delightful, airy pieces that bring good cheer to any audience. The Mannheim orchestra’s prominence only lasted about 40 years. After that, it merged with the Munich court orchestra because the Elector Count of Mannheim succeeded to the throne of Bavaria in 1778, and he took his orchestra with him.
5. Why Was the Clarinet Invented?
The clarinet was invented because the chalumeau was limited in range to a single octave. Other instruments were already capable of playing notes over at least two octaves. Stringed and fretted instruments could play three or more octaves. The collection of instruments left over from the Renaissance, such as krummhorns, cornamuses, and such, were limited in range too. Even recorders had a limited range, although they came in a great array of sizes so that there could be a great range.
Having a single wind instrument that could cover a range of three-and-a-half octaves, play lyrically, play technically, and be easily portable was something that seemed impossible. This instrument could take the place of a group of recorders and achieve the same kind of sound. Johann Christoph Denner made the first attempt to tackle the problem. At the time, “Papa” Bach was only 5 years old!
Mozart composed his concerto roughly 100 years after Johann Christoph Denner first put a couple of keys on the chalumeau. Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert all wrote wonderful pieces for the clarinet. Interestingly, all three made their greatest contributions to the clarinet literature late in their lives. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has the most complicated symphonic parts for the clarinet that Beethoven wrote. Brahms’s two clarinet sonatas, Op. 120 Nos. 1 and 2, are acknowledged masterworks of great beauty, poise, and power. Schubert’s “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen,” or “The Shepherd on the Rock,” was the final piece he composed. Mozart only composed four more items after the Clarinet Concerto.
Since the time of Mozart, the clarinet has gone through ever more changes. Keys were added. Mouthpieces became easier to make and customize largely because of improvements in materials. Reeds have become better and more uniform in performance. Clarinetists will tell you that their relationships with reeds are definitely “love-hate,” but those reeds are quantum leaps ahead of what Stadler had when he played Mozart’s concerto for the first time!
6. How long is a Clarinet?
As stated previously, clarinets come in many sizes. The smallest is the Ab sopranino clarinet, which is barely 31 cm long. It will actually fit into the bell of a contrabass clarinet. Anyone with average hand size will find it impossible to play because the holes would be only about half the size of a person’s fingertips. Not many composers write for this instrument, but both Verdi and Bartok did. It’s also a frequent member of a clarinet choir, particularly when it comes to Italian music and arrangements.
The Eb clarinet is about 50 cm long, but it can vary depending on the manufacturer. Some make their Eb clarinets with bigger internal bores, and these will be necessarily shorter than their small-bore cousins. Unlike the Ab clarinet, which is rare, the Eb clarinet plays in a great many composers’ music. Berlioz, for example, composed the “Symphonie Fantastique” with the Eb clarinet in the first clarinet part during the movement “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.” Ralph Vaughan Williams gave the melody to the Eb clarinet in his composition “Sea Songs.” The “eefer,” as it’s sometimes called, has the lead in the section marked “Portsmouth.”
The workhorse of the clarinet family is the Bb clarinet. It forms the crux of a concert band and is equally at home as one of the lead woodwinds in an orchestra. There are many chamber music pieces that include the Bb clarinet. Beethoven, for example, included two in his Op. 71 Sextet for two clarinets, two horns, and two bassoons. Mozart and Brahms both composed pieces that included a string quartet plus a clarinet.
M.L Lake created famous concert band arrangements of classical overtures by von Suppe, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and others. The clarinet section, which is usually split into three parts, stands in for the upper strings. The players must have fabulous technique to conquer the parts. Marching bands include Bb clarinets, too, and great march composers like Sousa, Alford, Husadel, Teike, and Elliott have made good use of their sound and technique. The Bb clarinet is about 60 cm long.
The A clarinet is 66 cm long, and it exists to provide clarinetists relief from sharp keys while playing in the orchestra. Band keys favor lots of flats because there are multiple Bb instruments playing in them. Orchestra keys usually contain many sharps because the stringed instruments have strings tuned to sharp keys. A clarinets, being pitched a minor third lower than concert pitch, allow clarinetists to play in flats rather than sharps.
The alto clarinet has a bad reputation. Some people have remarked that it is the “hermaphrodite of the clarinet family.” Outside of older band music and clarinet choirs, you don’t find alto clarinets much anymore. They are 109 cm long and are pitched in Eb. They are a natural outgrowth of the basset horn, which was usually pitched in G.
The bass clarinet is about 130 cm long, counting the curved neck and bell sections. Some models that go to a low written C are longer, perhaps 136-140 cm long. A bass clarinet outfitted with a low C plays the same range as the bassoon, which is quite interesting because a bassoon’s entire length is nearly 2.5 meters. How the two instruments could be of such disparate length yet still produce the same range of notes has baffled instrument makers for decades. It’s possible that the bassoon, closed by a double reed at the end of a very narrow lead pipe called a bocal, needs the extra length whereas the clarinet, closed by a single reed on a large mouthpiece, does not.
The contrabass clarinet is a bit longer than the bassoon at 2.7 meters. The contra-alto clarinet, which is almost exclusively a clarinet choir instrument, is a bit shorter at 2.3 meters. These instruments sound an octave lower than the bass clarinet and the bassoon and are the equivalent of the contra bassoon. They almost never appear in orchestral music, but many composers use them to great effect in band works.
7. How Many Keys Does a Clarinet Have?
As we’ve already seen, Johann Christoph Denner’s clarinet had only two keys. Mozart’s clarinet had six. Today, most standard clarinets have 17 keys and seven rings. The rings under the right hand all move together when one of them is pressed. The two rings on the front of the clarinet under the left hand only both close when the player presses both. When the player presses with only the index finger of the left hand, only the first ring is depressed. The left thumb covers the seventh ring.
In most cases, the keys and rings are pressed in combination to produce the different notes. Sometimes, players will add additional keys, cover additional holes, or even open other keys that aren’t part of the “standard” fingering for each not. They do this to correct intonation or to create a better, more pleasing sound. Sometimes, the tonal color of alternate fingerings is more desirable than the tonal color of the standard fingerings. This is especially true in the register known as the altissimo. These are the notes above the note created by pressing the thumb’s register key and only covering the thumb hole. This is a concert Bb, which is a C on the clarinet. In the parlance, this is called “high C.” Another C exists an octave higher, but it’s known as “double-high C.”
A scholar of the Chinese martial philosopher named Sun Tzu once remarked that ancient Chinese was largely a point of view. Altissimo notes on clarinet are the same way. In many cases, there are more than a dozen possible fingerings for each of these altissimo notes. Some are stable in pitch. Others are slightly out-of-tune but are much more stable when it comes to actually producing the tone. The player then uses additional or lesser lip pressure to bring the note in tune. Which the player chooses is governed by whether the note in question is sharp or flat.
Players must studiously practice technique because you need scads of it to be successful as a clarinetist. You have three-and-a-half octaves of notes available to you, and many composers, notably Stravinsky, von Weber, Corigliano, and Mozart, give you quite a few of them to play in rapid succession.
Some clarinets come with extra keys that are designed to make certain note transitions easier than they are on the standard clarinet. Some of these keys make small tuning sacrifices in the name of smoother technique, so a player should weigh this consideration carefully before purchasing a clarinet with the extra keys.
8. How Many Notes Can a Clarinet Play?
From the clarinet’s low E to the “double-high C” encompasses 44 notes. The pianist has 88 keys, one per note, to play 88 notes, but the clarinetist must use 10 fingers in several combinations to achieve all 44. The design of the keys is such that scales, arpeggios, and all manner of other technical wizardry is fluid for the player. Of course, some compromises exist, and certain keys just don’t “lie well” on the instrument.
Most players are right-handed, so left hand-intensive keys like Db major, D major, and Eb major present some “twisty” technical issues as the player changes registers from chalumeau to clarion. The clarion register comprises the same fingerings as the chalumeau register but with the register key pressed. Between these two registers lies the “throat tone register.” These are fingerings using either no fingers at all or just one or two. They are notorious for being thin sounding, out-of-tune, and downright persnickety to play.
They had to be added because of the clarinet’s inability to produce octaves using the same fingerings and just adding the register key. Clarinetists work tirelessly to master these notes, using alternate fingerings to improve their sound and pitch.
Then, there is the “break.” The Bb played on the middle line of the staff uses just two fingers. The next note in the chromatic scale, namely B-natural, calls for all eight fingers and the thumb to be pressed onto either keys or tone hole rings. Moving from open G, which uses no fingers, A, or Ab to B-natural involves the same kind of massive finger switch. Fortunately, clarinetists have a solution.
It is common practice to leave the fingers of the right hand pressed on the lower joint’s rings and holes while producing these throat tones. This has the added benefit of making the notes sound much more resonant than they would otherwise. It also makes it easier to cross “the break” because the player doesn’t have to put all fingers down at once. Some of the notes wind up being flat, however, and the player must exert lip pressure upon the reed to bring up the pitch. It must be stressed that this is lip pressure and not jaw pressure. Jaw pressure would stifle the vibration of the reed and produce weak tone.
9. How much is a Clarinet?
Clarinets cost different amounts of money. Student models of Bb clarinets, made of resin, normally cost a few hundred dollars, perhaps as much as $1,000. Wooden student models, or those made of composite materials, could cost roughly double that. Professional-grade instruments cost double that much again. Premium instruments, such as those made by Wurlitzer, could cost as much as 6,000 euros each. Wurlitzer flies to Tanzania to cut the tree when they receive an order. Their custom-made clarinets are among the best in the world. A clarinets of all qualities cost half again as much as Bb clarinets.
Professionals usually buy matched pairs of Bb and A clarinets so that they have both for their orchestra gigs. Matched pairs have the advantage of being tuned to the same pitch level. For example, the player may ask for a pair to be crafted based on the pitch of A441, or 441 cycles per second rather than A440. Some orchestras require their players to play at A444 or even higher. Ensembles that use period instruments might play much lower pitches, sometimes as low as A415.
The smaller and larger clarinets tend to cost more. A full, low-C bass clarinet made by Buffet Crampon could be as much as $15,000. Professional contrabass clarinets cost as much as small houses, although they’re not nearly as much as the top-end bassoons. Professional Eb clarinets run between $8,000 and $10,000. An Ab clarinet, because of the intricate work necessary to make such tiny keys, could cost double what an Eb clarinet costs.
Even student models of these clarinets are sizable investments. Student bass clarinets cost between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on whether or not they have a low-C, are fashioned of resin or composite, or have additional extras that come with it, such as extra necks of different lengths, pegs, straps, or stands. It’s also a very good idea to insure any instrument you buy so that it can be replaced in the event of some disaster.
10. Where to Buy a Clarinet near me?
There are many reputable places to buy clarinets. Most music stores have at least good-quality student models for sale. To buy professional-quality instruments, it’s a good idea to go with someone who is known in the business. In the United States, places like Fred Weiner’s in New York and Lisa’s Clarinet Shop in Chicago are both good options. It’s also good to buy from the manufacturer directly. Buffet Crampon maintains a presence in the U.S. even though it’s a French company. So do Selmer and LeBlanc, and Backun is just across the border in Canada. Wurlitzer is in Germany. Yamaha is Japanese, but they are omnipresent in the U.S., too, and offer student, intermediate, and professional-grade horns.
Do not, under any circumstances, buy instruments from Amazon or any other mass retailer. Brands like Mendini, and others that come with white gloves for “cleanliness,” have a terrible reputation among instrumentalists and teachers. Many repair shops won’t even repair them because they so easily break. A high-quality instrument will last a lifetime. Those cheaply made instruments might last a month or two and then need replacing. The old adage of, “You get what you pay for,” is true for clarinets.
Conclusion
The clarinet is the youngest member of the woodwind family. It has undergone quite a few transformations over the years. Today, it is a facile, lyrical, and beautiful instrument that can produce tenderness and power in equal quantities. Like all instruments, it is not easy to play. Mastering it is rewarding in and of itself, however. The clarinet originated in Germany, but many countries have companies that make fine clarinets. Bands and orchestras wouldn’t be the same without them.
No matter what, though, you should play for enjoyment and fulfillment. Music is its own reward, so we wish you good luck!
Want to learn how to put together a clarinet? You’re in the right place.
The Bb and A clarinets consist of five pieces each: the mouthpiece, barrel, upper joint, lower joint, and bell.
Bass clarinets generally have three or four pieces. They don’t have a barrel, and the upper and lower joints are sometimes molded in one piece. A bass clarinet will also have a peg that screws into the bottom of the bell so that the player can adjust the height.
Eb and Ab clarinets also lack the upper and lower joints. The middle portion of these clarinets is one piece. Contrabass clarinets made of metal are fastened together as one large piece but still have mouthpieces.
Your clarinet gets all manner of things on itself: key oil, bore oil, oil from your fingers, felt or other lining materials from your case, and all of the dust and other tiny detritus that you find in homes, in rehearsal halls, or on concert stages.
In rare cases, you might even get food or drink dropped or spilled on your clarinet. In short clarinets get dirty.
Most of the stuff you can get on your clarinet is not inherently harmful. Food and drink, however, can be anything from merely annoying to devastating.
There are a whole family of clarinets of various sizes. Before we get into it, just want to let you know we have a massive post on clarinet frequently asked questions and talk about how to play it as well.
Moving on nicely…
The smallest is the Ab clarinet. It’s so small, in fact, that many players cannot even play it because their fingers are bigger than the keys and the tone holes.
The Eb clarinet is about half the size of a Bb clarinet and is used for color in both band and orchestra.
What is the difference between the B flat and A clarinets? The Bb clarinet is the main clarinet, used in both bands and orchestras. The A clarinet is a slightly longer clarinet with a darker tone and half-step deeper pitch, used almost exclusively as an orchestral and solo instrument.
After that, there are the alto, contra-alto, bass, and contrabass clarinets. There is also a very rare sub-contrabass clarinet that plays an octave lower than the contrabass.
