The Clarinet
The clarinet is thought of as one of the more mediocre instruments in the musical repertoire. But actually it has one of the widest ranges of all the instruments in the musical orchestra. The Bb (the most common) clarinet can play 3 octaves, or ranges, of every note. It is hard to play that high for most people though because it requires a lot of mouth support. Most people also think it is mainly a classical instrument but it can be used for other types of music including jazz, like used by Benny Goodman, one of the most famous jazz and clarinet players of all time.
The modern day clarinet was invented in the nineteenth century but is just an evolution from earlier versions of the clarinet. Evolutions of the clarinet date back to as early as the twelfth century. The first precedent of the clarinet is the chalumeau, a folk song instrument, first adopted around 1690, by Johann Denner. Within thirty years it became part of the regular orchestra. It didn't go through many changes until 1842 when the Boehm system, already added to other instruments in the orchestra was added to the clarinet almost tripling its range. Since then, the clarinet has maintained most of its characteristics.
Most people think there are only two different types of clarinets but there are many more still in use today. The Bb (B flat) and the bass clarinet are the most common but there is an Eb, an A, a C, a alto and a contrabass just to name a few. The reason for so many is that the letter or name is an adjustment in pitch that people make. The Bb clarinet is one tone lower than a C, which is the concert pitch meaning the pitch at which everyone is set to play. The bass clarinet is one whole octave or six tones lower than Bb. All the music has to be adjusted to concert pitch so that all the instruments will sound more alike or in tune. This probably only makes sense to people that understand music but just try to bear with me.
The Bb clarinet does have have a big range but is also fairly complicated to play. There are sixty to seventy fingerings for the forty or so different notes. Some notes have as much as three different fingerings which means that the big range comes at a price - the price of complicated fingerings. Despite this, the clarinet is a very interesting instrument for either beginner or advanced music players.
Let's see if you actually learned something on the clarinet. Please take this quiz.
The answers are easy so you should be ashamed if you don't get all three on the first try.
Here is some more information on The Clarinet
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The image on this page was taken from the following Art Site
created by Nicholas on April 7, 2000