Part I
Tuning Up with the Basics
In this part . . .
You can pick up any instrument and start playing it. Little kids do it all the time. They bang on the piano keys, strum the guitar, pound on the drums, blow into a trumpet or harmonica, you name it. Such an approach, however, can be counterproductive, resulting in a damaged instrument, the acquisition of bad habits, and time-consuming trial by error.
A better approach is to brush up on the basics first. By grasping the fundamentals, starting with the right clarinet, knowing how to read music, and knowing how to handle and care for your clarinet, you learn how to play much more efficiently without risking unnecessary damage to your clarinet.
Consider the chapters in this part your warm-up exercises. Here, I bring you up to speed on the basics; help you pick the right clarinet for your needs; show you how to read music; and reveal the proper techniques for assembling, cleaning, and caring for your clarinet.
Chapter 1
So You Want to Play the Clarinet
In This Chapter
Getting past the apparent complexity of the clarinet
Selecting the right clarinet for you and putting it together
Engaging your entire body in playing well
Developing a richer, fuller sound
Staging productive practices and scoring performance opportunities
Whenever you approach a totally new experience, the learning curve can seem incredibly steep. You may not know what to expect, and you have no similar experience to form the framework for organizing and processing all the new information you’re about to encounter.
This chapter is designed to help with that — to get you past any lingering anxiety you may have over getting started, bring you up to speed on the basics, and assist you in wrapping your brain around what you’re about to experience.
You are about to take your first step toward playing one of the most remarkable-sounding musical instruments ever invented. Congratulations!
So, without further ado . . . a one . . . and a two . . . and a three. . . .
Overcoming Tone Hole Anxiety
I love to watch a new clarinet player’s face when he sees his clarinet for the first time. The expression is a mix of eagerness and terror — the eager anticipation of learning to play an instrument that sounds so absolutely cool and the terror of seeing all those holes and all that metal.
If you’re feeling this way right now, please remain calm. Do not head for the exits. Admittedly, all those holes and all that metal may seem overwhelming at first, but as soon as you get your hands wrapped around your clarinet and your fingers in position, it all starts to make sense. Having a clear idea of the function of all those holes and metal may be enough to soothe your nerves.
What’s with all the holes?
The clarinet is in the woodwind family, but in some ways it acts like it belongs in the string section. The clarinet sound is actually the result of a column of air vibrating inside the clarinet and some distance beyond the end of the instrument. By opening and closing various combinations of tone holes, you change the length of that column of air, just as a guitar player shortens a string on her guitar by pinching the string between her finger and a fret on the neck of the guitar. A change in the length of the vibrating column of air equates with a change in the pitch or frequency of the note. (For more about this column of air thing, check out Chapter 2.)
Thanks to all these tone holes and the register key and other keys, covered in the following section, the clarinet has one of the most extensive ranges of any of the wind instruments. This means the clarinet can play more notes, from low to high, than almost any other wind instrument. How ’bout all that metal?
The clarinet has a lot of bling, which may appear somewhat intimidating at first. By knowing the purpose of all this metal, you gain a better appreciation of it, and it begins to feel less threatening. The following list accounts for most of the metal:
The metal insert on the left thumb hole beneath the register key prevents wear and tear and makes a better seal when the thumb closes the hole.
Keys put certain tone holes within closer reach. When you play the clarinet, your hands pretty much remain stationary as your fingers move. That is, you don’t need to move your hands up or down the clarinet very far to reach the keys. This is due to the many keys on the clarinet. Instead of using your fingers to cover or uncover a tone hole, you press keys that are closer to where your hands are, and those keys happen to be metal.
Metal rings around some keys make it possible to close more tone holes than you have fingers for. The rings are connected to pads that close additional tone holes adjacent to the open tone holes you see.
You may see other parts of the clarinet adorned with metal, too. The ligature that clamps the reed to the mouthpiece is typically made of metal, and you may see rings of metal around the bell (at the end of the...
