 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ez
Date: 2009-12-01 00:41
How come clarinets can’t be played like a flute or saxophone or a recorder? For instance, fingering for ‘C key’ in the lower octave is different in the higher octave. Are there any reasons behind this ‘odd’ fingering scheme?
-newbie
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-01 00:54
Yes. It has to do with the fact that the clarinet behaves much like a cylindrical tube closed at one end. That means the sound a clarinet produces has strong odd-numbered harmonics and very weak even-numbered harmonics. This is different from a sax or flute, which has strong even and odd harmonics.
When you press the octave key on a sax it causes the sax reed to vibrate at the next strong harmonic from the usual fundamental frequency associated with that fingering. Since both the even and odd harmonics on a sax are strong (because a sax bore is cone-shaped), that means when you press the octave key on a sax, what you get is the 2nd harmonic frequency, which is an octave above the fundamental (the note you'd get with no octave key).
On a clarinet, though, because the even harmonics are weak, when you press the register key on a clarinet you get the next odd harmonic instead (the 3rd harmonic). The 3rd harmonic is a 12th higher than the fundamental. This big leap between registers is one of the reasons why it's harder to "cross the break" on clarinet than on sax.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2009-12-01 00:54
ez wrote:
> How come clarinets can’t be played like a flute or saxophone
> or a recorder? For instance, fingering for ‘C key’ in the
> lower octave is different in the higher octave. Are there any
> reasons behind this ‘odd’ fingering scheme?
The clarinet is a "weird" instrument. other instruments using a reed at one end are long cones (a cone closed at one end by a reed) and when it overblows (switches registers) it goes up an octave. The clarinet is not a cone but essentially a cylinder. When a cylinder with a reed at one end (a cylinder closed at one end by a reed) it overblows (switches registers) by a 12th instead of an octave.
In other words, the fingering for a C on a sax or an oboe from register to register is similar, but on a clarinet they're not even close. the advantage, though, is range. The range of each register has more notes.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-12-01 02:55
I think mrn and Mark said it all. But what they didn't say is because it's a clarinet. We are special. Heck, it's easy to make an instrument like all the others but to make a clarinet, that's special. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: ez
Date: 2009-12-01 04:31
Thanks guys... very meaningful information to share!!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-12-01 17:48
.....and that's why sax players think the clarinet has an Octave key.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-12-02 11:51
Also makes the 'Boehm' system slightly freaky on a clarinet. Ten fingers have to find nineteen notes in the first register, not just twelve!
The advantage is of course our massive range of pitch...
(edit - can't count. Might not be right even now...)
Post Edited (2009-12-02 11:52)
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-02 13:34
Bassie wrote:
> Also makes the 'Boehm' system slightly freaky on a clarinet.
> Ten fingers have to find nineteen notes in the first register,
> not just twelve!
It's even worse than that--it's nine fingers finding nineteen notes! (and it can be as many as 21 if you count trill fingerings!)
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Author: chipper
Date: 2009-12-02 14:20
After only four years of playing an instrument, the clarinet, (and up against you pros I question whether I can play at all) I picked up an alto sax and began lessons. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to play, albiet the raspy imprecise sound as compared to my sweet smooth clarinet sound. In switching between the two my mindset is similar to when I encounter a key change. I simply have to be aware and pay attention.
Thanks to all for the explaination of the register and break keys.
C
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2009-12-03 23:17
In reading some clarinet history, it was invented some time in the early 1700s (possibly earlier depending on who you believe). We find that the distinction in definition of the clarinet (as opposed to the chalumeau -- its most likely ancestor) is that it overblows by a 12th. The chalumeau had only one register and different registers were achieved by using different size chalumeaus (pl?). The physics has been well explained above, but the simple answer as to why a clarinet overblows by a 12th is that is the characteristic that makes it a clarinet rather than a chalumeau. Interestingly, the chalumeau as well as early clarinets had their reeds on the top of the mouthpiece -- much like you see with many modern clarinets on that auction site.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2009-12-03 23:32
BartHx,
The Chalumeau is the clarinet's ancestor and survived up until the late 18th C. Hoffmiester even wrote a concerto for it.
The two keys on chalumeaux are diametrically opposed, Denner in his experiments moved the what we call the speaker or register key upwards and then the clarinet was born.
Regarding the reed, Stadler is credited on changing the position so that it faces downwards.
Peter Cigleris
Post Edited (2009-12-05 21:36)
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-03 23:33
BartHx wrote:
> chalumeaus (pl?).
I think the plural is chalumeaux (it's French).
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2009-12-04 04:11
Hey:
I always thought the 3 registers of the Clarinet were:
1) The ChaluMoe
2) The ChaluLarry and
3) The ChaluCurly...?
But that's just me...
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: GBK
Date: 2009-12-04 04:49
John J. Moses wrote:
> Hey:
>
> I always thought the 3 registers of the Clarinet were:
>
> 1) The ChaluMoe
> 2) The ChaluLarry and
> 3) The ChaluCurly...?
don't forget the little used:
4) ChaluShemp
...GBK
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Author: BobD
Date: 2009-12-05 12:45
Wonder if there were "double lip" arguments when the reed was on top.
Bob Draznik
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2009-12-05 20:54
Probably not. Since the mouthpiece and barrel were all one piece with interchangeable center pieces to change pitch, you probably did not have to worry about returning a trial mouthpiece in "like new condition". It was having to repair chipped or otherwise damaged wooden mouthpieces that convinced some repair people to make the mouthpiece separate from the barrel (that part's true). I believe that was followed shortly by Chinese, plastic mouthpieces available for trial. They, of course, required you to play with your tongue in your cheek.
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