 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2012-01-24 13:21
After being asked by a 77 yr old man about what is easy and what is hard about playing clarinet - A new question has come to mind...but not from the man.
I was wondering - compared to other "band" instruments - where does learning the clarinet fall? what makes it harder or easier than other instruments. Or do they all have their own challenges?
Personally, I think clarinet is pretty hard - but then I tried playing flute and just couldnt get the hang of it. for me, compared to flute, clarinet is easy.
thoughts?
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2012-01-24 13:34
Compared with trumpet, clarinet is harder because you have all those extra keys and fingers you need to use to play all the notes. Trumpet is harder though because you only have three keys and fingers to play all the notes.
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Author: clarinete09
Date: 2012-01-24 15:28
Every instrument has its own challenges, so I would not dare to say one is easier than other, although I have heard that oboe and french horn are particulary beasts to tame!
Post Edited (2012-01-24 15:29)
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2012-01-24 15:42
I think with the clarinet there are fingering transitions which are harder than with a 3 valved instrument.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2012-01-24 15:58
Clarinet is definitely more difficult than saxophone, but maybe not.
With the clarinet's register changes of a 12th, it has 5 (or 7) extra fingerings stuck in between the chaleumeau and the clarion that have to be learned. The second octave is all different.
BUT, when you have learned the E-Major scale from the low register up, you get the B-Major scale in the second register "for free."
The clarinet embouchure/voicing, ... may be more difficult than some.
I think that, maybe the clarinet has more to learn than a sax, flute, ... BUT, I think that getting good on anything and becoming "musical" is a much bigger part of "getting good" than the mechanics of the instrument.
You can probably learn to finger anything in months, but you'll be years getting good.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Philcoman
Date: 2012-01-24 16:53
The clarinet isn't the most difficult band instrument. it's just the best.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-01-24 17:31
Judging by how badly their players usually play, I would have to guess that percussion is the most difficult group of band instruments.
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-01-24 17:54
People are always saying that the oboe and horn are harder than the others, but I have a nagging suspicion that they might just be less popular, putting them in the hands of a smaller talent pool. As a result, you can actually <i>hear</i> the kid who might otherwise be a safely hidden in the third clarinets or cornets while he produces that healthy bagpipe tone or arrogantly proves that, why, yes, it's possible to crack every note.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-01-24 18:39
> Judging by how badly their players usually play, I would have to
> guess that percussion is the most difficult group of band instruments.
...closely followed by the Alto Clarinet. <giggle>
--
Ben
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Author: alto gether
Date: 2012-01-24 19:02
Alto is the correct size for a clarinet. Sopranos are only more popular because they are more portable than altos and easier to play acceptably than eefers. A basset horn is just an alto by any other name.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2012-01-24 19:31
The oboe may not be any harder to actually play than the other woodwinds, but what makes it hard is dealing with reeds. I'm of the opinion that oboe skill is 60% reeds and 40% everything else, and that's on a good day. Bassoon is probably similar, but I'm informed that with a bigger reed, there's more margin for error, so that's maybe a 50/50 split.
I would venture to guess that with clarinet and saxophone, it's more like 30% reeds and 70% everything else, but I defer to the Experts. I'm sure that the Stoltzmans and (B.) Marsalises of the world have bad reed days just like everyone else, but they would be better at compensating for it.
The problem with percussion: there's no place to hide. Apart from trap set, it seems like all the other percussion instruments are played standing (or perhaps crouching) which makes mistakes literally more visible.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-01-24 19:39
A real Basset horn is NOT an alto clarinet by any name.
I agree that some makers do produce what they call a basset horn but which is in essence based on the large alto bore, uses an alto mouthpiece and tends to produce a timbre more like an alto.
However the true Basset, as for instance produced by Selmer and I believe also many German makes, is a relatively narrow bore instrument (c 16mm) and is played with a mouthpiece and reed virtually same as the Bb/A sopranos.
The sound of a true basset is much more velvety and veiled than that produced by an alto. Just listen to a good performance of the Mozart Requiem especially as played by a German orchestra.
Or listen to Sabine Meyer and her basset trio in mozart divertimenti etc, there is nothing at all alto like in their sound.
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-01-24 19:59
Norman Smale wrote:
> The sound of a true basset is much more velvety and veiled than
> that produced by an alto. Just listen to a good performance of
> the Mozart Requiem especially as played by a German orchestra.
> Or listen to Sabine Meyer and her basset trio in mozart
> divertimenti etc, there is nothing at all alto like in their
> sound.
>
I suspect that has a LOT more to do with the players than the equipment. If you handed Sabine Meyer a plastic Bundy alto and I'd bet she'd sound very similar.
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Author: Loliver
Date: 2012-01-24 20:02
...from experience, Oboe is harder than clarinet, and yes it is mostly due to reeds, although the larger the reed on the instrument, the easier it is! For instance, Cor Anglais is soooo much easier to play with a nice, sonorous tone then it is to play clearly on oboe, similarly with bass clarinet and soprano, and likewise Eb is much more difficult. Remember, that a 2mm difference the length of the instrument or the reed will affect a smaller instrument much more severely than a larger one.
In referral to how much reeds affect playing, double reeded instruments are affected by the scrape, the temperature, humidity, staple material, the cavity size of your mouth etc... whereas single reeds are tongueing and, to a much lesser degree, tone colour.
Also, oboes have the reed caveat to explain all mishaps!!! Reeds take days, if not weeks, to deal with if something goes wrong, (plus with pricetags of up to £16-20 for top end ones ( ~$34-30) one is much more inclined to repair or tweak reeds than to just bin it!)
And yes, part of the stick is due to early learners making duck noises, although I came to it at age 18 after passing grade 8 clarinet, and the other oboists came to it after Viola, Piano and Flute.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-01-24 23:01
Steven, I cannot disagree that the skill and quality of the player transends everything else.
However all other things being equal I still think that the design of the basset has a big effect.
I own a both a Leblanc alto clarinet and a Selmer basset horn and have also played on a (wide bore) Leblanc basset horn.
The feel, response and tone of the Selmer basset is very different from both the Leblanc alto and basset.
The narrow bore and extended length of the Selmer basset makes a huge difference in how one has to approach the playing of the instrument and the end result.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-01-25 00:31
Horn
What makes the horn so difficult it that the 'standard' portion of the range is far into the upper partials so just knowing what valve to engage means nothing ...... you have to HEAR (in your head) what note is about to come out first. It is the violin of the winds.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2012-01-25 03:44
Norman Smale wrote:
> The narrow bore and extended length of the Selmer basset makes
> a huge difference in how one has to approach the playing of the
> instrument and the end result.
>
Fair enough. I guess the wide vs. narrow bore debate extends past the realm of soprano clarinets.
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Author: oca
Date: 2012-01-25 07:34
If you count violin as a band instrument, I would name it easiest by far.
Reasons:
From a fairly low note to a fairly high note requires a one-finger movement.
It has almost no limitations on reasonable trills.
It has the ability to play multiple notes, some talented violinists can play triple-stops and play triads
It can glissando, bend notes, and vibrato 3 ways (- to +) or (0 to +) or (0 to -) as easy as smearing peanut butter on bread
No intonation problems. The four open string notes can be tuned beforehand.
The easiest marching band instrument would definitely be the tenor saxophone. The difference between tenor and alto is that alto is limited by its shape to the higher octave while tenor has access to altissimo notes just as high as the alto given that the player is fairly experienced.
The saxophone's layout does not change when ascending the range unlike clarinet. A clarinetist has to memorize 3.5 octaves of different fingerings for different notes while a saxophonist has to memorize only one set of fingerings for most of his instrument range.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2012-01-25 11:52
Oca, you're right about saxophone vs. clarinet fingerings. I also think the saxophone embouchure is a bit easier (if that's the right word) than the clarinet embouchure, and it's much easier for young students to master.
I'm not sure about tenor sax being the easiest band instrument to march with. I marched with one in college, and with the way its weight is distributed, I found it to be awkward. We were a high-stepping band, and with today's marching styles, perhaps my experience would have been different.
One of the hardest things about the clarinet is the high notes--everything above the staff. Producing these notes isn't that difficult, but getting them to sound good is a major challenge, something that can take years of work.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2012-01-25 12:36
Thanks for your input everyone...all very interesting comments!
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2012-01-25 13:42
I'm not so sure the Sax fingering is inherently easier or more logical (or whatever) than the clarinet's.
The concept of an "octave" may appear logical when we hear it played.
It is - I think - far from logical when it appears in written form on score sheets.
I learned that the clarinet has, say, three dozen differently fingered notes which correspond to three dozen differently written notes on the sheet.
--
Ben
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-01-25 14:24
My personal ranking of hardest to easiest (of the instruments I can semi-play):
Hardest: Oboe
Next: Soprano clarinets (mostly because of my lousy bass clarinetist's hand position on the small clarinets)
Easier: Flute (although good tone production and playing quietly in the upper register still elude me)
Easier still: Lower clarinets (alto down to contrabass)
Easiest: Saxophones (all sizes, although soprano can be a bit tricky to play in-tune up high). I can play anything on sax, in my sleep, with my hands tied behind my back. Not a brag, just the result of having spent so many years playing the considerably more difficult (in my opinion) clarinets.
Whenever someone asks me whether they (or someone they know) should start off playing the clarinet or the sax, I always strongly recommend they start on clarinet and pick up sax later. I know many woodwind doublers, and almost without exception the better players are those for whom clarinet was their primary instrument before they learned saxophone, rather than vice-versa.
My frivolous dig at the percussionists had to do more with their apparent lack of rhythmic sense or ability to count measures (skills one would think essential for their instruments), than with any inherent difficulties involving the instruments -- except for the mallet instruments such as marimba, xylophone, etc. which truly require skill.
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2012-01-25 18:13
As a doubler on brasswinds, I would add the F tuba to the list of treacherous instruments. Despite having six valves, one still has to lip notes into tune and perform all kinds of embouchure gymnastics to maintain a characteristic tuba sound through the registers. Making music with a really crummy clarinet is child's play compared to wrestling with one of these obstinate creatures.
The last such instrument I test-played had a heavily-discounted price of just a bit over US$11,000. Bah!
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