 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bsharp
Date: 2026-09-14 03:10
What do you play initially when you put the clarinet together and blow through it before a practice session or rehearsal or performance ? I’m talking about your initial 20 seconds or so of playing. My opening rituals/noodles have changed over the years and I’m wondering what others do?
Stephen Schiffman
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2026-09-14 03:17
Stephen:
If it's a really bad day, with bad reeds and things not going my way I tend to open up with something simply like this https://youtu.be/qb3ktqyDuKU?si=c0i6unE0vXvGGnh7&t=23...but again only if things aren't clicking. If they are I'm apt to do something far more challenging than what I linked. 
(Seriously: chromatics....throat tones....articulation response...)
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Author: farabout
Date: 2026-09-14 03:55
A very slow version of the clarinet solo from Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle" aria of Puccini's "Tosca".
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2026-09-14 08:33
To start my practicing I play the extreme altissimo scales. Start with C#7 and end with G7 (with a great reed....). I don't do this at rehearsals/concerts as it would be annoying to others. I've never been big on long warmups. Same when I was teaching Band-- let's just get to the music.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book -- Songburd Music (paper and digital)
Search title. Amazon.com (search Tom Heimer).
Boreal Ballad solo -- Songburd Music item -- search title.
Post Edited (2026-09-14 22:33)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-09-14 16:02
20 seconds?? Yikes. If that's all the time available, I feel like my playing would be crap the rest of the way. My only context nowadays is solitary practice sessions, and I'm never in a hurry. My "routine" takes between 3 minutes and 30 or more, dealing with sound, fingers, tongue and mindset. I don't recall what I used to do in other contexts, but it would probably be abbreviated versions of the above.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-09-14 16:04
Side question. At a first lesson with a new teacher, how ought one warm up with the teacher listening? Or, as a teacher, would a new student's warmup comprise useful information?
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Author: ruben
Date: 2026-09-14 16:18
I play jazz: Lullaby of Birdland, There will Never Be Another You, etc. It gets me into a relaxed mood that makes my practice session more productive.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: davyd
Date: 2026-09-14 20:45
I play the page of scales (C major, A minor, F major, etc.) from the Klose book, with a variety of articulations. I generally get as far as Ab major, sometimes Db major, before I knock it off.
One time, I was doing that prior to a rehearsal with an ensemble of which I was not a regular member. Someone said, "Hey! No fair bringing in a professional!" I was whatever the opposite of nonplussed is.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2026-09-14 22:13
Philip Caron wrote:
> Side question. At a first lesson with a new teacher, how ought
> one warm up with the teacher listening? Or, as a teacher,
> would a new student's warmup comprise useful information?
In my experience as a student and as a teacher, students don't "warm up" on their own with the teacher listening. I think every private lesson I had as a student started out with scales. Every lesson I taught started out with scales. They serve to set the student's embouchure, loosen the fingers, and set mental focus.
Karl
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Author: kdk
Date: 2026-09-14 22:30
Bsharp wrote:
> What do you play initially when you put the clarinet together
> and blow through it before a practice session or rehearsal or
> performance ? I’m talking about your initial 20 seconds or
> so of playing. My opening rituals/noodles have changed over the
> years and I’m wondering what others do?
>
As I read your question, you're not asking about a full warm-up, just the first notes that people play to see basically if everything is working well. Most of us have some little figure that we play consistently to check the reed. Mine has changed a great deal over the decades, but it always starts around throat G or A and progresses down the chalumeau in one way or the other, then jumps into something around B4 or D5 by opening the register key as I reach the bottom of the chalumeau.
But this is not a warm-up, it's a reed check. After checking the reed, warming up on stage consists of a few long tones and then reviewing passagework from the upcoming rehearsal or performance. At home, it most often is the Klose diatonic Scales or Scales in Thirds or some mixture of the two with various articulations for 5 or 10 minutes, depending on how much time my fingers need to loosen (takes longer now at 79 than it did when I was 30).
Karl
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Author: Bsharp
Date: 2026-09-15 03:22
KDK wrote:
‘As I read your question, you're not asking about a full warm-up, just the first notes that people play to see basically if everything is working well. Most of us have some little figure that we play consistently to check the reed. Mine has changed a great deal over the decades, but it always starts around throat G or A and progresses down the chalumeau in one way or the other, then jumps into something around B4 or D5 by opening the register key as I reach the bottom of the chalumeau.”
Yes, Karl, that’s exactly what I was asking about. Those initial figures we play. Mine have also changed.
Currently, for the last several years, I start on open G and drop down an octave to play a quick G major scale up to the altissimo with varying articulations, Then I play some slurred intervals slowly taken from the start of Rose etude 3 from his 40 etudes.
It tests the reed and me for that day.
Steve
Stephen Schiffman
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-09-16 16:27
Understanding the question better to mean what is done first, I pick a random note and meander from there.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2026-09-28 12:20
I've never really thought about this and then one day a friend of mine said he noticed I always play the exact same thing, which is a pretty fast scale from open G to low E (the notes of the F major scale). It's really more of a quick check just to see that "notes come out" and there isn't some major problem. Then I play a few chromatic scales to double make sure, which aren't always exactly the same. Then a few longer notes, especially checking the attack, playing soft and loud, to see if the reed is fine.
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Author: kilo
Date: 2026-09-28 14:49
I blow a few chalumeau notes and then hit a scale exercise from Langenus, using different articulations.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2026-09-29 02:02
"Checking the notes coming out" kinda describes what I have come to do more recently. Since I play Legere, it can be very difficult to know if you have a reed that is too hard because the end result for a standard "just play some notes" will end up feeling as if a reed that is actually too hard will feel as if it is too soft. This is because you do need to be within the quarter strength limit of the reed to get good results. What happens in our standard approach is that we "bear down" on a harder reed to make it play anyway (this closes the opening and the end result will be as if the reed is softer). With Legere, the reed will just smoosh down and feel as if it closed up because it is not hard enough.
To combat the Legere's inability to play this game, I blow air with no embouchure pressure to speak of and slowly introduce more and more embouchure control until the sound kicks in. This way I can judge by when the sound "appears" whether the reed is too hard, too soft or just right. It is a ritual that becomes important in temperate climates when the temperature drops or rises dramatically into the next season. Then I just grab the next quarter strength reed (either up or down as needed) and try again.
................Paul Aviles
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