 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: caroline
Date: 2001-10-16 17:27
My daughter has just started lessons on the Bb clarinet. I notice that when she plays C the actual tone is Bb. Is this what is supposed to happen? Or is there a way of tuning the clarinet I should know about (I am a pianist and have never had anything to do with woodwind before)
Thanks for your help.
Caroline
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Author: Dave Renaud
Date: 2001-10-16 17:40
As it should be. This is why it is called a Bb clarinet.
An A clainet(larger) would produce an A when C is played.
A C claininet(smaller) will produce a C when C is played.
The music partitions for Bb clarinet are written transposed up a tone to accomidate this.
Cheers
Dave Renaud
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Author: Kyle
Date: 2001-10-16 23:43
It just the key that it is in, as Dave said. Each note on the clarinet is a whole step higher than it is on the piano. If you go to your piano and hit a Bb, and tell her to play a C, it will be the same pitch of Bb, and so on. The same is on scales. The scales are named Concert, as you might know, and then each instrument has a different name for the scale. Lets take the Ab scale for example. The conductor will say "Ab concert", so the means your daughter will play her Bb scale. So with every scale she has, if she adds a whole note to it, it will be the name of her scale. Sorry if this is to much info for you. Tell her to have fun with her lessons!
~Kyle~
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Author: Rene
Date: 2001-10-17 05:59
A prig like me will add that this is so by convention. I guess I wrote that before. There is nothing engraved on the clarinet, which tells you which tone is which. But by convention, the note, which is produced by holding down all left fingers, is written C on the staff. It sounds like Bb, one tone deeper.
Wether this convention is practical can be debated. The concert C scale, which is D on a clarinet, is almost as easy to play, espacially on a German clarinet (you can hold down the H key for the C# there). So, if we just wanted to have a keyless scale for an easy to play scale, the clarinet could as well be written in concert pitch.
However, the situation with most other wind brass instruments like trumpets and horns is different. These instruments have natural tones produced without pressing keys. And those tones are from the Bb scale, since the instruments are made that size. So they can be truly said to be Bb instruments. The clarinet convention probably just follows suit.
If you play without any key on a clarinet, you get a concert F. Moreover, this F scale is easy to play on the clarinet. So the clarinet could as well be called an F instrument. But, there is a problem. If the F would be written as C, the range of the clarinet would not nicely fit into the staff.
OK, it is like it is. Learning to transpose one tone is actually not that difficult, at least for folk songs and the like.
Rene
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Author: Rene
Date: 2001-10-17 07:03
While I am reading my posting, I must admit that I cheated a bit. In fact, the concert C scale has a problem for the beginner with concert H in the chalumeau register, which involves the left little finger. Playing upwards, the next problem is as far away as the high concert H and C.
So our fictitious beginner would learn the concert F scale first, which has no such problems.
Note that the concert Bb scale (the one we write as C) is problematic on the German clarinet because of the concert Eb both in the chalumeau and in the clarion register. At least as problematic as concert H in the chalumeau would be.
OK. I shut up.
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Author: JC
Date: 2001-10-19 17:48
Kyle, this is a European (in general) "thing". H to a European=B for Americans, B for Europeans= Bb for Americans. Don't know why this is, and yes it is confusing, but that's how it goes.
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