 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Marshall
Date: 1999-07-02 14:23
I just started playing the clarinet and I am haveing a good
time with this. I never played a read instrument before and
I mostly play music with a country type band. Or who ever shows up. The guitars and other string type instruments have a hard time playing in Bb so should I get a different Key Like C or A is it like the harmonica where I need a different clarinet for every key? Thanks in advance.
BandaidBob
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-07-02 14:34
Bob,
It'd be easier for you to transpose your parts to the Bb instrument. I can't transpose via sight-reading very well, but after I memorize a piece (something that's easy for me - I played a different instrument for many years in a C&W and Jazz bands), all I have to do is start on a new note and within a very short period of time I can play it in a new key just by listening to myself.
It's "cheating" (I'd rather be able to sight transpose, but I really don't have the time to learn to at the moment), but it works.
Make sure you learn chromatic scales (the chromatic scale starting at different positions) - it'll be easy to get the notes right quickly, and then later you can see if there's a better fingering.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 1999-07-02 15:35
If you will be playing ad lib in keys like E or B, you would find an A clar would finger much easier. Luck!
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-07-02 17:35
Basically any clarinet can play in any key although flat keys are "easier" on a Bb clarinet and "sharp keys" are easier on an A clarinet. Here I am referring to the key signature as it would be for string instruments.
What you need to be aware of is that the clarinet is classified as a transposing instrument. So if you play what is printed on clarinet music as a C, on the Bb clarinet that fingering will sound a concert Bb, on an A clarinet it will sound a concert A, etc. So your printed music needs to be transposed so that you will be playing in the same concert key as your friends.
For example, let us assume that you have a Bb clarinet. If the string parts are in the key of C, your printed music would be in the key of D. Your printed music will have two more sharps (or two less flats) than theirs.
Now let's assume you have an A clarinet. If the string parts are in the key of C, your printed music would be in the key of Eb. Thus your printed music will have 3 more flats (or 3 less sharps) than theirs.
You may wonder it's done this way. Very simple. You only have to learn one set of fingerings for the entire clarinet family. The actual difference between the note you finger and the concert (i.e. string instrument pitch) is taken care of by the transposition of the printed music.
Again you may wonder why the standard clarinet is not the C clarinet. For some reason, the slight increase in size from a C to a Bb or A seems to give a more "clarinetty" type sound. Both players and listeners seem to prefer that sound as being representative of clarinets. Composers do sometimes call for a C clarinet to use for its unique tone color. Here I must admit that I have never personally heard a C clarinet so I am just reporting what I have read.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 1999-07-03 02:09
Playing in a new key by listening to yourself is playing by ear. You are hearing the intervals. IMHO, that's a much more "musical" skill than learning how to transpose by eye.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-07-03 02:19
Steve Epstein wrote:
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Playing in a new key by listening to yourself is playing by ear. You are hearing the intervals. IMHO, that's a much more "musical" skill than learning how to transpose by eye.
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IMHO, not more musical, just different. The problem with transposing by ear is that you have to know a priori how it's <i>supposed</i> to sound. Transposing by eye allows you to play in the correct key immediately.
Back when I played jazz bass semi-professionally transposing by ear was a necessity, since all I had was a key & changes. I knew my keys reasonably well, but since you normally don't want to play on an open string or get bad intonation on the upper range you had to do transposition to different intervals, while making "sound" like it was the right bass line.
I play by ear to please myself and/or when I don't have the music (I do an awful lot of "easy jazz" trumpet solos on the clarinet that way, things like Mangione's "Hill where the Lord Hides", lines to Spyrogyra tunes, etc.) Gives you a reason to learn all those scales :^)
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 1999-07-03 02:40
Ah, but I envy people who can play by ear. Occassionally, I try to play with folk musicians who play by ear. I can never figure it out. Improvising on jazz is completely out of the question for me at this point.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-07-03 02:46
Steve - grab a book of folk songs with the chord changes printed above. That'll start you in the right direction - where you're coming from & where you're going to.
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Author: Matt Presson
Date: 1999-07-08 21:27
I must add to this thread that a "C" clarinet, although you would not be involved in transposing from everyone else, is a much rarer instrument. Simply because tradition has made the "normal" clarinet be the "Bb", and most music keeps that in mind. The "A" Clarinet is much more common than the "C," being used mostly in orchestral and solo literature. The whole thing basically boils down to this, however: The "A" clarinets are usually only made in professional, and sometimes intermediate models, so you'd have to spend a bit of money..."C" clarinets...you may find something you could use, for what you're willing to pay, but it will be a challenge to find one in the first place...I improvise a lot, and it is really more a matter of knowing your scales and feeling the music than what key your instrument is in. To answer your question, in this context, the clarinet acts completely different from a harmonica. It's also more of an investment.
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Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-07-11 17:27
If you're playing with a fiddle player, they like the keys of A and D. Almost all the bluegrass and oldtimey music is in A or D. An A clarinet would have you playing clarinet in easy keys, a C clarinet would not. C&W standards are where the singer needs to be, so you might want to tabulate the keys you use the most.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 1999-07-14 02:56
But on the other hand, if you are playing from music, there will often be only one transcription, untransposed for transposing instruments (for old timey and other types of folk music). So a C-clarinet will allow you to read the fiddle part, which in folk music, is not a real full - fledged violin part, like a Fritz Kreisler concerto. A and D are not hard keys for clarinet. I just bought a beautiful Patricola C-clarinet, by the way. Maybe I'll post about it later on the first page.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-07-14 03:03
Steve Epstein wrote:
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I just bought a beautiful Patricola C-clarinet, by the way. Maybe I'll post about it later on the first page.
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Do so after a while, please! I fell in love with their Eb a year ago (I'd never played Eb, but was able to more-or-less control it from the beginning).
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