Selection

When selecting a clarinet, remember that you are choosing only the basic tonal characteristics of the upper and lower joints. What you are buying is the sound, not the way the clarinet plays.

The action of the clarinet--the way it plays--can be adjusted later. As noted, you will also more than likely replace the barrel and bell. It takes playing only one quick scale on a new clarinet to make an initial decision of "possibly" or "no".

Test the sound against an instrument that you like. Trust your judgement.

Do not oversaturate your ears by playing anything more than a few notes when testing a number of instruments.

Take frequent pauses between listening and playing to insure your honest opinion.

If possible, play in a large, quiet room.

Take along someone whose ears and sense of taste you trust to give you an objective viewpoint.

Come back later, take the instrument home for comparison, do not be in a hurry.

If you find the instrument that you like, buy it for the best price you can get, but pay the price. The object is to get a good instrument, not necessarily a good deal.

Generally, a clarinet that is brownish in color is preferable. It will provide a warmer tone and darker color to the sound. The browner wood is heavier and has a wider grain
because it is younger wood--wood that is found closer to the heart of the grenadilla tree where the growth rings are farther apart. This choice of wood corresponds to using a reed that is thicker in bulk. Wood that is nearer the heart of the tree or plant is naturally softer and will produce a warmer sound. A clarinet that is naturally black in color, with a tight grain, often produces a bright or brittle sound. The wood is harder
since it is older and the growth rings are closer together. This black color corresponds to using a reed that is thinner in bulk; the reed has harder wood at the tip with a subsequent harshness in sound.

In choosing a B-flat Clarinet, try to match its level of resistance with your A Clarinet. Later, the adjustment of the key heights and tensions must be made similar. This will ensure a similar quality of playing and sound between the two instruments. It will also ease performance difficulties when changing between A and B-flat clarinets.

Breaking In

A new clarinet should be played only a few moments at first, and gradually a little more each day for several weeks. Because of the special danger of cracking the top joint during this period, it is preferable to break in a new clarinet during the summer months.

During the warm months the instrument is not subjected to such extremes of hot and cold during the course of the normal day.

The clarinet should be frequently swabbed dry to help prevent cracking.

Like a new reed, the resistance of the clarinet will lessen as time goes by. Therefore, select a new instrument that is a bit too resistant in the initial test. If you buy an instrument that feels correct, it will later become too free-blowing. Like a great reed, a great clarinet has some fight in it. Loss of resistance is caused by the result of the combined action of vibration and moisture. When the clarinet loses resistance it will become more mellow, but it will lose the fine, cutting edge of response. Then the clarinet must be replaced.

With normal professional playing, most French-style B-flat Clarinets made today will blow out in about five years or so. The A Clarinet will last perhaps twice as long or even longer. On the whole, this is ridiculous but true.

However, German clarinets -- such as those of Wurlitzer -- made of the proper quality and age of wood will usually last at least twenty years.

An instrument that is cold should never be played right away because it may crack. In cold weather, warm the joints by holding them in your hands against your body beneath your coat.

If cracks appear anywhere in the clarinet, mark them by tracing along the crack line them with a pencil before the cracks close and seem to disappear. The clarinet should not be played at all until a repairman pins it, effectively stopping the process of
cracking and sealing the leak. Cracking in the upper joint is traumatic but not uncommon. Prompt and effective action will render the instrument playable again without further danger. A crack is only extremely serious if it goes through to the bore or enters a tone hole. The majority of cracks are not of this type, but are a slight splitting of the surface.

A crack can be caused by either playing the instrument when it is cold or will just
appear through the natural stresses placed upon the wood. These stresses include the combined effects of vibration, moisture, the grain of the wood (especially clarinets made from the blacker wood) and the artificial stresses imposed when the clarinet is bored and drilled during the process of manufacture.

Generally, the use of bore oil or the internal and external application of the extract of sweet almond oil is to be avoided in new clarinets. Only in older clarinets, where the outer pores are dry and the bore has lost its sheen, should oil be used--and then only sparingly. All of the keywork should be removed to avoid damaging the pads.

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