Hello I have just been given a clarinet for my birthday having always wanted to learn. very much an adult learner I'm afraid (of the nearly retired version ). The only Clarinet tutor I have been able to track down in my area (South West Scotland - Galloway) is fully booked so I have resorted to a video by Jack Brymer.
Here is where I pick your brains - I have carefully copied the first steps i.e. putting the mouthpiece in my mouth, closing my lips round it, breathing into it........... this is where I hit the snag........the lady in the video produces a lovely note.....I produce nothing!!

I've been copying and trying all afternoon but with no success - can anyone offer any advice to get me started, please?

Judi

Hi Judi and welcome

I'm not a clarinettist, so I can't answer your query, but there will be some along shortly who can

Hope you'll hang around and let us know how you get on with your music-making

cheers

Katyjay

You need to apply pressure on the reed with your bottom lip (but without the aid of your teeth).
Try adjusting how much mouthpiece you have in your mouth.
It might be that you are using too strong a reed (1 1/2 will probably be ok).

If that doesn't help I'm sure there will be someone more experienced around later.
Did you get on the teacher's waiting list?

Welcome to the forum.

Do you have a low number reed? It is easier to make a noise with softer reeds...long time since I played but my son is learning.

Hi Judi

Welcome to the forums!

I took up the clarinet as an adult nearly three years ago and it's great once you learn how to make a sound with it! I won't try and offer advice cos I'm only just learning myself, and there are other people here who know more than I do about it (sbhoa's one of them! )

Have you tried looking on www.musicteachers.co.uk for a teacher?

Look forward to seeing you around the forums, I'm sure you'll get some good advice.

sometimes not putting enough air through it is a problem? Make sure the reed is aligned properly as well. You may need to showing, I always had too much black showing above the reed.

Lots of really useful advice there - thank you everyone. My OH also suggested licking the reed?? Once I have had tea I'll have another go.
I've tried musicteachers.co.uk but the nearest teacher is in Girvan (quite a long way away). Still - maybe a lesson once a month would help. I'll ask her.

Good thinking, give it a good suck before you put it on, a dry reed isn't good.

Welcome Judi, from another Newbie - what an awful expression that is!

Don't know anything about clarinets or any of those other tube things that you blow down, but I do know you'll get a lot of sound advice from the forum members.

Are you starting from scratch, or have you other music interests already?


A

Right from scratch. I learnt the piano as a child but haven't played for years and years and years !! However it does mean I can read music.

Had another go and actually produced a noise - not a lovely noise but definitely a noise.

Judi

Welcome Judi - I'm also a mature (retired) learner - came back to piano after 40 years. I have never tried the clarinet so cannot help with that but it might encourage you to know that it is possible to get the physical aspects of music making moving at this age and stage. It took me six months of exercises to get my fingers moving over the keys properly - that may sound awful - but I did it! It was worth it.

Hope the advice here is of use to you - I have had great help and good luck with the music making.

Welcome Judi. Can't help as I'm piano and flute. Good Luck.
Bev.

hey i've been [playing the clarinet for 5 years now, and it's all about practise i'm afraid! try and control your ombisure, and support your reed and sound. But good luck in the future!

For what it’s worth, when I first tried blowing a clarinet I found one of three things happened:

1. Nothing. It locked up and was like trying to blow down a blocked pipe.

2. Hissed like a snake, but no note.

3. A sound like I was trying to stuff a live chicken.


What worked for me was the advice not to try and get a note. Once you have it set up and the reed fitted (I assume your instruction video shows how to do this) hold it up to the light and look at the reed and mouthpiece from the side. You will see that the reed and mouthpiece a separated a little at the tip, and gradually taper together lower down the mouthpiece. Find the point where the reed just touches the mouthpiece - the contact point. Put your thumb on there to mark the spot, curl you bottom lip over your lower teeth, and place the reed on your lip so that the contact point you have marked with your thumb is resting on the top edge of your lip. Close your upper lip around the mouthpiece to form the embouchure. Don’t bite! Now without trying to make a note, just breathe gently down the clarinet. You should get a hissing sound. Now gradually and gently push against the reed with your lower lip. Keep increasing the pressure until you start to get a note, and then add a little more until you get a decent note. If it locks up and becomes impossible to blow try again with a tiny bit more mouthpiece in your mouth. Don’t blow too hard, or you will ‘over blow’ and get the chicken-stuffing sound.

Don’t expect to get a beautiful clarinet tone straight off. It takes time to build up the strength of your lip and face muscles, and to gain the technique. I’ve only been playing for about nine months, and I’m only just starting to get any sort of a satisfactory tone. I think this is the most discouraging thing for newcomers to an instrument - they take it up because they love the sound, but find that it takes a lot of time and practice to be able to make that sound themselves. The important thing is to keep at it, and eventually it will be right.

Sorry this has turned into a bit of an essay. It's easier to explain with diagrams!

Hello , welcome to the forum.

I'll have a go at helping you out.

I'm going to make a guess that your embouchure is reasonable - at a guess, your difficulty is with breathing. Breathe down your clarinet with breath that's not unlike breathing on a mirror to mist it up (though it isn't *quite* as warm as that). Test your air on the back of your hand - if it's vaguely warm, you should be OK. Breathe down the clarinet, hopefully nice noises will ensue.
Don't overblow, equally don't give your clarinet too little air. And persevere, once you have your first note, an awful lot else will click into place.

All the best with your clarinet exploits!

I don't play the clarinet but have just started the flute: I don't know if the clarinet is the same but on the flute if you try to get a really low note (eg a C) it's very difficult, so to start with the tutor book tells you to use fingering for a note somewhere in the middle of the register (G).

Now, if memory serves (from revising for grade 5 theory, and I deliberately haven't looked it up, so PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) then at concert pitch the bottom note for a B flat clarinet is the D below middle C. Try fingering a B flat (or in transposed score, a C): It might make the sound easier to produce.

The very lowest notes are considerably easier to produce on a clarinet than they are on a flute, but I agree that a 'middling' note is a good one to start on. Most clarinet players start on a bottom line E, but anything from the C below that to the G above would be a good note to start on for the clarinet.

Hi Judi welcome!

Welcome Judi



I know nothing about the clarinet, but with the oboe I've been told to allow the end of the reed to sit in a little water for a short time before playing. If that is not the practice for the clarinet, I'm sure someone will provide a correction!

Hi Judy

Hows it going got that First note yet?