I seem to encounter considerably more resistance when I play my lovely new Yamaha SEV than from the 40 year old pair of Emperors my daughter purloined from me many years ago. Over the break - no problem with them.

My teacher tells me that new clarinets need quite a few months of playing before that resistance eases. Can this be so?

New wooden clarinets will take some playing in : mainly to avoid the wood cracking.

There are many schools of thought as to how long to play a new clarinet for each day : suffice to say it should be a little time at first, building up, I'd say, to normal use within about 2-4 months.

When I bought my wooden clarinet, I was told not to play for more than 30 minutes for the first few months and then to gradually increase the playing time. I had to take my old clarinet to orchestra rehearsals whhich were 3 hours long. It's basically just to stop the wood cracking. I was also told not to leave it by the radiator or similarly in a very cold environment.

Temperature wise, the thing to really avoid is a sudden change of temperature, from hot to cold, or vice versa.