Advice for Beginners

If you are a beginner, the first thing you need to do is get familiar with your instrument. Spend some time inspecting your clarinet before playing. Look closely to the body parts, check the keys and springs, see how they work. Have a look at the order of the holes and gain a good knowledge of which key is connected to which hole. This can be turned into a routine exercise even for advanced players to run a quick check, before performing.

As the clarinet is a wind instrument, the next key factor is the breathing. Spend time excersizing your blowing techniques. Try playing single notes and repeat the excersize for longer on every step, maintaining the steadiness of the sound. Extend this excersize to other tunes and find your range, try to extend your range. Notice the difference between the high tunes and the low ones and how your lips and blowing changes between them. You will also find it useful to practise with your mouthpiece only to gain steady sounds and strength your lip muscles. These are probably the most boring clarinet excersizes but very necessary, which will show the difference, once repeated regularly.

You need to find the most comfortable position when you are holding your clarinet. Try practising and avoid getting into habits before you find your style. What we should aim to do is for the clarinet to become a part of our body one day, not something we are holding.