How to play the clarinet?

Children can start learning to play the clarinet from scratch from the age of 8, but small clarinets of the C ("C"), D ("D") and Es ("E flat") tunings are suitable for learning. This limitation is due to the fact that larger clarinets require longer fingers. At about 13-14 years of age, it will be time to discover new possibilities and sounds, for example, with the clarinet in tuning B ("C"). Adults can choose any version of the instrument for their training.

When starting to learn a musical instrument, a beginner must first learn how to hold and position it correctly for playing.

Particular attention is paid to the performance of the clarinet player, since many points are important here:

• positioning of the body and legs;
• head position;
• placement of hands and fingers;
• breath;
• position of the mouthpiece in the mouth;
• language setting.

The instrument while playing is at an angle of 45 degrees in relation to the plane of the floor. The clarinet horn is located above the knees of the seated musician. The head should be kept straight.

The arms are placed as follows.

• The right hand supports the lower knee of the instrument. The thumb occupies a specially designated place on the side of the clarinet (bottom) from the sound holes. This place is called an emphasis. The thumb here serves to hold the instrument correctly. The index, middle and ring fingers are located on the sound holes (valves) of the lower knee.
• The left thumb is also on the bottom, but only in the upper knee. Its function is to control an octave valve. The next fingers (index, middle and ring) rest on the valves of the upper knee.

The most difficult tasks for beginners are setting the tongue, breathing and mouthpiece. There are too many nuances that can hardly be dealt with without a professional. Better to take a few lessons from a teacher.

But you need to know about it.

The mouthpiece should lie on the lower lip, and enter the mouth so that the upper teeth touch it at a distance of 12-14 mm from the beginning. Rather, this distance can only be determined experimentally. The lips are wrapped around the mouthpiece in a tight ring to prevent air from escaping outside the channel when it is necessary to blow into it.

Shown below are some of the details of the clarinet player's ear cushion.

Breathing while playing:

• inhalation is performed quickly and simultaneously with the corners of the mouth and nose;
• exhale - smoothly, without interrupting the note.

Breathing is trained from the very beginning of training, playing simple exercises on one note, and a little later - different scales.

The musician's tongue acts as a valve, blocking the channel and dosing the stream of air that enters the sound channel of the instrument from exhalation. The nature of the sounding music depends on the actions of the language: coherently, abruptly, loudly, quietly, accented, calmly. For example, if you receive a very quiet sound, your tongue should gently touch the cane channel and then gently push away from it.

It becomes clear that it is impossible to describe all the nuances of language movements when playing the clarinet. The correct sound is determined only by ear, and the correctness of the sound can be assessed by a professional.

The clarinet is tuned depending on the composition of the musical group the clarinetist is playing in. There are mainly A440 concert tunings. Therefore, you need to tune in to the C (B) scale of the natural scale, starting from the C sound.

When the sound is below the required one, the barrel of the instrument is extended a little further from the upper knee at the place of their connection. If the sound is higher, then, on the contrary, the keg moves to the upper knee. If it is impossible to regulate the sound with a barrel, this can be done with a bell or lower knee.

The best exercises for beginners are playing long notes to develop breathing and find the correct sounds for specific positions of the mouthpiece in the mouth and the actions of the tongue.

For example, the following will do:

Next, scales are played in different lengths and rhythms. Exercises for this need to be taken in the textbooks for playing the clarinet, for example:

1. S. Rozanov. Clarinet School, 10th edition;
2. G. Klose. "School of playing the clarinet", publishing house "Lan", St. Petersburg.

Video tutorials can be called to help.

The following learning mistakes should be avoided:

• tuning the instrument is done with low sounds, which will inevitably lead to false notes when played loudly;
• neglect of wetting the mouthpiece before playing will result in dry, faded clarinet sounds;
• inept tuning of the instrument does not develop the musician's hearing, but leads to disappointment in learning (you should entrust the tuning to professionals at first).

The most important mistakes will be refusing to take lessons with a teacher and not wanting to learn musical notation.