Klarinette

A clarinet is a musical instrument of the woodwind family in the shape of a pipe. You play the clarinet by blowing into it and covering and uncovering the holes with your fingers.

It's particularly well suited to Jazz & Orchestral. The Clarinet is seen in most orchestras as part of the Woodwind section. The Clarinets diversity in sound allows it to sit comfortably in a Jazz Band, a Classical Wind Ensemble, a traditional Orchestra or common varieties of Folk Music.

The woodwind family of instruments includes, from the highest sounding instruments to the lowest, the piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon and contrabassoon.

Five Things You Never Knew About the Clarinet

• It's One of the Newer Orchestral Instruments.
• It Has an Extensive Family Tree.
• There's a Bass (And Contrabass) Version Too.
• Clarinets Have Been Made from Various Materials.
• It's Been a Major Source of Inspiration to Composers.

The voice of the clarinet sounds like that one of a laughing or crying person. The dominant articulation is "hu-du-hu-hu-hu-dju-dju". In general the style is described as "with soul", that is very emotional, by the artist and the audience.

The clarinet's acoustics are unique compared to other woodwinds. Most woodwind instruments have tapering bores (one end is a different diameter from the other). The clarinet is a pure cylinder in comparison. This means that the clarinet doesn't overblow one octave higher on the notes during normal fingering techniques.

However, although the chalumeau sounded fine at lower registers, the clarinet boasted rich sound quality at both low and high registers. The fact that the name "clarinet" originally meant "small trumpet" ("clarino" means trumpet) was probably also related to this characteristic of the clarinet.

The name clarinet derives from clarino, the Italian name for an historical trumpet that is also called “clarion” in English. Clarinet means “small clarion/clarion” or “small trumpet.” Soon, makers were adding more keys, thus improving tuning and playing, and expanding the range.

Historically, instruments such as drums, trombone and trumpet have tended to be played more by boys, while flute, violin and clarinet have tended to be played by girls (Abeles & Porter, 1978).

The clarinet is further distinguished from other wind instruments by the relatively low intensity of the even numbered partials in the composite sound of a given note, especially in the chalumeau register. This is more prominent in modern German system clarinets than modern French system clarinets.

From classical music to jazz Due to its warm timbre and all-action playing style, it is also used as a solo instrument in genres such as swing jazz.

“The clarinet has a nickname. Sometimes it's called a 'licorice stick. ' Can you think of why it might have this nickname? Look at your picture of a clarinet and then at the picture if you need a hint.”