Is the Clarinet Easy to Play?

Over the many years I’ve been teaching clarinet lessons, I’ve heard a lot of questions. I don’t hear “is the clarinet hard?” too often, I think the fact that the clarinet has many parts, especially the reed + mouthpiece + ligature combo causes people to assume it is. But the clarinet isn’t easy nor is it hard, like all other instruments. The clarinet is good for breathing and for your lungs since you are using large volumes of air. You can play clarinet with asthma, in fact, it looks like playing a wind instrument will help improve lung capacity which will help improve asthma. Here is an article about a clarinet player who credits learning the instrument with an improvement in their asthma. There are other physical benefits of playing clarinet. Since you are sitting up straight when you play, you use your core muscles. The more you increase your lung capacity, the stronger your core muscles become. Playing the clarinet improves your hand-eye coordination, improves motor skills, requires dexterity of the fingers and coordination with the tongue, eyes, and breath. The clarinet requires some strength, and it will make you stronger.

Another part of learning to play the clarinet that is really important is equipment. It is really important to rent or buy a good quality instrument to start, and you should expect to pay over $200 if you are purchasing. Please do not purchase a clarinet from Amazon which has a low price tag as in $80, $100 even if it is listed with good reviews. Band instruments should be free blowing, and cheap poorly made instruments are often hard to blow through leading to frustration. The quality of the cheap instruments is poor and either they are out of adjustment or defective out of the case, and worse, if you take it to your music instrument repair shop it’s quite possible they will not work on it because the quality is too low.

I don’t want to list the names of the instruments to avoid, but for beginning clarinets, you get what you pay for oftentimes. Reliable clarinet brands include Yamaha, Buffet, Bundy, Selmer, Leblanc, Noblet, Artley. Clarinet mouthpieces also need to be of good quality and my favorite affordable mouthpiece is the Yamaha 4C. For reeds, it’s best to start on 2.5 strength either “blue box” Royal brand (NOT ORANGE), or Vandoren. I’ll write another post with more detail regarding getting off to a good start on the clarinet, but here is some basic info which should help answer the question: “is the clarinet hard or easy?”

What is it?

What is subscription-based learning? It can be anything really. Generally speaking, someone pays a certain amount per month and receives access to premade lessons, materials, etc., and potentially access to a live interaction held over the internet. After that, it’s up to the provider and the subscriber.

When the pandemic first caused schools and communities to shut down, people who were freelancers had to suddenly switch gears overnight. Studio teachers are freelance artists. We advertise ourselves, market ourselves, we hustle or we don’t, we set our own hours and agendas. In exchange, we have no job security, benefits, or general access to unemployment benefits. Studio teachers came together and supported each other by exchanging knowledge, information, and encouragement. We had to- we had to keep generating income and the shut-down happened right when most of us were at the beginning of our busiest season.

What we thought would happen was studios would empty, and kids would stop being interested. To some degree that did happen however, studios came back, and a lot of kids didn’t leave. Some teachers reported being busier than ever as private teachers became lifelines between a school band/orchestra/choir and the student. Parents were relieved to not have to drive, and know their children were engaged and learning for anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes. We were more than music teachers. We became counselors, mentors, friends, confidantes, but mostly we made ourselves available.

I watched as my students improved in their playing and many became more engaged and more curious about music. Thanks to a lot of band directors being brave and implementing topics such as theory, composition, social justice, basic recording and production students found music to be a needed outlet. It’s too early to know why students didn’t burn out and shut their instrument cases to the levels we anticipated. I suspect it’s because teaching and learning are about heart and content- not the venue. We are blessed with so many music educators out there.

I know there are now students who believe in their own abilities to improve and grow as musicians and I can’t wait to work with you. Subscription-based means we can work out the amount of materials and pre-recorded instructional videos made just for you that will allow for maximum learning, and that will vary with each student. We can meet virtually once, twice a month, as a group or in one-on-one lessons. You can submit video or audio of your playing any time you want, through an interactive app. It’s really up to you, and I’m here for all of it! It’s self-paced, and it can change depending on your schedule and your needs.

Of course, some students thrive with in-person lessons and there are absolute advantages to assessing performance in person. Virtual learning options are not intended to eliminate the need for in-person live lessons. Some teachers and students never want to log into Zoom again, and I am here for that too. The Clarinet Room was created so those who found a benefit to virtual learning and who prefer it for any number of reasons can continue to grow and improve and fall deeper in love with music.

See you in the room!