Playing the Clarinet: From Warm-Up Exercises to Standard Repertoire

There have been many compositions made for the clarinet. However, many are not nearly as good as others, and therefore, not as good a use of time to learn. Here are the best and most common ways to warm-up on the clarinet, as well as the most popular and standard repertoire available for the clarinet.

First off, after putting your clarinet together, you need to warm-up. If your clarinet is wooden, then you’ll want to start out warming up the outside of the clarinet. The way I use is to hold the clarinet in my hands, and let the heat generated by my body warm the wood. There are other methods for doing this as well. I knew someone who would warm his wooden clarinet by placing it under a heating blanket. Either way, this step is vital because it decreases the chances of the wood cracking while you play.

Now begins the real warm-ups. I know they are boring, but one of the best ways is to play scales. I’ll usually run through once, playing all of the scales two octaves. The second time through, I’ll probably take five or six of them up an extra octave. I play through to keep them in shape. Now it’s time to play scale patterns, yay! I would recommend practicing at least thirds, fourths, and fifths. You may also want to practice some octave jumps as they do show up in some of the better-known pieces for clarinet. These are also vital as they allow you a chance to work on your sound as well as your tonguing. Especially since most of the warm-up exercises you are playing should be muscle memory. Finally, you can finish your warm-ups with an etude or two. I have a book of 40 or so etudes that are by David Hite. It really doesn’t matter, as long as you get something in. Also, at this point, you may want to tune since chances are that you will be sharp.

Finally, you can start on the real music! There are lots of great pieces out there for clarinet; you just have to know how to tell the good apart from the bad. One of the best composers for the clarinet is Carl Maria von Weber. As a friend once said: “Weber is the Mozart for the clarinet.” He has written seven or so pieces for the clarinet. All of these are challenging, both melodically as well as technically. These include the Concertino for Clarinet, Clarinet Concerto No. 1 and No. 2, a Theme and Variations, and a Quintet. I have learned the concertino and am in the process of learning the second concerto. And just a heads up, the beginning of the third movement has some jumps, starting from a second and jumping all the way to an octave. Another great clarinet concerto that I have played was actually composed by Mozart. It is his Clarinet Concerto K.622. The most popular part of this piece is the second movement, which isn’t as technically challenging as it is melodically challenging. Those are some of the most popular, though there have been pieces written by composer such as Poulenc, Spohr, and Rossini.

I hope all this will help you as you continue to practice clarinet, and continue to improve each and every day. At times, the music may seem too difficult, and you might just want to stop. However, don’t give up! It took me nearly three months to get the concertino up to an above average level, and it still isn’t perfect. Just remember: practice makes perfect!