Clarinet If you play saxophone can you also play clarinet?

[ProfJames]

If you can play sax can you also therefore play clarinet?

 

[Chris]

No. Not the same fingering. It can help, but a clarinet is still hard play...

Chris..

 

[Colin the Bear]

Yes I can thanks.

The transition from clarinet to sax is very straight forward. The other way round is a little more complicated.

The break on a clarinet is a 12th not an octave like the sax.

In practice I think of the Bb clarinet as an alto sax in the lower register and a soprano in the upper with a little bit of a shenanigans in between.

It's easy enough. Same problems with reed and mouthpiece. A little simpler on the intonation imo and everybody thinks you're a brainbox type lol

 

[trinifella]

with a little practice sure you can

 

[Bigtwin]

Yeah, you can. Just been round this buoy, as my son's learning the clarinet en route (he currently thinks) to the sax, when his hands are big enough. His tutor says not before Grade III, so we'll see. Have an Alto hiding in the loft for him anyway.

I started with playing the Sop to help him along with lessons and practice, but it's not an exact match really, save for being in the same key and overlapping in range to some extent, and in particular the fingering's so dissimilar as to be confusing for him to follow. So, picked up a perfectly decent used clarinet for well under a hundred quid, and off we went.

The fingering is a little more complicated/different to the sax, and the Bb clari has the largest range in the woodwind family (I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying) so there's more of it, and more alternative fingerings, but it's not chalk and cheese by any means. Playing over the break is a bigger deal than with a sax. Embouchure, or at least correct embouchure, is quite different, but that won't stop you getting a half decent sound out of it pretty much off the bat.

You can do some interesting stuff you can't do on the sax - huge glissando (think opening of Rhapsody in Blue) coz you can slide your fingers off the holes as well as bending the pitch with the reed. I have to say I'm not the greatest fan or the sound of the clarinet, but somewhat to my surprise, I'm finding it fun to fool around on.

Just be careful you don't start wearing stripey waistcoats and bowler hats...

 

[sushidushi]

Just be careful you don't start wearing stripey waistcoats and bowler hats...

Indeed. This waistcoat is much better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z53ztN8DSLE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Bigtwin]

Quite right - I should have said "dodgy" wasitcoasts with the old liquorish stick...

Mind you, I've got a guitar not a million miles from that waistcoat's finish. Umm....that is all...

 

[sushidushi]

I do like the tone Mr Bilk got from the clarinet. Sounds like he uses a wah wah pedal at times, but I like it.

 

[Bigtwin]

I bet he did. It's all dubbed in later. In reality, him, Jim Dunlop and Iggy Pop were all backstage with a ELP size pan-tech rig, high as kites, feeding the whole send loop through early Emulators.

 

[Loony Moon Hare]

It's easy to go clarinet to sax but not as easy to do it the other way around. Not impossible, obviously but the fingering isn't the same so some time and effort will be required!