Keep in mind the context... Most of the time when "difficulty" is decided it has to do with beginners making a sound to start playing in their red band book. Clarinet requires more discipline in the embouchure starting off than sax does. But MAN, does refining a sound on the sax to not make it sound like a yacht at the dock... That's a lot of work!
@@hannahbro0198 It was harder than I thought. I've had 4, in total now and can read the basic notes and my teacher said I am progressing really quickly. I still get a few squeaks here and there.
@@hannahbro0198 well I said to hubby I want to learn sax and he rolled his eyes and said I think you better master the clarinet and reading music first! 🤣 What a kill joy 😂
I am a clarinet main and when I started getting into saxophone I immediately knew it was harder. And then I leaned people said the opposite and I was surprised by that. I also think that there is many different sounds on jazz clarinet, Bechet never sounded like Noone and neither sounds like DeFranco.
Glad I started on clarinet. It taught me some good stuff that transferred over to my sax playing, and it’s wonderful to be able to play both with ease.
I play saxes, clarinet, and flute. Started on clarinet, then tenor and bari in stage band and picked up flute as a doublers project for jazz band. All are difficult when played at the highest level. The extended range of the clarinet is a plus and fun. I much prefer to play clarinet when a soprano sax is called for because of the rich warmth of the clarinet sound. Few soprano players including myself can really get a singing quality sound thats not tinny and thin when compared back to back with the same part on clarinet. The clarinet does a great job of covering vocal lines and i have heard people say that the clarinet is the closest instrument to the human voice.The short travel of the keys on clarinet is really nice compared to sax especially bari and the cylinder like bore of the clarinet makes playing close to in tune easier. The embouchure and voicing are a bit different on all of them (totally different on flute). I like think of the clarinet as a high pressure low volume wind instrument and the saxes as low pressure high volume wind instrument. It helps me in switching from one to the other during a set. I know I would be more fluent if I only played one instrument (say tenor sax) but it does add different colors to the music by playing more than one and for me many times it is required to get a job.
Starting out on clarinet at 60+ It's a personal quest to take the instrument where I've not heard it go. I mean seriously, it's never really owned or mastered outside of its designated dixieland jazz or classical orchestra sounds. It's the instrument some say is the closet to human voice, it has a multi-octave range yet it still rarely stands on its own.
I play all three (sax, flute, clarinet) and couldn't agree much more with your post here. But I go further--I can't stand soprano sax. I may be my imagination, but I've always thought bent sopranos sound better than straight ones, but why on earth use one at all when there are beautiful rich tones that you can get out of a clarinet?
Man, I've been looking at saxophones because 20 years later, I'm still salty about not being able to switch to sax in school since I transferred schools during the summer when we were supposed to transition from our beginner instruments to different ones, but after hearing you wax poetic about clarinets, I e-mailed a band director selling a clarinet to snatch it up right away!
Great discussion! I play both, started on the clarinet. Sax has a more interesting sound (tamber), but agree 100% on the advantages of the clarinet. Sax's biggest "flaw" in my opinion is that there isn't a second low b-flat key on the right pinky table, no good way to do some trills or switch between notes really quickly. A redesign of the table keys to work more like clarinet so you didn't have to slide across keys would be a huge improvement on play-ability. Second issue is the low d sharp and low f sharp keys, they are much more awkward than a clarinet's similar key placement, sometimes you have no choice but to use those keys in certain passages in awkward ways. Clarinets can have very unique sounds too! It's just that everyone seems to thing the buffets are the standard so everyone plays them! Go listen to a 1950s Selmer centered-tone, an incredibly beautiful sound all of its own.
Since I started on clarinet and then switched to saxophone, Its strange hearing all about how clarinet is supposed to be harder than the saxophone. For me both instruments are equally difficult to have a good sound on. The only difference between the clarinet and the sax to me is that the saxophone has a more difficult time with low notes, you can have your own unique sound on sax, and that the sax is louder. So in my opinion the sax is a harder instrument just because its like the clarinet except the extreme registers are harder and you have to go on more of a personal journey with your tone
Saxophones have more resistance in the mouthpiece, so you're not punished as frequently for having the wrong voicing (tongue placement, etc.) as you are on the clarinet (which is responsible for a lot of squeaks)
I know this has almost nothing to do with it but a lot of people (that I know at least) think flute is super hard, but I switched to sax a little while back and flute is extremely easy compared to saxophone.
Did you mention that clarinet is effectively two instruments; chalameau (lower register) and clarion (upper register) connected by the throat notes and that it over blows via the register key by a twelfth, as opposed to an octave on sax. I think this is what makes clarinet more ' difficult '.
Agree, thus you are forced to work harder on fast passeges and use your ear. The clarinet tends to squeak a ton more too when either you don't have your fingers on the keys or just in general.
God I feel that tone development. I’ve spent years with sax and clarinet and I gotta tell you, tone is a huge learning curve. When people talk about ‘difficulty’ they mean it’s accessibility to beginners. Which is why instruments like sax are always considered so easy. Sure, you can create a “sound” on one but it can be so hard to get a truly good sound on saxes. Especially when you’re doing fast licks and coming into particularly rough notes to get good tone on like C#(talking about alto here). Or getting louder dynamics on Bs without losing tone and tuning(still talking about alto land, it’s my main instrument)
I got a good sound from my first blow, and i taught myself ahed 13/14. That was because before I played I listened to so much great players that I knew instinctively how each note should sound or how to make it "sing".
I started on clarinet and switched to sax. After playing sax for a while, I found it hard to go back to the soprano clarinet because the embouchure was so much more difficult. Bass clarinet I didn't find to be a problem, though. I doubled on bass clarinet on several pit bands I played in.
I played a ship gig that for around 2 months was just clarinet and flute. When I went back to sax, it felt sloppy and clunky. There were a lot of difficult clarinet parts too. Fun, but a wild ride!!
I started on clarinet at 13 , then alto sax at 19. What l learned on clarinet helped me on saxophone and visa versa. You never stop learning wether embouchure stance etc. Always check your habits
Man you're so cool and fun to watch! I've played a clarinet in school and now I'm thinking about getting back into woodwinds, I want to play tenor sax this time.
I think the main reason people say clarinet is more difficult is because of resistance. As a closed cylinder, it is similar to alternating current...greater range & efficiency, but also greater resistance. For example, that Luyben ligature you're using decreases the resistance. The most difficult part of clarinet tone is "throwing" the sound in an orchestra. Also, the expectations of clarinet in musical theatre (and what you can get away with, imho) are more sane. I'd even go so far to say the "characteristic" "jazz" clarinet sound in most musical theatre is very much influenced by sax & flue voicing. I really find a lot of doublers love Kaspar mouthpieces. They require less compression (a concept foreign to just about every sax player), are less picky with embouchure, voicing, and even reeds, and can create a very dark sound that projects easily with little resistance.
I do clarinet and tenor sax and I think that Clarinet high notes are really hard but since i started on it Im way better on it then sax but also tenor sax music usually has a lot of the same notes where a Clarinet 1 could be notes from E-Bb and notes that could be from C-G6 which makes the range on a clarinet a lot better and its more fun to play
Hey cool video. My progression through reed and wind instruments, goes thing like this: harmonica, recorder, clarinet, making and playing my own Shakuhachi flutes. On the longer Shakuhachi, yes finding those low notes can be a challenge. Oh saxophones, hopefully I will get one, love the sound of them, and the varied tone one can achieve on them, also the pitch bend ability.
I started on clarinet, then moved to alto sax, then tenor. I was able to hit the low E on the clarinet very easy, but low Bb on the sax, had to work harder to hit.
It has been a really long time since I had played either instrument. I remember that the Clarinet was easier to get a good tone and to bend the notes, but I can't remember the note range of a Clarinet. I remember that Sax has a normal range of about 2 and a half octaves and an extended range of 4 and a half octaves. The biggest problem I had in school was that there wasn't a lot of music specifically written for the unique characteristics of the Clarinet. This was a common problem with most of the instruments, each one has its own unique voice, but the people writing the arrangements seemed to plug in the instruments based on their own bias. I had recently thought that pairing a Contra-Bass Clarinet on the bass line and a Bass Sax on a counter-bass line would sound really cool, but the closest I've heard is a Tuba on the bass line and a Bari Sax on the counter-bass line in 1 song and a Contra-Bass Clarinet on a bass line with a Tenor Sax on melody on another song. Both sounded really cool to me and gave me the idea. The Clarinet family has a really clean tone which contrasts and compliments the wider range of tones from the Sax family. So, I was thinking a quarter note bass line from a Contra-Bass Clarinet with offbeat eighth notes 2 notes higher or lower in the scale with a slight overtone from the Bass Sax. When he talked about the wall that many of the Clarinetists hit when switching to Sax, I'm guessing it is because they are trying to play the Sax like they've been doing on the Clarinet. It might take them a while to realize that you can't play either instrument like the other. If you do, it sounds terrible (personal experience). With a Sax, you really have to develop your embouchure, throat, and posture like a singer, this is a lot more work, but can give you much more flexibility.
Excellent video!! Having broad fingers few soprano clarinets suit my hands (A metal Conn Cavalier @ $85 was a notable exception). Recently I invested in a "cheap" low C bass clarinet, It means that in a local community band I can play lower than any other instrument and, in the absence of any dedicated bass clarinet parts I am invited to write/improvise my own parts. I also modified the neck to take a piezobarrel mic and can put the sound through a pedal board if I really need to cut through.
As I played the recorder when I was a kid, my grandpa wanted me to learn the clarinet. I wasn't much into it so I never really considered, but if I had asked my parents for one, it probably would've been helpful for later, when I decided to learn the Saxophone. Although perhaps I would've gone into the classical world instead of jazz, who knows. I'll probably get myself one at some point of my life, but only after I git gut with the Alto and then try the Tenor LOL
That was all very real and really entertaining SirV .. I think you were really kickin’ it with this one. Btw, I recently decided to try a Rico C5 Graftonite on my alto, and have been really diggin’ the alternate vibe of a moderately aggressive rollover baffle. Hence, I just ordered a Rico Metalite M7 for my tenor to try a step baffle on that, since my main tenor pieces are currently V16 and OL STM.. See Ya... 👍👍
@@Sirvalorsax - I like it ! The graftonite C5 on alto and the metalite M7 are definitely working for me ! On tenor, my $200-300 metal pieces seem to have a slightly richer tone, but without an immediate A/B comparison, it’s really a moot point because it’s hard to tell the difference. The small bathroom test made it possible to tell more easily. The M7 is easy to work and can be made to sound in your face or darker and mellow on a 2.5-3 reed. I think for the money, the m7 and the graftonite alto C5 can’t be beat. I used the stock Yamaha ligature on the M7 because I didn’t have a bigger more expensive ligature handy. I’m done drooling over mpc’s and expensive ligs that add up to $100’s of dollars. I have no qualms whatsover about doing gigs with these $20 and $30 mpcs using basic ligs.
7:35 even though the classical saxophone has a "standard" there are still radically different classical saxophone tones. there are the 2 main schools of saxophone. The German school of saxophone (Sigurd Rascher), and the French school of saxophone (Marce Mule), They share similarities but still diverge. Nowadays there are all sorts of different classical schools of saxophone (When I say schools I'm referring to pedagogy) Including japanese, russian, american, romanian, australian, britian, icelandic and even the two original schools french and german. Just these different pedagogies while all based on the similar round, smooth, and relatively dark standard all have intricacies. From being light to very thick. Even from resonant to non-resonant. These different schools even have more inticacies withing in them self as well.
The range is the main reason that the saxophone is not in the orchestra? Maybe, but consider the oboe, with "only" 2 octaves which is also in the orchestra. Personal, I like classical (soprano) sax much more than the classical clarinet. However, the timbre of the soprano sax may be to similar to the oboe/English horn.
The clarinet range is just stupid good, sax is definitely limited - yes, you CAN have a 3 or even 4 octave range but as you said, getting smooth low tones and clear rather than shrill altissimo is another story... There are players who can use the whole range with true fluency but even among the greats most are sparing with the outer ends of the range. The tone thing is the huge thing with saxophone, it's the big advantage of saxophone and the big disadvantage. It's not straightforward at all. On tenor you can go for a classic jazz sound and aim for Coltrane or Getz and both would be good. On alto you can go for a modern funky sound and Maceo Parker and David Sanborn both fit. It's been a while since I played a clarinet but out of sax, flute, and clarinet, there isn't a "more difficult" so much as a "different things are difficult." Sax may be too loud on the bottom but flute is way too soft! They all are great in their own ways.
Not even a grand piano sounds good in both extremes of the register; it has 7 octaves plus a third, but most composers hardly went beyond 5 1/2 to 6. Perhaps a well made pipe organ is the perfect instrument as it gets to technical perfection humans can achieve.
Been playing sax over 30 years. If you practice, your high and low range can sound magnificent. You can get rid of the honk on the low end and the raspy on the high end. You just have to keep working at it.
I snagged a nice Selmer Bb from the Salvation Army and it makes a marvelously clean sound. To me its a lot easier to play than the Alto Sax I messed around with a couple years ago. Problem is I can't find any music I like w/ Clarinets...
As someone who got 1st chair in ILMEA for clarinet, the tenor was actually really easy to pick up! In fact, sometimes it's easier than my clarinet. Especially since I have an expander in the roof of my mouth because of braces. This might just be a personal thing but due to the way the mouthpiece rests in my mouth, the tenor is more comfortable. Just my thoughts lol
You've got that clarinet add-on rigged up so I'd imagine the tone is greatly improved and I'm trying to avoid my hunger for a tenor sax for the low notes while watching a plethora of sax vids on the subject. So I'll try and be strong after watching this one. (Rebuild a deal having rebuilt two clarinets?) Very thoughtful rendition and wow what an education and points for my first clarinet as a ten year old in 56'. (still want a Tenor Sax ...)
Thanks so much for this funny, informative and helpful video. One thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is the sheer weight of the tenor really is starting to wear me down and wear me out. I'm about 5' 11 and 170 and work out regularly. Even so, the pressure of the neck strap, the sheer weight and size has started to get pretty oppressive now that I'm in my early 70s. When I pick up my clarinets (even the bass one), they just seem so weightless.... lighter than air really... so I can play them a lot longer without wearing out.
@@TheRealDrJoey Thanks for the advice. I do have several straps incluidng the type you suggest. Thank goodness for them as they make playing the horn possible (at least easier). But it still feels kind of awkward and heavy and kind of wears me out after a while. Sigh... Nowadays I play my soprano saxophone more often and that is still light and fun.
I started on the B-flat soprano clarinet because this is some thing that they used to train elementary school students and early now we call middle school students because it’s expensive and easier to hold and it’s also easier to repair. It doesn’t need repairs much is a saxophone. I am now in my golden years my daughter picked up the saxophone, and then I got another clarinet, and I found the clarinet so much easier to play easier to carry like a penny whistle that I prefer over a saxophone I had a Selmer Mark 6 and I sold that and if I would’ve kept in my entire life, I would have probably have to send it in to have asked whether I used it or not I’m not using a polymer buffer clarinett Main in Germany and I had bought it used for a little over $100. Yes what he says it’s correct it is a better value.
The saxophone was intended to have all four voices, soprano, alto, baritone and bass, and was intended to be played in saxophone, and it’s mid range with it being arranged so that you didn’t have to go to the extremes of the range of each saxophone
Before I got my alto sax, I tried out a Nuvo Dood in order to test out playing with a reed and, although it probably more of a hybrid instrument, it did make me consider getting a clarinet. If my friend hadn't stumbled on this great deal on a sax, I might would have, but I had dropped the idea until you mentioned the lower range is easier on clarinet. Makes me wonder, however, how does the bass clarinet compare to bari sax? Also, what kind of bell is that on your clarinet? I like it.
Everything that he said about clarinet vs alto and soprano sax applies to bass clarinet vs bari and tenor sax. Bass clarinet is an octave below soprano, and tenor and bari sax are an octave below soprano and alto. So the bari sax only goes one note lower than bass clarinet (depending on the bari and bass, some are lower than others). Bass clarinet has the same upper range as tenor.
Thank You for the great video! I am a flute player,and want to switch to saxophone or clarinet.Please tell me is the saxophone and clarinet more difficult than a flute?Kind Regards!
Flute is generally considered to be the hard one for embouchure, clarinet is the hardest one for fingerings and sax is the hardest one for control. All three
When I was in the band in high school, the clarinet was considered primarily a girl’s instrument. If a boy played the clarinet, unless he was really good, was considered a sissy. Boys in the band played brass, percussion and saxophone. I have heard a couple of years later that the clarinet can have the same range as a human voice. When you mentioned that the clarinet can cover the saxophone section in a symphony orchestra, I immediately thought back to an episode of Evening At Pops with John Williams conducting. The orchestra was playing a big band standard and I didn’t see any saxophones playing. But the clarinet section did the work.
WOW!!! I haven't thought about that in years. I don't know if it's different in schools now. I should do more flute videos jut to break up those stereotypes!!
Lol it’s funny that people associate alto sax being a “boy’s” instrument. I’ve switched schools recently and in both schools there was not one boy alto player, all girls. It’s weird seeing a boy in person play and alto to me. And in my old school 2/3rds of the clarinet section were boys, and now in the school I attend, 2 boys even play flute!
@@maddieerin6520 I knew four girls in my high school’s band. Three played trombone (two of them were sisters). And one played trumpet and French horn. They were all very good players. A few played saxophone. A lot played clarinet and flute.
I never found the clarinet terribly hard to learn myself, the flute was a different matter though couldn't get a single note out, but I always imagined saxes and clarinets to be more or less the same in terms of playing
As a clarinetist that doubles saxophone maintenance is DEFINITELY much harder on clarinet. Saxophones will never snap in half when its just a little bit cold or dry. Much harder to clean them as well. Keys are smaller and snap way more frequently. The only better thing about clarinet in terms of maintenance is that the G# mechanism doesnt suck and break all the time
Well explained and brilliantly performed !! Why don t u play with Hamburg s clarinet-gigant Martin Schmidt-Hahn. He is playing the most important directions and could fit in the band
Hey what kind of clarinet was that again and can jam or substitute it for a sax in a band? Also can you explain the fingering differences on the sax, clarinet and flute in one of your videos. Thx
Good Sir, very nice., Thanks. Two for one. Great point. Clarinet equals classical or the elusove Dixey land gig. For you youngsters, clarinet case easier to bowl with in grade school. I was lucky enough to rock the ContraAlto in HS on RK's Pictures at an Exhibition. Check out Marcus Miller covering Bitches Brew et. al. Also, for you sax purists,, break out the clarinet with as many stomp boxes as you can find...... Finally, nothins easy to play well.
When I was about 5 years old my Dad told me to come into the living room. They were watching Lawrence Welk, and Pete Fountain was about to play a solo. Dad said, "Listen to this guy play his licorice stick..." From that moment I wanted to play clarinet. Now, my Dad was a truly great ukulele player and he taught me starting when I was about 8. A few years later I took up guitar (which I still play) but I still had that clarinet bug. I bought one for 50 bucks, and when I bought a fingering chart I found out I had a Albert system horn! So I bought a Selmer Signet, and I tried, but I never got a decent sound out of it, probably because it leaked, I now think. Anywho, years later I loaned 50 bucks to someone and they gave me a flute as collateral. I never got paid back, so I started playing flute, and discovered to my great surprise that I had a degree of innate ability on the thing. After playing flute for a lot of years, including in bar bands around Detroit, I thought, "Maybe I should get a sax, and learn it, and that could be a way of sneaking up on clarinet..." So I bought a Yamaha YTS 62 and got halfway decent on tenor, and after a few years and blowing a whole lotta notes, in 1995 I bought a really primo Buffet (at a great price) and started in on clarinet. The very first thing I noted was that the embouchure is totally different, and my 'sneak up on it with a sax' idea was bogus. But I stuck with it, and I'm so happy to say that I can doodle around pretty well now. But, I'm sorry, clarinet is a BITCH to learn. Yes, it is WAY cheaper to buy (because they're so hard to play!), and yes, they beat the PANTS off a soprano sax (which I consider a poor man's clarinet; I'll never understand how someone like Sydney Bechet could switch from being a great clarinetist to squawking around with a soprano, but that's just my opinion.) But NOTHING sounds like a clarinet. Pete Fountain, look what you've done to me!
Bottom line: Adolf sax was a clarinet maker that create the modern bass clarinet and then designed an entire family out it by making the bore conical. The new instrument was meant to replace the clarinets by being louder, more powerful all around and more in line with the fingering of all the other woodwinds. Saxophones did indeed replace clarinets in most military bands, marching bands, jazz, pop and countless other formats over the last 150 years. Clarinets were themselves new arrivals in the symphonic orchestra but thanks to them having the widest range of all the orquestral instruments, they were displaced by saxophone.
Didn't he also create a new fingering system for the clarinet when he was 15 @@rashakor ? Also thanks, I didn't know the bell shape came from the bass clarinet!!
Thought it was gonna be about things that the instruments demands from the player so I could gain some self-esteem after having grown up thinking that I'm not a real musician because I "just play the saxophone". Turns out the advantages of the clarinet are mostly just about saving money and hassle not about playing it :(
Sir, thank uu for the theme of the video, & even for that time you said like, "The clarinet compares mostly to an alto sax". When uu said that, I almost wanted to jump for joy, cause that is something that some white teachers will not tell boy band students. But, some of them, let some boys switch to the lightly more uncomfy alto sax. God bless ya though. Ciao.
Correction: There are 1000 clarinet sounds!! Klezmer, New Orleans, Swing, Classical, Orchestral, Colombia...Even in jazz Benny Goodman, Eddie Daniels, Jimmy Giuffre, Don Byron, Jimmy Hamilton, Sidney Bechet all COMPLETELY different. Funny though. I guess this video is for beginners on clarinet.
Does the increased back pressure of the clarinet really mess with ur sanity, make you dress up, put on makeup and do comedy skits? I always thought that was just for oboe players!
Some very ignorant comments! The clarinet octave lever does not raise the pitch of the note by an octave but by a twelfth and all three registers of eight note scales have different fingering and several alternate left and right hand fingering. On the sax if playing lower C scale to finger a C eight notes higher you only have to add the octave lever. Only exceptional clarinettists who have spent a lifetime can improvise in different keys , like Benny Gooodman and for alto players playing in key of Eb is a totally dufferent ball game.
This is just… wrong. Low C to higher C on sax is not just pressing the octave key. And every amateur jazz clarinetist can solo in different keys. Hell even I can and I main sax!
Steve Wiest; musician, composer, educator, MF band alum ‘81-‘85 used to refer to the clarinet as “the pain stick”. A Star Trek reference to the Klingon torture device. He’s also a huge Star Trek (original series) fan. Calling the clarinet a pain stick? What would you expect from a trombone player.
No offense but you played "that" type of clarinet and then right after that killed it on sax then say, "7 things easier on clarinet than sax"?! 😂 Sax is sounding a lot easier bruh~ It's hard to play GOOD clarinet.
Which is a shame that there are (almost) no clarinets in blues/reggae/rock. I personally sometime like the klezmer/dixieland sound of the clarinet more than the saxophone in that genre. I'm convinced the clarinet could be used for these genres. There is only one genre, where I don't like the clarinet: classical music.
Your point about price, unfortunately, doesn't stand for orchestral players. In Europe (I'm in the UK), most schools play Orchestral music, which requires an A clarinet. This doubles the cost of intermediate to professional level instruments. Great stuff otherwise, love my clarinet!
Good point. However, if you factor in a sax player needing alto and tenor for most gigs in addition to doubling on clarinet as well, it's still cheaper.
Reuben, that doubling on A clarinet is not because of the dramatic extension of Bb clarinet range (the extension is minimal, both instruments sound practically the same) but only because of easier fingering on A clarinet when playing in some odd music keys. Money goes into serious technical advantages and convenience which certainly pay off if playing over a period of time.
@@reubenbotha3331 It is not money spent, it is significant saving of time, and a more practical solution for average orchestra players. You don't need A clarinet, all the key changes can be done on the Bb clarinet, but your technical skills in fingering all that must be on the next level to compensate. That is why the composers and the conductors asked the instrument makers, to simply make a new clarinet, to keep the fingering but the instrument to sound half a step lower. This is nothing like the Bb to Eb jump, where a completely new voice is created (tenor to alto voice jump).
@@Sirvalorsax can a saxophone player with good altissimo skills use use them on a tenor and not need to use an alto? What I mean is, instead of doubling tenor and alto, just use the tenor for both?
Keep in mind the context... Most of the time when "difficulty" is decided it has to do with beginners making a sound to start playing in their red band book. Clarinet requires more discipline in the embouchure starting off than sax does. But MAN, does refining a sound on the sax to not make it sound like a yacht at the dock... That's a lot of work!
LOL
I have my first clarinet lesson next week at 52 years old. I am so excited. Always wanted to be able to play 1.
@@hannahbro0198 It was harder than I thought. I've had 4, in total now and can read the basic notes and my teacher said I am progressing really quickly. I still get a few squeaks here and there.
@@hannahbro0198 well I said to hubby I want to learn sax and he rolled his eyes and said I think you better master the clarinet and reading music first! 🤣 What a kill joy 😂
@@bevtoothis their an update?
The clarinet jokes were so random and amazing, I low key was dying.
LOL
@@Sirvalorsax I was.
I am a clarinet main and when I started getting into saxophone I immediately knew it was harder. And then I leaned people said the opposite and I was surprised by that. I also think that there is many different sounds on jazz clarinet, Bechet never sounded like Noone and neither sounds like DeFranco.
Interesting! I’m a clarinet player wanting to play saxophone and I keep seeing people say that clarinet is harder but thanks for ur input
@@alecaruso2508 After getting used to the air requirements, my experience shows clarinet to be about the same difficulty as tenor sax.
same
Glad I started on clarinet. It taught me some good stuff that transferred over to my sax playing, and it’s wonderful to be able to play both with ease.
I play saxes, clarinet, and flute. Started on clarinet, then tenor and bari in stage band and picked up flute as a doublers project for jazz band. All are difficult when played at the highest level. The extended range of the clarinet is a plus and fun. I much prefer to play clarinet when a soprano sax is called for because of the rich warmth of the clarinet sound. Few soprano players including myself can really get a singing quality sound thats not tinny and thin when compared back to back with the same part on clarinet. The clarinet does a great job of covering vocal lines and i have heard people say that the clarinet is the closest instrument to the human voice.The short travel of the keys on clarinet is really nice compared to sax especially bari and the cylinder like bore of the clarinet makes playing close to in tune easier. The embouchure and voicing are a bit different on all of them (totally different on flute). I like think of the clarinet as a high pressure low volume wind instrument and the saxes as low pressure high volume wind instrument. It helps me in switching from one to the other during a set. I know I would be more fluent if I only played one instrument (say tenor sax) but it does add different colors to the music by playing more than one and for me many times it is required to get a job.
I like the pressure/volume analogy!! I'm working on a resistance/pressure video that should be up pretty soon.
Starting out on clarinet at 60+ It's a personal quest to take the instrument where I've not heard it go.
I mean seriously, it's never really owned or mastered outside of its designated dixieland jazz or classical orchestra sounds. It's the instrument some say is the closet to human voice, it has a multi-octave range yet it still rarely stands on its own.
I play all three (sax, flute, clarinet) and couldn't agree much more with your post here. But I go further--I can't stand soprano sax. I may be my imagination, but I've always thought bent sopranos sound better than straight ones, but why on earth use one at all when there are beautiful rich tones that you can get out of a clarinet?
Man, I've been looking at saxophones because 20 years later, I'm still salty about not being able to switch to sax in school since I transferred schools during the summer when we were supposed to transition from our beginner instruments to different ones, but after hearing you wax poetic about clarinets, I e-mailed a band director selling a clarinet to snatch it up right away!
Great discussion! I play both, started on the clarinet. Sax has a more interesting sound (tamber), but agree 100% on the advantages of the clarinet. Sax's biggest "flaw" in my opinion is that there isn't a second low b-flat key on the right pinky table, no good way to do some trills or switch between notes really quickly. A redesign of the table keys to work more like clarinet so you didn't have to slide across keys would be a huge improvement on play-ability. Second issue is the low d sharp and low f sharp keys, they are much more awkward than a clarinet's similar key placement, sometimes you have no choice but to use those keys in certain passages in awkward ways.
Clarinets can have very unique sounds too! It's just that everyone seems to thing the buffets are the standard so everyone plays them! Go listen to a 1950s Selmer centered-tone, an incredibly beautiful sound all of its own.
I wonder if an alternate low Bb key where the low A key is on bari would be a nice place.
Since I started on clarinet and then switched to saxophone, Its strange hearing all about how clarinet is supposed to be harder than the saxophone. For me both instruments are equally difficult to have a good sound on. The only difference between the clarinet and the sax to me is that the saxophone has a more difficult time with low notes, you can have your own unique sound on sax, and that the sax is louder.
So in my opinion the sax is a harder instrument just because its like the clarinet except the extreme registers are harder and you have to go on more of a personal journey with your tone
The sax can’t really squeak unless you force it.
Saxophones have more resistance in the mouthpiece, so you're not punished as frequently for having the wrong voicing (tongue placement, etc.) as you are on the clarinet (which is responsible for a lot of squeaks)
same thing happened to me but for me saxophone is easier since I could never do Bb
I know this has almost nothing to do with it but a lot of people (that I know at least) think flute is super hard, but I switched to sax a little while back and flute is extremely easy compared to saxophone.
Did you mention that clarinet is effectively two instruments; chalameau (lower register) and clarion (upper register) connected by the throat notes and that it over blows via the register key by a twelfth, as opposed to an octave on sax. I think this is what makes clarinet more ' difficult '.
Agree, thus you are forced to work harder on fast passeges and use your ear. The clarinet tends to squeak a ton more too when either you don't have your fingers on the keys or just in general.
Different fingerings with the overblowing twelfth (as opposed to the sax octave key) also make it more difficult to read clarinet music.
Jimmy Heath told me the clarinet was too hard!! As a clarinet player, I loved that!!
I played the clarinet for quite a few years, and found it fairly easy
Interesting video , I'm a saxophonist of over 30 years and I'm just learning the Bass Clarinet and I Love ❤️ it 🙌🏿
Awesome. I want to get a bass clarinet but I need a baritone saxophone first
@@Sirvalorsax ahh , I play tenor and mainly baritone, I just love the low tones 🤗
I play neither instrument but this was so wildly informative. I must subscribe.
Thanks
3yrs later I'm back finally trying clarinet before sax!! 🤣
God I feel that tone development. I’ve spent years with sax and clarinet and I gotta tell you, tone is a huge learning curve. When people talk about ‘difficulty’ they mean it’s accessibility to beginners. Which is why instruments like sax are always considered so easy. Sure, you can create a “sound” on one but it can be so hard to get a truly good sound on saxes. Especially when you’re doing fast licks and coming into particularly rough notes to get good tone on like C#(talking about alto here). Or getting louder dynamics on Bs without losing tone and tuning(still talking about alto land, it’s my main instrument)
I got a good sound from my first blow, and i taught myself ahed 13/14. That was because before I played I listened to so much great players that I knew instinctively how each note should sound or how to make it "sing".
@@shirleyfrancis4515 how long have you been playing?
I started on clarinet and switched to sax. After playing sax for a while, I found it hard to go back to the soprano clarinet because the embouchure was so much more difficult. Bass clarinet I didn't find to be a problem, though. I doubled on bass clarinet on several pit bands I played in.
I played a ship gig that for around 2 months was just clarinet and flute. When I went back to sax, it felt sloppy and clunky. There were a lot of difficult clarinet parts too. Fun, but a wild ride!!
@@Sirvalorsax can you do a video comparing flute and clarinet? 🙂
We all discuss this topic at least once every year. Cool video, greetings from Peru.
😃
I started on clarinet at 13 , then alto sax at 19. What l learned on clarinet helped me on saxophone and visa versa. You never stop learning wether embouchure stance etc. Always check your habits
Man you're so cool and fun to watch! I've played a clarinet in school and now I'm thinking about getting back into woodwinds, I want to play tenor sax this time.
Nice choice
I think the main reason people say clarinet is more difficult is because of resistance. As a closed cylinder, it is similar to alternating current...greater range & efficiency, but also greater resistance. For example, that Luyben ligature you're using decreases the resistance.
The most difficult part of clarinet tone is "throwing" the sound in an orchestra. Also, the expectations of clarinet in musical theatre (and what you can get away with, imho) are more sane. I'd even go so far to say the "characteristic" "jazz" clarinet sound in most musical theatre is very much influenced by sax & flue voicing.
I really find a lot of doublers love Kaspar mouthpieces. They require less compression (a concept foreign to just about every sax player), are less picky with embouchure, voicing, and even reeds, and can create a very dark sound that projects easily with little resistance.
Your videos are super informative and entertaining. Thanks for doing it.
Thanks for watching!
Loved your analysis! Greetings from Argentina.
That joke section at the end!! Hahahaha
Hey, thanks!
I do clarinet and tenor sax and I think that Clarinet high notes are really hard but since i started on it Im way better on it then sax but also tenor sax music usually has a lot of the same notes where a Clarinet 1 could be notes from E-Bb and notes that could be from C-G6 which makes the range on a clarinet a lot better and its more fun to play
Outstanding .... Keep it up Please. Oh and Thanks for the smile.
:)
I started on the Sax and the biggest issue I have with the Clarinet is crossing the break smoothly.
That is a big issue
Practice going over the break over and over. It eventually isn’t a problem at all.
Excellent presentation
Just start learning the clarinet; you convinced me. Thanks! :)
Hey cool video. My progression through reed and wind instruments, goes thing like this: harmonica, recorder, clarinet, making and playing my own Shakuhachi flutes. On the longer Shakuhachi, yes finding those low notes can be a challenge. Oh saxophones, hopefully I will get one, love the sound of them, and the varied tone one can achieve on them, also the pitch bend ability.
Well pitch bending is possible on harmonica, recorder and clarinet too ;)
I started on clarinet, then moved to alto sax, then tenor. I was able to hit the low E on the clarinet very easy, but low Bb on the sax, had to work harder to hit.
It has been a really long time since I had played either instrument. I remember that the Clarinet was easier to get a good tone and to bend the notes, but I can't remember the note range of a Clarinet. I remember that Sax has a normal range of about 2 and a half octaves and an extended range of 4 and a half octaves.
The biggest problem I had in school was that there wasn't a lot of music specifically written for the unique characteristics of the Clarinet. This was a common problem with most of the instruments, each one has its own unique voice, but the people writing the arrangements seemed to plug in the instruments based on their own bias.
I had recently thought that pairing a Contra-Bass Clarinet on the bass line and a Bass Sax on a counter-bass line would sound really cool, but the closest I've heard is a Tuba on the bass line and a Bari Sax on the counter-bass line in 1 song and a Contra-Bass Clarinet on a bass line with a Tenor Sax on melody on another song. Both sounded really cool to me and gave me the idea. The Clarinet family has a really clean tone which contrasts and compliments the wider range of tones from the Sax family. So, I was thinking a quarter note bass line from a Contra-Bass Clarinet with offbeat eighth notes 2 notes higher or lower in the scale with a slight overtone from the Bass Sax.
When he talked about the wall that many of the Clarinetists hit when switching to Sax, I'm guessing it is because they are trying to play the Sax like they've been doing on the Clarinet. It might take them a while to realize that you can't play either instrument like the other. If you do, it sounds terrible (personal experience). With a Sax, you really have to develop your embouchure, throat, and posture like a singer, this is a lot more work, but can give you much more flexibility.
I own a dreaded alto clarinet and have played it in a community band. I guess that I am part of a small group who likes the alto clarinet.
Alto clarinet is sick my high school band had two hidden in the back
LOL
Love that bell!
Excellent video!! Having broad fingers few soprano clarinets suit my hands (A metal Conn Cavalier @ $85 was a notable exception). Recently I invested in a "cheap" low C bass clarinet, It means that in a local community band I can play lower than any other instrument and, in the absence of any dedicated bass clarinet parts I am invited to write/improvise my own parts. I also modified the neck to take a piezobarrel mic and can put the sound through a pedal board if I really need to cut through.
I'd love to get a bass clarinet in the future
As I played the recorder when I was a kid, my grandpa wanted me to learn the clarinet. I wasn't much into it so I never really considered, but if I had asked my parents for one, it probably would've been helpful for later, when I decided to learn the Saxophone. Although perhaps I would've gone into the classical world instead of jazz, who knows. I'll probably get myself one at some point of my life, but only after I git gut with the Alto and then try the Tenor LOL
:)
That was all very real and really entertaining SirV .. I think you were really kickin’ it with this one. Btw, I recently decided to try a Rico C5 Graftonite on my alto, and have been really diggin’ the alternate vibe of a moderately aggressive rollover baffle. Hence, I just ordered a Rico Metalite M7 for my tenor to try a step baffle on that, since my main tenor pieces are currently V16 and OL STM.. See Ya... 👍👍
Nice.
@@Sirvalorsax - I like it ! The graftonite C5 on alto and the metalite M7 are definitely working for me ! On tenor, my $200-300 metal pieces seem to have a slightly richer tone, but without an immediate A/B comparison, it’s really a moot point because it’s hard to tell the difference. The small bathroom test made it possible to tell more easily. The M7 is easy to work and can be made to sound in your face or darker and mellow on a 2.5-3 reed. I think for the money, the m7 and the graftonite alto C5 can’t be beat. I used the stock Yamaha ligature on the M7 because I didn’t have a bigger more expensive ligature handy. I’m done drooling over mpc’s and expensive ligs that add up to $100’s of dollars. I have no qualms whatsover about doing gigs with these $20 and $30 mpcs using basic ligs.
Awesome vid and killer jokes! Keep it up, you're great!!!
Thanks
Excellent video! Been looking into learning clarinet since i already play alto and soprano sax.
Nice. Which brand are you looking at?
Buffet mostly
Great video Adrien.
Love playing clarinet. I’d also love to see the difficulties video.
Noted!
10u started renting a clarinet last week, I can already do some stuff! I have almost 3octaves range already, MUCH more than on my trumpet lol
7:35 even though the classical saxophone has a "standard" there are still radically different classical saxophone tones. there are the 2 main schools of saxophone. The German school of saxophone (Sigurd Rascher), and the French school of saxophone (Marce Mule), They share similarities but still diverge. Nowadays there are all sorts of different classical schools of saxophone (When I say schools I'm referring to pedagogy) Including japanese, russian, american, romanian, australian, britian, icelandic and even the two original schools french and german. Just these different pedagogies while all based on the similar round, smooth, and relatively dark standard all have intricacies. From being light to very thick. Even from resonant to non-resonant. These different schools even have more inticacies withing in them self as well.
Good Point!!
Please make a video on this subject.
The range is the main reason that the saxophone is not in the orchestra? Maybe, but consider the oboe, with "only" 2 octaves which is also in the orchestra. Personal, I like classical (soprano) sax much more than the classical clarinet. However, the timbre of the soprano sax may be to similar to the oboe/English horn.
The clarinet range is just stupid good, sax is definitely limited - yes, you CAN have a 3 or even 4 octave range but as you said, getting smooth low tones and clear rather than shrill altissimo is another story... There are players who can use the whole range with true fluency but even among the greats most are sparing with the outer ends of the range.
The tone thing is the huge thing with saxophone, it's the big advantage of saxophone and the big disadvantage. It's not straightforward at all. On tenor you can go for a classic jazz sound and aim for Coltrane or Getz and both would be good. On alto you can go for a modern funky sound and Maceo Parker and David Sanborn both fit.
It's been a while since I played a clarinet but out of sax, flute, and clarinet, there isn't a "more difficult" so much as a "different things are difficult." Sax may be too loud on the bottom but flute is way too soft! They all are great in their own ways.
Not even a grand piano sounds good in both extremes of the register; it has 7 octaves plus a third, but most composers hardly went beyond 5 1/2 to 6. Perhaps a well made pipe organ is the perfect instrument as it gets to technical perfection humans can achieve.
Thanks for posting
Been playing sax over 30 years. If you practice, your high and low range can sound magnificent. You can get rid of the honk on the low end and the raspy on the high end. You just have to keep working at it.
I snagged a nice Selmer Bb from the Salvation Army and it makes a marvelously clean sound. To me its a lot easier to play than the Alto Sax I messed around with a couple years ago. Problem is I can't find any music I like w/ Clarinets...
As someone who got 1st chair in ILMEA for clarinet, the tenor was actually really easy to pick up! In fact, sometimes it's easier than my clarinet. Especially since I have an expander in the roof of my mouth because of braces. This might just be a personal thing but due to the way the mouthpiece rests in my mouth, the tenor is more comfortable. Just my thoughts lol
You've got that clarinet add-on rigged up so I'd imagine the tone is greatly improved and I'm trying to avoid my hunger for a tenor sax for the low notes while watching a plethora of sax vids on the subject. So I'll try and be strong after watching this one. (Rebuild a deal having rebuilt two clarinets?) Very thoughtful rendition and wow what an education and points for my first clarinet as a ten year old in 56'. (still want a Tenor Sax ...)
I started on clarinet and bought a tenor sax because I was hungry for low notes. I now have an overwhelming desire to buy a low A bari
Thanks so much for this funny, informative and helpful video. One thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is the sheer weight of the tenor really is starting to wear me down and wear me out. I'm about 5' 11 and 170 and work out regularly. Even so, the pressure of the neck strap, the sheer weight and size has started to get pretty oppressive now that I'm in my early 70s. When I pick up my clarinets (even the bass one), they just seem so weightless.... lighter than air really... so I can play them a lot longer without wearing out.
You might want to look into getting a strap for your tenor that also goes over your shoulders and across your chest.
@@TheRealDrJoey Thanks for the advice. I do have several straps incluidng the type you suggest. Thank goodness for them as they make playing the horn possible (at least easier). But it still feels kind of awkward and heavy and kind of wears me out after a while. Sigh... Nowadays I play my soprano saxophone more often and that is still light and fun.
I started on the B-flat soprano clarinet because this is some thing that they used to train elementary school students and early now we call middle school students because it’s expensive and easier to hold and it’s also easier to repair. It doesn’t need repairs much is a saxophone.
I am now in my golden years my daughter picked up the saxophone, and then I got another clarinet, and I found the clarinet so much easier to play easier to carry like a penny whistle that I prefer over a saxophone
I had a Selmer Mark 6 and I sold that and if I would’ve kept in my entire life, I would have probably have to send it in to have asked whether I used it or not
I’m not using a polymer buffer clarinett Main in Germany and I had bought it used for a little over $100. Yes what he says it’s correct it is a better value.
The saxophone was intended to have all four voices, soprano, alto, baritone and bass, and was intended to be played in saxophone, and it’s mid range with it being arranged so that you didn’t have to go to the extremes of the range of each saxophone
Whats that extra key you have in the middle of the two joints, right above R1?
I know this is late but it's a left hand Eb key
Great video Thanks
Before I got my alto sax, I tried out a Nuvo Dood in order to test out playing with a reed and, although it probably more of a hybrid instrument, it did make me consider getting a clarinet. If my friend hadn't stumbled on this great deal on a sax, I might would have, but I had dropped the idea until you mentioned the lower range is easier on clarinet. Makes me wonder, however, how does the bass clarinet compare to bari sax?
Also, what kind of bell is that on your clarinet? I like it.
Everything that he said about clarinet vs alto and soprano sax applies to bass clarinet vs bari and tenor sax. Bass clarinet is an octave below soprano, and tenor and bari sax are an octave below soprano and alto.
So the bari sax only goes one note lower than bass clarinet (depending on the bari and bass, some are lower than others). Bass clarinet has the same upper range as tenor.
Does that mean that on sax you have your own tone akin to trumpet? Or is it more like manufacturer differences?
Can I play both the trumpet and alto sax parts of 'Autumn Leaves' in Somethin' Else on the clarinet?
THANK YOU. FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT. Altissimo and large intervals were waay easier
:)
What kind of bell is that?
Cannonball provided alternate bells with this model of clarinet
Excellent Video. You are 100% on everything... I double on Clarinet and Sax. Excellent Video except for the jokes at the end.
😁
Thank You for the great video! I am a flute player,and want to switch to saxophone or clarinet.Please tell me is the saxophone and clarinet more difficult than a flute?Kind Regards!
Flute is generally considered to be the hard one for embouchure, clarinet is the hardest one for fingerings and sax is the hardest one for control. All three
All three can be challenging in their own right
@@Sirvalorsax Thank You for the answer!All the best!
I’d love to hear you play bass clarinet
I'd love to get one if I can't get a bari sax
Sir Valor Clarinet
When I was in the band in high school, the clarinet was considered primarily a girl’s instrument. If a boy played the clarinet, unless he was really good, was considered a sissy. Boys in the band played brass, percussion and saxophone. I have heard a couple of years later that the clarinet can have the same range as a human voice.
When you mentioned that the clarinet can cover the saxophone section in a symphony orchestra, I immediately thought back to an episode of Evening At Pops with John Williams conducting. The orchestra was playing a big band standard and I didn’t see any saxophones playing. But the clarinet section did the work.
WOW!!! I haven't thought about that in years. I don't know if it's different in schools now. I should do more flute videos jut to break up those stereotypes!!
@@Sirvalorsax This was back in the 80’s, of course. In the 90’s, I guess it was the same thing. I think it’s different now.
Lol it’s funny that people associate alto sax being a “boy’s” instrument. I’ve switched schools recently and in both schools there was not one boy alto player, all girls. It’s weird seeing a boy in person play and alto to me. And in my old school 2/3rds of the clarinet section were boys, and now in the school I attend, 2 boys even play flute!
@@maddieerin6520 I knew four girls in my high school’s band. Three played trombone (two of them were sisters). And one played trumpet and French horn. They were all very good players. A few played saxophone. A lot played clarinet and flute.
What is he playing on clarinet in the very beginning of the video?? It sounds so familiar but I can’t put my finger on it
That was from a theme that I barely remember from a fantasy game called Lost Odyssey.
I never found the clarinet terribly hard to learn myself, the flute was a different matter though couldn't get a single note out, but I always imagined saxes and clarinets to be more or less the same in terms of playing
As a clarinetist that doubles saxophone maintenance is DEFINITELY much harder on clarinet. Saxophones will never snap in half when its just a little bit cold or dry. Much harder to clean them as well. Keys are smaller and snap way more frequently. The only better thing about clarinet in terms of maintenance is that the G# mechanism doesnt suck and break all the time
Well explained and brilliantly performed !! Why don t u play with Hamburg s clarinet-gigant Martin Schmidt-Hahn. He is playing the most important directions and could fit in the band
Surprised that you didn't mention soft dynamics
What is that roundish/pear shaped bell? Haven’t seen that before.
It came with the Cannonball clarinet
Hey what kind of clarinet was that again and can jam or substitute it for a sax in a band? Also can you explain the fingering differences on the sax, clarinet and flute in one of your videos. Thx
Cannonball makes it but I think this one in particular has been discontinued. It's called the Arezzo.
@@Sirvalorsax I was referring to alto, soprano etc and can you substitute it in a song where you use a saxophone? Thank you.
@@mrbarlowce to my ears, Soprano clarinet sounds like alto/soprano sax, alto clarinet sounds like tenor sax, and bass clarinet sounds like bari sax
Good Sir, very nice., Thanks. Two for one. Great point. Clarinet equals classical or the elusove Dixey land gig. For you youngsters, clarinet case easier to bowl with in grade school. I was lucky enough to rock the ContraAlto in HS on RK's Pictures at an Exhibition. Check out Marcus Miller covering Bitches Brew et. al. Also, for you sax purists,, break out the clarinet with as many stomp boxes as you can find...... Finally, nothins easy to play well.
Awesome
Great Adrien! What Clarinet is that you have in your hand? The bell and the barrel are intriguing me.
Ending credits say it's a Mio clarinet, but I'm not too familiar with clarinets to give you specifics lol
Thanks-I missed it@@anthonydavila5109
Mio is the Cannonball flutes...OOOPPPS!!! I meant Arezzo from Cannonball. I don't think the make the Arezzo anymore though
When I was about 5 years old my Dad told me to come into the living room. They were watching Lawrence Welk, and Pete Fountain was about to play a solo. Dad said, "Listen to this guy play his licorice stick..." From that moment I wanted to play clarinet.
Now, my Dad was a truly great ukulele player and he taught me starting when I was about 8. A few years later I took up guitar (which I still play) but I still had that clarinet bug. I bought one for 50 bucks, and when I bought a fingering chart I found out I had a Albert system horn! So I bought a Selmer Signet, and I tried, but I never got a decent sound out of it, probably because it leaked, I now think.
Anywho, years later I loaned 50 bucks to someone and they gave me a flute as collateral. I never got paid back, so I started playing flute, and discovered to my great surprise that I had a degree of innate ability on the thing. After playing flute for a lot of years, including in bar bands around Detroit, I thought, "Maybe I should get a sax, and learn it, and that could be a way of sneaking up on clarinet..."
So I bought a Yamaha YTS 62 and got halfway decent on tenor, and after a few years and blowing a whole lotta notes, in 1995 I bought a really primo Buffet (at a great price) and started in on clarinet. The very first thing I noted was that the embouchure is totally different, and my 'sneak up on it with a sax' idea was bogus.
But I stuck with it, and I'm so happy to say that I can doodle around pretty well now.
But, I'm sorry, clarinet is a BITCH to learn. Yes, it is WAY cheaper to buy (because they're so hard to play!), and yes, they beat the PANTS off a soprano sax (which I consider a poor man's clarinet; I'll never understand how someone like Sydney Bechet could switch from being a great clarinetist to squawking around with a soprano, but that's just my opinion.) But NOTHING sounds like a clarinet.
Pete Fountain, look what you've done to me!
Great Story, thanks for sharing it with us. I should make a video on 7 things harder in clarinet than sax. Yeh, only 7 😁😁😁
Poor man’s clarinet??
@@q12aw50 Absolutely. Though they cost more!
@@TheRealDrJoey yeah no.
@@q12aw50 No, yeah.
Eu, vendendo minha lata velha ( saxofone), não compro um clarinete desse de jeito nenhum. Imagine o teu saxofone... top seus instrumentos.
8:40 you say that as if all of us haven’t used our saxophones as rocket launchers 😂
LOL
I got to get one of those Clarinet phones! Very funny, thanks
LOL
would love an adolphe sax video on the history of the horn and orcs
Bottom line: Adolf sax was a clarinet maker that create the modern bass clarinet and then designed an entire family out it by making the bore conical. The new instrument was meant to replace the clarinets by being louder, more powerful all around and more in line with the fingering of all the other woodwinds. Saxophones did indeed replace clarinets in most military bands, marching bands, jazz, pop and countless other formats over the last 150 years. Clarinets were themselves new arrivals in the symphonic orchestra but thanks to them having the widest range of all the orquestral instruments, they were displaced by saxophone.
Didn't he also create a new fingering system for the clarinet when he was 15 @@rashakor ?
Also thanks, I didn't know the bell shape came from the bass clarinet!!
Please can you do a review on jody jazz HR*
I want to get an HR Dark for the future. I'll look into it.
Thought it was gonna be about things that the instruments demands from the player so I could gain some self-esteem after having grown up thinking that I'm not a real musician because I "just play the saxophone". Turns out the advantages of the clarinet are mostly just about saving money and hassle not about playing it :(
Great and hilarious! 😂😂😂🤣
Thanks
If a standard b flat clarinet went down to low c like the bass you’d have a range from almost tenor sax to soprano sax
True!!
How did you get Morgan Freeman to dub your video ?
LOL, I hear that a lot
Sir, thank uu for the theme of the video, & even for that time you said like, "The clarinet compares mostly to an alto sax". When uu said that, I almost wanted to jump for joy, cause that is something that some white teachers will not tell boy band students. But, some of them, let some boys switch to the lightly more uncomfy alto sax. God bless ya though. Ciao.
Uhm, Your esophagus is in the front of your throat. So, you’re not cutting off airflow unless you’re wrapping it around your neck.
Correction: There are 1000 clarinet sounds!! Klezmer, New Orleans, Swing, Classical, Orchestral, Colombia...Even in jazz Benny Goodman, Eddie Daniels, Jimmy Giuffre, Don Byron, Jimmy Hamilton, Sidney Bechet all COMPLETELY different. Funny though. I guess this video is for beginners on clarinet.
I can relate to everything you said. Sort of self discovery verified.
I always wondered why the saxophone gets so much love when the clarinet is clearly a great instrument too, especially in comparison 😔
I've always been surprised that there was never a rock band to get a great clarinet soloist, a la Ian Anderson on flute.
Cuz sax is better (coming from a player of both)
Great acting skills 😂
Thanks
Some students cannot seal the keys. Bless them.
probably because their instruments are in poor adjustment.
@@stevejohnson174 Yes, but some literally can't get all of their fingers to stay down- they enjoy themselves, so who am I to judge?
What’s with the hat? We miss the fro :(
My fro looks weird when I use the blue screen. Light passes through it and it gets greyed out. That is the only reason for the hat.
@@Sirvalorsax I see
Tbh, I just can't wrap my head around why people care which is harder.
Dawg! You funny!
Got me with meow! Hahahahah
LOL
Does the increased back pressure of the clarinet really mess with ur sanity, make you dress up, put on makeup and do comedy skits?
I always thought that was just for oboe players!
My whole class is saying Clarinet is the easiest instrument like 💀
Some very ignorant comments! The clarinet octave lever does not raise the pitch of the note by an octave but by a twelfth and all three registers of eight note scales have different fingering and several alternate left and right hand fingering. On the sax if playing lower C scale to finger a C eight notes higher you only have to add the octave lever.
Only exceptional clarinettists who have spent a lifetime can improvise in different keys , like Benny Gooodman and for alto players playing in key of Eb is a totally dufferent ball game.
This is just… wrong. Low C to higher C on sax is not just pressing the octave key. And every amateur jazz clarinetist can solo in different keys. Hell even I can and I main sax!
You shouldn't compare as they're two different instruments
Steve Wiest; musician, composer, educator, MF band alum ‘81-‘85 used to refer to the clarinet as “the pain stick”. A Star Trek reference to the Klingon torture device. He’s also a huge Star Trek (original series) fan. Calling the clarinet a pain stick? What would you expect from a trombone player.
LOL!! I'm going to think of that every time I see that painstick episode
No offense but you played "that" type of clarinet and then right after that killed it on sax then say, "7 things easier on clarinet than sax"?! 😂 Sax is sounding a lot easier bruh~ It's hard to play GOOD clarinet.
There are also clarinets made out of rubber.
Did not choose the clarinet because: no clarinet in blues, no clarinet in reggae, no clarinet in rock
Which is a shame that there are (almost) no clarinets in blues/reggae/rock. I personally sometime like the klezmer/dixieland sound of the clarinet more than the saxophone in that genre. I'm convinced the clarinet could be used for these genres. There is only one genre, where I don't like the clarinet: classical music.
No clarinet in blues has to be the dumbest take I have ever heard.
Your point about price, unfortunately, doesn't stand for orchestral players. In Europe (I'm in the UK), most schools play Orchestral music, which requires an A clarinet. This doubles the cost of intermediate to professional level instruments. Great stuff otherwise, love my clarinet!
Good point. However, if you factor in a sax player needing alto and tenor for most gigs in addition to doubling on clarinet as well, it's still cheaper.
Reuben, that doubling on A clarinet is not because of the dramatic extension of Bb clarinet range (the extension is minimal, both instruments sound practically the same) but only because of easier fingering on A clarinet when playing in some odd music keys. Money goes into serious technical advantages and convenience which certainly pay off if playing over a period of time.
@@zvonimirtosic6171 I was simply recognising that advanced players need to own 2 clarinets to play the repertoire, doubling the amount of money spent.
@@reubenbotha3331 It is not money spent, it is significant saving of time, and a more practical solution for average orchestra players. You don't need A clarinet, all the key changes can be done on the Bb clarinet, but your technical skills in fingering all that must be on the next level to compensate. That is why the composers and the conductors asked the instrument makers, to simply make a new clarinet, to keep the fingering but the instrument to sound half a step lower. This is nothing like the Bb to Eb jump, where a completely new voice is created (tenor to alto voice jump).
@@Sirvalorsax can a saxophone player with good altissimo skills use use them on a tenor and not need to use an alto? What I mean is, instead of doubling tenor and alto, just use the tenor for both?
I didn't understand the jokes but I was never in band or anything. Just picked up the sax a couple years ago in my 30s
LOL!!