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The clarinet: how it works

It goes without saying that the clarinet is mostly made of wood and the player blows down it to make it sound. It is a woodwind instrument.

An 18th century clarinet

When the clarinet was first invented, at the end of the 17th century, it had few keys and was a simpler instrument than it is today. It has changed a good deal over the years, as these two pictures show.

On the left is the kind of late-18th-century clarinet that Mozart would have known. 

Below is a modern clarinet that an orchestral musician or soloist would use today.

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The clarinet belongs to the single-reed members of the woodwind family

A modern clarinet

The sound begins with a player blowing over the reed in the mouthpiece. Unlike the oboe or the bassoon, the clarinet has a single reed.

Joy Farrall explains and demonstrates. She also has some interesting things to say about tuning the clarinet.

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