I've played clarinet for six and a half years. However, I feel like I've only REALLY played clarinet for about three. To be honest, I was absolutely awful for the entirety of middle school. Yes, I knew notes, but clarinet covers nearly four octaves, and I could only hit maybe two and a half octaves. I play five scales at most, and those were complete catastrophies. I played straight third clarinet parts all three years. Sad, right?
I was told in sixth grade that clarinet is an easy instrument. The problem is that I think they forgot the last half of the sentence. What I believe they meant to say was "Clarinet is an easy instrument until you start to play the really hard music." Really hard music on clarinet is hard for a reason. Playing crazy runs that skip random notes, jumping octaves, and holding ridiculously high notes perfectly in tune for long periods of time are common place. It's the kind of music that makes you wish you played a different instrument.
I love playing clarinet. I really do. The low range is stunning, and all the fast notes are fun once you learn them. However, it's a struggle to play all the crazy music directors and composers decide to throw at us. Whole notes are a relief.
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