--- url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-fr/instrument/clarinet' title: Clarinet author: name: rajeevk url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-fr/user/4add8741a490747f' date: '2026-06-22T09:56:30+00:00' updated: '2026-11-06T00:23:09+00:00' type: product summary: 'The Carnatic clarinet, developed by A. K. C. Natarajan for South Indian raga, is a B-flat clarinet with gamaka through embouchure bending, in Carnatic concerts…' tags: - Aerophones - Clarinet image: 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/mcp-imported/clarinet-377.jpg?VersionId=4_zf58621fa0f456059ae110919_f10943e919bd036ad_d20261105_m213122_c003_v0312039_t0026_u01793914282174&h=00546c34&itok=COJS-CXY' published: true og: site_name: KalaSudha 'image:url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/mcp-imported/clarinet-377.jpg?VersionId=4_zf58621fa0f456059ae110919_f10943e919bd036ad_d20261105_m213122_c003_v0312039_t0026_u01793914282174&h=00546c34&itok=COJS-CXY' 'image:secure_url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/mcp-imported/clarinet-377.jpg?VersionId=4_zf58621fa0f456059ae110919_f10943e919bd036ad_d20261105_m213122_c003_v0312039_t0026_u01793914282174&h=00546c34&itok=COJS-CXY' 'image:type': image/jpeg 'image:width': '1200' 'image:height': '675' 'image:alt': 'Black clarinet with silver keys on a white background' --- Western instrument · Single-reed woodwind # Clarinetक्लेरिनेट The Carnatic clarinet is the standard B-flat clarinet as South Indian classical music plays it. A. K. C. Natarajan built its technique, bending pitch with jaw and lips for gamaka. [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) [Learn the clarinet ](#learn) ## Buy from KalaSudha £300 to £3,500 - Sold by quote or made to order - Packed for shipping and delivered worldwide - Serviced and repaired by us, wherever you bought it FamilySingle-reed woodwind InstrumentStandard B-flat clarinet BoreCylindrical Adapted inSouth India, early 19th century Buy from us ## Choose your clarinet [Ask about a custom order ](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) - Student ### Student clarinet From £300 Student instruments are ABS plastic, for Carnatic beginners. [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) - Mid-range ### Mid-range clarinet £500 to £1,500 Mid-range instruments are wooden, from established makers. [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) - Professional ### Professional clarinet £1,500 to £3,500 Professional instruments are African blackwood, used by concert performers. [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) ### What to look for A Carnatic clarinet is a standard B-flat clarinet: beyond the mouthpiece and reed, it needs no adaptation. Start with the key system. The Boehm system has 17 keys and 6 rings; the Albert, or simple, system keeps more holes under the fingers for sliding pitch, so ask a Carnatic teacher which they play. For bending, choose a medium-soft to medium reed and a medium tip opening. The body material separates the grades. Student instruments are ABS plastic or hard rubber; professional bodies are African blackwood, dense and resistant to moisture and humidity swings. Check the barrel and the pitch standard: barrel length sets the overall tuning, and some current models are built at A = 442 Hz, so some players carry two barrels for ensemble tuning. Check the pads too: a leak silences or overblows a note and breaks gamaka in that register. Ask us for a quote, or for a clarinet made to order. ### After you buy Delivered worldwideWe pack every instrument for international shipping; ask us about cases and insurance. Service and repairWe service and repair any clarinet, wherever you bought it, worldwide: ask us. Strings, parts and casesAsk us for strings, spare parts and cases, and about a size for a younger learner. Help with your instrumentAsk us through the chat on any page, or by email, for help with your instrument. Gifts, schools and travelAsk us about gift vouchers, class sets for schools, and flight cases and travel help. Read the clarinet care guide - Soak each **reed** 30 seconds before playing and rotate two or three, as sustained gamaka tires them. Store them flat with a humidity card, since a warped reed makes bending inconsistent. - **Swab** each joint with a silk or microfibre pull-through after playing, as damp softens the wood and can crack the body. Brush the mouthpiece separately. - Check the **pads** for leaks every six months: a leak silences or overblows a note and breaks gamaka in that register. We re-seat or replace single pads. Avoid needless key presses, which wear springs and pads. - **Blackwood** is stable but benefits from bore oil on a pull-through swab once or twice a year against surface drying; some makers advise none on a new clarinet. Never oil tone holes or tenon corks. - Grease the **tenon corks** thinly, as a dry cork tears or sticks and can crack the socket, and replace compressed cork. Store the clarinet disassembled in a padded case and never leave it assembled in damp or cold; temperature swings stress the joints and keys. KalaSudha Academy ## Learn the clarinet with us [All courses ](/en-fr/courses) You can learn the Carnatic clarinet with KalaSudha online and in workshops, and beginners start at Foundation level. Foundation builds a stable single-reed embouchure and an even tone in the low and middle registers before any Carnatic technique. Children learn with us as well as adults: ask us about a starting age and about an instrument size for a younger learner. Clarinettists returning after a long break pick up where they left off. Our courses run in levels, so your teacher reviews where you stand first. [Ask about learning the clarinet](/en-fr/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=377) ### Your route, stage by stage 1. 1 Embouchure and tone production Our courses start beginners here, at KalaSudha's Foundation level. Build a stable single-reed embouchure, the lower lip cushioning the reed; its placement and bite change the reed's stiffness and pitch. Develop a centred, even tone in the chalumeau, then the clarion, at soft and loud levels, before any Carnatic technique. 2. 2 Register navigation and the twelfth Master the register key and the jump at the twelfth, an octave and a fifth, larger than the saxophone's octave. Learn the four registers, chalumeau, throat, clarion and altissimo, and practise the throat-to-clarion move until it sounds even at every dynamic, then carry raga phrases across it. 3. 3 Embouchure bending for gamaka Develop jaw and lip bending for gamaka, with vocal-tract shaping and sliding a finger part-way off an open hole. Start with slow bends below a held note, then oscillation (kampita) and glide (jaru); the cylindrical bore is very sensitive to embouchure change, so build speed slowly. 4. 4 Carnatic scales, kritis and alapana Learn the melakarta scales with gamaka on each note of the raga. Study the varnam that often opens a concert and the kriti, its backbone, with correct ornament, then alapana, the slow, pulse-free introduction to a raga, shaping each phrase across the registers. 5. 5 Concert performance and raga depth Develop full Carnatic concert practice (alapana, niraval, kalpana swaras and pallavi) with mridangam and violin, the usual melodic accompanist. Study each raga's gamaka conventions, vadi and samvadi and defining phrases, joining embouchure control to mature raga knowledge. The instrument ## About the clarinet ### What makes a clarinet ### The Carnatic clarinet The **Carnatic clarinet** is the B-flat clarinet as South Indian classical music plays it, and ours suits the student and the concert player. **A. K. C. Natarajan** leads the tradition; he spent decades building a technique for the gamaka-rich language of Carnatic raga on a Western woodwind. Its **cylindrical bore** gives a hollow, focused low register and a bright, penetrating upper one, unlike the saxophone's conical bore, and its keywork covers the chromatic scale across three registers. ### How it plays raga The bore makes the clarinet overblow at the **twelfth**, an octave and a fifth, where the [saxophone](/en-fr/instrument/saxophone) overblows at the octave, so Carnatic players must move fluently through the chalumeau, clarion and altissimo registers. **Gamaka** comes from embouchure bending, jaw and lip pressure on the reed, with vocal-tract shaping and partial tone-hole cover: kampita, jaru and nokku over the keywork's fixed pitches, with breath shaping each ornament. Its breath-sustained tone suits alapana. It holds a recognised place on the South Indian concert circuit, with a smaller community than the saxophone's or the nadaswaram's. ### Choosing one Two key systems matter: the Boehm system, 17 keys and 6 rings, and the Albert or simple system, which keeps more holes under the fingers for sliding pitch, so ask a Carnatic teacher which they play. Choose a medium-soft to medium reed for bending, and check the barrel and pitch standard. ### History By the usual account, Johann Christoph Denner of Nuremberg added a register key to the chalumeau around 1700 to create the clarinet. A palace letter of 26 December 1802 records four clarinets at the Thanjavur court of Serfoji II. British military bands spread it in the 19th century, beside bugles, flutes and brass, and it served North Indian folk and light music before any classical use. In the South classically trained musicians played it in temple processions and Tamil film orchestras. **A. K. C. (Azhiyur Kuppusami Chidambara) Natarajan** studied Carnatic music formally and built the embouchure technique for its ornaments. He had the Tyagaraja Aradhana lift its ban on the instrument, played the Madras Music Academy from the 1960s and the Chennai Music Season and major festivals for over four decades, and recorded widely; later players learned from those recordings. He has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and, in 2022, the Padma Shri. His students carry the tradition on, occasional players keep it visible on the circuit, and some Tamil Nadu institutions teach it; students still learn from his recordings. Some players have adapted the clarinet to Hindustani raga and meend, where no player has yet matched his standing. How a clarinet is made A Carnatic clarinet is a standard **B-flat clarinet** in five sections: mouthpiece, barrel, upper joint, lower joint and bell. The bore is **cylindrical** for most of its length, departing from a cylinder at the mouthpiece and flaring through the lower joint and bell, which shapes its register behaviour and colour. Professional bodies are **African blackwood** (Dalbergia melanoxylon, grenadilla), dense, fine-grained and resistant to moisture and humidity swings; Buffet Crampon makes its E13 of it and its student Prodige of ABS plastic; other student bodies use hard rubber. The exterior is smooth, oiled or lacquered. The **Boehm system** keywork has 17 keys and 6 rings of silver- or nickel-plated German silver on pivot rods; the Albert, or simple, system keeps more holes under the fingers. The mouthpiece is hard rubber or crystal glass, with a ligature clamping a cane reed (Arundo donax) to its table; reed hardness, tip and cut set pitch flexibility and tone. No structural change is needed: the adaptation is in the jaw and lip technique. Barrel length sets overall tuning, and some current models are built at A = 442 Hz, so some players carry two barrels for ensemble tuning. ### At a glance TraditionCarnatic classical music; at the Thanjavur court by 1802, and established as a concert instrument by A. K. C. Natarajan from the 1960s Standard instrumentB-flat soprano clarinet; standard Western instrument, no structural modification for Carnatic use Bore typeCylindrical bore; overblows at the twelfth, where the saxophone overblows at the octave Gamaka techniqueEmbouchure bending (jaw and lip pressure), vocal-tract shaping and partial tone-hole cover Body materialAfrican blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon); student instruments in ABS plastic or hard rubber Key awardA. K. C. Natarajan: Sangeet Natak Akademi Award; Padma Shri 2022 Full specifications #### Physical dimensions Total length (assembled)Approximately 66 cm Bore typeCylindrical; approximately 14.6 mm throughout body Body sections5: mouthpiece, barrel, upper joint, lower joint, bell WeightApproximately 0.7–1.0 kg (blackwood instrument) TranspositionBb clarinet; sounds a major second below written pitch #### Body & construction Body materialAfrican blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon); student instruments in ABS plastic Key materialSilver-plated or nickel-plated German silver; Boehm system Key count17 keys and 6 rings (standard Boehm system) Tone holes18 tone holes; seven under the fingertips, the rest worked by the 17 keys Tenon jointsCork-wrapped tenons; greased for assembly #### Reed and mouthpiece Reed typeSingle cane reed (Arundo donax); medium to medium-soft (2.5–3.0) for Carnatic bending Mouthpiece materialHard rubber (ebonite) or crystal glass LigatureMetal or synthetic ligature clamping reed to mouthpiece table Tip openingMedium (approximately 1.05–1.20 mm for Carnatic bending flexibility) Reed brandsVandoren, Rico, D'Addario; medium strength #### Playing technique Gamaka methodJaw and lip pressure on the reed, vocal-tract shaping and partial tone-hole cover Register changeRegister key (thumb); transitions at the twelfth Pitch rangeE3 to C6 (concert pitch); approximately 3.5 octaves across three registers Playing positionSeated; instrument held diagonally at approximately 30 degrees from body AmplificationMicrophone at bell or mid-body; standard Carnatic concert PA setup #### Acoustic characteristics Tonal characterHollow, woody tone in the chalumeau register, from its odd harmonics; bright and penetrating in the clarion Overtone profileOdd harmonics dominant in the low register (cylindrical bore); distinct from the saxophone or nadaswaram Dynamic rangeWide; pp to ff across all registers SustainContinuous (breath-sustained); suited to extended alapana phrases Optimal useCarnatic alapana, kritis, kalpana swaras; solo with mridangam and violin Explore the music ## Hear the clarinet Hear KalaSudha's [recordings](/en-fr/releases) and [concert videos](/en-fr/videos). ### Players Ask us to book a clarinet player for a concert, event or recording. [Book a clarinet player ](/en-fr/book-indian-classical-musicians) Keep exploring ## More around the clarinet - [ Discipline Clarinet A single-reed woodwind from Europe, adapted to carry the gamakas of Carnatic music ](/en-fr/instrumental/carnatic-classical/clarinet) Questions ## Clarinet: common questions Buying, learning, care and the instrument itself. ### How do I start learning the Carnatic clarinet? You can learn the Carnatic [clarinet](/en-fr/instrumental/carnatic-classical/clarinet) with KalaSudha online and in workshops, and beginners start at **Foundation** level. Foundation builds a stable single-reed embouchure and an even tone in the low and middle registers before any Carnatic technique. Children learn with us as well as adults: ask us about a starting age and about an instrument size for a younger learner. Clarinettists returning after a long break pick up where they left off. Our [courses](/en-fr/courses) run in levels, so your teacher reviews where you stand first. ### How does a clarinettist bend pitch? **[Clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)** players bend pitch and play glissandi by sliding their fingers partly off the open tone holes and by tuning the resonances of the vocal tract. The vocal tract gains more control where the clarinet's own resonances are weaker. Lower-lip placement and bite force change the reed's effective stiffness, which also affects pitch. The Albert system's finger-covered holes make such slides easier. ### Who brought the clarinet into Carnatic music? The **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)** reached South India through the Thanjavur court of the Maratha ruler Serfoji II, where a palace letter of 1802 records four clarinets. It first accompanied the chinna melam, the ensemble that played for sadir dance, and Mahadeva Nattuvanar is credited as the first to play Carnatic music on it. Acceptance came slowly; A. K. C. Natarajan later built a technique suited to Carnatic music. ### How does the clarinet differ from the saxophone? The **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)**'s bore is cylindrical for most of its length, about 14.6 to 14.9 mm across. It overblows at the twelfth, an octave and a fifth, while flutes and saxophones overblow at the octave, which is why it needs extra keys and linking mechanisms. Players name its registers chalumeau, throat, clarion and altissimo. ### What is the difference between Boehm and Albert system clarinets? Buffet Crampon's Boehm-system E13 and Prodige **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)s** carry 17 keys and 6 rings, written 17/6 in its specifications. The Albert or simple system, developed by Eugène Albert of Brussels, keeps more tone holes covered by the fingers. Players value its unkeyed holes for slurs, and the finger-covered holes let them slide pitch, as heard in early jazz bends and smears. ### What should I check before buying a clarinet? Before buying a **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)**, check the pitch standard: Buffet Crampon builds its E13 and Prodige clarinets at A = 442 Hz. Buffet supplies some models with 64 or 65 mm barrels, and players adjust tuning with barrel length. Buffet's specifications list silver-plated keywork, leather pads, cork tenons and an adjustable thumb rest, so check those parts on any instrument. ### Where can I buy a clarinet for Carnatic music? You can buy a clarinet for Carnatic music from KalaSudha, by quote or made to order, and we deliver worldwide. Carnatic players use a standard B-flat clarinet: choose the key system, Boehm or Albert, and a medium-soft to medium reed for bending. We pack each clarinet for international shipping; ask us about cases and insurance. Any clarinet can come to us for service or repair, wherever you bought it and wherever you live. We also supply spare parts. For help after the sale, use the chat on any page or email . Gift vouchers, class sets for schools and flight cases for travel are available too; ask us. ### Should I oil the bore of a wooden clarinet? Buffet Crampon says a new **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)** needs no bore oil, and warns against oil, solvents and anti-corrosion products. It advises swabbing often while playing and drying the bore fully before casing the instrument. Never store a wet swab in the case, and replace a soiled one. ### How do I protect a wooden clarinet from cracking? Buffet Crampon advises protecting a wooden **[clarinet](/en-fr/instrument/clarinet)** from rapid changes in temperature and humidity: direct sun, winter outdoors, heaters and air-conditioning. It limits a new wooden clarinet to 30 minutes' playing a day for its first month and advises swabbing the bore dry after playing. Buffet Crampon notes that a properly repaired crack does not affect intonation or tone. ### Can I book a Carnatic clarinet player for a concert, event or recording? You can book a Carnatic clarinet player through KalaSudha for a concert, event or recording. Ask us through our page to [book Indian classical musicians](/en-fr/book-indian-classical-musicians). To hear our artists before you decide, try KalaSudha's [recordings](/en-fr/releases) and [concert videos](/en-fr/videos). ### Who are the best-known Carnatic clarinet players? A. K. C. Natarajan is the clarinettist most associated with Carnatic music: the Sangeet Natak Akademi's award list gives the **clarinet** its own category, with Natarajan as the only entry. He had the Tyagaraja Aradhana lift its ban on the instrument and played the Madras Music Academy from the 1960s. He came from three generations of clarinettists. Before him, clarinettists played in the Mysore Palace Band and the Corporation Band of Madras, and later players learned from his recordings. ### Still have questions? Our support team can help you find the right answer. [Contact support](/en-fr/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=377) Talk to us ## Tell us about the clarinet you want Ask for a quote on an instrument made to order, or about learning to play it with our teachers. [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377) [Ask about learning](/en-fr/form/learner-enquiry?source_entity_type=node&source_entity_id=377) Stay close ## Keep KalaSudha close. Receive news of concerts, learning opportunities, recordings and the work taking shape at KalaSudha. - Concert news - ·Learning opportunities - ·Recordings and stories We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Buy a clarinet from KalaSudha [Ask for a quote](/en-fr/form/custom-instrument-quote?instrument_id=377)