क्लैरिनेट

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.

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.

The 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.

The 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.

Buffet Crampon's Boehm-system E13 and Prodige clarinets 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.

Before buying a 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.

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 [email protected]. Gift vouchers, class sets for schools and flight cases for travel are available too; ask us.

Buffet Crampon says a new 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.

Buffet Crampon advises protecting a wooden 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.

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. To hear our artists before you decide, try KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.