My private lesson teacher was giving me a lesson about tone in the altissimo register (g above the staff and anything higher, I believe) and was playing some of the hig notes. Now, in my fingering section of a book I have, It says the highest note on the clarinet was a G (the one that requires like 5 ledger lines). But, my teacher seemed to be going a few notes higher than that. Maybe it was because she was oging chromatic that it looked and sounded liek that, but can you go higher than the highest g?

Many players choose to have founded, on there own, fingerings for going to higher notes, your book probaly doesn't publish those fingerings, or maby it just published the fingerings that the book believes students can achieve.

i have heard that the clarinet has one of the largest ranges out of all wind instruments.
the range can go above that g to at least a c - thats an octave above the thumb & register key c.
the notes above the g you mention are uncommon and becomming difficult to play, as a result, it seems they dont appear on most books.
i have heard that good clarinettists can play above that c even, but im am not yet capable of it.

The funny thing about wind instruments (wood or brass) is that they can usually go much higher than officially written for. I have heard people play stuff a lot higher than their instruments are suposed to go. My uncle plays tuba and he can go super high. I have heard a professional saxophone player play higher than any fingering chart. You really don't need to know any higher than a high "G" until collage (or at least, that's what I heard.) I haven't seen any higher in my music and I am the first chair in my section at school.

In regards to what Clarisax_man said, I have seen a lot of stuff written above that high G. It's mostly in solo works, but I have seen it quite a few times in this past year.

But for this topic, I have not yet seen anything written above the double high c, but I have seen A's, Bb's and B naturals. They are a bitch to play at first, but once you get them, they aren't that bad.

Like Kato said some clarinettist can play the c"" (an octave above the thumb & register key c). But they are seldom used and not described in most student books. There are special fingerings for these notes.

I don't know the exact fingerings, but I do know that you have to take the fingerings of an other note and then what we call 'blow over' in Dutch. It's the same with flutes. In the second octave you have the same fingerings, so you'll have to blow different.

But as you might've already guessed, you can't define the highest notes on most instruments. With a good embouchure you can do lots of things books don't describe.

Well its gonna be hard for me to say this correctly, but...at camp the section leaderfor clarinets (a college student) told us (middle school students) that you CAN actually go higher than a G and not by changing your fingers. Its kinda like making the note WAY and i mean WAAAAAAY sharp or flat that it actually makes it a different not. Its wierd and VERY hard for beginning players or how ever good you are, IT IS HARD!

I have somewhere a special fingering chart that goes up to F above the high G you mention (2 Fs above thumb/register C). Weird stuff, but with the right reed you can actually get up there.

the highest i've gotten is the C 6ish lines (never actually seen it written/counting accurately requires too much effort) above the staff... on bass clarinet. i haven't messed around that high on soprano, because a) its obnoxiously high and b) i don't play soprano that often currently. but since i have a low C bass, it's really fun to startle people with a 4 octave C scale.

The standard range for a high school age student is up to a G. Past that a C is the highest you will ever really see, though I know that just for fun, I've gotten to an E above that...Not pretty sounding at all!

http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/cl_bas_3.html
Here are fingering charts for the clarinet. It has higher notes than the C. Way higher. It goes to the highest note yet found for the clarinet...an A, which is the 9th line above the staff...high huh? But it is very hard to get up there and requires a lot of practice to even get to an A, the one right above the Middle/High School published G. But this is good information for the future and professionals. Hope this helps.

i've heard of people going higher than the clarinet fingerings in the books. my teacher said that people can make the clarinet sound higher and make notes higher than it and can make it sound lower than low E by changing the clarinet some way

And what do you mean by change it? You can't CHANGE the clarinet. I tried messing around and pulling the clarinet as far as possible where it bearly touches the cork, but that wasnt all that smart. It just got extremely sharp and it didnt turn to a different key how i was expecting it to. But i was just playing around.

Yeah about the bends....how can you bend your pitch to turn it flatter? I can easily go sharp and turn one note to the next without any gaps (by cheating it), but how do you bend the pitch? Ive tried it many times but it goes a little flatter than usual then the tone gets real off then at the end just buzzes out. Anyone know how to fix that?

For Clindian,
The low end of the clarinet in the USA and Europe is basically low E. In Italy you will find clarinets set up to play the Eb. There are actually quite a few pieces in the orchestra repetoire that ask for a low Eb. Lipping down, as you found out, doesn't work very well. What people do is take the peg from an instrument stand and stick that item in the bell. You could make a tube out of rolled up paper. You can squeeze the bell of the clarinet between your thighs. Place the bell near the top part of your thigh so that when you squeeze it just enough the thigh becomes an extension of your bell. My friend on Bass clarinet puts a banana in his Bass clarinet to get low D. But that is bass clarinet.

Another option is to use alternative microtonal fingerings and do what is called shading.
Example:: for a sharp sounding low D
On your left hand use thumb, 1st finger, 2nd finger, 3rd finger, and 4th finger on the E key.
On your right hand use 1st, 2nd, and 3rd finger, and 4th finger on F key.

Play around a little, have patience, and mostly have fun - don't let it stress you.