Thank you yosl. That gives me heart. It is true I have never experimented with mouthpieces. That`s a slow and costly business. I mean they are not cheap and you`d have to buy one and try it for a couple of weeks before you knew if it was doing you any good, I think, right?

But, as you say, it`s another topic in itself. I`ll search the threads for some information and I`ll look for mouthpieces.

Do you know the fingerings for high A - said to be the highest note on a clarinet- and high A flat? It`s in a piece called Planets - Mars that we`re playing in Band. I`m the soloist. Yay. Please, if you could, send me a picture of what the fingering looks like. Thanks SO much.

I have always been told that the range ofthe clarinet is e to c``` i.e. three octaves and a sixth. (i.e to the c an octave above the treble clef).
The highest I have had to play in a piece is an altissimo f#. I always have to think with altissimo fingerings above e or f, though. The trouble is, the higher you go, the more alternive fingerings there are. I have a scales book at home which lists all altissimo fingerings, and there are about three or four for most notes! YOu just have to find some which work for you clarinet, and which you can easily play one after the other.

The hightest note I have been able to get out my old clarinet (a Buffet B12) was a Ab/G#, an octave above the one on top of the treble clef. I stopped at that point, because it wasn`t doing my ears any favours...

yeah... well that`s the problem... have you really `got it` when it hurts your ears??

I can play those top notes, but they don`t hurt my ears at all! I just get a slight headache from it.
Guess what?? I went to KSHAA STATE and got a one! This is my second year in a row! - I`m a sophomore!

Actually, I had earche at the time... and I think it was the pitch than anything else. The problem is that when the clarinet plays that high, the notes lack the overtones they have in the chalameau / clarion registers.

I don`t! I`m so used to it. I could play high A on the clarinet for 5 mins and not care. A sax dude played a really high note on his sax which never hurt my head or ears at all. I love high notes. I play them so frequently.

I play second clarinet in concert band and we had a piece called The Klaxon. The song had a lot of high notes in it that when i played it the first time it was hard to get them out but after that I kept practicing and I finally got them. The area with the high notes was a solo and sure enough I got the solo. In Virginia for a compitition we were playing The Klaxon and for the awards the judges gave me a soloist award. Our band took first place with a rating of superior. Basically what I am trying to say is that if you work really hard at it you will soon get it. By the way I can get an e above the c with a reed size of 2 1/2 so it is possible.

i use a 3.5 reed. I can get up 2 the really really high B flat. The wierd thing is, that the other day, for some strange reason, i was playing on my old, plastic clarinet, and the tone quality of my really high B flat was better than i usually get on my buffet. Oh well. cheers

Not all reeds work like that. Some brand new ones I use--3.5 Mitchell Laurie-- I can hit the highest A- overblown E- LH thb,1st, 2nd and third as well as the register key and key used with low C# -- Overall, it just takes practice to reach. If you don`t normally play with a 2 reed, don`t use it just because it reaches your high notes. This takes practice and repitition.

I know for one thing that it does take practice to play the high notes because not only do I play the clarinet but I also play the flute. I have only been playing the flute for a year now and when I asked to play flute in concert band next yeat instead of clarinet my director got me the music and said that the only way that he would let me play is if I could play the flute music from this year decently well by the start of our marching band practices. When I looked at the music there were a lot of high notes that I have never seen before. It took me a while but I can now play the piece very well and am looking forward to being a flute player in concer band. So basically just do your best and have fun at the same time.

i know how to do a high D

Hmmm...how wonderful. It`s just that high notes and playing them and getting them to sound is by one solution I currently use. Simply, you just play one note for 4 minutes and when you`ve mastered that note, you continue on.

abrogard,
I play on a 2 1/2 and I can reach the G an octave higher than the one just above the staff. It just takes practice and proper embochure, and proper fingering.
Jen

2.5 on what? Rico? Mitchell Laurie? As I said, do NOT go for those easy reeds just because they might reach the high notes better. All it takes is time and practice. I can reach that same high g an octave above the one sitting on the staff and I play on a 3.5 Mitchell Laurie. Repitition is all you really need. Not a different reed. Though, my new reeds help me reach those high ones a little easier. But, don`t go for the 2.5`s just because of that. They ruin easily and aren`t the best at other music.