Hi, I`ve been playing clarinet for 4 years and an instructor at my school told us of playing two notes at once on the Clarinet. He won`t tell us any fingerings. I saw that the people here are pretty smart about the clarinet and was wondering if any of you could tell me some fingerings for multiphonics?

Go to http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/clarinet/cl_mult_1.html for some multiphonic fingerings

Im having trouble mentalicizing how this would work. Does it really work? It doesn`t seem possible but then again im only in high school. Please give us more information.

No, you can`t play two notes at once...lol...i think you misunderstood whoever you talked to. fingerings can be one note w/o the register key and another w/ the register key (for example, the lowest E [below the treble cleff]/and second B [the one on the staff]). Hope this helps.\
Jen

yep I don`t think you can play two notes at once on clarinet - however it is really easy to do it on sax! On both sax and clarinet you can growl - that is, sing and play at the same time. You just have to sing a low note at the back of your throat and play at the same time. If you practise it on recorder irst then it is really easy. Its not quite the same as multiphonics but its different!

you can play two notes at once, but its hard and needs practise, also the lower note comes out weak. its sounds a bit weird though and you can`t do multiphonics for every note. apparantly these are normally used in contempary music, but i`ve never heard them used at all.

Whatever you say. My teachers have all played clarinet for a while (I`ve had 2) and they both said that only stringed instruments can play two notes at once. When you see two notes on music, it`s meant for a band peice w/ two first/second clarinets in it (depends on what part has it) so that both notes can be played. One clarinet cannot play two notes. If there was a way, I`d have learned by now. I`ve been playing for three years, four next May, and my teachers have said I`m advanced for the number of years I`ve been playing (I learned most notes except for above the C above the staff in my first year. not trying to brag. just a fact) so, they would have told me.

Jen

Even though that site says it can play two, it would be very advanced and for a special-made clarinet.

It is possible. It is easier on the flute though.

Jen I don`t mean to be horrible, but just because you haven`t learned something doesn`t mean it doesn`t exist. Do you really think that you know everything that there is to know about clarinet? No one knows everything, we are all learning all the time. Also, you said that only stringed instruments can play two notes at once, but the piano is a percussion instrument and that can play two notes at once.

And the amount of notes that you can play on an instrument has barely any relation to how good you are.

Yes - using multiphonics on the saxophone is very much something that you do. It is very easy and it can definilty be done! I am not sure about the clarinet but you definilty can do it on the sax.

I can play more than one note at once on my clarinet- and it is just a Yamaha semi-professional instrument, not anything special. (It sounds good, though. Probably because of the mouthpiece- a Clark Fobes one. ) I can get some of the upper harmonics on low E and F, and I can play 3-note chords on clarion D, Eb and E- on D it works out to be D, clarion B and the G below the D.
The way multiphonics works is by strengthening the sound of the partials of the fundamental note.
THE HARMONIC SERIES
Unless you play a pure tone (a sine wave), each note you play will also produce a series of weaker tones that can hardly be heard. This happens on a string instrument, when as well as vibrating through its whole length, it vibrates through 1/2, 1/3,1/4 etc. I presume something similar happens with the air column in a wind instrument.
The harmonic series for the pitch corresponding to the C 2 octaves below middle C would be
c, c, g, c, e, g, Bb, c, d, e, f#, g, a, Bb, b natural, C .
The clarinet gets its tone by sounding mainly the odd-numbered partials of the series, so chalmeau (low) A is also sounding clarion E, altissimo C#, etc. (This is why we have different notes on the same or very similar fingerings- it is just a different partial of that note. All the register key is for is to make the notes easier to get, and more in tune.)
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I`m not sure exactly HOW I get the multiphonics, though, I just play around with my mouth until they come out. My best friend thinks the ones on the lower notes are funny- she says they sound like microphone feedback.

Also, if any high-school students wish to tell me that I am wrong about being able to play 2 notes or more at once, I would just like to point out that I have been playing for 10 1/2 years, studied the clarinet for a year at university, studied music for as long as I`ve been playing the clarinet, and been taught by one of the best teachers and players in the state. So I do have some idea of what I am talking about. (Not to mention the fact that I have played multiphonics myself, AND heard other people do them)

Also, I wouldn`t go about contradicting woodwind.org. It is about the best clarinet site on the internet, and the people there really know what they are talking about.