How to Pick out a Good Clarinet! 

That's awesome!

I am so glad you find my videos to be helpful! Take care and let me know how things go 🎶 😊

Thanks for sharing your thoughts in your testing experience! The 450 and 650 are surprisingly good for the price right?

@@callyclarinet Yup - although among the instruments I tried I was actually more surprised by the performance of models from brands other than Yamaha. The Jupiter 750N comes in a few hundred dollars cheaper than the 450 and is perfectly capable. A few years ago I wouldn't have given Jupiter much credibility but based on my recent experience times have changed. The other surprise for me was the Buffet E12F. I'd rate the presentation as average at best: they've dyed the living daylights out of the Grenadilla and given it a characterless matte finish that makes the whole thing look like plastic. And the logo looks cheap. And the backpack case always tips over backwards when you take the instrument out. But... Along comes the tone. The E12F has a complexity in its sound that the other intermediate instruments just don't have. It made me want to spend time getting to know it, and I think that's about as high a compliment that I can give to an instrument. If I didn't already own pro-level horns I would have vacillated between the YCL-650 for its looks and the E12F for its musicality. In the end I balanced value against capability and went with the 450.

Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful and thorough reply! I totally agree - times have certainly changed with instrument manufacturing, and it is worth trying out instruments even when we think we know it all! Perhaps it would be worth it to do a more thorough "testing" video of different brands & models in certain price ranges one of these days... hmmm... anyway, I appreciate your willingness to share your experience! What do you do? Are you a teacher or student?

@@callyclarinet "Perhaps it would be worth it to do a more thorough "testing" video..." Totally agree! In fact, it was the absence of such comparative content that inspired me to go testing these clarinets during my downtime in quarantine. I have a good relationship with my local retailer, so reached out to them and offered to write reviews for all the clarinets they stock in the intermediate segment of the market. They were enthusiastic and let me take a bunch of instruments home for a week at a time. From memory I took 8 instruments home and wrote reviews on 6 of them. The exercise brought me up to date on the state of the clarinet market, and in return the retailer now has a set of consistent, impartial reviews on their website. Although I delivered my findings by way of written reviews, there's also obvious scope for someone willing to do this via videos. Anyone wanting to try this might want to note the following: - The retailer understood that I was doing this to write reviews, not to buy an instrument. In a retail environment it's important to establish this in advance. - Being able to play the instruments at home over a period of several days made all the difference. If you try out the instruments in a shop you're invariably contending with the other noises going on around you. At home you're familiar with your room's accoustics. And in a shop you can only play for a couple of hours at most before 'comparison fatigue' sets in. I think music retailers as a sector are starting to show signs of community outreach in this regard. Some of the larger stores have a RU-vid presence and invite professional players in to do product reviews. (I'm thinking of Dawkes Music in London, who have produced content relating to many clarinet and saxophone models.) These reviews are fine as far as they go, but they typically take the form of the player being complimentary about one or two aspects of an instrument's performance, without ever sounding any notes of caution. I also don't think I've heard any of them definitively pin their colors to the mast ("Of these three clarinets, forget about the first.") So if you're looking to buy an instrument and you see these reviews, you'd want to bear this in mind. Finally, my brief bio is that I started out teaching high school music for three years then brushed up my coding skills and spent the rest of my career in software development. I also once tried to combine my music and programming interests into a PhD but that was a majestic failure that I don't talk about much these days.

Well said! I have seen retailer reviews which are great, but the value of doing reviews on a personal RU-vid is that you will be getting an honest review. Thanks for sharing your thoughts - hope to see you around the channel again soon 🙂🎶

Now that I am very used to playing on it, I have a much better feel for the intonation, evenness, etc. I absolutely love this instrument and am so glad I bought it!

I think it’s no. 10 in C Major 🙂 I’ll put it up on patreon!

Hi Cally, The reason for my interest is that I soon will buy another clarinet; so you are doing the job for me👍

It’s a little exercise from the Kroepsch book!

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KUcNIH_WyXA.html there’s a link to download the kroepsch if you check the comments of my recent sight reading video!

Hello!! I love my CSVR!! Unfortunately I have no opinion on the balanced tone or centered tone, but I do know Selmer does make beautiful instruments! I just have not played either of those before (I am more familiar with the signature and recital clarinets).

@@callyclarinet Thanks! What's the difference between the CSVR and the SEVR?

selmer clarinets sound like kazoos, buy a Yamaha!! (Selmer does make beautiful BASS clarinets though). I use a cheaper Yamaha ycl650 and its a fantastic instrument for the price. make sure to buy a decent mouthpiece as well.

Royal global Polaris - got mine from Brian Corbin!

@@callyclarinet thankyou

Do you mean air support?

@@callyclarinet yes

@@AnimeW69 cool, i added it to my list! thanks!

Tonal Energy

@@callyclarinet thanks