Clarinet questions, answered by our band repair team. Squeaking dominates, and the answer is nearly always the reed rather than the instrument. Reeds are the thing nobody explains to band parents: they wear out, they chip, they come in strengths, and they need taking off the mouthpiece to dry after every session. Most “broken” clarinets we see need a fresh reed and two minutes on the bench.
Yes, two ways. Yamaha is one of the manufacturers in our B Line, along with Jupiter, Selmer, Buffet and Gemeinhardt. We also rent a Premium Yamaha Line on five instruments, in the specific models school programs most often specify: the…
It depends on the line. A Line instruments are brand new, and they arrive with everything new, mouthpiece included. B Line and C Line instruments have been played before. Each of those is stripped down and restored on our bench,…
That is a reasonable instinct, and we would rather a teacher raised it than said nothing. Instruments do turn up in school music rooms that arrived from an online seller and cannot be played properly, and a teacher who has…
Five habits would prevent most of it: use a sturdy case and treat carrying the cello as part of playing it, run a humidifier in winter, oil brass valves and grease the slides, grease clarinet corks before assembly, and swab…
Start with the reed. It is the most common and cheapest cause: reeds chip, warp, and wear out no matter how good the clarinet is, so put on a fresh one, seated straight and level with the tip of the…
A clarinet is tuned by adjusting how far the barrel is pulled out from the upper joint. Out to flatten, in to sharpen. Small movements: an eighth of an inch is a lot. Two things matter more than the adjustment…
Every time it goes away: drop the swab’s weight through from barrel to bell and pull it through a couple of times. Take the reed off and store it flat in a reed case. Dry the tenons after pulling the…
Usually yes, but the honest answer is that it depends on the child, because every mouth is different and so are the braces. Most students play straight through, with orthodontic wax on the brackets and a few weeks of patience,…