Using the Clarinet Register Key for Beginners

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Leslie Burnick and I’m speaking on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today I’m going to talk about register key on the clarinet. On the back of the clarinet there is a long skinny key. On a saxophone, this is actually an Octave key but not on the clarinet. Clarinet is a little bit more tricky because of this. You can’t just push one button and go from a low C to a high C for example. So this is a register key, it changes the tambour of the clarinet going into a whole set of higher notes. So just by pushing the key in the back, you would be changing the sound. So I am going to show you, this is a low C, this would be a middle C on the clarinet and by adding the register key just again with the tip of my thumb it is going to go to a G, right on top of staff. So again a low note, so again because of that it does make the clarinet a little bit trickier because it is not just an obvious thing. The low note, the low C is without the key and the high C is with it. It does become a little trickier because as a beginner you do have to learn an entire new set of notes. Once you add the register key, for instance if you play a scale going right up the clarinet in the low register, this is the F scale. By adding the register key, it is now the C scale. So it is a little bit trickier than some of the other instruments. It is often very difficult for beginners to get the concept of the upper register but once they do it, it gives them a whole new set of notes and much more music to play."