Fixing Clarinet Key Corks

Video Transcript

"Now I'm going to show you how to replace some key corks. A clarinet has a lot of key corks, and a lot of them that are very important to the playability of your instrument. And a lot of them just are for the key height of the instrument, but are definitely necessary for the instrument to play properly. So, one that really gets pulled off a lot is this, what we call the bridge key, and it essentially is called a bridge key because that's what it looks like. So we're going to go ahead and replace that one today since it is the most often that needs to be replaced. I'm going to take my razor blade, and usually, if it's hanging by a thread, you know, it'll come off pretty easily, but if they're gone, you won't have to of course do this step. I've already got my cork painted here with my contact cement which you can get at any hardware store. I'm going to paint both sides. Paint the key and the cork as well which I've already done, so I don't have to do that. But when that dries, I'll go ahead and cut off a piece, and you can cut off just a small piece, just enough to make that adjustment proper. We'll just put that on there. And we'll put our clarinet together here, just to make sure that the cork that we put on there is the right height, and it surely is. And a good way to check for that is to just simply play it, and make sure it plays. But there also several other key corks. Some which are not very easy to get to, so I do recommend that you bring it to a professional if that should arise. But that is how to replace a key cork."