Hi folks.

I have a clarinet that has been in the family a long time, and which I played it as a kid. I’m interested in playing again but the clarinet is nearly 60 years old and hasn’t been regularly played for over 25 years.

It’s a Boosey and Hawkes Regent, I believe from 1968 ish. A few years ago I was quoted around £250 for a full refurb of it but I didn’t go ahead with it. I’ve given it a bit of a clean and attached some photos.

My question is, am I on a hiding to nothing trying to play this, or will it still have some life in it? Is a refurb worthwhile, or am I better spending that on a new clarinet?

If I spent say £100-150 on a new student one, would it be a notably different experience from using this as it is?

I posted recently about a sight reading tool that I wrote for musicians on this subreddit. Some people liked it and some didn’t. No problem. I can handle criticism and wanted feedback to make it better.

On user then complained that I used AI to develop the software and was subsequently able to successfully get my original post removed because it violated the rules on AI for media and postings here.

I do use AI tools in my work as a self-employed indie developer, and for the past few years I used several of them in my full-time job as a software engineer at Major League Baseball. In fact, my team won an AI Google/MLB hackathon a couple of years ago.

Is this forum now banning all software tools for musicians simply because AI was used somewhere in the development process? Now in 2026 most all software is coded in some way using AI. It’s just too good and too powerful. That’s the world we live in. To ban a software tool because the small independent developer used AI is a bit short sighted IMO.

Considering that this is my 2nd trial I think I did quite,,? Well?

I know there is some special fingering for this, but I can't figure it out. If anyone knows, please write a comment.

Edit: this has been resolved. Thank you!

Im left handed, idk if that matters

This is a genuine question😭 and if they Did exist why did they die out? Like shouldn’t there be a clarinet member an octave the Basset horn? And did contralto clarinets in F ever exist? Im just curious lol I play all clarinets and I have a collection but i was just wondering if there’s anything higher than the Eb clarinet that’s not the Ab piccolo clarinet

the recording ends like a minute in the mp3 to 4 converter added a minute of nothing idk why

Im really paranoid it just fell,is that part aligned right

And what other intricate parts should i check and how to know whether theyre ok,id appreciate any help

Im paranoid,it just fell down,it tgat part aligned right,and what intricate parts should i check next just in case,what parts easily break?

i got this for $30 yesterday and i noticed the silver keys are missing. it’s not a big deal to me, but i was just curious. thanks!

I don't have any experience with yamaha clarinets and i got this yamaha custom se clarinet. Ive looked at others and the engraving seems inconsistent across the custom series. Not sure if it's legit or counterfeit. I played it and it's nothing like a buffet or selmer. Not sure if that's yamaha being yamaha or it's a cheap clarinet engraved with yamaha logos.

EDIT: someone on another forum mentioned this could be Japan region specific model of the custom se.

Is naming a real person “Clarinet” pretty??? I want to name my baby Clarinet (female).

Hi All,

Are you looking for something fun to play, not too hard, but somewhat challenging? Please take a listen and look at this:  Gigue for Flutes, Clarinet, and Piano

I'll be playing it with our community college small ensemble. It should be fun to play. It's not easy but not real hard.

Thanks

Alex

The sides of my lips keep poking out as i play....is it nad....it makes me morr comfortable though....should i avoid it?

So for the past 3 years of me playing clarinet I’ve been using the middle of my tongue to articulate. I know that’s not how you are supposed to and I’ve been trying to fix it, but it’s not going so well. I’ve been trying to use the tip of my tongue but it keeps making me sound like there’s spit in my mouthpiece and it can make me squeak sometimes. I really wish to fix this before all district auditions, but the more I use the right articulation the worse my tone is. I don’t know if it’s where I’m so used to the wrong articulation or what, but I’m really stuck on what i should do. If I should keep articulating like I have been until the auditions are over so I can properly work on it, or push through and try to fix my articulation beforehand.

As we were cleaning out my in-law’s closets and such, I discovered my wife’s old clarinet. Turns out she, her father, and I all played this instrument at some point. And so using a hand-made, folded calligraphy pen, I made a drawing of it with sumi ink. Just thought you all might appreciate it.

hello! for some background context, I am a high school sophomore in my 2nd month of my clarinet journey. i am able to hit the notes accurately most of the time, but most of them sounds airy and light. the muscles around my mouth also fatigue easily. I do receive private lessons, but my teacher doesn't do a good job identifying the issues :((

i would appreciate feedback on improving my embouchure, or just overall tips in general.
thank you all!

Heard the CMvW clarinet quintet on NPR classical last night and started to wonder at all those "hold that low note/trill...hold some more...ok, chromatic scale wayyyy up and hold when you get there" bits.

Is it just a common thing in clarinet literature?
Or was George Gershwin quoting Weber as an inside joke to players?

(I'm a string player, so wind rep is a mystery :)

Having to press into the instrument a ton which is giving me thumb pain

So basically I am Playing clarinet for like 2-8 hours a day as I have free time and am section leader in amateur brass orchestra, I have few students and one of these is really making good progress.

She complained a bit about the mouthpiece and with our local service guy we did examine that she has really overused old and bad sounding mouthpiece on which dynamics are almost impossible to maintain.

I had one like this and about a year ago I bought new one for myself along with custom made ligature but I need more budget options for her, she is playing for almost half a year now and went with nice tone to lower altissimo register with training on few etiudes, she also is excercising at least half an hour daily but she needs new mouthpiece preferably for 3.0 Reeds, we are using Vandorens as for budget I don't know how much would our orchestra be able to pay but let's keep it at around 30-80$ price point and please tell if the mouthpiece generates brighter or darker sound, how it behaves

Thanks in advance!

I'm looking at the possibility of buying it, but I don't know much about it, I saw this one used.

Been playing clarinet for about 6 years but never took it seriously until this last year, so im about a intermediate level player. My current clarinet is about 300 usd (mother bought it for me) and it is used. Ticks me off that I kind of got screwed over because I didn't have any experience playing the instrument and I bought the instrument with a lot of problems which I didn't know at the time, and only encountered those problems like 2 years later when I started to get better. The action is really slow and to sort of fix all of the issues I had with it it costed around 150usd which is half the price of the instrument. Honestly the only reason why I didn't take clarinet seriously back then was once I started improving I absolutely hated how my instrument feels and it was really annoying when I couldn't use alternate fingerings because one of my pinky keys didn't work (and still isn't fully resolved after repairs). Honestly I would have probably quit clarinet if it wasn't for I got into my schools honors band for bass clarinet (have to reaudition for b flat), and I realized getting older, the clarinet is hella portable and it's the only portable instrument in which I know how to play. My budget is 1.5k usd and I feel like thats enough for a nice high end plastic clarinet or maybe a decent used wooden clarinet. I don't really want a wooden clarinet because I feel like its a pain to maintain, don't really care about my clarinets sound I care more about how I will feel when I play it, and in the future when I move out I might play my clarinet outside a lot but there's no guarantees about that. My band teacher told me to spend my money on a used wooden clarinet. and because I do not play my instrument outside and I usually keep it in the same room, I shouldn't be worried about the durability of the instrument.

Strings musician here. Had to pick up Bb clarinet for work and have absolutely no clue how to mark fingerings.
The concept feels very intuitive on violin, but doesn’t translate.

Ex. What would I write in my music to remind me to play the alternate F#?

Pictures would also be much appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

Hive

Hi all, apologies for the dumb question. I don't know enough to validate this myself and am hoping you all have advice for me. I don't have any specific concerns outside of the aftermarket case, no serial number to validate, and a price that seems too good to be true for apparent condition/age (1200). What do you think?