CLARINET ACCESSORY UPGRADES FOR THE BEGINNING CLARINETIST

By Julianna Evans, BM, MM, PMP

It’s the beginning of summer break where I live in the United States, and a lot of my students want to improve their clarinet playing or they’re beginning to learn the clarinet over their summer break. I thought I would write about and share my three best clarinet accessory upgrades that can help improve your playing or just make it more enjoyable to practice because if you’re playing on bad equipment, it’s just not that fun to play the clarinet! Of course, if you’re playing on a plastic clarinet, it’s always good to consider buying a clarinet made of wood, but that’s a significant investment. My three tips for affordable clarinet accessories will help a lot.

#1: Your Mouthpiece 

The best thing you could do for your beginning clarinetist, in my opinion, is to buy them a good mouthpiece. Typically, the stock mouthpieces that come with rental clarinets are not the best. The mouthpiece is arguably the second most expensive piece of equipment, aside from the clarinet, but it makes the biggest impact on tone quality.
Here are some of my favorite mouthpieces for beginning clarinetists:

Vandoren CM301 5RV Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece

Vandoren CM4158 M13 Lyre 13 Series Profile 88 Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece

Vandoren CM3178 M15 Profile 88 Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece

#2: Your Ligature

Just like with stock clarinet mouthpieces, typically music stores will supply a stock ligature with most rental clarinets. It’s important to note that clarinet ligatures are produced in two different styles; Traditional and Inverted. I prefer to have beginning students start on a traditional facing metal ligature as it helps secure the reed on the mouthpiece, and it’s easier to tighten the ligature screw(s). I like the:

**These ligatures do not come with mouthpiece caps which help protect the reed and mouthpiece from chipping. I’ve linked some mouthpiece cap options below as well.**

Bonade Clarinet Ligature – Silver

Clarinet Mouthpiece Protective Cap

Rovner versa V-1R Clarinet Ligature

#3: Your Reeds and How You Store Your Reeds

Clarinet reeds come in different strengths. Typically, beginning clarinetists will need a 2 or 2.5 strength in reeds. In my experience, the 1.5 strength reeds on the market are too soft, especially if you buy a new mouthpiece. When you’re buying reeds, make sure to buy B-flat clarinet reeds (don’t buy the E-flat clarinet reeds that some music stores will display next to the B-flat reeds. E-flat clarinet reeds are smaller than B-flat reeds and will not work on the B-flat clarinet mouthpiece).

Vandoren CR102 Bb Clarinet Traditional Reeds Strength 2; Box of 10

It’s important to store reeds in a reed case and not in the reed’s plastic packaging. Reeds are prone to warping and chipping, so it’s important to store them in a reed case between playing sessions. These are a few beginning reed cases that can be stored in most clarinet cases.

Vandoren VQP06 Quad Pack Reed Case

D’Addario Reed Guard, Small, Blue

I hope these tips were helpful. Check out this video and download this FREE resource on my website that includes these 3 tips and a couple more resources that can be very helpful when navigating which clarinet accessories to buy so that you’re not wasting your time or money.