The Best Clarinet Etude Books for Beginners

By Julianna Evans, MM, PMP

Today, we’re diving into the world of clarinet etude books, specifically focusing on the best options for beginners. Whether you’re just starting out on the clarinet, looking to improve your skills or a new clarinet teacher, these books are good options for beginning clarinetists.

I highly recommend the Rubank Elementary Method for Clarinet. Every beginning clarinet player should go through these exercises. However, I don’t love the fingering chart included in this book, so I’ve linked it to a different fingering chart below (all of these books are for the Boehm system).

– Fingering chart: https://tinyurl.com/mtwvskua

Next up, we have Fun with Fundamentals. This book works well in a concert band setting, learning with a group of other clarinet players or woodwind players. Some of the exercises can get boring for young students, but the exercises are short, and you can move through the book rather quickly if that is your goal.

80 Graded Studies for Clarinet is a great book for a beginning student who wants to be challenged outside of school band. It contains many short etudes (studies), and starts to introduce more complex musical passages.

Improve your sight-reading level 1-3 is an excellent companion to add to your repertoire of beginning method books. It’s best to use this book in a one-on-one teacher/student setting, but this book does come with a web-based support option to check the student’s work. Sight-reading is a skill that helps to incorporate early on in the student’s musical studies.

Clarinet Note Speller is another great companion book to help reinforce note-name recall and recognize specific fingerings on clarinet. The book is set up to gradually increase students’ active recall when learning music.

Modern Course for the Clarinet, Book 1, is the first book in a series of etude books that challenge the student and offer pleasant melodies/songs to perform. I like to pair this book with the Rubank Elementary method so that my students get broad exposure to clarinet fundamentals. They also enjoy playing the clarinet by incorporating the etudes from this book.

And that wraps up our journey through some fantastic clarinet etude books for beginners. I hope you found this guide helpful and that you’re now armed with the perfect resources to take your clarinet playing to the next level.