You can hear the smooth, velvety sound of the clarinet in orchestras, military bands, and jazz groups. Clarinets are made of wood or molded plastic, and can be found in different sizes, each playing a different range of notes. The standard "B-flat" clarinet is a little more than two feet long. An orchestra also often includes an "E-flat" clarinet, which is smaller and plays a higher range of notes, and a bass clarinet, which plays an octave lower.

Composer: Gershwin Piece: Rhapsody in Blue Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic Conductor: Bernstein

	To play his clarinet, Zack blows into a single reed that is clipped to the mouthpiece at the upper end of the instrument. The reed is made out of cane. Zack plays different pitches by pressing on the clarinet's many keys. The bottom of the clarinet flares out into a bell shape.
You can see that a bass clarinet is shaped differently. Because it is larger than the B-flat and E-flat clarinets, it plays lower and can take on a mysterious quality. It is played in the same way as the standard clarinet, but because it is much longer, it has an endpin that slides out of the bottom of the instrument to help prop it up on the floor. Its bell is also curved around so that it faces up, and its neck has a bend in it to accommodate the extra length of the tube. A bass clarinet would be very awkward to play if its long tube were completely straight!