How to Practice Clarinet? A Practice Routine for Young Beginner (includes a printable checklist)

I believe that if students understand how to practice their instrument, they can sound quite good quickly. My goal in this article is to help students to develop good practice habits, which will help them to progress faster, and in the future they don’t need to go back to fix the mistakes. It would be great if parents can reinforce some of the practice ideas. For example, provide a clutter free, distraction free space for your child so he can practice without interruption, encourage your child to practice at least five days a week, brush teeth before play clarinet, organize all the music books, read teacher’s instruction, and CLEAN UP.

Here is a clarinet practice routine I suggest for young beginners.

1. Personal Hygiene – brush your teeth before play clarinet! Most children like to snack when they arrive home after school. Sticky syrup, sugar, little pieces of nuts in the mouth will get into the clarinet and cause damage to the instrument.

2. Adjust the music stand to correct height, sit on a chair not sofa, take out the books that you are studying, have a fingering chart ready, check if the reeds are good – don’t practice with a chipped reed.

3. Look at your goal, improvement plan from your private teacher or school band teacher.

4. Embouchure. Follow your teacher’s instruction of “clarinet embouchure.” Most children see clarinet as a supersize recorder, but the fact is they are two different instruments. Do not use recorder embouchure to play clarinet. Put a small makeup mirror on the music stand so student can see and adjust to the correct position.

5. Long tones. The purpose is to develop lung capacity, skills of controlling the air, and good sound projection. For young beginners, practice 10 long tones. Hold a note as long as possible but with good sound projection. Make 10 seconds as an initial goal, and gradually increase the length.

6. Tonguing. It is a required technique for all clarinetists. The sooner you start the better. There are various types of tonguing and practice methods. Follow your teacher’s instruction.

7. Scales and arpeggios. These are the basic skills for playing any instrument. They might be boring to many little kids, but they are essential. I always tell my students that these scales and arpeggios are the building blocks. If they have a strong foundation, they will have more fun when play songs they like. I frequently demonstrate bad scale/arpeggio skills and students always giggle when they detect “bad performance.” So, they practice without much complaining.

8. Etudes, solos, pieces from school bands.

9. Free play. Play something you enjoy!

10.Clean up. It is important to swap the clarinet after each play (swap the clarinet and mouthpiece separately), and put it back to its case. Gather all books and sheet music, place them back to a designated place, like a file basket.

Happy practicing! Click here for a printable checklist.

#ClarinetLessons #Parenting #MusicEducation