Plucked The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell.

[12] Nearly all soprano and piccolo clarinets have keywork enabling them to play the E below middle C as their lowest written note.

Harmonics are caused by factors including the imperfect wobbling and shaking of the reed, the reed sealing the mouthpiece opening for part of the wave cycle (which creates a flattened section of the sound wave), and imperfections (bumps and holes) in the bore.

[26][4] This in combination with the cut-off frequency (where a significant drop in resonance occurs) results in the characteristic tone of the clarinet.

[22] The fixed reed and fairly uniform diameter of the clarinet result in an acoustical performance approximating that of a cylindrical stopped pipe.

Acoustically, this makes the tone hole function as if it were larger, but its main function is to allow the air column to follow the curve up through the tone hole (surface tension) instead of "blowing past" it under the increasingly directional frequencies of the upper registers.

[28] Covering or uncovering the tone holes varies the length of the pipe, changing the resonant frequencies of the enclosed air column and hence the pitch.

[22][23] The first several notes of the altissimo (third) range, aided by the register key and venting with the first left-hand hole, play the fifth harmonics, a perfect twelfth plus a major sixth above the fundamentals.

[22][4] The fifth and seventh harmonics are also available, sounding a further sixth and fourth (a flat, diminished fifth) higher respectively; these are the notes of the altissimo register.

[33][34] Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber or Ebonite, metal, and ivory.

[35] The vast majority of wooden clarinets are made from African blackwood (grenadilla), or, more uncommonly, Honduran rosewood or cocobolo.

[36] Since the mid-20th century, clarinets (particularly student or band models) are also made from plastics, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

[40][41] The Greenline model by Buffet Crampon is made from a composite of resin and the African blackwood powder left over from the manufacture of wooden clarinets.

[46] Ligatures are often made of metal and tightened using one or more adjustment screws; other materials include plastic, string, or fabric.

[53] The reed is attached to the mouthpiece by the ligature, and the top half-inch or so of this assembly is held in the player's mouth.

[4] The modern soprano clarinet has numerous tone holes—seven are covered with the fingertips and the rest are operated using a set of 17 keys.

[66] After Denner's innovations, other makers added keys to improve tuning and facilitate fingerings[65] and the chalumeau fell into disuse.

Baltic-German clarinetist and master clarinet maker Iwan Müller remedied this by countersinking the tone holes for the keys and covering the pads with soft leather.

[71] These leather pads sealed the holes better than felt, making it possible to equip the instrument with considerably more keys.

This key system was first used on the clarinet between 1839 and 1843 by French clarinetist Hyacinthe Klosé in collaboration with instrument maker Louis Auguste Buffet.

Their design introduced needle springs for the axles, and the ring keys simplified some complicated fingering patterns.

The inventors called this the Boehm clarinet, although Böhm was not involved in its development and the system differed from the one used on the flute.

[79] Around 1860, clarinettist Carl Baermann and instrument maker Georg Ottensteiner developed the patented Baermann/Ottensteiner clarinet.

Richard Strauss noted that "French clarinets have a flat, nasal tone, while German ones approximate the singing voice".

Before about 1800, due to the lack of airtight pads, practical woodwinds could have only a few keys to control accidentals (notes outside their diatonic home scales).

2 (1872), Smetana's overture to The Bartered Bride (1866) and Má Vlast (1874), Dvořák's Slavonic Dance Op.

The clarinet evolved later than other orchestral woodwind instruments, leaving solo repertoire from the Classical period onward, but few works from the Baroque era.

[102][103] The clarinet's place in the jazz ensemble was usurped by the saxophone, which projects a more powerful sound and uses a less complicated fingering system.

In the US, the prominent players on the instrument since the 1980s have included Eddie Daniels, Don Byron, Marty Ehrlich, Ken Peplowski, and others playing in both traditional and contemporary styles.

Jerry Martini played clarinet on Sly and the Family Stone's 1968 hit, "Dance to the Music".