Setting up your bass clarinet…

Let’s begin with height of the bass clarinet (don’t worry about this too much if you’re using a bass to Eb with a neck strap and no spike).

Depending on how tall you are, and how high or low your seat is, you’ll want your bass clarinet spike at a different place. Seats can often be too low for comfortable bass clarinet playing. If your seat is uncomfortably low and you don’t have any other options - find a cushion, or roll up clothing to sit on!

  • Sit up straight, keeping a straight spine with a good posture.

  • Avoid hunching over - this can cause back pain, but also will strangle your air supply! Sitting up nice and straight with good posture allows your diaphragm to work properly with greater control. If you are hunched over, you won’t have as much air and your tone quality will suffer.

  • Relax your shoulders. From my experience, the first place tension builds in the body when playing bass clarinet, is in the shoulders. If you are finding that your shoulders are creeping up towards your ears, or are moving a lot when you play, focus on trying to relax this before it becomes a habit. This may also be a sign that your bass clarinet is at the wrong height.

  • Both feet flat on the floor, a comfortable shoulders width apart. This one may sound silly, but I’ve taken on a lot of students who like to balance on one leg whilst they play. You’re likely to play the bass clarinet sitting down so this may not seem like such a problem - but you want your body and posture to be evenly grounded. If you only have one foot on the ground then your posture isn’t even!

Bass Clarinet Mouthpieces

The easiest way to improve a student bass clarinet, is to buy yourself a good mouthpiece and ligature combo. Again, this can seem like a bit of a minefield, and it’s all very personal. Let me try to break it down for you…

There’s a lot of specific language that goes along with mouthpieces.

  • Tip Opening: the opening at the tip of the mouthpiece (between tip and reed) where the air travels through. If you have a larger tip opening, and use a stronger reed, you have the potential to play louder and have a wider sound. Therefore as a rule, jazz players often use mouthpieces with a wider tip opening, whereas classical players prefer medium-smaller tip openings, as it allows for more precise control of tone.

  • Chamber: the inside of the mouthpiece - if you look inside you’ll see two walls relatively close together. Mouthpiece chambers come in a variety of shapes - some are more square, whereas some are rectangular, and some are in a trapeze shape - all of this affects how the sound resonates. A smaller rectangular chamber allows for a very focused sound. A smaller chamber usually creates a brighter sound, whilst a larger chamber usually creates a darker sound.

  • Mouthpiece Facing: the mouthpiece facing length is from where the reed no longer touches the mouthpiece, to the tip. If the reed touches the mouthpiece almost to the very tip, this is a shorter facing. The longer the facing, the more of the reed is vibrating when you’re playing, creating more resistance (while a short facing has less resistance) - therefore a shorter facing can give you more stability. Shorter facings often pair well with softer reeds, and long facings with stronger reeds.

  • Baffle: the part of the mouthpiece just behind the tip - it is one of the most important parts of the mouthpiece, and something that doesn’t get spoken about as much. It is the surface that the reed (vibrated by the air) strikes directly, therefore its’ geometry is crucial - and is responsible for the comfort of play and the acoustic qualities of each mouthpiece. If the baffle is closer to the reed, the brighter and more punchy the sound.

  • Tip Rail: the very tip of the mouthpiece. This is where the reed seals with the mouthpiece whilst vibrating. The response of the mouthpiece is determined by the thickness of the rail.

This is a very simplified account of mouthpieces, if you wish to find out more then I’d highly recommend checking out the SYOS website. They’re doing loads of research into what makes a ‘great’ mouthpiece!


I’m currently using a Licostini F2 mouthpiece (which I LOVE) - an Italian mouthpiece made of hard rubber, with a medium tip opening, similar to the popular Vandoren B40. These mouthpieces are slightly pricey, so to start off with I’d recommend trying one of these…

  • Vandoren BD5: easy to control whilst delivering a rich tone (especially in the upper register). It has a medium-long facing, and it’s recommended reed strengths are 2.5-3.5. This is the least resistant mouthpiece I’ve listed, but this means it may need slightly more work to ‘control’ the sound. Overall ‘brighter’ sounding.

  • Vandoren B40: a highly versatile mouthpiece with a medium-long facing, designed for use with slightly softer reeds, has a consistent sound across all registers. With the same reeds, the B40 is slightly more resistant than the BD5 because it has a slightly larger tip opening. The B40 also has a thicker tip rail than the BD5. Overall ‘darker’ sounding than the BD5.

  • Selmer Concept: a highly versatile and powerful mouthpiece. This mouthpiece is similar in resistance to the B40, but has the largest tip opening of the ones listed. The larger tip opening aids projection and volume, whilst keeping a full, rounded sound.

*These are three of the most common mouthpieces so I’d recommend starting with these. If none of these feel right, other mouthpieces and brands you may want to look at are: Fobes, Selmer Focus, Pomarico (Italian crystal), Vandoren B44, Vandoren B46 (favoured by Jazz musicians) and Walter Grabner.

Bass Clarinet Ligatures

If you can’t yet afford the mouthpiece upgrade, simply upgrading from the stock metal ligature can make a HUGE difference to your sound!

I’m a BG France artist, so am currently using their products - which are great and really affordable!

  • BG France Super Revelation: this is my ligature of choice at the moment. It is a fabric ligature with a 24k gold-plated metal plate inside. The ligature only makes contact with the reed via this metal plate - so the reed is pretty free to vibrate, creating easy staccato. Incredibly versatile - great for both beginners and pro players. It is designed to suit both solo and orchestral playing, with projection to fit large concert halls. I personally find that this ligature provides a warm, rounded sound.

  • BG France Tradition: this comes in 3 different metal finishes - 24k gold plated, silver and rose gold. This is slightly more expensive than the super revelation, and holds the reed in place by contact through the rails and a thin strip of fabric. BG claim that this mouthpiece is the ‘sound of elegance’, allowing you to produce a flexible and focused tone. I personally find this ligature provides a brighter sound than the super revelation.

  • BG France Flex: this is BG’s budget ligature. I ask all of my beginner clarinet students to purchase this ligature because it’s easy to use, quick to adjust and far more responsive than the stock metal ligatures that student clarinets come with (and only £30!). This is a simple fabric ligature without a plate. This ligature offers a warm and consistent sound. These also come in two colours: back and red which is fun!

If you’re interested in hearing the difference between the BG Super Revelation and Tradition ligatures, watch my video below. *It’s important to note that ligatures respond differently on different mouthpieces and with different reeds.

Other ligatures to try:

  • Rovner: the Rovner Versa is a versatile, fabric ligature with a metal plate. It has ‘flaps and inserts’ where it holds the reed in place, which can produce up to 6 different tones. Rovner also do a metal ligature: the Rovner Platinum. This is Rovner’s first entirely metal ligature, and they claim that it is for the player who seeks ‘the ultimate tonal purity’. Each Rovner Platinum is handmade in the USA.

  • Vandoren: the Vandoren Optimum ligature is very versatile as it has 3 different pressure plates that you can adjust depending on the desired sound/style. This is a metal ligature with one screw - so it easy to adjust.

  • Silverstein: these are incredibly popular, but expensive! There are many different models, and they seem to be bringing new ones out frequently (I can’t keep up!). I used to play on a Silverstein CYRO4, which had great tone production but I found it quite fiddly to get in the perfect spot.

  • Zac: these are hand-made Italian ligatures. Expensive, but these play very smoothly (similar in design to the Silverstein). You can chose between metal (silver or gold plating) or ebony wood for the plate that holds the reed onto the mouthpiece. Although similar in design to the Silverstein, I found this ligature to be far less fiddly to get in place, and sturdier once on the mouthpiece. These will be more difficult to get hold of depending where you are in the world. If you’re interested in trying one of these, then I’d contact Zac directly.

 

Bass Clarinet crooks/necks

I get a lot of questions about my bass clarinet neck/crook.

Now this is slightly more niche and expensive than changing your mouthpiece or ligature - and I’d only recommend this for more advanced/pro players.

Your options for alternative neck/crook upgrades are entirely dependent on the model of bass clarinet you play on.

  • Buffet Crampon: Buffet have a range of alternative necks and bells called Icon. The Icon neck and bell are made of lacquered red copper. They look stunning, and Buffet claim that you’ll instantly notice ‘a far richer, rounder, warmer sound’. These are only compatible with Buffet bass clarinets.

  • Das Blashaus: Das Blashaus create a range of different necks that are compatible with specific Buffet and Selmer bass clarinet models. These are far more expensive than the Buffet Icon range, but I think have a far greater impact on sound and control (which is why I went for one of these for my Buffet Tosca bass clarinet!).

    The Das Bashaus necks are made in Switzerland and come with quite the price tag (the gold plated being more expensive). They are made of thick, high-quality brass and they send more vibration energy into the bass clarinet. I absolutely love mine because it allowed my instrument to respond more freely across all registers, allowed me to have more ‘bite’ and power behind the sound and have a more centred sound overall.

    If you’re interested in seeing the difference the Das Blashaus neck made compared to my old stock Tosca neck, watch the video below!