How to Play Clarinet Scales: C Major

Want to learn or brush up on your clarinet scales? You’ve come to the right place! Ana, creator of the clANAnett YouTube channel, and Cassidy here at Making Music have joined together to teach you all the major scales and their respective minor scales on the clarinet. Enjoy this video on the C Major scale and be sure to check back each month to learn the next scale in the series!

We also recommend you follow along with the notes on the scale as you are learning. This way you will learn how to read the notes without simply copying our fingers.

c major

 

Download our free clarinet fingering chart here.

If you are interested in learning more clarinet scales, click on the links below:

A Minor
G Major
E Minor
D Major
B Minor
A Major
F# Minor
E Major
C# Minor
B Major
G# Minor
Gb Major
Eb Minor
Db Major
Bb Minor
Ab Major
F Minor
Eb Major
C Minor
Bb Major
G Minor
F Major
D Minor

 

Ana has been playing the clarinet for 10+ years (since she was in 5th grade). After high school, she studied at the University of Iowa where she minored in music. In her free time, she likes to post fun clarinet covers of the latest pop songs on her YouTube channel.

5 comments

From a theory standpoint, it might make more sense to teach A minor next or with C major.

Yes….the natural minor has identical notes, but beginners don’t know that. It would help your students see the relationship between relative majors and minors. Beginners don’t know theory and don’t know that C major and A minor are the same key signature. It’s just an auditory difference on where the ear wants to land.

A fingering chart can teach fingerings. You’re starting with a scale that has them crossing the break? Teach embouchure and breathing! Musicians should know how to play thru knowledge & understanding. This just teaches them to mimic.

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for your input! We have taken what you said into consideration and decided that we agree; we will be teaching the relative minor scales along with each major scale as you had suggested. Thank you again for such valuable insights!

Hi JC,

Thank you for voicing your concern with our videos. We have begun with C Major because, though it does cross the break, we wanted to start with the scale with the least sharps and flats. We agree that we don’t want our readers to simply mimic what we are teaching them. Because of this, we have decided to include each scale written out to accompany our videos. Hopefully this will encourage players to read the notes as opposed to simply copying our fingers. Thank you again for your insights!

Hi Ana,I’m Alfred from Ghana and I will say you are a great teacher, please continue your good works because I have learnt a lot from your video lessons,I love you guys so much,keep it up

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