Types of Clarinets Explained

The Clarinet Family at a Glance

Eight members, sorted from highest to lowest

Every clarinet in the family shares the same basic mechanism — a single reed, a cylindrical bore, and the same fingering logic — so skills transfer reasonably well between them. What changes is size, pitch, and role. The table below sorts all eight from the smallest, highest instrument down to the largest, lowest, with the bar in the first column giving you a quick visual sense of where each one sits.

Figures are approximate — exact pitch centres and octave placement vary slightly between makers and historical models.

See Every Range, Side by Side

Tap or hover a bar for details

The table above tells you where each clarinet sits. This shows it — every family member's sounding range laid out on the same scale, so you can see exactly how far each one reaches and where they overlap. Tap or hover any bar for the concert range and a link through to the full page.

Eb & Bb Soprano Clarinets

The two you'll actually meet day to day

Bb soprano clarinet. When someone says "clarinet" with no qualifier, this is what they mean. It's the instrument taught in schools, the one you'll find in every orchestra's woodwind section, and the backbone of concert bands, jazz and klezmer alike. It isn't really a distinct "type" so much as the default — everything else in this family is defined relative to it, either as a smaller, higher cousin or a larger, lower one. Bb settled as the standard pitch early on largely because it struck the best balance of tone, agility and range for general use, and every other member of the family exists to cover ground this one can't. Its written range spans roughly three and a half octaves, split into three distinct-sounding registers — a dark, woody chalumeau at the bottom, a quieter "throat" register in the middle, and a bright, singing clarion register up top — and learning to move smoothly between them is most of what early clarinet study is about. If you're just starting out, this is almost always the instrument to begin on: the clarinet fingering chart is worth bookmarking once you do, and clarinet lessons will get you going.

Eb clarinet. Pitched higher than the Bb soprano, the Eb clarinet has a bright, keening, unmistakable voice that cuts through a full ensemble — composers reach for it when they want something piercing or unsettling, and it has a long history in orchestral repertoire as well as military and marching bands. It's a smaller instrument, physically, but not an easier one: the higher register demands a very controlled embouchure. It exists because the standard Bb clarinet simply can't project cleanly at the very top of an ensemble's texture — bands and orchestras needed a genuinely brighter, more piercing voice above it, not just a soprano clarinet pushed into its upper register. Because it's frequently confused with the alto clarinet — both are pitched in Eb, despite sitting at opposite ends of the family — I've written a full page on it: the Eb clarinet, explained.

Alto Clarinet

The school-band middle voice

The alto clarinet is pitched in Eb — like the small, high Eb clarinet above, confusingly — but sits much lower, filling the gap between the soprano and bass clarinets. It's a bigger instrument with a curved neck and bell, closer in shape to a small bass clarinet than to a soprano. It exists to give bands a true middle voice — doing for a clarinet section roughly what the alto saxophone does for a sax section — rather than leaving a gap between the soprano and bass registers. You'll meet it almost exclusively in school and concert bands, where it's a solid stepping stone for players who've outgrown the soprano but aren't ready for the bass. It has a mixed reputation among players — some love its warm, covered tone, others find orchestral and professional writing for it thin — but for a young player deciding where to go next, it's a perfectly reasonable option. Full page: the alto clarinet, explained.

Bass Clarinet

The family's biggest success story

The bass clarinet sounds a full octave below the standard Bb soprano, and it's by far the most successful of the "big" clarinets — a genuine, respected voice in its own right rather than a novelty. It exists to extend the clarinet into real bass territory, giving orchestras a reed instrument as low as the bassoon without losing the clarinet's own character — and unlike most of the family's other extensions, it earned a permanent orchestral chair rather than staying a specialist curiosity. You'll hear it providing deep, dark colour in orchestral scores, holding down the low end in concert bands, taking on serious solo repertoire in contemporary classical music, and — since the 1960s — thriving as a jazz solo instrument. Its size is unmistakable: a curved metal neck, an upturned metal bell, and enough weight that most players use a neck strap or floor peg. It's easily the biggest of the clarinets worth a dedicated look for most players, which is why it gets the fullest page in this guide: the bass clarinet, explained.

Contrabass Clarinet

Two octaves down, and built to match

Go another octave below the bass clarinet and you reach the contrabass — a genuinely enormous instrument, usually folded back on itself in a "paperclip" shape so a player can actually reach the keywork. It exists to give large clarinet ensembles a true bass foundation of their own — the role a baritone or bass saxophone plays anchoring a sax section — rather than having to borrow that register from another instrument family entirely. It's rare outside specialist settings: you're unlikely to see one in a school band, but clarinet choirs and university wind ensembles use it as exactly that foundation. Full page: the contrabass clarinet, explained.

The Rarest Clarinets

Where the family runs out of orchestras to play in

Beyond the contrabass sit three instruments most clarinettists will never see in person: the contra-alto, the subcontrabass, and the octocontrabass clarinet. Each exists for essentially the same reason as the contrabass — completing the clarinet choir's own low end without leaning on another instrument family — just pushed a register, or two, further than practicality really justifies. Each is lower and rarer than the last, built in tiny numbers, and kept alive almost entirely by dedicated clarinet-choir enthusiasts and collectors rather than working professionals. They're a genuine curiosity — proof of how far instrument makers pushed the design — and worth a look even if you'll never play one. I've covered all three together on one page, since none of them is common enough to justify its own: the rarest clarinets in the world.

Other Clarinets You Might Encounter

Three more names worth knowing, even without a page each

The eight types above cover almost everything you'll meet in practice, but a handful of other names turn up often enough in searches and specialist repertoire that they're worth a mention, even though none is common enough to justify a full page yet.

Piccolo clarinet (Ab). Smaller and higher even than the Eb clarinet, the Ab piccolo clarinet is a genuine rarity, mostly associated with certain European wind band traditions. Very few players will ever need one.

Sopranino clarinet (Eb/D). Sitting just above the standard Eb clarinet, the sopranino is another specialist voice with a narrow window of orchestral and band use, again rare enough that most clarinettists go a career without encountering one.

Basset clarinet. This one's a slightly different story — an extended-range Bb clarinet reaching a few notes lower than standard, built specifically for classical repertoire. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, one of the most famous pieces ever written for the instrument, was composed with the basset clarinet's extra low notes in mind, and it's had a revival among specialist classical players ever since. It sits closer to repertoire and performance practice than to "family of instruments" territory, which is why you'll find it discussed alongside the great clarinet players and repertoire rather than here.

Go Deeper

Where to go once you know your Eb from your BBb

Once you've got the family straight, a few places are worth exploring next. If you're learning the standard Bb clarinet yourself, the clarinet fingering chart is the reference you'll come back to most, and if you're after repertoire to actually play, my clarinet sheet music book — eight original jazz pieces for Bb clarinet and piano, ABRSM Grades 1–4 — is written for exactly that stage. If you're more interested in who's shaped the instrument's sound over the last two centuries, the famous clarinet players guide covers the players worth knowing, from the classical greats through to jazz and beyond. And if a particular member of the family caught your eye above, its full page — bass, alto, Eb, contrabass, or the rarest clarinets — goes into far more depth than there's room for here.

And if any of this has you itching to actually play one, I teach clarinet in person in South East London and online. Book a lesson and let's get started.