Hey everyone!
From a recent I made, I was shocked to find that many more whistle/flute players are actually ex-clarinet players. So, the whole I wasted this whole 6 lines was to ask how many have or still are playing clarinet. You can’t deny it!! Just give in to your life long talent!!!
I played clarinet in Jr. Hi. school. Still have it. I recently got it serviced, hoping to record some wind instrument stuff. Found the pennywhistle MUCH easier and more forgiving. NO MORE BROKEN REEDS!!!
THANK YOU DALE WISELY!! I’M FREE!!!
I played clarinet all through grade school, junior high, and high school… my clarinet (Buffet R-13) is at my parent’s house though, as I haven’t played much since I left for college 14 years ago. The competitions and all the practice burned me out a bit, I think. I’ve actually been thinking about asking for it back… I’m sure it was seeing all the ex-clarinetists here that did it. 
Andrea ~*~
My name is Walden and I play the clarinet.
I’ve still got the clarinet I purchased in 5th grade. Haven’t played it too much recently. Have also played alto and bass clarinets, years ago in high school.
Jim, I played bass clarinet too! Gads, I need CPA… Clarinet Players Anonymous.
I’m repeating after you, Walden… My name is Addled Crypp, and I play the clarinet. 
Andrea ~*~
I also play clarinet. In fact, I don’t even consider myself an ex-clarinetist.
I’ve got a lovely Buffet blackwood clarinet, which I still play. These days, I do play flute and whistle a lot more - both because my Bb clarinet is very ill-suited to the traditional music that I mostly play these days, and because I like the feel of the flute more.
But whenever I come accross something that’s in a keyless flute hostile key, I break out the clarinet. It’s easier for me to use the clarinet than to switch to a different key whistle.
-Mark
My first instrument was the clarinet. Then the chromatic harmonica crept in and remained. Stopped playing the clarinet altogether when my twin sons wanted to learn sax - so I switched to sax and got them started. Stopped the sax when they outgrew me and went back to the chromatic to accompany them - also on the Boehm flute for a while. Now the Irish flute and whistles take center stage.
Music, music, music . . . seems as though I always have to be playing an instrument. Ever play the Ocarina as a kid? Maybe THAT was my first - now that I’m thinking about it!!!
Play on –
BillG
I play both the Clarinet and the Bass Clarinet. I am pretty much taking a brake with it though for the time being. I hope someday to own a contra bass. I don’t think that I would use a C-Bass Clarinet for professional mean, but rather I would just like to own one.
Also to note: I have been playing the clarinet for about seven years now. All hail the clarinet God’s gift to music!!
I was coerced into the oboe when what I really wanted to play was guitar. Then I found clarinet, and really hated it! I wouldn’t be where I am today, were it not for Dale Wisely and his accursed whistle fora! Well, that, and my good buddy Don buying me my Very First, Ever pennywhistle… The rest, as they say, is history, and is still in the making!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
Heehee… I was coerced into the clarinet when my dad wouldn’t let me play trumpet or drums. 
Good thing I ended up loving it. But I have to say-- I love the whistle more!
Andrea ~*~
With me ring dum a doodle um a dah,
Whack fol the daddy o, whack fol the daddy o.
There’s whiskey in the jar.
[ This Message was edited by: aderyn_cyrdd on 2002-10-17 20:02 ]
I played clarinet for 2 years right out of highschool, 12 years ago. I was inspired to pick it up after a summer of Woody Allen films (Stardust Memories is my fav.) I joined a band playing bass and put the stick down untill this year.
You think whoa can break the bank!! Ebay is a deadly foe if you start collectng clarinets.
I was a bit confussed when I picked it up, why I ever put it down. Now my whistles take a back seat, though I do pick them up often. I have found the clarinet has greatly helped my whistle playing. For a few months I was concerned that I had lost my taiste for the whistle, I even posted a thread about this. Alas, things have smoothed out and I am truly enjoying the whistle again. Prior to restarting clarinet, I was realy into the low whistle, now I find myself reaching for my high D and A Overtons. I play my alto F more then my tenor D when I go low, and we all know the F is on the border.
My name is JackOrion and I play the whistle.
Ex-clarinet player here. Yes,not only do I still have mine, but I’ve got two. When my younger daughter wanted to start band I let her use mine(paid $50.00 for it used in '66). I told her if she liked it I’d get her a new one. Well she made all district her first year so…I bought her a new one. Two weeks ago I got her’s out to try a tune. It looked awful, some kind of oxidation I guess on the nickel, any way I broke open my old faithful and it looked great. Shined right up. I’ve even still got my beloved Boosey & Hawkes mouthpiece. I’ve gotta confess though, I never much liked the clarinet. I only played it because my band director made me, for marching. I loved playing the oboe and the clarinet was my penance for the oppertunity to get my hands on the oboe.
I played clarinet in middle school. Just for the record, I was terrible and I suffered from chronic split reeds…
Well, I never played clarinet. But I did learn recorder on my own in high school. Still have my German applewood soprano recorder. I actually took it out the other day to try to play something and couldn’t. Oh, well. It’s back to whistles and fiddling for me. 
Maybe my wife will want it…
I played the clarinet for a whole of 6 years before I finally called it quits 3 years ago, when I started university. Guess I got pretty burnt out by the national band competitions that my school band used to take part in. The annual concerts were fun, but I just kinda gravitated towards other stuff as I got older. My Yamaha 32II, which I got when I was 13, is still sitting somewhere in my cupboard with its leaky pads. I never got to use it much once I got to junior college, cos I was actually provided with a Buffet R13. I still have my pretty little Pete Pountain(?) crystal mouthpiece and a whole box of unused Vandoren reeds too.
I got started on the whistle after I saw a brochure in a music store advertising whistle lessons. (Yes, also my fascination over that small little thing that Andrea Corr plays.) Plus, I was starting to miss making noise. I’ve never gotten round to fixing my clarinet, even though I sometimes do miss playing it. But I must say that being a former clarinetist did help me quite substantially with the whistle. And so here I am, a budding whistler from the other side of the world.
I don’t know what happened to my clarinet. I played it for years and was misguided enough to declare a music major when I entered university. That didn’t last long. What I wanted and eventually got was an alto sax. Jazz was the stuff. When I moved here to Ontario I got a new alto and played for a couple of years with a mediocre little jazz band in the Ladies and Escorts room of the the York Hotel. This was sort of a dive but was notorious in it’s day. Other notable bands that played at the York in those daze were the Nihilist Spasm Band and Jim and Melissa. The Spasm band has had some measure of success and has a web site. http://www3.sympatico.ca/pratten/NSB/
They don’t play anything that you would immediately relate to the idea of music. I don’t know if any of the original members still play in it. Jim of Jim and Melissa could really play the clarinet in a sort of Dixieland/swing style. Melissa, played the tenor banjo and bass drum or hi-hat with her foot. They were pretty good if you actually like unrelieved clarinet playing.
Steve
I played clarinet, alto clarinet, bass and contra-alto clarinet all through school. Usually first chair and I have a stack of certificates from competitions around here somewhere. I even played a season with a local orchestra, the Goodyear Orchestra- sponsored by Goodyear Tires Co. Then about ten years ago I just stopped playing clarinet, and sold mine about three years ago. Now I regret it. I keep my eyes open for a reasonably priced wood or metal clarinet. I can’t believe I actually miss it.
My name is dkehoe and I play the clarinet. And the whistle. OK, OK, I play both. I played clarinet in elementary school, jr. high and high school. I dropped it in high school in an effort to be cool. Only much later did I find out that the coolest man in history, John Coltrane, started on clarinet.
There must be something genetic in it, because my daughter now plays my clarinet.
I played the clarinet in Jr. High, but gave it up for drill team in High School. But, I enjoy the whistle more than I ever did the clarinet. Maybe because no one is forcing me to practice for 30 minutes each night or else get a bad grade.
[ This Message was edited by: whatzitt on 2002-10-18 13:18 ]