I am in the market for a new horn. I’m trying to find my forever clarinet. One of the seniors in my community band got wind of this and wanted to discuss rehoming (selling) her late brother’s Buffet R13. He was a talented clarinetist in the Air Force band.
She’s going to dig it out and we’re going to look at it. But neither of us understands the process of assessing its value.
I am a committed novice/intermediate player, but I also don’t know how to assess the quality of an instrument. I certainly am honored to be considered to purchase this instrument. But I also want to make sure I’m getting something that will last. I was going to bring a tuner to the meeting and see if it plays.
I would appreciate if anyone could provide insight on how I should approach this instrument so I can accurately assess its quality. Thank you

When I first started learning (not that I'm too far from that now,) I wondered how I was doing relative to the average person playing for X time, so I figured since I realized I'm just about 6 months into starting to learn the trumpet, I'd put a little post together to document where I'm at so far in case future learners like me find it helpful, and for me to look back on in the future.

Background

I'm an adult in his 30s, with absolutely no brass experience, but I sang from ~10 years old to 22 or so though in groups of various shapes and sizes, so I'm no stranger to proper breathing and air support and I can read music badly, at least. That being said, I also haven't sang in nearly 10 years prior to picking up the trumpet, so I'm also rusty as hell. Even now, I can feel that my breath support both singing and trumpeting is not what it used to be.
I bought a trumpet thinking I'd learn to play it... 7 or 8 years ago (an Olds Ambassador for $90 on Craigslist) but realized it was way harder than I expected to learn myself, and I couldn't find many places around me that offered lessons for adults at the time- but I kept it through all the moves anyway. Cut to many years later, and I've moved to a place where there are lessons close by and decided to properly pick it up. Got a teacher and started lessons in mid-October of 2023.

So... how'd it go

Month 1: The first month or so was... not great! I was having fun with it, and managed to establish the habit of practicing at least a little bit every day, but I sounded like I was playing a fuzzy clarinet, not a trumpet, and I was having a lot of trouble getting enough air through the instrument- I'd end up with lungs full of stale air at the end of phrases. My teacher helped work through this- in my case, I didn't have my jaw open far enough/my aperture was too small- it's not perfect now, but it's improving, and I'm running out of air like I'm "supposed" to. Range: I could eke out C3 to C4, but C4 was spotty at best. Practice: I had figured out the C major scale once I got the notes down and my instructor explained partials to me, and practiced that a bunch. Also did some long tones (though they struggle to hold my attention/interest even now) and lip slurs pretty much constantly, and those things were the majority of my practice. Worked through the first... 4 or so etudes in the Getchell "First Book of Practical Studies." Tried to play at least half an hour a day, usually in 15 minute chunks or so. Equipment: I swapped from the Olds with a 7C to a Getzen 300 and 5C that I bought for $75 while the Olds was in the shop getting cleaned- turned out the Olds had some first valve damage that makes it a bit sticky, and that was kind of annoying, even though I liked it more than the Getzen build/feel wise.
Months 2-4: These were mostly working on consistently opening up that tone and getting away from clarinet-y-ness. My ear was beginning to adjust to the qualities of the horn. There was a lot of backsliding in these months- even though I was practicing regularly, I didn't have the muscle memory down pat yet or the embouchure strength to maintain most things. Range: Still about a C to C, though a bit easier to manage/work in. Starting trying to get up to an E sometimes, I think I managed my first (bad) E major scale in this window somewhere. Practice: More or less the same as above. Worked through a couple more etudes, probably 5-10? I struggled to play them end to end without my embouchure falling apart though towards the end, and would struggle to hit C4s in them towards the end. Tried to play 30-60 minutes a day, usually in 15 minute chunks between meetings. Equipment: No major changes- I tried a couple other mouthpieces in here somewhere (the standard Schilke and a pretty normal, 7C adjacent (I think?) Yamaha at a music store, but I was not yet at a point where I could notice much of a difference in sound or anything from them
Months 5-6: These have been probably the best yet- I've been having fun with the instrument, even with frustrations from time to time. I made some equipment changes that have helped, and feel like my ear is getting better too- if I play with a tuner it's usually closer than it was in months 2 - 4, which feels good. Range: C to E5/F5 for scales, still getting them down for long tones/in actual phrases though. Can get a decent-ish G5 out if I start on it/work down from it, but going up to it is very inconsistent. Practice: My instructor introduced Cichowicz flow studies sometime in here after I asked him how to make long tones less boring, and they've been a big win for me in terms of holding my interest. I'll usually do a group or two while warming up, and I think they've helped a bunch. Still working through etudes (up to 14 now, I think?) and I try to practice around an hour most days. Also doing Caruso 6 notes and Arban 1st studies to try to work on embouchure strength. I introduced Sunday Fundays, which is where on Sundays I get to just spend my practice time playing whatever and not thinking too hard about everything being good and just try to enjoy making music for myself. I'll try to figure stuff out by ear, noodle around with melodic ideas, just kinda vibe. This has been helpful for reminding myself that this is a thing I am doing for fun. I also joined a community choir to get more breathing and reading practice in, which has been great, and pretty helpful. Equipment: I made some pretty big changes here- namely, I found a King Super 20 S1 for $300 in good shape secondhand, so I'm now on that full-time, and I really like it. It both looks beautiful, and the fit/finish/valves are a lot more pleasant to interface with than the Getzen (which was still a totally good horn, just not quite as fancy.) My instructor also lent me a couple mouthpieces for a week, and I found that the clear frontrunner for me was a Yamaha 15E4 in terms of comfort on face and ease of play. The Yamaha, for me, felt like it had so much less back pressure than the other mouthpieces, and I stuck with that.

What am I working on?

A lot! My pitch on long tones is still a little wobbly, I can't seem to slur up very easily/well, dynamics are hard, the list goes on. Below an F3 sounds kind of bad, and my tone on the whole is better than it was, but still not great. My embouchure still needs strengthening, but I know that's a marathon, not a race. I've been working through figuring out Fly Me to the Moon in C, since it's really in my brain from using it for vocal auditions for years, and also Moon Love by Chet Baker since it's pretty, flowy, and seems to top out around a D.
I want to be able to make the King really sing someday, so I'm planning on keeping at it.

I use the Piezobarrel clarinet pickup, Then tuner, volume and looper. Thought you might be instrested in a woodwind player’s setup.

Hello folks! I am writing here to seek help in clarifying a doubt. I am returning to the clarinet after 15 years of not even looking at it, so I decided to take lessons with a private teacher via Zoom.
I usually play somewhat in tune, albeit a little sharp. In one of our lessons, my teacher noticed that I may have an embouchure issue and asked to hear what note would come out when I make a sound with the mouthpiece and barrel only.
She insisted that the note should be an E, which was very far from the G# I was getting with my tuner.
Since my clarinet has been played by a previous teacher who deemed it in good condition and praised its intonation, I did some internet research, and the resources I could find online said that the note should actually be a concert F#, so an actual G#.
Am I missing something, or am I right? I'm asking because I am trying my best to produce what she wants, but it seems so far off that I think she might be wrong…?

Hopefully folks here can help me, locate a specific transcription.
At the very least, perhaps this could help point me to some other sources that may be able to help. Is there a dedicated subreddit for asking these types of questions? Or some other online resource?
Others out there have provided some information (for which I am very grateful), but it hasn't gotten me all the way to my answer yet.
I am looking for an transcription of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture for wind ensemble that I played back in the mid 90s. This was a difficult piece to play, would be rating 4/5/6, and the transcription was ~15 minutes long. It seems rather unique because of the key that it was in (I think it starts in Eb and is in F later, in contrast to the orchestral version that is in F and then G later). I can tell because of three parts: the start (clarinet), from rehearsal "B" (the first trombone entrance), and from the trombone solo. For those interested, here is a link to a site with the relevant orchestral excerpts.
The start: the clarinets being on a concert Eb (as opposed to the orchestral version that starts on a concert F (initial phrase is Eb-Eb-Eb-D-C in contrast to F-F-F-E-D).
Rehearsal "B": The trombone part starts on middle C in the orchestral version and nearly all other transcriptions I have found with a range going up to E and down to A, and is in the key of F. In the one I played, it starts on Bb with a range going up to D and down to G (and I assume it is in the key of Eb by transposition, my theory is very rusty, and at that time, I hadn't really studied it).
The solo (rehearsal M): At this point in the piece, most arrangements/transcriptions that I have found recordings of are in the same key as the orchestral version (G). In those, she solo starts on middle C and uses pitches A,B,C,D and ends on middle C. However, the version I recall playing starts on Bb and uses pitches G,A,Bb,C and ends on Bb (and thus I believe is in the key of F at this point by transposition). I have a recording of it (on a very old tape, I admit), multiple tuners agree with me (holding them up to my speakers), and I do not recall it ending on a C (I remember it being Bb).
Does anyone know this transcription?
​
Maybe I'm just crazy, have a bad memory (it was 25+ years ago), and my tape is so degraded that it's off by a whole step.
Thanks in advance!
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Items that have been ruled out:
Courtain - 1960 in F, and the part at B looks to be a tenor horn solo starting on a "D"...very curious
Frank Erickson - 1994, in F
Shinji Kasama - 2005, in F
L. C. Harnsberger - 2005, in Eb, but it is too simple, and too short (only 2 trombone parts, ~3 minutes in length)
Donato Semeraro -2009, in F
Christiaan Janssen - 2013, in F
William V. Johnson - 2015, in F
Christiaan Janssen (again?) - 2017, in F
Bruce Arlen - unknown date, in F, too short at 5 minutes
Adapted by Henry Sopkin - unknown date, in F Arranged by Bocook - unknown date, in F.
​

I recently got a curved soprano saxophone and have really been struggling to get it in tune. It’s not a low quality instrument, and I don’t think it’s a problem with my embouchure either considering I play bass clarinet, clarinet, and tenor sax and have never had an issue with my embouchure before (I’ve been playing clarinet the longest too, which I feel is the most similar to soprano when it comes to mouthpieces). My instrument is so flat that my C’s are registering as B’s on my tuner, but I can’t push my mouthpiece in any farther. What do I do?

On the 14 of December (2023) It was my orchestral concert for school, I had already warmed up, tuned, and practiced my pieces. As I took my seat next to my friend (clarinet), waiting for my group to be called to the stage, my violin bumped into his clarinet. I went behind the stage to tune, but every string was off. I quickly tried to tune them using the nuts and fine tuners. But as I started to tune the a string, it SNAPPED, on the day of my concert. I didn’t know what to do, since I didn’t have an extra, and I saw my teacher come in behind the stage, and he asked what I was doing. He took a good look at my violin in shock. It appeared that he didn’t know what to do also.
We got a jr strings to allow me to borrow their violin and everything was fine. Now my violin has an A string and will soon be cleaned up and fixed. The end

Please comprehend the title and this following paragraph before you get offended-
Hi I am a professional musician and a band and orchestra director, went to school for it and everything blah blah blah I don’t need to justify it. Here’s the list of my in the moment thoughts on what I think of you based on your instrument-
** I am a professional multi- instrumentalist so that’s my credentials for the shit list lol**
HERE WE GO-
Violin- Weird and socially awkward and has a bad sense of humor
Violas- Frumpy and cool. Read the room though
Cellos- Get over yourself it’s not as hard as violin
Bass- Odd and friendly. Not thinking about anything most of the time. Also learn how to count to 4
Flute- Literally shut the fuck up
Clarinet- Cringy and stuck in 2013 fashion (throw out the Ugg boots omg lol)
Saxophone- You literally honk. You’re not that fucking cool and your instrument is one of the easiest wind instruments. Stop thinking you’re a pussy magnet it’s embarrassing.
Oboe- fine, idk why you chose to play this instrument fuck making those reeds
Bassoon- lol why the fuck did you choose this? Also pull the stick out of your ass cause you all are uptight af
Any of the weird versions of instruments (bass clarinet, Barry sax, pic, etc.)- don’t count
French Horn- Annoying and bitchy for what? Because you didn’t practice?
Trumpet- Run away and do not give them an OUNCE of attention. They don’t deserve it
Trombone- They ight. Use a tuner though plz you’re flat as shit and you like to drag
Tuba- Smokes a ton of weed and is probably your plug
Baritone- Shy and never makes eye contact. Probably not straight
Percussion- Probably has an std and thinks their hot but can’t keep time whatsoever like you have one job
Guitar- Fuck off and learn how to read notes I believe in u
Vocalists- Literally just fuck off lol you better know key signatures at least
Pianists- Mad respect if you’re classically trained. Shit’s hard but also probably wicked smart and annoying
Classical musicians- Learn how to sight read and stop gatekeeping everything you elite, bitchy mfs
Jazz Musicians- Learn some fundamentals for the love of god also your $50 bar gig is not impressive so stop talking about it
Singesongwriters- Learn how to play more than 4 chords and write better lyrics. If you won’t learn how to actually play your instrument, then write some damn good poetry or something
Hope I offended at least one person lol jk don’t take it seriously
With love,

Hi I bougt a Bb clarinet but I dont know how can start effectively. I play G clarinet. I learned clarinet notes according to their equivalents in the tuner. So I learned with piano notes. I know the classical note chart too. I mostly play the clarinet accompained by my guitarist friend. So it seemed easier to learn fingerring notes this way. But I dont know if I did good or bad. I want to make jazz in the future. What way would I better to follow? 

I'm returning to clarinet after a ~3 year hiatus (okay, okay, maybe closer to 4 years...). My clarinet was serviced, I worked up my embucher, and I've been focusing lots on long tones and scales. It's been about two weeks back and I'm looking for a good clip-on tuner. It's been a while since I've had one, so I'm wanting some new opinions on what people are using and liking! Thanks!

I have a very generous person helping me learn the basics of clarinet playing. He said that his horn gets sharp as he warms up and he pulls the barrel 2mm or so to bring it back into tune (longer = lower). He has me practicing long tones with a tuner and I'm seeing a similar thing. I'm quite flat to start but before long the tuner says I'm on pitch. Have other people experienced this? And what is going on? Is it the horn physically warming up or is it more likely that I'm warming up?

So I have been very interested in tuning theory and pitch perception. I have certain questions about the mel scale curve and I hope the learned folk here can help me out with it!

1. So my understanding of the mel scale curve is that human pitch perception is often "approximated" to a logarithmic scale (hence the unit of cents). However from experimental evidence it has been found that human pitch perception is slightly off from the log curve, and the new, experimentally found curve is called the mel scale. Is this right? And what I gathered from this curve is that the higher the pitches are the flatter we perceive them.
2. Where is this utilized, if it is? I've heard that the experiment may be biased and unreliable but I'm having a hard time finding info on that. Is this used in piano tuning? I have heard that piano tuners tune the upper octaves a little flatter than usual (totally possible that I misremembered). Is this anything to do with the mel scale?
3. Is this also why we may perceive certain instruments as sharp? I have often heard that "piccolos get really sharp in the high register" or "E♭ clarinet is hard to play because it can get very sharp in the higher register". Could it be that rather than the instruments itself being sharp it's our perception that went flat? Or is this just another case of physics being cruel and hard to work with.

If I'm sounding like I have no idea what I'm talking about, it's probably because I actually don't, but in either case I'm curious and very eager to learn about this concept in Tuning theory, so I'd greatly appreciate if anyone can help me out with this!
Thanks microtonal

For assessment our band is gonna try to play El Camino Real (we dont have the music yet but the band teacher has told us the program for assessment as of right now). I go to a country school where we have zero double reeds and El Camino Real is basically known for it’s long Oboe solo and prominent Oboe parts in general. The first Alto Sax parts have the Oboe solos cued in them, there are only two Altos,two Tenors and a Baritone in our Sax section. Me and the other Alto Sax player switch parts a lot because we are close in skill level so we agreed that I would play first part for the overture piece (El Camino Real) and they would play first part for the march (as of right now either Barnum and Baileys or Americans We) and they will probably play first part for the third piece too.
On Friday the band director came up to us and asked us who would play what part for what piece and we told him and he told me that he wants me to try out a silver Alto Saxophone that he bought from the university. I’ve always liked the way silver saxophones sound and look so I was happy when he said this. I went to his office at the end of the day to pick the instrument up and he has the case opened up in a chair in the band room. When I saw it up close let’s just say it didn’t look how I expected it to look, it was definitely silver it just looked like a saxophone that had been through war and abuse. It was scratched and dented up but he told me it sounded better than it looked so I did the instrument rental papers so I could take it home and I when I got home I played it.
It didn’t have a mouthpiece so I just used my normal Alto Sax mouthpiece and reeds I normally use and I played the basic Bb Scale on it but it didn’t sound like a Bb Scale. I went through all of the scales and all of the scales sounded differently. I got out a tuner and every note was exactly a semi tone flat (it was still out of tune though). In middle school I played Bari Sax and I remembered I had the same problem with it and there ended up being a book stuck in the instrument causing it to sound so flat but there was nothing stuck in the Alto it was just really flat and out of tune.
I played some of our Christmas Music on it thinking it just needed to warm up but all the notes were still a semi tone flat. I emailed my band director about it and he said it might need to go to a repair shop but because I’m the one renting the instrument I’ll have to pay for it and who knows how much it will be to repair this ancient instrument. I do really want to play it at the concert the silver gives it this different timbre that I really like that my normal brass Alto Sax doesn’t have. It sounds more like an Oboe or Clarinet than a Saxophone and I honestly like it, but I really don’t want to pay for repairs. The other Alto said I could try transposing it up half a step and that sort of worked but it was still so out of tune when compared to my normal Alto.

Every year towards the end of marching band season our separate bands starts holding sectionals for each section. In Wind Ensemble me and the 2nd chair have decided to be in charge of clarinet sectionals but the thing is this year we have our first Bassoon player since we’ve been here. There’s basically no where else for the Bassoonist to go for Sectionals where he’ll actually fit in so I just told him he could come to clarinet sectionals. First of all before I say anything he is good at Bassoon, he knows all the notes and stuff like that but his tuning isn’t the best and because Bassoon is a lower instrument it causes the rest of us to drift off pitch with him which is not what we want in a Wind Ensemble. He is also a freshman which might explain a lot.
For Warm Ups we do our normal Wind Ensemble Long Tones,Flexibility and Chorales. There is also a chord warm up where the lowest instruments play a note and then instruments add in different notes to the chord, I don’t know how exactly to explain it but it sounds cool. For the chord warm up I had the Bass Clarinets and Bassoons hold out their note first then the 3rd Clarinets add in with their note,2nd Clarinets next,1st Clarinets and Oboe and then lastly the Eb Clarinet. When the Bassoons and Bass Clarinet held out their note it sounded fine but when the 3rd clarinets came in, the clarinets were in tune but the Bassoon really started to stick out. That is when I decided to do a tuning session. The Oboist is a Senior like me so she just played a concert Bb and everyone else from highest to lowest tuned to her. When the Bass Clarinets and Bassoon came in though the Bass Clarinets were in tune but the Bassoon really stuck out. I thought it was a volume problem so I just told him he didn’t have to play as loud but that he does sound good.
I decided to play one of our LGPE pieces instead because we practice Christmas pieces during class and I really want our Eb Clarinetist to get in a lot of practice since he is only a Junior. The piece is called Slava! By Leonard Bernstein (if you haven’t listened to it you should because it’s really fun)And I decided to just put on a metronome so no one would have to conduct. Anyways we played completely through it but at the Alto Sax solo section (measure 76) the Bb Clarinets and Bassoon have the same parts but the Bassoon really stuck out at that part and I asked him to play the part by himself slowly while I had a tuner on my stand and he was so flat that it sounded like he was playing completely different notes than written. For clarinets we push in or tighten our embouchure if we are flat but on Bassoon y’all have a completely different embouchure and there’s nothing to pull out or push in. The Oboist tried to help him but of course Oboe and Bassoon are completely different. I want all of us to sound good so I want to be able to help him so how do I get him in tune.