Clarinéo for Sale & Hire, Woodwind Instruments in Surrey, Croydon, South London, UK

Mainly intended for small hands the Clarinéo (pronounced  clarry-nay-oh), is a serious instrument, expected to be used by beginners and others of any age who want a clarinet in C,  that is to say one that is the same pitch as a flute, oboe, violin and piano, for which the music would be in the same notation. (See below for an explanation). The Clarinéo is available in white with three different colour trims, at choice, or black.

This is an impressive new design, a considerable improvement on the C clarinets available during the last few years.  The keywork is more sturdy, the case smaller and more attractive and maintenance is likely  to be absolutely minimal.  The sound is at least as good and the clarinet comes with reeds, a pull-through and a special new design of ligature (to hold the reed on with) and of mouthpiece cap. 

The great surprise is that this instrument, so much improved on its predecessors is being offered at a much lower price.

£135.00

including three reeds, case and pull-through

       or you can hire it at £24 per school term

Hiring is the best option if the player is approaching the size to play a standard clarinet and you might only need the smaller clarinet for say about a year.  Much depends on the width of the fingers, rather than the size of the hand or the child's age. Some children have slender fingers and might take time for the fingers to become wide enough to  close the holes of the larger instrument.  Buying is then the best option.  Other children have wide fingers and can transfer perhaps a year  earlier.  In that case you would probably be best to hire  So far as concerns fingers,  if you bring your child along we can actually test how near the child is to playing a full-size clarinet, and in any case give expert advice. 

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   *Technical note for anyone not quite sure what a "clarinet in C" means. 

      A standard, full size clarinet, is normally pitched in B-flat, that is to say that when you write the note C, the player reads C, plays C, but the sound coming out would be B-flat. The clarinet is a transposing instrument. 

      When you write the note C for any transposing instrument the note that comes out is in the instrument's own name, so for example an alto saxophone, often called an E-flat saxophone, would sound E-flat when playing the note C.  The advantage of transposing instruments is that you can get different sounds (higher or lower range of notes) simply by changing the instrument, but the player does not change his fingering;  so he or she can play all the instruments making different sounds using exactly the same fingering for all of them.  The only transposing instruments that play C when you write C are those like the Clarinéo that are already pitched in C. So the Clarinéo is an ideal starting instrument for players with small hands, and a player starting on it can transfer at any time to a full-size clarinet without changing the fingering already learnt.