Included in this list of clarinet quotes are inspirational quotes and funny quotes. There are quotes from famous clarinet players and clarinet sayings from your high school band teacher. Enjoy this and visit often, as I will put up new ones as I find them.
- That’s the clarinet I used to use . . . but it’s just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you’re supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops . . . and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex. It beats anything. Artie Shaw
- I would pass this music store on the way to school, and there was a clarinet in the window, a second-hand one. And I kept asking my parents to buy it, and eventually they did. I still have it now. Wayne Shorter
- Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet. Kalman Opperman
- I was focusing on sax while at Berklee, but then I started to play Brazilian choro and Colombian music. I was doing more folkloric stuff on the clarinet because it works better. Finally, I realized I was working more on the clarinet than the saxophone, and I started to feel more comfortable on it. Anat Cohen
- Oh! If only we had clarinets. You have no idea of the effect of clarinets!” Mozart.
- “The mellow tone, so heart-rending and soft, the extensive low register which is majestic on a good instrument and which approaches the richness of the horn and the elegance of the bassoon, the lovely melting middle register – all these are ideally suited to the expression of gentle dignity.” Josef Froehlich
- Clarinets, like lawyers, have cases, mouthpieces, and they need a constant supply of hot air in order to function. Victor Borge
- I find that classical music helps put me in a place that is very calming and allows me to express emotion through my body. I played clarinet as a child, so I guess I have a bit of a musical ear. Diane Kruger
- Why do clarinetists believe everything except their ears? Ben Armato
- Beauty and fullness of tone can be achieved by having the whole orchestra play with high clarinets and a carefully selected number of piccolos. Gustav Mahler
- The long purply sound of the clarinet. That’s the sound that has been haunting me. Luciano Berio
- [Some] times I’d have sound but no image. When Patti [Smith] was singing with her guitar, or doing something amazing with her clarinet, I’d just mess around and record the sound. So we’d use those sounds as another layer in the film [Dream of Life]. Steven Sebring
- Tricky was a plain-faced man with a very handsome voice – a voice like the sound of a clarinet, at once liquid and penetrating, and lovely to listen to. Sarah Waters
- After explaining the importance of good vs. bad reeds and clarinet tone, my wife says, “You must have got a whole box of bad reeds . . . “ Teresa Buck
- I’ve played every instrument you could possibly think of for 10 minutes. So I’m mediocre at everything. I can play drums, guitar, piano, violin, saxophone, clarinet, flute… Just not well. Kat Dennings
- I think no instrument adapts itself so closely to the human voice as the basset horn. Brahms
- Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It’s a great, expressive instrument. Anat Cohen
- Her voice was warm and husky as a clarinet, but not so sad as a clarinet: friendlier. When she laughed, it was like a clarinet blowing bubbles. Katherine Catmull
- When I first met Benny Goodman he wouldn’t talk about anything but clarinets, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. When I tried to change the subject, he said “But that’s what we have in common. We both play clarinet.” I said, “No, Benny, that’s where we’re different. You play clarinet, I play music.” Artie Shaw
- The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument – the voice of heroic love. Berlioz
- Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra – besides singing in the college chorus and things like that. Bobby McFerrin
- The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There’s no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be. Jack Brymer
- I always imagined music trapped inside my clarinet, not trapped inside of me. But what if music is what escapes when a heart breaks? Jandy Nelson
- So the ideology was that: use sounds as instruments, as sounds on tape, without the causality. It was no longer a clarinet or a spring or a piano, but a sound with a form, a development, a life of its own. Luc Ferrari
- The many-keyed clarinet, can sound so ghostly in the deep chalumeau register but higher up can gleam in silvery blossoming harmony. Thomas Mann
- [I wanted] to play the clarinet well so I could be in Duke Ellington’s band, but that’s now impossible. Nat Hentoff
- You can sweat by not practicing or you can pick up your clarinet. There’s good sweat and there’s bad sweat. Eric Maisel
- I started on the clarinet. I was going to a music school – my mother took me – and the guy said, “What do you want to play?” I said the drums, and my mother said, “No, you don’t. You don’t want to play the drums.” So I said, “Maybe the trumpet would be cool.” And my mother said, “I don’t think so.” And then the clarinet was handed to me. Christopher Guest
- Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That’s why I wanted the clarinet. Lee Konitz
- I’ve played the clarinet since I was a kid. I love to sing, but I’m not much of a singer. Let’s say that when it comes to vocalizing, I have the soul of Billy Bigelow but the voice of Jigger Cragan. Stephen Lang
- It couldn’t have been more nerdy or bizarre, playing the clarinet. But I studied classical clarinet, went to the high school for music and art in New York City, and then found the guitar and the mandolin after it. Christopher Guest
- I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets. Pete Fountain
- The clarinet is suited to the expression of sorrow, and even when it plays a merry air there is a suggestion of sadness about it. If I were to dance in prison, I should wish to do so to the accompaniment of a clarinet. André Grétry
- I used to play flute and clarinet at school, and although I wasn’t thinking about making a living or getting a pay cheque, I already knew I was going to play music all my life. Nile Rodgers
- I got in the school band and the school choir. It all hit me like a ton of bricks, everything just came out. I played percussion for a while, and stayed after school forever just tinkering around with different things, the clarinets and the violins. Quincy Jones
- When I play the clarinet, I am 100 percent myself. It is as if it is part of my body. I can play whatever I think. Let me just read a melody and make it as sweet as I can. Anat Cohen
- Ted Lewis could make the clarinet talk. What it said was put me back in the case! Eddie Condon
- No birdcall is the musical equal of a clarinet blown with panache. Edward Hoagland
- Discretion is the better part of clarinetting! Angela Fussell
- The clarinet has always been my baby. I just didn’t know that for a while. Anat Cohen
- I’m not conditioned to be an entertainer. An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself. The problem with that is artists are misunderstood by all. I’m not interested in the clarinet but in music. we speak our emotions into music. An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away. My situation is the same. Let them concentrate on my music and not on me. I like the music. I love it and live it, in fact. But for me, the business part of music just plain stinks. Artie Shaw
- I played the clarinet, and my sister played the violin . . . If we’d had the discipline and the passion, maybe we could have been good. Sara Zarr
- I’m helping people think the clarinet is cool. Anat Cohen
- Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel. Artie Shaw
- The basset horn expresses yearning, love, a blissful drifting into a spirit world, and a wistfulness to a degree impossible on any other instrument. Gustav Schilling
- We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music. Anat Cohen
- The oboe sounds like a clarinet with a cold. Victor Borge
- I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less. Artie Shaw
- In real life I’m not the character I play in my films. I’m reasonably competent, I work very hard, I’m disciplined, I lead a very middle class life. I work in the mornings, I have lunch, I practice my clarinet, I go to the movies, I eat out in restaurants or watch ball games on television or at the ball games. Woody Allen
- The sound of the basset horn reminds one of the scent of a red carnation. E T A Hoffman
- I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad’s Benny Goodman records. Alvin Lee