Best Clarinet for Beginners: Find Your Perfect Starter Instrument

So you've decided to start your music journey. These days, there's an abundance of different instruments to choose from, all of which are easily obtainable either in your local music stores or via online purchases. While this is most certainly an advantage, it comes with one big challenge – it gets hard to choose. However, even despite this issue, clarinet still remains one of the most popular instruments among beginners.

However, there's one problem that comes to mind – you'll need to find the right instrument for this phase. And just like with any other instrument, the whole process of finding what you need and what will suit you might be a bit difficult. This is why we decided to do a brief guide and help you find the best clarinet for beginners that will suit your needs. Of course, the choice was not exactly the easiest one, so we narrowed it down and brought a brief list of the best clarinets in many different categories. So here's what we've got.

Top 7 Best Clarinets for Beginners

Best Deal Below $100 – Lazarro 150-BK Clarinet

To start things off, we have a very cheap yet surprisingly reliable beginner clarinet by Lazarro. The company's not strictly focused on woodwind instruments, but they do a fairly good job at making clarinets, especially at this budget level.

For this particular list, we're looking into their 150-BK clarinet, with its main target group being beginner players. This is a standard Bb clarinet with 17 keys. It's made out of hard resin ebonite while the keys are all nickel-plated, making them fairly durable for this price level. It also comes with a second barrel, as well as an adjustable thumb rest. Additionally, the full package also includes a care kit and additional reeds.

Knowing that this instrument and all of the appropriating gear are below the $100 mark, it's pretty surprising to see how well 150-BK works. Sure, it won't exactly be able to pull off those fully professional settings, but it's more than enough for a beginner.

Best Low Budget Clarinet – Glory B-Flat Clarinet

When starting out on any instrument, many music enthusiasts are not always certain whether they'll stick to it in the long run. Or, another case is that they just want to play for fun. In both of these examples, it's always a better idea to find a cheaper instrument. This is now always that easy for clarinets, as they usually tend to get expensive for any skill level. And those that are cheap are usually not worth it, making it hard to find a decent budget instrument. However, we managed to find one that caught our attention with some of the qualities. Although Glory is not exactly the biggest brand out there, their simple standard B-Flat clarinet is definitely worth checking out if you're a beginner on a budget.

Going below the $100 price mark, it's a pretty simple one. However, the clarinet comes with a full package, and that's something that really surprised us for this particular price level. It's made from a black ebonite of amazing quality and comes with nickel-plated keys which seem to be pretty durable. The package also includes two barrels, 8 pad cushions, and 11 reeds, as well as an additional care kit.

If you're a beginner, this is more than enough to get you started. Sure, it won't be enough to satisfy your needs when you reach higher skill levels. But it's definitely a great deal for a budget clarinet.

Most Practical – Eastrock B-Flat Clarinet

Although not as cheap as the Glory B-Flat clarinet that we mentioned above, this one's pretty affordable as well. Made by Eastrock, this is yet another simple variant and a great deal for the price. What we love about it is that it comes with a very practical package and is one of the best solutions for young clarinet students.

Of course, it's a standard Bb clarinet and it comes with two barrels, a stand, a case, and even its own maintenance kit. It's pretty well-built and it seems like a pretty sturdy one. Nonetheless, this doesn't take away from its amazing design and aesthetic features. Eastrock seem to have done a pretty great job at keeping things in order while still managing to cut costs. It's a fairly simple one and very budget-friendly. As a beginner, is there even anything more you could ask? It's durable, it sounds great, and it feels amazing. It's just simply a go-to clarinet for beginners and you can't really go wrong with this pick.

Best for Younger Beginners – Mendini MCT-E Clarinet

Mendini is one of the great clarinet brands out there. They're a subsidiary of Cecilio, which is another great brand that has both entry-level and professional instruments to offer. If we're talking about the best clarinet for beginners, we should mention Mendini's MCT-E, which a pretty decent standard Bb clarinet.

The category of beginners is a pretty wide one, and we also need to think of the youngest ones as well. Knowing that Mendini's MCT-E is very cheap (similar to the one by Glory) and fairly simple to figure out, we'd recommend it to the youngest musicians who are keen on playing clarinet. Sure, it might not have the tone that some other more experienced students would like, but it's still more than enough for the youngest ones.

Best Deal for the Price – Yamaha YCL-200AD Clarinet

Look, whatever kind of instrument we're talking about, there's hardly any chance to avoid mentioning Yamaha in there. So it doesn't really come as a surprise that we're seeing the legendary company on a list of the best clarinets for beginners. For this purpose, we're checking out their YCL-200AD clarinet.

Compared to some other clarinets that we mentioned here, YCL-200AD is just a bit more expensive. However, the price is definitely worth it, since this instrument sounds great, feels great, and is pretty reliable, even in the longer run. Although labeled as a "student clarinet", we can see some great features on it, including nickel-plated keys, a matte finish, a bell cutout, as well as a hardshell carrying case that comes with it.

Best for Lower Register – Yamaha YCL-250 Clarinet

Knowing how great Yamaha is, there was no way for us to avoid mentioning at least one more of their great products on this list. For this purpose, we're including their YCL-250, which is modeled after some of their most prestigious clarinets of all time. The most striking thing here is the overall tone quality. It's designed in such a way that it projects its sound much better than most of the clarinets at this price level. Additionally, we also noticed that it's extremely good at projecting the notes in the lower register. This is especially useful for beginners as they might sometimes struggle to provide enough power to pronounce those lower notes.

It's also worth noting that Yamaha's YCL-250 is made out of plastic. This is not unusual for beginner clarinets, or just those that are cheaper. Nonetheless, Yamaha did a great job at not only making it sound good but also making it look like their professional-level instruments. To be fair, you can't go wrong with YCL-250.

Best Overall Clarinet for Beginners – Jean Paul USA CL-300 Student Clarinet

Lastly, we'd like to look more into Jean Paul USA, which is a brand that especially focuses on beginner-level woodwind instruments. With all this in mind, we couldn't help but include their CL-300 model as the best overall clarinet for beginners. This particular model comes in three variants, but this one works best for beginners. CL-350 and CL-400 are also great but maybe a little expensive for some beginners.

Nonetheless, CL-300 is a standard Bb clarinet with a very stylish-looking ebonite body. This is accompanied by nickel-plated keys that are not only very comfortable but also really durable. Additionally, its specially-designed keys are responsible for a very sharp tone making it sound very defined and focused in the higher register. At the same time, the lower register might not be as pronounced, but it still works pretty well.

Best Beginner Clarinet Buying Guide

If you're a beginner, you should also inform yourself about some basic features to check out when looking for the best beginner clarinet. This is why we came up with a simple buying guide. Here are a few things to look into before you decide to make a purchase.

Tuning

The "standard" average clarinet is tuned to Bb, meaning that this is their open note. However, there are a few variations here, like C or A. If you're a beginner, then you'll be looking into Bb clarinets. However, the tuning, including some minor variations in pitch, can also be changed using different mouthpieces.

Materials

In these beginner categories, ABS (or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) is the most common material, especially if we're talking about cheaper models. Although some may think that plastic is not exactly the best choice, the building practices have been perfected and these instruments still manage to pull off some great tones. However, the rule always remains – better clarinets are made out of different types of wood, most notably rosewood, African hardwood, and granadilla. But even though beginner clarinets are mostly made out of plastic and other similar materials, even cheaper brands can do a really good job at making them look good.

Components

The quality of components is one of the most important traits you should look into. This especially goes for the main part of the body and the keys mounted on it. In most of the cases, clarinet keys are either plated with nickel or silver. Nickel-plated ones are generally more durable and a little shinier in appearance. Silver-plated keys are not as durable and may tarnish more in the long run, but have a better feel to them. But no matter the type of keys, proper care will keep them safe from any unwanted changes.

Conclusion

Clarinets are probably one of the most expressive woodwind instruments. However, you should still take care when choosing the right one as a beginner. The models that we shared in this guide should be more than enough for the respective categories that we mentioned. Some of them might be a bit more expensive, like those two by Yamaha. Nonetheless, they all do a really great job for beginners, both financially and performance-wise.