Been wanting to try a clarinet … picked up one today ..used .. supposed to be in good condition.
Is there much playing difference between the clarinet and the whistle other than more keys/holes?
Thanks,
Jim
Lots of difference.
Clarinet was one of the first instruments I learned to play. It’s a lovely instrument, really.
(But flute is better)
Clarinet produces sound differently than does whistle, so the fingerings may look similar at first, but they’re not once you get past the first few lower notes.
Lots of people here are or were clarinet players. 
Yes…pain.
I will leave it up to you to deduce whether that is oral or aural pain…
Robin
Or???
Ahhh…I see you tried to play it…
Robin
I love the sound of the clarinet, so several years ago I bought one along with some instructional material and started from the beginning. The clarinet is different from the flute in that you have to blow into the instrument with considerable back pressure. For me, I found that trying to blow like this caused my blood pressure to rise to an uncorfortable level. Naturally, I stopped the process of learning and thought about what it meant. I observed the members of the orchestra playing the clarinet, oboe, and bassoon, along with the brass section. I could see that they all had red faces while they were playing, indicating to me that they were experiencing the same symptoms that I had experienced. I decided to sell the clarinet and stick with the flute, where, because of the breath requirements, I don’t experience a similar difficulty.
One of the biggest differences is that clarinet overblows at the twelfth instead of at the octave.
I do love the deep resonant sound of the clarinet, but I do not play it well. To me, it always felt like trying to blow air through a brick wall.
One of these days I’ll have to break mine out and try again…
–James
Is there any reason why one could not use a clarinet in Irish trad music? I know they are big in klezmer.
Hmmm .. high blood pressure . and “like trying to blow air through a brick wall”. Well … I have a good supply of air and don’t seem to have trouble with my Low D whistles … maybe I can do it. Sure do like the sound
Jim
Sounds like you shouldn’t have too much of a problem.
For the pressure thing, you really need to support the air with your diaphragm. Other differences are that you can’t overblow to jump octaves and if you don’t completely cover the holes it emits an earsplitting squawk when you play.
Good luck!
I played both clarinet and sax for awhile. The real trick is how you squeeze the reed with your lips. The oboe and bassoon require even more backpressure. I’ve always wanted to play oboe but they are too expensive and from what I can see they are an aneurysm waiting to happen. 
Clarinet makes your lips numb. They are cruel and evil.
Also, there’s a lingering smell of stale spit that hangs around even freshly laundered clarinetists.
Hands up anybody who mistook me for Cranberry for a split-second!
I actually rather miss my clarinet, I keep hoping that I can convince my dad to send it out to me (since it was first his, he got dibs on it when I moved out to go to college in '89…hmmph) It’s a Buffet R-13 direct from Paris, and I had a really cool clear mouthpiece. You could see all the spit. 
I also miss the smell of cork grease.
And MarMil, it was not evil and did not make my lips numb… the spit thing I do have to kind of agree with though.
If the amount of spit you deal with in woodwinds makes you ooky, never ever try to play a brass instrument like trumpet!
They call those little cork things “spit valves” for a reason! 
–James
Quite. Slobber valves might be more accurate.
raises both hands in the air
Apparently they’re rather difficult to adapt to irish music. I’m told there was a period some time back where a lot of people were bringing clarinets to sessions, but that due to some technical difficulties related to the octave break, they didn’t work out that well and mostly they’ve been given up.
I imagine there are still a few clarinet-lovers bringing them to sessions, though. It’s not
impossible to play itm on them.
The person relating this was a gray-hair, so, I don’t know if ‘a while back’ was five years,
or thirtyfive years, or something in-between, or if it was a purely local phenomenon.
my hands too.
They don’t show the person with the towel that just wiped the drool away before the picture was taken.
I’ll never forget the literal ropes of the stuff hanging off the bloodhounds before they’d go into the showring. And the ropes stick to whatever they hit when they sling their heads. There’s a reason you’ll see handlers of St. Bernards, Bloodhounds etc. wearing or carrying towels in the ring.
Back to the subject at hand-
I played clarinet by default in school. Oboe was my instrument but had to play clarinet too for marching. It was never my favorite but I actually did enjoy it on occasion. (I did not enjoy the bloody lower lips from all day rehersals though- found that a bit of wax over the lower teeth was the trick for that). The one plus ,was that as first chair I did get to play the intresting parts of an arrangement. I’ve got two of the the things and haven’t done anything other than grease the corks and check the pads for years. Probably couldn’t get a decent squawk out of one now.
It seems strange to me to think of actually wanting to play clarinet…