Playing Hot Cross Buns on the Clarinet

Hi, I am Ariana wood wind performer and instructor, today I am showing you the clarinet basics and now that we know how to breathe, how to do a correct embouchure and how to sit and tongue, I would like to show you how to play your first song.

Our first song is going to be a Hot Cross Buns. So as you can see here Ive got Hot Cross Buns written out on the staff. As we have learned this is E-D-C, E-D-C, C-C-C-C, D-D-D-D-E-D-C. Now if you are wondering why some note looks different from others, we have some with stands, some there are just open circles and some there are fill than with stands, Ill play now real quick. First of, a note with an open circle with a stand; that is a half note; that gets two counts. An open circle with no stands is a whole note and that gets four counts and these are quarter notes. They have the filled in note and a stand. So, now that we know how to count it and what the different notes are, Im going to go ahead and play it for you. All right, now that we know how to play a little song on a clarinet, now I would like to talk to you about how to take care and select reeds.