Having your clarinet crack is a difficult, frustrating, and scary situation, but before you yell at your repair technician or demand your money back from the person who sold it to you, know that it’s not the end of the world. The good news is, once the crack is repaired, if repaired well, the tone of the clarinet may not be affected at all (in rare cases, it is improved!). The clarinet I had in my undergraduate degree cracked (before I used the process outlined above), and I was still able to play on it for several years, getting into several competitive summer festivals and grad schools.

Depending on where you are living, now is the season for cracking. Continue reading →