Christopher Kerr

I decided I want to learn the clarinet recently. I’ve wanted to learn a woodwind for a while now, and it had just started to feel like a good fit. After getting a $100 clarinet off of an internet marketplace that I shall not name, I’m going to record my experience learning it here. This will likely be a bit sporadic, but I’ll put in what I did each day when I remember. This is being updated live every day, so check back every once in a while!

DAY 1 – May 3, 2025. Drove to Alhambra today to pick up the instrument. It was never played and still in the plastic, and came with a pretty thorough student kit, with stuff like extra reeds and a cleaning cloth. After making the purchase, I drove to a nearby park and did what anyone does when picking up a new skill – I looked up a YouTube tutorial. I found this one, and while I was able to make consistent duck sounds with the reed, I only got a smattering of real solid notes on the actual instrument. Mostly, I made some downright offensive squeaking sounds in a public place, but I had a blast doing it.

DAY 2 – May 4, 2025. Got in a little practice session after work today, which I did in the bathroom of my apartment in hopes of not disturbing my neighbors as much. I focused primarily on getting a decent sound and getting used to initiating notes, so a lot of the time I would just play the longest note I could while not doing anything with my fingers. I think it helped, and it all felt a lot more consistent by the end. I can also play a grand total of 5 notes now! The inside of my bottom lip hurts from being pressed against my teeth.

DAY 3 – May 6, 2025. Missed yesterday because of work and life. Still practicing in the bathroom because I make these loud squeaking sounds pretty often, but it’s happening less and less! Shared a video of me playing Mary Had a Little Lamb to my Instagram story to show off my newfound prowess.

DAY 4 – May 7, 2025. Still focusing pretty hard on a steady, consistent sound by playing long notes and avoiding squeaking. I also started adding in lower notes today. Since you cover more holes on the clarinet to play lower, it’s extra challenging to maintain a good sound, but I felt very happy with my progress! For now, I’m approaching practicing mostly by noodling around and experimenting with the instrument, rather than trying to learn anything specific. I’m having fun!

Day 5 – May 9, 2025. I can play a whole major scale now! F major to be specific. This feels like a nice milestone, as it opens up a bunch of real music I can play now. My low range is still pretty inconsistent, but that’s getting better too. I also started learning a theme from a pretty famous movie, but I won’t say which until I’m ready to share. Still learning a lot from the YouTube channel “Dr. Selfridge Music,” so shoutout to that guy!

Day 6 – June 23, 2025. Ok, ya got me. I went nearly 2 months without practicing at all. Dang, I didn’t actually realize it had been that long until I had to type out the date. To make a long story short, life just got crazy for a bit. I had work, and a short film project taking up my time at the end of May. I did some awesome but exhausting traveling, had to work a ton at the day job to make up for being out of town, and had to deal with some general burnout. Today was sort of my first real day being back at the composer’s desk, and I found time in the afternoon for a short practice session. I was excited to find that I hadn’t lost too much of my technique, and my breath support and embouchure were still solid. My long tones sounded pretty good actually, other than some weird overtones that I’m not entirely sure are supposed to be there. I had forgotten a lot of my fingering, but it still felt pretty natural actually. It was a short session, but I’m glad to be back.

Day 7 – July 12, 2025. So it turns out I wasn’t quite back in the saddle. Burnout is a weird beast, and I struggled with it for a while this time. I think I underestimated just how much I needed to rest when it came to music, and that I needed to let the feeling return to normal in its own time. I’m grateful to have started playing in the Los Angeles Contemporary Orchestra recently, however, as I never fell out of my piano practice routine, and that at least kept things moving forward. I have some ideas of a future project where I’d really like to play clarinet, so I’m going to do my best to do short, consistent practice sessions going forward!

Day 8 – July 13, 2025. Focusing on short sessions is a good thing for me. I think it’s better to be consistent than to make every session long and intense, and it’s easier for me to commit to it if I’m “only going to play for 5 minutes.” I’ve developed a good routine of starting with long tones, spending some time playing up and down an F major scale, and then working a little bit on a piece I’m learning (it’s a famous one, and I’ll reveal it when I’m a bit farther along!). Feeling good!

Day 9 – July 15, 2025. Had to work yesterday, so I didn’t get any practice in. Today I did my normal routine of long tones, scale(s) and some actual phrasing today. I discovered something, though – I have trouble playing loudly. When I do, it often feels like I am coming up against a kind of pressure, like I’m passing more air through my mouth, but it has nowhere to go. I experimented with this a fair amount, and I feel like it got a bit better, but I want to keep working on it. The actual angle at which I hold the instrument definitely has something to do with it though. I guess I’ll have to focus on my posture too!