The note you play is never the note you hear
A clarinet tunes on its long C — written C5, just above the break — and on a standard B♭ clarinet that comes out as concert B♭4, 466.16 Hz. That gap between what you finger and what the room hears is the whole difficulty of tuning one: the dial above names the pitch in the air, never the note on your part.
So the first thing to establish is not how far to pull the barrel but which clarinet you are holding. Pick it below and the conversion is already done — every tone is the concert pitch, with the written note that produces it in the label.
Pick your horn, then tap the highlighted row: that is your tuning note. If the room tunes to concert A instead of B♭, use the written B row above it.
Which clarinet are you holding?
The whole family shares one fingering system and one written range, so swapping horns changes the transposition, not what your fingers do. This is the table to keep if you play more than one:
| Clarinet | Sounds | Written C5 sounds | Band tuning note |
|---|---|---|---|
| B♭ soprano | a major 2nd lower | B♭4 · 466.16 Hz | written C5 |
| A | a minor 3rd lower | A4 · 440.00 Hz | written C♯5 |
| E♭ (piccolo) | a minor 3rd higher | E♭5 · 622.25 Hz | written G4 |
| E♭ alto | a major 6th lower | E♭4 · 311.13 Hz | written G4 |
| B♭ bass | a major 9th lower | B♭3 · 233.08 Hz | written C5 |
| E♭ contra-alto | an octave + major 6th lower | E♭3 · 155.56 Hz | written G4 |
| B♭ contrabass | two octaves + major 2nd lower | B♭2 · 116.54 Hz | written C5 |
An A clarinet is not a transposed B♭ — it is a separate instrument with its own barrel setting, and many Mozart, Brahms and Schumann parts are written for it because it lands the key signature in easier fingerings. A bass clarinet reads in treble clef exactly like a soprano and is fingered the same way; only the pitch moves.
The routine
- Warm the instrument through first. A cold clarinet plays flat — pitch follows the temperature of the air column, not the wood around it — so play for several minutes before trusting any reading.
- Play your tuning note, mezzo-forte. The highlighted row above. Sharp, pull the barrel out; flat, push it in, a millimetre or two at a time.
- Cross the break and check again. Play the chalumeau low E, then the same fingering with the register key — a twelfth up, not an octave. If the two registers disagree with each other rather than moving together, use the middle joint rather than pulling the barrel further.
- Check the throat tones on their own. Written G4 through B♭4 sit on small, high tone holes and are thin and frequently flat whatever the barrel is doing.
- Finish by playing, not holding notes. A long tone tells you where the instrument sits at rest; a phrase tells you where your own voicing pulls it, which is the correction that matters in performance.
The barrel is the only tuning slide — everything else is you
Pulling the barrel out lengthens the tube and flattens the instrument; pushing in sharpens it. It doesn’t act evenly: sitting at the very top of the tube, it changes the clarion and altissimo registers more than the chalumeau. The middle joint, where the upper and lower sections meet, is the finer and more even correction — the one to reach for when the barrel has fixed the overall pitch but left the registers arguing.
Past that, pitch is reed, air and voicing— raising or lowering the back of the tongue, roughly an “ee” versus an “aw” vowel, with no change in lip pressure at all. A clarinettist can bend a note tens of cents that way without moving anything on the outside of the instrument, which is why the dial is the right tool for setting the barrel and the wrong one for judging a sustained chord tone. Our guide to cents covers where the two answers part company.
Make the dial read your written note instead
Everything above names the concert pitch actually in the air, which is what a tuner is for and what the rest of the ensemble hears. But it is not what is printed on your part: a B♭ B♭ clarinet sounds a major second lower than it reads, so written C comes out as concert B♭.
This tuner can close that gap for you. The Transposition setting adds the interval back before the note is named, so the dial reports the note you are reading rather than the note you are sounding — the one thing a guitar tuner has no reason to do, and the reason to keep this page rather than the first tuner in the results.
Open this tuner set to B♭ → — or reach it yourself from the gear icon on the dial, under Transposition. The choice is remembered on this device and it travels in the link, so a section leader can send that URL to a stand full of B♭ clarinets and everyone arrives set the same way.
Switch it back to C — Concert pitch whenever you need to check yourself against the room, tune to a piano, or find out what a written note is actually sounding.
Frequently asked questions
What note does a clarinet tune to?
Written C5 — the “long C” just above the break — which on a standard B♭ clarinet sounds concert B♭4, 466.16 Hz. That is the note a concert band tunes to. In an orchestra, which tunes to concert A4 (440.00 Hz), a B♭ clarinet plays written B4 instead, and an A clarinet plays its own written C5. Play it on a warmed-up instrument and correct any offset at the barrel joint before you touch anything else.
Why doesn't the note this tuner names match what's printed on my part?
Because a B♭ clarinet is a transposing instrument — it sounds a major second lower than what you read. Written C comes out as concert B♭; written D comes out as concert C. This tuner always names the concert pitch actually in the air, never the written name, which is exactly why clarinetists learn to tune against a concert reference rather than trusting the note name on the page. Pick your horn in the reference tones above and the conversion is already done.
Does this work for bass clarinet, E♭ clarinet or A clarinet?
Yes — the tuner only ever listens to the pitch actually coming out of the bell, so it works identically regardless of which clarinet produced it. What changes is the transposition. An E♭ (piccolo) clarinet sounds a minor third above written; an A clarinet a minor third below; an E♭ alto clarinet a major sixth below; a B♭ bass clarinet, read in treble clef exactly like the soprano, a major ninth — an octave and a step — below written.
My low notes read fine but everything above the break runs sharp. What do I adjust?
Pull gently at the barrel joint first — it corrects the upper registers more than the lower one, because the same length of added tubing is a bigger proportion of a shorter air column. If the barrel is already pulled and the two registers still disagree with each other rather than moving together, the middle joint is the second adjustment point, and it acts more evenly across both.
Should I tune to A=440 or to concert B♭?
Tune to whatever the room calls for, and set it in this tuner’s settings rather than trying to lip a consistent offset all night. Concert bands almost always tune to concert B♭ — the note a B♭ clarinet, trumpet or tenor sax all reach with a simple fingering — while orchestras tune to concert A, which for a clarinet means playing written B rather than written C.
Do I need to install an app?
No. The tuner runs on this page through your browser’s microphone — no install, no account, no ads, and the audio is analysed on your device and never sent anywhere. The reference tones work with no microphone at all if you would rather match a pitch by ear.