TL;DR: A clarinet glissando is a continuous slide in pitch rather than a series of separate notes. The famous version opens Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. It is mostly a voicing skill, not a finger trick: you bend the pitch with the shape of your tongue and throat while you slowly slide your fingers off the tone holes. Most players play a quick scale up through the break and save the true smear for the clarion register, where the instrument is easiest to bend. Practice pitch bends on single notes first, then add the fingers. A setup with a bit of flexibility in the tip opening and reed makes the work easier, but no mouthpiece will do it for you.
Few sounds in music are as instantly recognizable as the clarinet’s opening wail in Rhapsody in Blue. It starts with a low trill, climbs, and then slides upward like a voice, landing on a high note that sounds more like a laugh than a pitch. Clarinetists who hear it for the first time usually ask one question: how do you do that?
The good news is that the clarinet glissando is learnable. It combines air support, voicing, and patient finger work, and those same skills improve your everyday tone, intonation, and altissimo. This guide explains how the glissando works, gives you a step-by-step practice plan, and covers how your mouthpiece and reed choices affect it.
Table of Contents
- What is a clarinet glissando?
- The Rhapsody in Blue story
- How the glissando actually works
- Glissando vs portamento vs pitch bend
- Step by step: how to play a clarinet glissando
- Common problems and fixes
- How your mouthpiece and reed affect the glissando
- Key Takeaways
- FAQ
- Find a setup that bends with you
What is a clarinet glissando?
A glissando is a slide from one pitch to another. On a piano or harp, a glissando is a fast sweep across keys or strings, so you still hear individual notes. On instruments that can change pitch continuously, such as the trombone, violin, voice, and clarinet, a glissando can be truly smooth, with no steps at all.
The clarinet resists this. Its tone holes are designed to produce fixed, stable pitches, especially in the low register. A clarinet glissando works because the player takes over some of the pitch control from the instrument, which is why it depends so much on what happens inside your mouth.
Clarinetists use glissandos in jazz, klezmer, show music, and contemporary writing. Players in our list of jazz clarinetists worth knowing use smaller bends and scoops constantly as part of their phrasing.
The Rhapsody in Blue story
Rhapsody in Blue premiered on February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Hall in New York, at Paul Whiteman’s concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music.” Gershwin, then 25, played the piano part himself, and Ferde Grofé orchestrated the piece for Whiteman’s band.
Gershwin’s score opened with a trill followed by a rising scale. During rehearsals, Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman played the top of that run as a slide instead of separate notes, reportedly as a joke. Gershwin liked it and kept it. More than a century later, conductors and audiences expect it.
The passage covers about two and a half octaves from the opening low trill to the final high note. Most players do not slide through all of it. They play the lower part as a fast scale and save the real glissando for the top portion, where the clarinet is far more willing to bend. If you are building a repertoire list, the opening also appears in our guide to iconic clarinet solos.
How the glissando actually works
Acousticians at the University of New South Wales studied exactly this question. In research led by Chen Jer Ming with John Smith and Joe Wolfe, published in 2009 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, they measured what expert players do in their vocal tracts while playing the Rhapsody opening.
Their finding, in plain language: normally the clarinet’s own air column controls the reed and sets the pitch. In the upper register, the instrument’s resonances are weaker, and a skilled player can tune a strong resonance in the mouth and throat that “wins” control of the reed. The player then moves that resonance smoothly while gradually uncovering the tone holes. The smoothest part of the glissando they measured was the final octave, from the clarion C up to the high C (written pitch).
That explains three things clarinetists notice:
- The low register barely bends. With most tone holes closed, the instrument’s resonance is strong and it overrules your voicing.
- The upper clarion and altissimo bend much more easily. The instrument’s grip on the pitch is weaker, so your vocal tract can take over.
- Fingers alone sound lumpy. Sliding fingers off the holes without voicing gives you a series of wobbly half-notes, not a smooth slide.
If you have worked on altissimo register control, you have already developed some of this voicing awareness. The glissando takes it one step further: instead of holding the tongue position steady for a note, you move it on purpose.
Glissando vs portamento vs pitch bend
These terms overlap, and composers and teachers use them loosely. Here is how they are generally used by wind players:
| Technique | What it sounds like | Typical range | Main tool | Where you hear it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glissando (smear) | Continuous slide covering a wide interval | Several notes up to an octave or more | Voicing plus sliding fingers | Rhapsody in Blue, jazz, show music, contemporary scores |
| Portamento | Expressive connection between two notes, sliding briefly through the gap | Usually a small to moderate interval | Voicing, light finger movement | Romantic-style phrasing, klezmer, vocal-style melody |
| Pitch bend / scoop | Starts below the note and rises into it, or falls off the end | Often a semitone or so | Voicing and jaw, fingers usually fixed | Jazz, blues, klezmer ornaments |
For most players, the pitch bend is the foundation. If you can bend a single note down and bring it back in tune, you have the core skill. The glissando is many pitch bends linked together while your fingers move.
Step by step: how to play a clarinet glissando
Work through these steps over several days or weeks. Rushing to the full Rhapsody opening is the most common reason students give up.
Step 1: Build steady air support
A glissando makes the clarinet work less efficiently, so the reed needs consistent, fast air to keep vibrating while the pitch is between notes. Start with long tones in the clarion register and focus on a steady, supported airstream. Our guide to optimizing clarinet airflow covers the fundamentals.
Step 2: Bend single notes down
Play an upper clarion note such as the C or D above the staff. Without moving your fingers, lower the back of your tongue and open your throat as if saying “aww” or “oh,” and let the pitch sag. Keep the air going. Then return the tongue to its normal position and bring the note back up to pitch. Use a tuner; aim for a quarter tone at first, then a half step.
Keep your embouchure stable while you do this. Biting or dropping the jaw will change the pitch too, but it also changes the tone and makes the glissando hard to control. If you need a refresher on what should and should not move, read what embouchure is and why it matters.
Step 3: Add a little venting
Next, bend the same note down, then slowly slide one finger partway off its tone hole while you bring the pitch back up. Partially opened holes make the note easier to bend, which is part of why the glissando works at all.
Step 4: Slide short intervals
Now try a third or fourth in the upper register: for example, from clarion G up to C. Finger the lower note, bend it slightly flat, and then roll your fingers off the tone holes one at a time from the bottom of the instrument upward, letting the tongue rise as the fingers move. The fingers should slide off the holes, not lift straight up. Think of the fingers as following the pitch, not leading it.
Step 5: Extend to the octave
Once a fourth is smooth, stretch the slide to a full octave from clarion C to high C. This is the range the UNSW study found players gliss through most smoothly, and it is the part of the Rhapsody opening that audiences hear as the smear.
Step 6: Connect the run
Finally, put the scale and the glissando together. Play the lower part of the passage as a clean, quick run, crossing the break with your fingers rather than trying to slide through it. Our guide to crossing the break on clarinet helps here. Then hand off to the glissando in the upper register and land the top note in tune.
Pro Tip: Practice the glissando backward too. Start on the top note and slide down to the lower note. Falling is easier for most players, and it teaches your tongue the path it needs to travel on the way up.
Common problems and fixes
| Problem | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| The slide sounds like a lumpy chromatic scale | Fingers doing all the work, voicing static | Go back to single-note bends; slide fingers more slowly |
| The note cracks or jumps to another register | Air support dropping, tongue moving too suddenly | Keep the air faster and steadier; move the tongue gradually |
| Squeaks during the slide | Partially covered holes leaking unpredictably, or biting | Relax the jaw; check your squeak troubleshooting steps |
| Top note is flat or thin | Tongue stays low after the slide | Return to your normal high voicing as you land the note |
| Cannot bend more than a few cents | Very resistant setup, or jaw doing the bending | Practice voicing on a softer reed; check your tip opening and reed match |
How your mouthpiece and reed affect the glissando
Equipment is not the main ingredient, but it changes how much resistance you feel. The glissando asks the reed to vibrate at pitches the instrument would rather not play, so flexibility matters.
As a general tendency, a more open tip opening paired with a suitably softer reed lets the pitch move more freely, which makes bends and glissandos easier but also makes everyday intonation and tone center less automatic. A more closed tip paired with a firmer reed gives a stable, centered sound and a strong sense of “slot” for each note, which is wonderful for orchestral playing but can make large bends feel like pushing against a wall. Medium setups sit in between. Our tip opening guide explains these trade-offs in detail.
The reed has to match the mouthpiece. A reed that is too hard for your tip opening makes bending tiring and fuzzy; a reed that is too soft collapses when you push air through the slide and goes flat on the top note. The clarinet reed strength chart shows how strengths compare across brands and how to adjust when you change mouthpieces.
| Setup tendency | Glissando and bends | Everyday trade-off | Often suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed tip, firmer reed | Harder to bend; very stable slots | Excellent center and control | Orchestral and chamber players |
| Medium tip, medium reed | Bends with moderate effort | All-around balance | Most students, band and versatile players |
| Open tip, softer reed | Bends readily; big flexibility | Pitch and tone need more control | Jazz, show, and doubling players |
Do not change your whole setup for one passage. If you play Rhapsody in Blue once a year, build the voicing skill. If you play jazz or show music weekly and fight your equipment on every bend, try something more flexible.
Pro Tip: When you test mouthpieces, include a glissando and a few pitch bends in your trial routine alongside long tones and articulation. How a mouthpiece responds when you push it off the center of the note tells you a lot about its flexibility. Our guide on how to test mouthpieces at home lays out a full routine.
Key Takeaways
| Point | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| The glissando is mostly voicing | Train tongue and throat position before worrying about fingers |
| The upper register bends best | Play the low part as a run; slide in the clarion register |
| Fingers slide, not lift | Roll fingers off tone holes slowly, from the bottom up |
| Air support is constant | Faster, steadier air keeps the reed vibrating between notes |
| Start with single-note bends | A half step of controlled bend is the foundation |
| Equipment shifts the effort | Open tips and softer reeds bend more easily; closed tips are more stable |
FAQ
Is the Rhapsody in Blue glissando written in the music?
Gershwin’s original score had a trill and a rising scale. The glissando came from clarinetist Ross Gorman in rehearsal, and Gershwin kept it. Today it is expected in virtually every performance.
How long does it take to learn a clarinet glissando?
It varies widely, from a few weeks for players with strong altissimo voicing to several months for younger students. Short, regular practice on pitch bends works better than long sessions on the full passage.
Do I need a special mouthpiece to play a glissando?
No. Professionals play the Rhapsody opening on standard classical setups. A more flexible tip opening and reed can make bending easier, but voicing and air are what actually produce the slide.
Why does my glissando go flat at the top?
Usually the tongue stays in the low, bending position after the slide ends. As you arrive on the top note, return to your normal high-register voicing and keep the air moving. A reed that is too soft for your mouthpiece can also cause a flat, thin top note.
Find a setup that bends with you
If your current setup fights every bend, or you want to know whether a different tip opening would make jazz and show playing easier without losing your classical center, the simplest answer is to try a few options side by side on your own instrument. Gleichweit mouthpieces come from the Viennese mouthpiece tradition, and the Mouthpiece Test Boxes let you compare several models at home for 7 days for a $40 test fee.
- Closed-Tip Mouthpiece Test Box (1.04–1.20 mm): for players who want maximum center and control.
- Medium-Tip Mouthpiece Test Box (1.17–1.24 mm): an all-around balance of stability and flexibility.
- Open-Tip Mouthpiece Test Box (1.27–1.40 mm): more freedom for bends, scoops, and glissandos.
- Variety Mouthpiece Test Box (1.16–1.40 mm): a cross-section of the range if you are not sure where you belong.
Add a glissando to your trial routine, along with long tones, articulation, and the music you actually play. The right mouthpiece will not play the Rhapsody for you, but it should let your voicing do its job, and that is when the smear starts to sound like singing.