hi my name is Justin bruza from heissen music.com today we're going to learn how to assemble a clarinet let's start by learning how to open the case I know it sounds silly but every year I watch an instrument tumbled to the floor when a student opens the case upside down the latches should be facing you when you open the case and generally there's a brand logo on top of the case so you know that the case is upright always open the case slowly in the event the case is upside-down you'll have the opportunity to catch it before the parts fall to the floor let's start by identifying all the parts of a clarinet starting from top to bottom we will begin with the mouthpiece assembly the mouthpiece assembly is comprised of four pieces the mouthpiece itself the reed the ligature which holds the reeds the mouthpiece and the mouthpiece cap next we have the barrel then we have the upper joint which the smaller of the two large pieces the lower joint attaches to the upper joint and finally the last piece of the instrument is called the bell there is no right or wrong order in which to assemble a clarinet however for my years as an educator I found what I believe is the best way before we begin we need to moisten the reed tip place the tip of the reed in your mouth and careful as the reed is fragile keep the reed in your mouth as we move on to the next step never attempt to assemble a new clarinet without using cork grease when assembling the pieces use a slight twisting motion back and forth never force the pieces together and never push against a surface like your leg or table when assembling the parts I always start by twisting the mouthpiece onto the barrel one side of the barrel is much larger than the other and the mouthpiece will only fit properly on one side which is the smaller side the reason I do this is by attaching the mouthpiece to the barrel it gives you something to hold on to when assembling the rest of the mouthpiece it also lets you assemble the barrel and mouthpiece to the upper joint without the risk twisting the ligature or Reed off the mouthpiece the flat part of the reed sits on the flat face of the mouthpiece the tip of the reed should sit just a smidgen below the tip of the mouthpiece when looking at the face of the mouthpiece you should see only a sliver of the tip of the mouthpiece over the tip of the reed using my thumb to hold the reed in place I slide the ligature over the read and mouthpiece the screws of the ligature should face to the right once the ligature is in place again check the alignment of the reed on the mouthpiece it should be perfect and if it's not now is the time to make small adjustments to make sure it's perfect once you're comfortable with the alignment tighten the two screws to secure the reed in place we will now assemble the remaining parts of the clarinet from top to bottom twist the barrel with the mouthpiece onto the upper joint the reed should line up with the back of the upper joint which has just one hole next we will attach the lower joint to the upper joint however we need to be very careful when we do this there's a bridge key which is a mechanical linkage between the upper and lower joint improperly assembling these two pieces can cause significant damage to the instrument when assembling these two pieces it's important to press the middle hole of the upper joint this will cause the upper bridge key to lift allowing the lower bridge key to go underneath it the holes in the upper joint and the lower joint should be lined up and only a slight back-and-forth twisting motion should be used to put these two pieces together over twisting in either direction will cause keys from the lower and upper joints to collide with one another possibly bending the keys and damaging the instrument lastly the Bell should be twisted onto the bottom of the lower joint and your instrument is now fully assembled always protect your Reed by using the mouthpiece cap when you are not playing the instrument as always everything you've seen here today is available at heissen music comm you can find direct links to the products we use in the video description should you have any problems or need more help feel free to visit our blog or forum both accessible through our own page lastly thank you for watching our video today