Playing the clarinet is one of my favorite memories of High School

Each one has its own range and place in a band, and share their names with different singing voice levels - there is the alto, the soprano, and the bass clarinet, there are also variations within each of these classes.  I played the B flat soprano (which is sort of what I think of as your "normal" clarinet) from fifth grade through high school, and my daughter is now playing my old instrument in her high school marching band.  The alto clarinet looks like a clarinet/saxaphone hybrid, and sounds kind of like an oboe with a very high pitched tone.  The bass clarinet is very deep sounding like a bassoon.  The soprano is sort of in the middle, but has a very wide range that lets it play low notes as well as very high notes.

My best memory of playing my clarinet happened when I was in the High School band.  It was my Junior Year when we went down to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City for a symphonic band competition.  We were the very last band to perform on a Saturday night, and the legendary composer Aaron Copland was one of the judges.  It was just a coincidence, but that year our City Band Competition used a selection of Aaron Copland music for the All-City Band Competition (meaning all of the bands performed the song at the contest, as a way to compare the bands playing the same music).  

The main piece of our performance was an arrangement of a work by Gustav Holst called "The Planets"  It was a VERY complex piece of music for a high school band, and challenged our abilities to the limit.  We enjoyed the energy of the piece, and there many times that the band director would have to reign us in because we would speed up with the energy of the music.

So we performed in front of Aaron Copland at this contest, as the very last band.  After our performance, we headed out to our buses in the parking lot to put away our instruments and change out of our uniforms and get read for the 4 hours bus ride back to Lincoln, Nebraska.  Our band director came to each bus to tell us what a good job we had done, and how proud he was.  He was speaking to my bus, when there was a voice calling to him from outside the bus.  It was Mr. Copland.  He came down to the parking lot, to tell our director personally how pleased he was to have heard our performance that night, that he had heard professional bands not perform as well as we did, and that he was thrilled to tell us that we had earned perfect marks and won the Grand Champions trophy.  Needless to say, we were shocked and thrilled (imagine lots of high school students screaming, jumping up and down, etc, in a school bus).  I did the same, but then watched as this little old man walked away from the bus.  We knew of him as a composer, and had enjoyed playing his music, but to get to see him in person was such a thrill.  This was in 1987.  He passed away just 3 years later.  To have had the opportunity to perform before someone like Aaron Copland was the highlight of my life as a clarinettist.  I have other good memories of being in the marching band and the pep band at major sporting achievements like winning state championships in Girls Basketball twice - but musically, that was the highlight.

When I went on to college, there wasn't time to continue my music, so my clarinet was put away, brought out on occassion for fun, but not really played again until my daughter was getting ready for fifth grade.  I took it into the shop for a good cleaning, repair job, replacement of the pads and cork, and anything that needed to be done for her to start playing it.  She received compliments right away about the incredible tone of her instrument.  It has aged very well.  Now she's following my footsteps in the marching band.  Who knows, perhaps she'll have a chance to play in front a famous composer before her musical time has ended.