Paws (bass clarinet solo), by David Bennett Thomas

I sell this score (very affordably) as a PDF. If you would like to perform it, please contact me through my website: www.davidbthoma...
The piece was composed for a benefit concert for a musician friend who lost her home in a fire during the London riots. All of her custom-built instruments and the hundreds of scores dedicated to her were destroyed. But more tragically, she also lost her two beloved cats. The title “Paws” also can mean “Pause,” as in a moment of pause and remembrance.
Here is a playlist of my clarinet pieces: • Music for clarinets, b...
And this playlist is a mix of all of my instrumental pieces: • Instrumental music- ch...
My monodies for solo wind instruments: • Unaccompanied pieces f...

[@MrTorterra111]

This is amazing. These techniques are ridiculous on a regular clarinet let alone a bass.

[@dalhan2811]

MrTorterra111 I know my instrument is great :) That was a joke btw I ain’t egotistical

[@Swuidward_]

Awesome performance! Till' now, I didn't know bass clarinet could go that high

[@zlwigle6423]

Well I'm a bass clarinet player and it takes practice a lot of practice to get that high

[@grima5788]

@@zlwigle6423 It only takes a few months of decent practice to be able to play up to double altissimo E and beyond, actually. Compared to learning proper embouchure, it took much less time, but part of that is probably how easy it is to make the partials come out on bass.

[@tristanwright6223]

Grima I managed to overblow to a sounding C6 the other day, and hit the partial above it, but didnt have a tuner out to find the note sadly

[@grima5788]

@@tristanwright6223 C6 is pretty fun. The fingering I usually use to consistently hit that is our usual high Bb, which in our key, but using the relative pitch would be Bb 5. The altissimo is really fun to play around with. For me, I found all the fingerings that worked for me through experimentation. There is a guy though if you want to do some real fun altissimo work though. His name is Jason Alder, and he has a website where he has a bass clarinet fingering chart with quarter tones going all the way up to C#7. Give him a look, the website is jasonalder. com. I have the space there because if I recall correctly, KZbin doesn't like links.

[@GaryHB57]

Very impressive! The piece is a lesson in "What can a bass clarinet do?" Great piece and great performance.

[@odddity]

I miss playing the clarinet...I was such a band nerd 13 years ago and now I just feel like how the f**k was I able to read music, much less play an instrument. Kudos to all to whomever stuck with practicing music and playing instruments.

[@IHasAToaster]

I played bass clarinet for 3 years when I was younger. and I miss it so much, such a beautiful sound.

[@user-zl2ih7tb5w]

You should buy one!

[@rosellaaj3709]

This is ridiculously amazing .0. I play the bass clarinet and I know that it would take decades for me to get THIS good ^ o ^ I love it even more that is in dedication of cats :')

[@jordanflores6248]

Hi, bassoon player here. In my band, I sit next to the bass clarinet, and oml I never knew it could go that high.

[@salempresley8897]

the guy who is playing this Is insaneee those overtones if thats what there even called holy

[@OfficialDanieleGottardo]

beautiful!

[@efratgerlich8382]

Beautiful piece/ Touched my heart. Well done!

[@RudiSchmitt]

Great composition and great performance. Thanks for sharing with score!

[@89korgos]

Great Piece David!

[@all4aching]

Beautiful.

[@williamhughes6856]

coooollllll!! my mind is blown! 😀😀😀

[@moniqueatusaataei]

I love this piece!

[@andantemusic02]

2:48 isn't that the upbeat to the Sacrificial Dance from the Rite of Spring?

[@jedidiahtan4171]

its missing a couple notes, and ends on a different note. Still, very similar

[@phoebegunawan1727]

This passed the vibe check

[@LiamFlahertyCounterpoint]

1:44 nice rhapsody in blue

[@-cpt-6031]

I have never heard of this peace, but it is well made

[@zenarobinson3851]

love the piece. but what an awful way to lose your cats. poor babies.

[@daphneraven9439]

Thank you very much; this performance is a lesson in potential...I can hardly wait to see what else you can make this bass clarinet do!!

[@u47tube]

Love it, thank you.

[@sxshigaming4342]

I play the B-flat clarinet But my band directors letting me switch the bass clarinet

[@bjornskristensen]

Nice piece! Very well played! Thanks!

[@galaxyclarinet2560]

Tried to play this on my little clarinet.

[@jonathanbaldwin1398]

The vibrato... was that intended? I play sax. When I learned clarinet I had to kill that habit. Lol

[@art77cl]

Brano stupendo e un grandissimo esecutore!

[@domenicomamonesax8898]

Very nice piece! Sorry for Carla and Mark :(

[@snowcarriagechengcheng-hun3454]

Thanks for uploading!

[@heybucko182]

You’re my inspiration to practice😂❤️

[@chunckenugget7015]

Those high notes! Dear god

[@-cpt-6031]

Ikr, I can hardly play above the High D

[@cristy1827]

Amazing!

[@martin8uq]

I really enjoyed this piece; captivating, playful, feline. thank you! ...Geez sounds like a eBay review - I apologise...

[@JenniferPolk99]

Where can I find this piece of music? I really want to play this with my bass clarinet.

[@DavidBennettThomas]

Hi, you can get the score directly from me.....my site is www.davidbthomas.com. Thanks for asking!

[@DavidBennettThomas]

Hi Jennifer, please send me an email through my site to order this score. Thanks for asking!

[@r5t6y12]

Dear David Bennet Thomas, I used to play bass clarinet in high school for 3 years way back in the early 1980s (though I also played soprano clarinet for 15 years between the ages of 12 - 27). I have never before seen the symbols @ 3:47, 4:14, or 4:36. I used to practice overtones on tenor saxophone a little bit in high school but never saw any notations for them in any music that my teachers threw in front of my face. How do you finger and embouchure these 3 instances above..............?????

[@James.D.B.]

@@r5t6y12 I would like the answer to this as well, I've never seen anything like that, or the three lines that connected the half or whole notes in some parts

[@Roman-us2fp]

r5t6y12 For the first overtone it’s the register key and the half hole fingering of throat tone e. Possibly without the half hole. The rest I don’t know.

[@cyyxc]

Very nice!

[@sergio_slzar]

Nice work. I enjoyed it

[@baguettefrench7553]

This reminds me of On Pointe by Anna Danilova

[@pranavbatra3161]

How the heck did you gliss!!??

[@LowReedExpert1]

+Pranav Batra In that upper register its pretty simple to gliss as an exaggerated bend, the real question is how those shakes are done with squeaking

[@stammer6330]

What's the story about the cats?

[@EmilianoManna]

A-ma-zing work!

[@fallen0lily]

MUST PLAY THIS!! :D

[@romanczura4146]

@David Bennet Thomas Cool piece and stunning performacne. Those harmonics were beautiful! Dmitri and Pierre... any chance Your cats were named after some fellow composers? :D

[@00DirectorsCut00]

Monster !

[@bluetiger2947]

Ive played the bass clarinet for 1 year and hope someday i can play music as fast as that and as high of notes as that good job!

[@MrSteven2945]

Blue Tiger Is it a very difficult instrument to. Learn to thus far?

[@littlewishy6432]

You'll also need a professional bass clarinet to get the low notes

[@ephraimschanneldaddontuse445]

Yeah the bass clarinet here is likely either an extended bass or an Eb contralto

[@ephraimschanneldaddontuse445]

The reason I say that is because the regular Bb bass clarinet can only go down to Eb but these notes are as low as E natural

[@zlwigle6423]

I play bass clarinet and I love this solo but I can't play that high range because I need more practice on the upper register whatever that word is

[@carmelofarruggio59]

eccellente esecuzione.dove posso trovare lo spartito?

[@RanBlakePiano]

Fine

[@butterman1653]

How much is it to buy this piece and where can I buy it?

[@DavidBennettThomas]

Thanks Butterman! I sell scores through my site....please contact me through my site and I'll set you up: www.davidbthomas.com

[@PiersHudsonComposer]

David, you inspired me to write my own bass clarinet piece (plus electronics): kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJSkc5qLmJVmlbM Especially regarding your approach to rhythm and register; it's amazing how high the instrument can go!

[@patricksloan6076]

Did you drop a couple of 32s in the final line? Is that a mistake in the score or a different interpretation?

[@sebastianzaczek]

Patrick Sloan he didn't drop any notes there

[@tommasocecchetti5091]

Where i can find this part?

[@icymationsmemesandspeedpai4950]

I tried to play this on my little clarinet, but i couldn't playthe sixteenth note bits.

[@collinthomas7901]

1:45 How did he do a smear on bass clarinet? I thought that wasn’t possible cuz there aren’t any holes

[@jacobjackson8155]

Staggering embouchure control and a lot of unorthodox fingering practice.

[@afterstanchinsky]

Hello. How is the first multiphonic after 3:35 (the one notated from E up to the high D) achieved? Thanks.

[@kirasundberg9643]

david

[@botanicalabe]

Which I can play this good. Only been playing for 2 years though

[@tyswift9128]

Ive been playing bass for upwards of 8 years now,and listen man, hard work beats talent any day, so just practice, build good habits, take advice, don't overwork yourself,try new things

[@Jibaritosinaz]

0:44

[@leighannebousfield860]

How did you play so high????? I can only go as far as the side key and the octave key. Unless its the secondary octave? Teach me your ways :3

[@jarofpickles3456]

+Chloe B I'm about 9 months late with this reply XD but anyways it is another octave called the altissimo range and its a bit complicated like with the clarion register you have your first part using the octave key up to the two ledger line c but after that its the altissimo range of which you have weird fingerings like only the thumb key down and the index and the middle finger key down with a combination of other fingerings but the range is another high c above the two ledger line one! I think that's what the "harmonic fingerings" mean on the fingering chart. Hope this helped!

[@leighannebousfield860]

+Andrew Chavez wow that's gotta be pretty hard. I have improved quite a bit because of my cadet music but never that high

[@jarofpickles3456]

+Chloe B it kinda is but I guess in a way its kinda like controlled squeaking. if you actually look on Google images for bass clarinet fingering charts you'll find that there are fingerings for the very high c which transposed down correctly are concert Bb5 which is pretty high I'd say. although since I'm switching to bassoon soon bassoons go a bit higher I think up to about E5 to even C6 which is pretty hard to get out from what I've heard but still possible.

[@leighannebousfield860]

+Andrew Chavez yikes! I'm excited to learn though!

[@jarofpickles3456]

+Chloe B haha awesome! I'm pretty excited to learn bassoon because normally in band our Bass clarinets are student models so none are low C sadly but the bassoon has the low note so I'm pretty happy.

[@bramboozled2845]

I can’t even get that high on my regular Clarinet 😳

[@jamesha175]

do yalls have any idea how much a bass clarinet costs?

[@Tei_022]

jamesha175 Lmao, like 6k to 9k

[@Fight_me_in_the_dark]

My professional horn I'm borrowing is 10k used

[@jacobjackson8155]

@@Fight_me_in_the_dark That's nothing - the cheapest professional Buffet horn (my preferred brand, Selmer doesn't get much cheaper either) starts at 12k and goes up to about 15k new.

[@jebslept8515]

1:44 epic

[@ゆう-f4f8u]

it's so difficult ^^;

[@anchan4540]

I play b flat clarinet and tried this song on it to only realize I can’t go that low lol

[@lopsidedjelly8970]

my god…

[@mikethecubinator]

How does one play two notes at once?!

[@Kudukevin1]

Multiphonics

[@Idkprobablyyeet]

+Mike B Most of the time it means to pick one. If you are in an ensemble the conductor normally tells you which one to play. OR Multiphonics

[@LowReedExpert1]

+Kudukevin1 This has some crazy multiphonics, Mid E to high D without the rest of the notes distorting?! I've got to woodshed MPh again

[@Kudukevin1]

+LowReedExpert1 yea haha, its crazy

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

Sorry about your kitties...

[@WilfriedBerk]

Purrdendosi ...

[@kirasundberg9643]

biss biggleondo

[@Royboy119]

Also, always you must write the bass clarinet in bass clef more importantly above all!

[@jacobjackson8155]

Unless you're time traveling from the 1910s then you're with the minority - all modern bass clarinet music is written in treble clef because they're still clarinets in the clarinet family.