B♭ Clarinet

Altissimo C on the B♭ Clarinet

Written C7 — sounds concert B♭6. Tap the diagram to hear it.

C7
Concert B♭6
Written C7 on the treble staff

Altissimo C tops the written range on most clarinet charts: side G♯ key, the first finger of each hand and a little-finger key. Reliability depends on a responsive reed and a very high tongue position, and many published fingerings exist — keep the one your instrument likes.

About this note

Altissimo C tops the written range on most clarinet charts: side G♯ key, the first finger of each hand and a little-finger key. Reliability depends on a responsive reed and a very high tongue position, and many published fingerings exist — keep the one your instrument likes.

  • Primary fingering: Register key + Thumb hole + G♯ key + Left index (hole 1) + Right index (hole 4) + Right pinky F♯/C♯ key
  • Written pitch: C7 · Concert pitch: B♭6
  • Sounding frequency: 1864.66 Hz

Alternate fingerings for Altissimo C

  • A♭/E♭ key version: Register key + Thumb hole + Left index (hole 1) + Right index (hole 4) + Right pinky A♭/E♭ key. Try this when the standard fingering will not centre — altissimo C differs a lot between set-ups.

B♭ Clarinet fingering data last updated . Every diagram here, in the printable PDF and in the chart image comes from one dataset, so the paper and the screen cannot disagree.