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How Much Does a Clarinet Cost?

A new student clarinet runs about $500 to $700 and renting costs about $25 to $40 a month, and here's what no store leads with: a good beginner clarinet is enough through middle school and most of high school, so upgrade the mouthpiece, not the instrument.

Gus Harmon · Updated July 8, 2026 · how I decide

If you buy through my links the site earns a little. It's never why I pick things.

A new student clarinet runs about $500 to $700. Renting runs about $25 to $40 a month. And here's the quiet good news no store leads with: a quality beginner clarinet is enough through middle school and most of high school. When the time comes, upgrade the mouthpiece (about $50 to $250), not the instrument.

clarinet upgrades that matter: mouthpiece and reeds vs a new instrument

My daughter played clarinet

All the way through school. I paid these exact bills, in this exact order, and I got one of them wrong.

Her brother quit trombone inside a year, so I’ve been both parents in this story: the one whose money bought years of music, and the one whose money bought a case in a closet. You cannot tell which one you are in September.

The numbers

What it is	What it costs	What you should know
Rental	$25 to $40 a month	Cheapest of the common band instruments to rent
New student clarinet	$500 to $700	Yamaha, Buffet B12, Selmer, Vito. All fine
Buy-once option	About $960	A Ridenour Lyrique, which lasts through high school
Reeds	$25 to $30 a box	Forever. They're consumable and kids destroy them

If you buy through my links the site earns a little coffee money. Doesn’t change the price, doesn’t change my answer.

The upgrade that isn’t

Here’s the part I want you to read twice, because it’s worth several hundred dollars and nobody at a store will say it.

A mom asked when she should upgrade her eleven-year-old’s clarinet. Two years in, first chair, and, in her words, not a prodigy or anything. She assumed there was a ladder and she was supposed to be climbing it.

The clarinet players answered: there’s no reason to buy an intermediate clarinet, ever.

At the student level, the player is the limit, not the instrument. People sit in top high school bands playing the clarinet they were handed in sixth grade. The beginner clarinet is, for most kids, the last clarinet they ever need. That sentence costs music stores real money, which is exactly why you've never heard it from one.

What actually changes the sound

If you want your kid to sound better, spend in this order.

The mouthpiece first, $50 to $250. It’s the single biggest change you can buy, and it moves with them to any instrument they ever play.

Then real reeds, a proper box, $25 to $30, instead of whatever’s cheapest.

Then the barrel, the short joint below the mouthpiece, if you’re still curious.

The body of the clarinet, the expensive part, matters least of the four. Huge difference, small money, and it’s the opposite of how the showroom is laid out.

Reeds, the cost nobody mentions

Beginners chew through reeds. They chip, they crack, they get left in the case wet and go bad.

They also come in strengths, which parents don’t know is a thing. A beginner starts around 2.0, moves to 2.5, and maybe to 3.0 later. Harder is not better.

The number on a reed box is a stiffness rating, not a quality grade. A 2.0 reed is a thinner, more flexible piece of cane than a 3.0, so it takes less air pressure and less lip control to make it vibrate. Give a sixth grader a 3.0 and they'll blow themselves purple producing a squeak, because their embouchure (the muscles around the mouth) hasn't developed yet. Strength should follow the player, not lead them. A pro on a 3.5 got there over years, and the number is not a scoreboard.

Is clarinet easy to learn?

Easier to make an acceptable first sound than most band instruments. Squeaks are normal for months and they are not a sign of failure, just a reed and a lip figuring each other out.

It’s also, quietly, the instrument most kids get steered toward when the fitting doesn’t go their way. If that just happened in your house, read this. A kid can absolutely fall in love with the instrument that wasn’t their first choice.

The $89 clarinet from an online marketplace. Keys bend, pads leak, and it will not hold a tuning. And the intermediate-instrument upsell, which is the same story wearing a nicer suit: you'll be told your kid has outgrown their horn at exactly the moment they haven't.

Rent year one. If she sticks with it, finish the rent-to-own on the Yamaha and put the "upgrade money" into a good mouthpiece and a box of real reeds instead. That's the upgrade. The clarinet was never the problem.

If you're figuring this out, you're probably also wondering:

Gus Harmon

Gus spent three decades running sound wherever somebody needed it: bar bands, weddings, school shows, and twelve years of Sunday mornings. He can't sing a note. He can make sure you're heard. Now he writes so normal people can buy the right thing the first time.

More about Gus and this site → · How I decide