Your clarinet is on its stand, the reeds are in their case, and you’d like some help between the first squeak and the first song. If you want a clear path and want to know right away whether a note came out right, choose an app that gives you feedback as you play. If you’d rather work on pieces with a piano or a band behind you, a play-along app fits. And if you want someone to look at your embouchure, a teacher is the way to go.
What matters on the clarinet
Can the app tell which note came out? Apps with feedback use the microphone of your phone, tablet or computer to check your pitch. That matters most at the break, the step from written B♭4 to B4, where many beginners get stuck: you see right away whether the right note came out.
Is the music written for your clarinet? A B♭ clarinet sounds a whole step lower than written, so a piano or flute part won’t line up with what you play. Tomplay has parts for clarinet in B♭, A and C, and Metronaut adapts pieces written for other instruments to your clarinet’s clef and range.
The short version
| If you want to… | Apps to look at |
|---|---|
| follow a course step by step, with feedback as you play | tonestro |
| work through a band method book, with feedback | MakeMusic Cloud |
| play pieces with an accompaniment and feedback | Metronaut, Tomplay, MakeMusic Cloud |
| prepare pieces for an ABRSM exam | ABRSM Clarinet Practice Partner |
| learn from a clarinetist’s videos | Clarinet Mastery |
| learn with a real teacher | online lessons or a teacher near you (see below) |
| start without paying | free plans, trials and sheet music (see below) |
Apps that give feedback as you play
When you practice on your own, we think feedback as you play helps most: you see straight away which note to play again. tonestro comes first because it’s our app, and the others follow in alphabetical order.
| App | Feedback on | Runs on |
|---|---|---|
| tonestro | pitch and rhythm, with green or red notes | iPhone, iPad and Android |
| MakeMusic Cloud | pitch, rhythm and duration, with red, green and yellow notes | web browser on a computer, Chromebook, iPad or phone |
| Metronaut | pitch and rhythm, marked on the score | iPhone, iPad and Android |
tonestro
Best for: adults who want a guided start and want to know right away whether they’re playing the right notes.
tonestro is the music school for every instrument, with clarinet courses built by music teachers. Set your phone or iPad on the music stand and play. Right notes turn green, and notes that were off turn red. Missed one? Play it again. In your first ten minutes, you play one or two notes along with a real song and a band, and from there the course grows lesson by lesson.
Fingering charts and a tuner are built in, so a new note or a cold clarinet that plays flat doesn’t send you to another app. There’s a large song library, and in the weekly challenge you compete with musicians around the world.
tonestro gives you feedback on what it hears, your pitch and your rhythm. For your embouchure and your fingers, a mirror is the quick check. On the App Store, tonestro has been App of the Day and an Editors’ Choice, and on Google Play it has more than a million downloads. If you practice on your own and want to know right away whether you got it right, it’s our pick. And one Family Plan covers up to six people and every instrument, handy if someone at home plays too.
MakeMusic Cloud
Best for: working through a band method book such as Essential Elements, with feedback.
MakeMusic Cloud, the new name for SmartMusic, is built for school music programs and has a plan for individual musicians. As you play along with your part, red, green and yellow notes show feedback on pitch, rhythm and duration, and afterward you see which notes came early, late or out of tune. The catalog includes more than 200 method books, Essential Elements among them, with recorded accompaniments. On a phone it runs in the browser too, with fewer settings than on a computer.
Metronaut
Best for: playing real pieces with an accompaniment that follows your tempo.
Metronaut pairs sheet music with accompaniments recorded by professional musicians, from piano to full orchestra, with parts for clarinet in B♭ and A and for bass clarinet. Its AI Feedback marks your pitch and rhythm on the score. In Sight-read mode the cursor waits for the right note, and in Interpret mode the accompaniment adapts to your tempo.
Play along with sheet music
Tomplay
Best for: a big library of clarinet pieces with recorded accompaniment.
Tomplay gives you sheet music with backing tracks recorded by professional musicians, for clarinet in B♭, A and C and for bass clarinet, from absolute beginner pieces to the Adagio of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. You can slow a piece down, loop a tricky section and record yourself. On pieces with note recognition, Wait Mode moves on only when you play the right note. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and computer.
ABRSM Clarinet Practice Partner
Best for: preparing pieces for an ABRSM clarinet exam.
ABRSM’s official Clarinet Practice Partner lets you practice pieces from its clarinet exam books for Grades 1 to 7 with the piano accompaniment, the clarinet part alone or the duo recording, at the tempo you choose and with loops. You can buy single pieces or whole grades in the app, which runs on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learn from a clarinetist on video
Clarinet Mastery
Best for: working on tone, high notes and fast fingers with a teacher’s videos.
Clarinet Mastery is the course site of Michelle Anderson, founder of Clarinet Mentors, who teaches clarinet at the University of British Columbia. She says helping adults learn the clarinet is one of her specialties. Her courses cover tone, high notes and finger technique, a free mini course is made for beginning to intermediate players, and members can ask her questions in live online masterclasses.
Further along? ArtistWorks has a classical clarinet school with Ricardo Morales, principal clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, for intermediate to advanced players.
When you’d rather have a teacher
Some things are easier with a person in the room: how your lips sit on the reed, where your right thumb rests, why the break still cracks.
Online lessons. Preply connects you with clarinet tutors for one-on-one online lessons, starting with a trial lesson. If the first tutor isn’t a match, you can try two more for free.
A teacher near you. In the US, the MTNA teacher search lets you choose clarinet as the specialty, and the Royal Conservatory’s directory covers the US and Canada, with a filter by instrument. In the UK, try the Trinity Teacher Directory. In Australia, your state’s music teachers’ association keeps a directory, for example MTA NSW, MTASA, QMTA or VMTA.
You can also combine the two: a lesson now and then for your embouchure, an app for the practice in between.
Starting for free
- Sheet music: our clarinet sheet music pages have free previews of songs from easy to expert. IMSLP offers free score PDFs of public domain music. Check the copyright notice for your country before you download. MuseScore’s app has free sheet music too.
- Free plans: after its 14-day trial, MakeMusic Cloud switches to a free plan with part of the catalog and the red and green notes. Metronaut lets you browse the catalog and preview pieces for free, ABRSM’s app comes with one example piece, and Clarinet Mastery has free videos and a mini course.
- Free trials: tonestro gives you 7 days free with the yearly plan. Tomplay’s yearly plan starts with 14 days free, and Metronaut offers eligible users 7 days free on its annual plan. Check what each trial includes.
How we put this guide together
tonestro is our app, so here is how we compared. In November 2026 we read each provider’s own App Store and Google Play pages, website and help center. We didn’t rank the apps. Apps change quickly, so check the provider’s page before you subscribe.
Before you wet the reed
Can you learn the clarinet with an app as an adult?
Yes. Choose an app with a guided course and feedback on pitch and rhythm, and practice whenever you have time. More on starting later in life: learning the clarinet as an adult.
What if I squeak?
Squeaks are part of the first weeks. A squeak can come from a finger that doesn’t quite seal its hole, a damaged or misplaced reed, biting, or too much mouthpiece in your mouth. Check those, then play the spot again slowly. In tonestro, the note turns green when it comes out right. Why squeaks happen and how to get past them: is the clarinet hard to learn?
Do I need to read music first?
No. Many adults learn to read as they play, and clarinet music sits on a single treble-clef staff, so reading grows step by step. If you’d like to play in a community band one day, choose an app that uses real sheet music from the start.
Where do I find clarinet fingerings?
tonestro has fingering charts built in, and MakeMusic Cloud displays the fingering for the notes in your part. You can also print our free clarinet fingering chart and keep it next to your music.
How long until I can play a song?
With tonestro, you play one or two notes along with a real song and a band in your first ten minutes. A whole song on your own, at full tempo and across the break, takes longer. Here’s a realistic clarinet timeline.
Can I teach myself the clarinet?
Many adults do, with an app that tells them when a note is off and a mirror for the embouchure. Here’s how to teach yourself the clarinet, with a practice week to follow.
Your next step
Choose the route that sounds most like you, then try a first lesson or piece in one or two apps before you commit to a plan. Want a lesson to follow and feedback as you play? Take your clarinet off its stand and try your first lesson in tonestro.