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The mouthpiece has a hollow chamber where vibrating air resonates to create the clarinet’s characteristic tone. Mouthpieces are usually made from plastic or ebonite (a hard rubber which can be worked like wood).
The ligature is used to fasten the reed onto the mouthpiece. Long ago string was wound around the reed and mouthpiece (this is still sometimes used in Germany), but most modern clarinets use metal or leather ligatures.
The reed is made from a piece of cane. The vibrating reed is what produces the sound of the clarinet. Variations of hardness and thickness are available.
This short tube connects the mouthpiece to the body of the instrument. This is where the clarinet is tuned, and the shape of the barrel affects the tone.
These are the main body of the clarinet and have the holes which change pitch of the instrument. Most of the holes are operated by keys, but there are still a few holes covered by the finger as on a simple recorder.
The keys were gradually added for comfortable finger positions while allowing placement of the holes based on optimum intonation.
The bell has a big affect on the sound, but is not as important as on a brass instrument since some the clarinet’s sound comes out of the holes on the side of the instrument.
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