Originally published in The Clarinet 51/3 (June 2024).

Copies of The Clarinet are available for ICA members.

---

EFX CLARINET:
PERFORMING WITH
GUITAR EFFECT PEDALS

Chris Mothersole demystifies the art of electroacoustic clarinet and bass clarinet performance in a discussion about equipment, his influences, composers of electroacoustic music, and resources for new players.

by Chris Mothersole

---

For a classically-trained clarinetist, you could find an awful lot of rock and roll on my iPod. In my college days at New England Conservatory, it was a safe assumption that if I was listening to music, it was likely Mozart, Shostakovich, Aerosmith, or The Eagles. I often spent my free time scouring record stores for vintage classic rock vinyl records and CDs, and though it was classical music that drew me to the clarinet, there was another side that was excited by the versatility of the electric guitar.

In 2015, I traveled with a wind quintet to the International Horn Symposium in Los Angeles, and imagine my excitement when we attended a session where the horn performed as the leader for a rock band with a pedalboard of live effects at his feet. It had never crossed my mind that you could electrify a wind instrument, so I hastily began searching for a way to accomplish this on the clarinet.

I did not know the first thing about electroacoustic music at the time, but I was intrigued by the possibility of expanding the clarinet’s sonic palette. As I conducted my search for equipment, resulting in quite a few quizzical looks from employees at different guitar shops, I was further excited by the decades of pre-existing works for clarinet and pedal effects I could get started with.

This journey, however, has been over five years of trial and error. Repertoire and equipment resources were few and far between, and many of the older works I happened upon were written for equipment that was long outdated and difficult to find. To those searching for the right equipment and repertoire to get started on their own path, may this article prove to be one such resource.

WHAT IS EFX CLARINET?

Electroacoustic clarinet, also nicknamed “EFX clarinet” or “electric clarinet,” combines clarinet performance with the use of live audio effects. With modern advancements in microphone technology and piezo-style internal pickups, clarinetists are effectively able to augment their sound using the same range of effects available to today’s electric guitarists: distortion, pitch shifting, delay, reverb, and looping, to name a few. These effects can be achieved through a variety of means such as stompboxes (guitar effect pedals) or live audio processing software (ex. Ableton Live), combined with an amplifier and speaker to output the affected sound signal.

This realm of wind instrument performance dates back almost 60 years, pioneered by artists and brands such as clarinetist/composer William O. Smith, trumpeter Miles Davis, and King-Vox’s Ampliphonic line of electroacoustic band instruments of the late 1960s. Though popularity has waxed and waned since then, recent years have seen an increased interest among performers and composers, resulting in new works by Jenni Brandon, Shawn Okpebholo, Marc Mellits, Viet Cuong, and more.

HOW IT WORKS

The diagram below outlines the three essential components of electroacoustic performance. A device known as a pickup, a type of transducer similar to a microphone, converts the clarinet’s sound into an electrical signal. The PiezoBarrel (manufactured by Steven Francis) is one such device for the clarinet, installed in the barrel (or onto the neck of a bass clarinet) to obtain a clear and consistent sound from inside the instrument by sensing the fluctuations of air pressure. This is often preferred over an external microphone, which increases the risk of picking up outside noise and can be difficult to use for high-gain effects such as distortion. The high sensitivity of such effects can cause what are known as feedback loops, where the output sound signal is fed back into the microphone, endlessly compounding to create an unpleasant noise coming from the amplifier.

The captured signal is then sent into an effects processor (either an effect pedal or a computer with the appropriate software), in which the effects are applied. Afterward, the affected signal requires amplification for output through a powered PA system, keyboard amplifier, or guitar amplifier (all work well for this purpose). The necessary cabling to connect these components depends on your equipment; for example, the PiezoBarrel pickup comes with an eighth-inch to quarter-inch cable, which is meant to plug into the quarter-inch input jack of an effect pedal or audio interface. Meanwhile, effect pedals generally use a quarter-inch instrument cable to run the affected sound signal out to the amplifier.

Pickup options for clarinet and bass clarinet:

• PiezoBarrel “Wood” Model by Steven Francis
• K1X II Pickup by Rumberger
• intraMic by Viga Music Tools

EFFECT TYPE	FUNCTION	EXAMPLE WORKS	BRANDS/MODELS
Delay	An echo effect with adjustable parameters to define time delay, balance of the repeated sound to the original, and number of repeats in the echo.	Lori Ardovino, Variations on Themes of Black Sabbath for Bass Clarinet Solo (2009) Jenni Brandon, Cacophony for Clarinet and Delay (2021) Viet Cuong, Naica for Bass Clarinet and Delay (2011) William O. Smith, Solo for Clarinet with Delay System (1983)	Joyo D-Seed Digital Delay Boss DD-8 Digital Delay MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
Distortion	Increases the gain of the original sound and clips the resulting waveform, resulting in a compressed sound that is often described as “gritty” or “dirty.”	Kristen Denny-Chambers, Finger Fitness Études Book 3: No.23, Into the Void (2023) Marc Mellits, Dark Matter for Electric Bass Clarinet (2018) Chris Mothersole, DEMO for Solo EFX Clarinet (2022) Aled Smith, Vus for Contrabass Clarinet and Effect Pedals (2022)	ProCo RAT 2 Distortion MXR Distortion +
Looping	Records short clips of sound for live layering. Multiple layers of recorded loops can be stacked together.	Christopher Gable, Shadows Blue and Red for Bass Clarinet, Piano, and Looping Station (2020) Marc Mellits, Hunger for Clarinet and Looper (2018) Josh Oxford, Looping Études (2013)	Boss RC-5 Loop Station TC Electronic Ditto X4
Pitch Shifting	Shifts the original sound’s pitch a defined number of semitones upwards and/or downwards.	Marc Mellits, Dark Matter for Electric Bass Clarinet (2018) Shawn Okpebholo, Circleplay (2006) William O. Smith, Slow Motion (1984)	TC Electronic Brainwaves Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork

 

COMMON EFFECTS IN REPERTOIRE

The table below outlines the most common effects used in clarinet and bass clarinet repertoire, as well as examples of pedal brands/models and works that utilize the effect. Electroacoustic performance offers a seemingly overwhelming number of new sound possibilities, so to those who ask which type of effect they should explore first, my suggestion is most often delay. Essentially an echo effect, delay is arguably the most often used effect by composers of electroacoustic repertoire, as the adjustable timing and duration of this echo offer composers a large amount of versatility. The recently adapted Chansons de la Nature for clarinet and delay by Jenni Brandon is a wonderful introduction to performing with live effects, utilizing a simpler delay effect to bring out the musical character and personality of each of its seven short movements inspired by the images presented in Aesop’s Fables.

Secondary to this, other composers will also commonly utilize pitch shifting, looping, and more recently, distortion. For the more experienced electroacoustic player, works such as Marc Mellits’s Dark Matter for electric bass clarinet offer a compelling challenge by utilizing several different effects throughout the performance. In Mellits’s work, the notated effect combinations give the bass clarinet a heavier hard rock tone through a combination of two different distortions and a sub-octave pitch shift.

I would like to focus on three of these works to demonstrate the variety in which composers write for live effects: Jenni Brandon’s Cacophony (2021), Marc Mellits’s Dark Matter (2018), and Josh Oxford’s Looping Études (2013).

COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT: JENNI BRANDON

Jenni Brandon, based in southern California, has written two works for electroacoustic clarinet, Chansons de la Nature for clarinet and delay (an adaptation of the original 2003 work without effects) and Cacophony for clarinet and delay. The latter was commissioned by a 14-member consortium and premiered in 2021.

Cacophony was Brandon’s first venture into writing for pedal effects, utilizing two different types of delay: a one-second traditional digital delay and a two-second reverse delay. While a delay effect typically echoes an exact copy of the sound signal, a reverse delay records the delayed sound and outputs it in reverse, adding an element of perceived chaos to the texture. Brandon uses this effect to set a scene of chattering birdsong at dawn, pitching the melodic line against its reversed counterpart to create a feeling of back-and-forth conversation.

This work, conceived using the Joyo D-Seed Dual Channel Digital Delay pedal, alternates between these two types of delay to recreate the cacophonous textures and sounds of the birds that would gather at a large, canopied tree on her street. While the reverse delay sections evoke conversation, the digital delay is used in other sections to create hazy walls of sound through echoes of quick, fluttering rhythmic figures. This work is a brilliant example of the diversity of sounds that a delay effect is capable of, and can be heard in the opening track of my EP album release, Feathers & Fables. You can find out more about Brandon’s works by visiting www.jennibrandon.com.

COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT: MARC MELLITS

Based in Chicago, Mellits is no stranger to writing for amplified instruments, his works spanning a wide spectrum of acoustic and electroacoustic instrumentations. His 2018 work Dark Matter is heavy and powerful, originally written for electric bassoon and commissioned by a 12-member consortium led by Jacob Goforth.

This work was originally written with an effects chain of six different Boss-brand pedals in mind, though he specifies that other brands may be used to obtain a similar sound. Despite the piece being heavily involved, with a number of different effects utilized, Mellits includes a detailed introductory section walking the performer through each effect’s settings and noting the order in which the effects should be placed in the signal chain. Low C bass clarinet players have an especially fun time with Dark Matter’s consistent use of the extended low range which, when combined with a sub-octave pitch shift and two flavors of distortion effects, leaves the performer feeling like a hard rock bass guitarist.

The driving outer sections are separated by a rippling interlude of detached eighth-note figures, enhanced with a long-repeating delay effect to create stacked chords, reminiscent of quietly sustained guitar picking ascending from the bottom string. The excerpt provided shows where the delay section begins; an extra staff is provided here as a visual to help the performer understand how the echoes stack over time. This sound is altered further through the use of what’s known as a chorus effect, adding subtle time and pitch fluctuations in the sound signal to create a slight shimmering texture. You can find out more and listen to the work at www.marcmellits.com.

COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT: JOSH OXFORD

Composer and arranger Josh Oxford is based in Ithaca, New York. He is an experienced writer and performer of electronic music, and his Looping Études are a delight for performers wanting to get familiar with the functionality and terminology of their looper pedal. Originally written for the Boss RC-30 Loop Station, these etudes are written to be compatible with other similar looper pedals as well.

Oxford writes each etude as if it were a duet, using an extra staff line to show how the player’s recorded loops rhythmically interact with their live sound (example provided below). The player begins by recording a loop consisting of four to eight measures; afterward, they gain practice switching between playing over the top of their recorded loop or overdubbing a new layer to stack onto the first loop. Looping is a versatile tool for composers to add harmony and rhythmic complexity to a solo line, so these etudes provide a simple and effective way to practice working with a looper. Find out more about Oxford’s music at www.joshoxford.com.

TRYING EFFECT PEDALS

When players want to have an idea of how a pedal effect sounds and functions, YouTube is a good place to get started. Guitarists around the world frequently post demonstrations online of pedal sounds and capabilities, so when players are deciding which delay pedal to purchase, these videos can be a helpful beginner’s resource.

However, a clarinet player is also going to want to know how it sounds on their instrument; to give an example, a distorted guitar sounds quite different compared to a distorted bass clarinet. Demonstrations of this kind are much more difficult to find, so a player’s best bet is simply to visit their local guitar shop. Using their instrument and pickup, many shops will allow players to try pedals in-store. This provides first-hand experience with the pedal to help players choose the right effect brand for them. An additional perk is that guitar shop employees are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to amplification and equipment, so they can be an effective resource for choosing the right cabling, amplifier, and pedal power supply.

In-person pedal trials are also beneficial in determining whether a pedal will work effectively with the clarinet. Some pitch shifters and certain specialty effects, since effect pedals are built with the frequency range of the electric guitar in mind, might not track the sound as well when used with a clarinet. This is rarely an issue, though I remember trying a synthesizer pedal in recent years that stopped producing the effect for any note above clarion A. Additionally, bass clarinetists may find that some pedals meant for bass guitar will better suit their low register.

RESOURCES

Players can find additional resources by visiting www.MothersoleClarinet.com or my YouTube channel. These contain helpful information for electroacoustic clarinetists and bass clarinetists, including equipment demonstrations, reference recordings, and a selected repertoire list featuring works with readily accessible sheet music and recordings. Regardless of the player’s experience level in this realm of performance, I hope these prove useful as interest in EFX clarinet continues to grow.

 

---

Chris Mothersole (b.1990) is instructor of clarinet at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. A native of Austin, Texas, he gives performances and workshops around the country with the mission of empowering composers and performers with the tools and knowledge to begin using live effects. Listen to his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and more.