Our Color-Ring™️ System

Our Color-Ring™️ System Will Help You Select The Perfect Instrument

Lisa Canning, creator of SeriO™ and owner of Lisa’s Clarinet Shop has been helping clarinetists advance more quickly with the right instrument for 4 decades. Her ability to properly match the right instrument to the needs of each musician inspired her to codify her system into something that can be visualized and taught. Lisa calls it The Color-Ring™ System.

About The Rings

Each SeriO instrument we ship comes with small color-rings (see image below) hanging from a string with the serial number of the instrument(s). Once our instruments have been fully professionally set up, we identify its distinguishing color and shape of sound and match them to your playing needs. Our process helps musicians rapidly improve- often before our very eyes, and surprisingly equally on zoom or the telephone. It is that noticeable!

Color-Ring System

How to Use Our Color-Ring™ System

Foundation of Sound

Bright (red) and/or Dark (brown)

Shape of Sound:

Big (purple) and/or Smooth (green)

Color of Sound:

Sweet (pink) and/or Ringy (orange)

1. Select Your Foundation Color of Sound

Every clarinetist has a fundamental shape of sound that is either dark, bright or somewhere in the middle. Every instrument also has a fundamental shape of sound that is either dark, bright or somewhere in the middle.

Most of the time we are attracted to selecting an instrument that is the most like our fundamental coloring but it’s actually better to select something that balances your natural tendencies.

Dark (Brown) works best if you have a brighter sound, and Bright (Red) works best if you have a darker sound. If you sound neither bright or dark, you should request models that have both brown and red color-rings.

2. Select Your Shape of Sound

If you find you struggle with interval leaps and in general playing evenly, trying instruments with green color-rings will help you achieve a smoother creamy shape of sound. Instruments with green color-rings tend to have less color in their shape of sound.

If you use a lot of air and feel that your current instrument lacks color because you over blow it, an instrument with a purple color-ring will help. These instruments produce the biggest shape of sound possible. While it might seem enticing to try instruments with purple color-rings because they are bigger sounding instruments, if you don’t naturally play with a lot of air, it will feel difficult to control this kind of instrument and equally be less flexible and colorful because you naturally don’t use a lot of air.

3. Select your Color of Sound

When we listen to old recordings of Robert Marcellus, Harold Wright, Ralph McLane, Anthony Gigliotti we hear sweet singing resonant clarinet playing. If you don’t naturally have a lot of color in your sound selecting instruments that offer it to you, will help you tremendously.

If you want more ring in your sound, request an instrument with plenty of ping which will come with an orange color-ring.

If you want more beauty in your sound, sweeter sounding instruments will be smaller in shape, more compact in feel and come with a pink color-ring.

Remember our color-ring system is a matching system to compliment your natural tendencies to enhance your playing. When you don’t achieve a complimentary match, you will find it difficult to play evenly and in tune.

It used to be said that selecting the perfect instrument was highly subjective. Not anymore with our Color-Ring™️ System.

Over the years I have literally helped thousands of clarinetists, from all over the world, quickly improve. It helps others identify their own playing tendencies, as well as what they need in an instrument to positively balance their natural abilities. Because 64% of the population are visual learners, connecting the visualization of the color-rings to ones ability to listen, produces a dramatic understanding of what they need to dramatically improve their playing ability and self-expression very quickly. It’s pretty exciting to see others take off right in front of you.

If you wish to help yourself or your students to do the same, this will help.

~ Lisa Canning, Founder of Lisa’s Clarinet Shop

Veronica's sound blossomed almost instantly.

From unfocused to refined.

Michael made remarkable progress In just 60 minutes! Everyone could hear it too!

From Student to Sounding Like a Professional