When playing earlier orchestral instruments with tone holes and keys, it was always difficult for musicians to master the fingering with the ten available fingers. Especially, when playing difficult passages and trills it usually took a lot of practice. The development of the tanaka-clarinet was an attempt to solve this problem.
The invention is based on a conventional clarinet whose keys are connected to the keys of a keyboard. By pressing the keyboard the keys of the instrument can be opened and closed. This is done by using bellows to get compressed air into the bellows above the tone holes. These bellows, which are connected to the keys, are then inflated, thus opening the underlying tone holes.