Calling all musicians...I need your help.

[Heather in Neverland]

So I am having my first "putting my ds in school" crisis about music.

 

He has had piano lessons for about 3 years and he is a very good pianist and loves it. He tried guitar for a short time but was not interested and dropped it. He has not expressed an interest in any other instrument as of yet. If he were interested I would probably choose violin next for him.

 

When he starts school in Malaysia next year he will be in 6th grade and "band" class is a mandatory class for all. But this class includes only wind, brass, and percussion instruments (I hope I am using the right terms). No piano. No strings.

 

I don't want him to play the drums for many reasons. What should he pick next? He doesn't want to do flute or clarinet because they are "too girly"...remember, he is a 10yo boy and doesn't think like an adult yet so please don't be offended by that statement.

 

I guess I should mention that his main goal with his music is to be the worship leader at a church when he is an adult. What do you think will be a good instrument for him to play next? The only thing I can think of that would be most useful to him in his future is a saxophone. But I also have ZERO musical skill so I don't know if I can give the best advice.

[elegantlion]

While guitar would be a second choice for a worship instrument I think alto sax would be an excellent school band choice. Sax would fit into a worship band mix better. Second choice would be trumpet.

 

IIRC, both of those instruments play the melody line more often.

[Sharon in SC]

While guitar would be a second choice for a worship instrument I think alto sax would be an excellent school band choice. Sax would fit into a worship band mix better. Second choice would be trumpet.

 

IIRC, both of those instruments play the melody line more often.

 

We have a trumpet and sax in our church's worship band and I love the hear them both.

[chickenpatty]

French horn! Horns add so much beauty to a band/orchestra. And, they are for girls AND boys. :001_smile:

 

(I'm getting my own french horn this week & I'm SO excited!!)

 

My second choice for your son would be sax.

[Riverfront Headmistress]

Go for the gold (or brass that is).

[chickenpatty]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__vrWsx8Gao&feature=related

[klmama]

I would have him learn trumpet, both for versatility and potential future income, if needed. Trumpet players are in more demand for special events performances than sax players are.

[FO4UR]

The alto sax is pretty easy to pick up and play. If he has had any experience at all with recorder, all the better.

 

Trumpet would be fun too.

 

If he wants to go into music as an adult, I recommend doing brass (trumpet) as a kid while he's got good teachers - like I said, the sax is pretty easy to pick up;) Any music leader will benefit from having experience in all the instrument families.

[1bassoon]

Rats - did you know there is such a thing as an "instrument tambre test"?

 

Many schools will do this for kids - it's actually a test of sounds, where they determine what tones/registers your child is naturally inclined to. Then, they would give you a choice as to which 2 or 3 instruments would be suitable. If your child is more inclined to one area, they would pick flute, or violin. Another child might be offered cello or trombone.

 

Clear as mud?

 

I found this true in my life. I was a flute player for many, many years. By age 16, I wanted to go to Yale pre-med (ha!), my band director recommended I try bassoon, since it was a heavily recruited instrument.

 

I did. I fell in love. I just absolutely LOVE the sound. (And I got a full scholarship - wahoo!) And for the record, in college, I loved the classes where we played cello, trombone, etc. The violin? Hmm. Not so much.

 

I'm not sure it has anything to do with voice register - I sing soprano pretty strongly.

 

My only recommendation is to go to the library (or internet), and check out some concertos or solos. Maybe try some classical alto sax, some trumpet concertos by Haydn, french horn - Mozart has a nice Rondo. Bassoon, too! Ha!

 

This may or may not be helpful. But just a thought :)

[MIch elle]

My ds started with sax in gr. 5 but he wanted to know how to play multiple instruments so he switched to clarinet in grade 6 at the local school. Sax is easier than clarinet. If you learn how to play clarinet then it's easy to play sax and easier to learn other wind instruments (oboe, bass clarinet, etc.).

 

I took my ds to an outdoor concert that featured a professional male clarinet player. He saw that MOST of the instruments in the orchestra are played by MEN. Violins were half women and half men but other than that it was male dominated. He saw that who plays what in band at school is not the norm in the professional music world.

 

Clarinet is played in many different settings - symphony, jazz, band, pop, rock, etc. Sax is more limited - they don't use saxophones in the orchestra usually.

 

Just some things to consider. :001_smile:

 

All the band instruments are wonderful. And it's a great skill to learn which is very different than playing solo piano. (My clarinet playing ds has played piano for 9 yrs.)

[momtolgd]

I am a clarinet player and disagree with it being "girly" as the best clarinet players I've ever met were all men (including my teacher in college!) :001_smile: but it doesn't sound like he's interested in it. I agree that learning the clarinet would make learning any other woodwind easier later.

 

With being a worship musician as a goal of his, I think I would tend to have him try a brass instrument as far as band instruments go. Trumpet would be a great place to start, and could lead to him trying other brass instruments later.

 

You should also have him listen to all the different instruments and see what sounds he prefers.

[Rosy]

Let him pick. If you can, let him try a few before he has to settle on one. Do you have to bring the instrument with you? If so (if you're able to) you might try to get him an hour or two of private lessons with someone who knows a variety of instruments (or one hour with a brass person, one hour with a woodwind person). If he's going to be traveling with it, I'd steer him away from the tuba. :)

 

Whatever instrument he plays will be wonderful experience for him and will prepare him well for a future in music. If he's able to find something he really enjoys he'll be more likely to stick with it. If your family is going to be bothered by a louder instrument (or if you're going to be living in tight quarters with lots of people nearby and you don't want to disturb them), steer him away from a brass instrument--especially trumpets. :)

 

I played trumpet for 8 years, marched for 4 of those and did a summer program for 2 summers. It was tremendously rewarding, far more than just for the musical aspect of it.

[Heather in Neverland]

Thank you for all the wonderful advice!!! I wish I had some musical background :glare:. The violin suggestion is really more my idea than his :D. I just LOVE violin! But I love the ideas you ladies gave about letting him hear some of the music (maybe without telling him what the instruments are so he is not biased before he hears them!).

 

They provide the instrument (thank goodness). And I am concerned about him getting into something that is really difficult to play since it would take more practice time and we are not willing to sacrifice his piano time. It is nice to hear what instruments are more difficult to play for that reason.

 

Thanks!!!!

[littlebug42]

I was an oboe player so I am pretty partial to that instrument and it can be very attractive to colleges as well because oboe players are not plentiful. I know one person who got a scholarship to play in the band even though they were not music majors. Our church also has an oboist that plays with our choir and it is just gorgeous. Personally, I would stay away from trumpet and sax as those tend to have many players already. The french horn would be excellent as would possibly the baritone.

[ElizabethB]

Trumpet!

 

Almost the only time I went to church growing up was when I was paid to go!

 

Seriously, almost every Christmas and Easter when I was in high school, I got paid to play my trumpet in various churches. (They would call our band director asking for trumpet players.) I remember thinking at one church that the people there were crazy. They had 4 people sharing their testimonies, one lady flashed a tattoo to show how wild she had been before, I thought that was nuts. Another church (or maybe the same church?), some old ladies gave me some horrid purple cross stitched plastic cross with tacky purple flowers on it. They just beamed when they told me they had made it just for me. I saved it, I could tell it was made in love, but it was tacky. It was a little over 10 years later that I became one of those wacky people with a testimony myself! I try not to give tacky crosses to anyone, but who knows what I'll do when I'm 70 or 80 if I'm alive then. I also now play for free at our churches when they need a trumpet player! (I say churches because we move often, we're not church hoppers by choice.)

[skaterbabs]

Percussion of any kind would be invaluable to a future church music leader. It really improves your rhythm, and that translates to pretty much everything else.

 

I'm currently learning to play hand bells (this is my 2nd year) and while I could read music enough to sing in the choir, playing a percussion instrument is literally a completely different "language", and it leads to improved performance in ALL musical areas.

[Anne in S'pore]

I second the brass suggestions! Trumpeters can get asked to play at weddings :001_smile:

 

Anne

[dalynnrmc]

I'm a percussionist, so maybe I'm partial, but... please realize that percussion does not exclusively mean "drums." In fact, I don't play drums all that well - my specialty is the melodic instruments. Think: xylophone. (My fave is the marimba.) For someone who plays piano, this would be an *easy peasy* transition.

 

That said, I also believe that the value of being able to play a wind instrument is irreplaceable.

 

I would say saxophone. Yes, they are plentiful... but that's because they are widely used, recognized, and played outside of the "band" atmosphere. Trumpets would also fall into that category, but I say sax because of the ability to transition to other instruments. If he can play sax, he will easily transition to clarinet or flute - and with all of those instruments, there are many "denominations" to consider. (Just saxophones include soprano sax, alto sax - the most common - barry/baritone sax, and bass sax. Let's not list all the types of clarinets!!)

 

Now, you have some of that same ease of transition with an instrument like the trumpet - the fingerings are the same, but brass instruments vary mouthpieces by size. Because of this, one has to hold their mouth differently for every single brass instrument there is.

 

And I would *not* recommend French Horn, or oboe. ;-) Unless he's really good and goes professional, those aren't very useful after school years.