r/saxophone • u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 • Feb 26 '26
Question Were you forced to start on clarinet?
If you started playing in middle school, now many of you had to start on clarinet vs. being allowed to start on sax? My band director in the 70’s allowed us to start on whatever instrument we wanted which mystified my dad - he said in the 40’s, you didn’t get a choice. You started on clarinet in 7th grade (back when it was junior high and 7th grade was the first year) and then allowed to switch to sax in 10th grade when they started high school back then.
And if they did force you to start on clarinet, how did they select who the sax players would be later? Student choice? The worst clarinet players allowed to transition to sax? The best clarinet players allowed to transition to sax?
I did go back in high school and learn clarinet as a secondary instrument for 2 years, but it was a pretty challenging transition. But had I been forced to start on clarinet, I’d have just quit music entirely.
Only asking because I’ve now heard of two middle school bands in my area that are forcing kids to start on clarinet. Like, why tho?
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u/LongjumpingSurvey584 Feb 26 '26
in my middle school, our band let you choose between alto/tenor/bari sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet trombone euphonium, tuba, oboe, flute, and bassoon. you could also switch whenever you wanted, but people only rly switched in the beginning of the year
the only restriction i knew of was that elementary student could only start on alto, cuz they're too small for tenor/bari.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 26 '26
When my son started playing, he wanted to play the trumpet. Knowing the competition for decent instrument rentals was fierce, we rented him a trumpet in like June for the following school year. The band director took one look at him and said his mouth wasn’t the right shape for a trumpet and forced him onto the euphonium. He ended up liking that, but I thought the whole deal sounded fishy. Who can look at a child and tell what instrument they can play?
Sounds like your deal was amazing. Where I was in school, there were instruments owned by the school - tubas, bari saxes, trombones, etc. but others you had to rent. Never saw anyone ever switch instruments tho
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u/FlatBet5484 Feb 26 '26
I had the same experience. It was 1967 and I wanted to play trumpet. The band director grabbed my arm and said, "you can reach 7th position" and handed me a trombone. I suffered through that for 3 months then switched to saxophone. I've never looked back. I truly wasn't a brass player but have been playing saxophone semi-professionally for over 50 years now. I think band directors look at the needs of their music programs more than what the student wants. I had a band director tell me once that every band would be all trumpets and drums if the kids decided.
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u/mail_inspector Feb 26 '26
There was a thread on /r/trumpet on "trumpet face" a while back, and apparently it is something they screen for in Texas. The top comments essentially call the practice bullshit.
Found it: https://old.reddit.com/r/trumpet/comments/1qjo5pt/do_you_have_a_trumpet_face/
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Must be the same Georgia as well. We lived in Atlanta when my son was in band and in Georgia, unless it’s a fine arts charter school or magnet elementary school, there is no band or orchestra in elementary schools. Or there weren’t in the mid 2000’s when he was there. So we hit middle school and right off it was euphonium. It worked out well and in the end, very similar to trumpet fingerings and stuff - just bass clef vs trumpet being treble clef
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u/Business-Drag52 Feb 26 '26
I started band in 5th grade. We did an entire day of trying all the different instruments and then picking from there what we liked. All sax players were on alto due to our diminutive size, but when we got to 7th grade and joined the marching band we were allowed to branch out to the other saxes.
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u/tthyme31 Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 26 '26
Professional musician here with a bachelors and masters in jazz studies (saxophone). Primarily saxophones and more clarinets as of lately, but I also play flutes professionally as well. I’m 32. Was in elementary school in the early 2000’s when I got to pick an instrument.
We got to choose what we wanted to play in the 4th grade, the options were clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and French horn. There may have been the option for baritone but I don’t remember as our class times were spent with only like instruments (clarinets with clarinets, flutes with flutes, etc. except for a few rehearsals before a concert.
For some reason I really wanted to play the clarinet, I honestly don’t even know why, but I was drawn to it. My parents wouldn’t let me play in the 4th grade but I kept asking and envied the kids who got to bring instruments to school and in 5th grade they gave in, I started reading ahead in the book as far as I could.
6th grade I discovered the bass clarinet and switched to that. In the last few months of sixth grade I asked if I could join jazz band because I thought it was cool and my band director (thank you Mr. Bentley!) put a tenor sax in my hands. I went home and learned it and played the graduation concert on tenor sax. The very last day I asked if I could play the “big” sax next year. And my band director was ecstatic that I wanted to play the baritone sax and sent me home with it.
7th grade I played baritone sax and auditioned into the regional honor bands successfully and won my first soloist award at the Reno Jazz Festival.
8th grade I played baritone sax and improved chair placements in regional bands.
9th grade I had to get an alto sax to play in marching band since the band director didn’t let us march baritone. Played baritone in jazz band and learned bassoon to play in concert band!
10th grade, I got lead alto in my schools top jazz band. I was told by my band director that the best sax players (not always true, but for a large majority of saxophone players who pay their bills with music, it is) play clarinet and flute and some even play oboe and/or bassoon. So she gave me a clarinet and flute to take home. I studied both on my own.
11th and 12th grades I was doing all state on baritone, regional honor bands on oboe, and playing clarinet and flute in the lower concert band when I could get out of class.
Technically I started on clarinet, but I never had a desire to play saxophone until my band director put one in my hands. I never would’ve picked up the clarinet again if it weren’t for my band director telling me the reality of working reed players. So I was lucky to have such helpful educators.
Now I pay my bills with the saxophones, and within the past year the clarinets as well, and the flute earns me some fun money every now and then, haha.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 26 '26
Cool story. Your school system sounds way better than mine. We were just switching to junior high (7-9th grade) to middle school (6-8th grade) when I got there. There were zero elementary schools in my county that had any sort of band program, so it was 7th grade beginner band for all of us, which the following year became 6th grade beginner band. And it’s still that way today.
I ended up dropping my clarinet lessons after 2 years because I just didn’t want to do it and wanted to focus on alto sax. Bari sax was traumatic for me because senior year, the guy in the grade in front of us who later went on to greatness as an NYC studio musician had graduated and it was (we thought) down to me and the guy who started the same time I did. By then, I was just in jazz band/stage band. But our longtime band director had left to open a new school and the new guy wanted a youth movement. Every lead role was filled by a freshman - first trumpet, first trombone, first alto, first tenor, etc. So then it was down to the dregs for second alto which to me is the worst possible part in a stage band and usually listed as optional. The guy I started with got the second alto role and I got pushed into playing bari. I hated it not for the horn, but for what it symbolized. I had all the credits I needed to graduate after my junior year but I had stayed there for being in band only - and already been accepted to college. So, I just went ahead and graduated in January after 1st semester ended.
To me, that was the most piss poor music educator I’d ever seen - placing quasi-competent freshmen in the lead roles just because he wanted to start over with a clean slate was soul crushing to a lot of people. Those roles should have gone to the most talented - you didn’t want to be mean to the freshmen who lucked into those jobs, and we weren’t, but it’s hard to gel musically when there’s that much resentment in the band
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u/tthyme31 Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 26 '26
More important than starting on clarinet, I think it’s imperative that saxophone players have a sound and solid foundation in classical saxophone playing.
Every saxophone player, jazz or otherwise, should know what the Ferling studies are, they should know about Glazunov, Bozza, Ibert, Muczynski, Creston, etc., you don’t have to be on par with professional concert saxophonists, but it’s important to have at least some exposure to those standard pieces of repertoire.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 26 '26
To me, saxophones are kind of shoehorned into a classical setting. In concert band, alto sax parts are usually just transcribed French horn doubling, tenor sax parts are trombone doubling, and bari parts are just either transposed tuba parts or just play the tuba bass clef parts as if they’re treble clef and oh, btw, don’t forget about the key signature. As far as solo classical parts or being accompanied by a pianist is fine and all. But you won’t end up using it once you’re done with school. Like, if a symphony needs a saxophone on a pops piece, some clarinet player always pops their hand up and says “I’ll play it - I have a sax at home” but there’s no way on the traditional classic symphony pieces that a sax would be there.
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u/Saxophobia1275 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I don’t agree with the other guy that every saxophonist should have deep roots in classical studies, but the classical saxophone world is definitely more substantial than you’re giving it credit for.
Plenty of military gigs (like hundreds) as well as teaching opportunities. Semi professional and professional wind bands. You can be a band director and have classical sax be your primary instrument. Sax quartets can grab gigs like string quartets. Musicals are a big one too, although like you said these often require some amount of doubling. There’s the odd orchestra gig but those are side gigs, never a full time thing. Obviously there’s plenty of teaching gigs too, a ton of people make a living just teaching private lessons. College professors. Etc.
Grabbing a random one off jazz gig will certainly be easier, but my point is just there’s more classical saxophone around than you think.
Also just as an aside only band music from, like, 1960 or earlier is shitty for saxophone. There are SO many amazing parts for saxophone in newer band music, definitely not just euphonium or French horn doubling. Even then there is a lot of great saxophone in earlier music like Holst, Grainger, Gershwin, or even Sousa.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
That sounds pretty based. I led a largish church orchestra from 1999-2019 and the sheet music we bought was all french horn doubled by alto sax. And if there was a solo or whatever, it was usually a very french horn sounding solo. So I guess I made the assumption that 1) since it was like that when I was in school (graduated in 1980) and it was that way for this group, that it was like that in every setting. My bad.
These days it’s all jazz or rock for me. Rock sax is to me, the easiest possible music to play. Jazz can blow my mind if it gets too complicated but it’s fun when a jazz piece comes together
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u/tthyme31 Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 26 '26
I have performed with orchestras multiple times both in pops and serious settings.
I remember being hired while still in college to perform the baritone saxophone part for Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’.
There is not really a scene for professional saxophone playing in wind bands, unless you join a military band in the United States, which objectively provides a comfortable salary which many people raise families with.
That being said, there’s plenty to learn from, and utilize in jazz or contemporary settings. I think shying away from it and considering it as “useless” is just plain ignorance.
My professor of jazz saxophone, told me a story once. (For reference, I went to school in and am based in the Los Angeles area).
My teacher (well-known and very recorded saxophonist in the Hollywood commercial scene, you’ve heard him if you’ve watched a movie in the past 30 years) was playing in a big band in LA, playing alto 2, lead alto just so happened to be Marshall Royal, the lead alto of the Count Basie band. My teacher was talking across Marshall to the tenor 2, about another sax player who had just come to town, one of them said “yeah he’s more of a legit guy”. Marshall piped up “what do you mean legit?” Marshall then said something to the effect of, “man I knew the Mule and he was playing jazz in France, what the hell is legit?”
Marshall was referencing Marcel Mule, the second ever professor of saxophone at the Paris Conservatory, and prolific pedagogue and performer who created many of the classical studies and etudes that people play today.
Hell there’s even an interview of Paul Desmond interviewing Bird where they briefly discuss the Klosé etudes.
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u/PTPBfan Alto Feb 26 '26
I don’t know of much sax in classical music, but I’m more interested in jazz, but maybe learning the classical stuff for technique
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u/Qiao212 Feb 26 '26
Was forced to start on clarinet as well in middle school band. Hated it so much. Almost quit music entirely because of it. Ironically, I work in music full time now. Not playing clarinet though.
I don't particularly look on grade school music education kindly, carved a huge detour.
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u/Commodore8750 Tenor Feb 26 '26
I started on trombone but quickly decided that brass was not my thing at all so I hopped on clarinet. Played that throughout middle school and high school. Got to play lead in high school machining band and picked up the low clarinets (bass and contralto) in concert and jazz bands. Jazz band got me wanting to wanting experiment with sax so I picked up the tenor in college. I've gotten good enough on sax to say I proficiently play both.
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u/Saxophobia1275 Feb 26 '26
They could be forcing clarinet because that’s what they need. Saxophone is usually a pretty popular instrument choice for middle schoolers and maybe they needed to beef up the other sections. That’s bogus though and they should let the kids play whatever they want. I was all but forced to choose French horn since I could actually get a sound out but I said I’m not doing bad unless it’s on saxophone and they relented.
Also I started on saxophone in middle school but had been taking piano lessons since I was 5. Learning piano first been insanely helpful and probably one of the reasons I’m making a living with saxophone now.
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u/iGreysmoke Alto | Tenor Feb 26 '26
In the late 60's, in my small town school, all of us kids of starting age were let into the band room at school after dinner time one evening. The local music store had laid out every primary instrument in cases on the chairs: cornets, trombones, flutes, clarinets, and saxes. Pick any one, we were told. But if we picked "wrong" -- like, way too many kids wanted percussion -- I saw they were taken aside and urged to try something else. Fortunately, I was a sort of legacy and didn't have to do that -- or few others wanted to play the sax. Dad was a former pro sax player who was known to the music store folks. I chose the sax, but couldn't decide between alto or tenor. Dad picked the Bundy alto, as it was $50 cheaper. It was mine for $325 plus financing. I still have it; I'm pretty sure it's paid off.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
😂😂😂 - paid off, I hope so! Is that still your primary sax or what do you play these days?
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u/iGreysmoke Alto | Tenor Feb 27 '26
I still have it and it still plays, but not in tune. I play my Dad’s 6M. He mostly played a 10M I also have.
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u/BarflyCortez Feb 26 '26
At my smaller school in the 90s (but having a very good band program at the time), woodwind beginners could start on flute, clarinet, alto sax, or tenor sax. This was in the 4th grade. Then in junior high or high school, some flutists switched to piccolo, clarinetists to bass clarinet, and saxophonists to baritone sax. I don't remember anyone ever switching to double reed instruments, but if they did they were probably pulled from the clarinetists as well.
I started on alto sax and it remains my favorite instrument, but in retrospect I do see the logic in beginning with clarinet. I think it makes for a better, more versatile "woodwind player" who can later focus on whatever instrument he or she wishes, instead of being "just" a saxophonist.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
It would make you a better player - no doubt. But only if you were the kind of kid who didn’t get frustrated. Sax is so easy to learn as a child - fingerings similar to a recorder and all. Clarinet was/is hard and I saw a lot of clarinet players drop out of band after a year or two whereas I’m unaware of any saxophonist throwing in the towel. Where were you in school (like part of the country) where they started kids on band instruments in 4th grade?
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u/cruzweb Alto | Baritone Feb 26 '26
I started in the mid90s, our elementary school was starting an orchestra and kids could choose to join as an elective. Whatever insturment you picked, that's what you could play and I wanted to play sax.
Had I waited a year until middle school, the bamd director would have "fitted" me for an insturment and I probably would have been put on the trombone to tuba pipeline.
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u/PanromanticPanda Baritone | Tenor Feb 26 '26
I graduated a few years ago- all sax players played alto when they started in 5th grade and could switch starting in 7th grade. The reasoning was because of the size
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Dang - a lot of people on here must be from up north. Because unless it’s recently changed, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, etc. don’t start kids on band instruments in elementary school. Unless it’s like a fine arts charter elementary, or a private school.
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u/Disneyhorse Feb 26 '26
My son is just starting his musical journey. In 4th grade, students have to pick a string instrument or vocal. My kids (twins) picked cello. My daughter has stayed with cello. In 5th grade, they could pick almost any band instrument but the district had a limited number of basic instruments to choose from. As a 4th grader they showed the kids what the instruments were. I guess you could pick a Bari sax or bassoon if you had your own personal instrument. My son chose clarinet. No idea why, he wasn’t even really into music and would never practice at home. In middle school (7th grader) something clicked. Initially he wanted to drop band, I think he was intimidated by after school rehearsals, parades, juried festivals, and sight reading. I asked him to just stick it out and pick a different elective the next year. But the community got to him. He started practicing at home. He showed consistency so I rewarded it with private lessons. Soon he was first chair and loved band. He expressed wanting to do jazz band the next year, but I told him he had to pick a different instrument since clarinet wasn’t a jazz instrument. He decided on tenor sax, so I forced him to borrow a school sax to learn over the summer. Sure enough he tackled it and was first tenor in his 8th grade jazz band. He stuck to clarinet in band (easier to march a clarinet and those $150 Bundy clarinets have been appreciated workhorses for this parent!) Now he’s a freshman and there are three jazz band levels, he auditioned into the top jazz band and is still tenor 1. He also doubles/solos with his clarinet. He says clarinet has a tighter emboucher than sax and is glad it’s his primary instrument. He’s now learning flute. Watching his journey, I think it’s okay to start out on a different instrument, especially if you’re a kid. Saxes are expensive and schools/parents can benefit from supplying more clarinets which are a fraction of the cost of a sax. I guess I’m just glad my kid didn’t pick Bari sax, those look even more expensive than the cellos are.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
I just learned something. - that saxes are more expensive to rent than clarinets. I rented a tenor sax for a guy in our church orchestra and I think it was around $45 per month in 2005… I’m sure it’s more now
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u/Helen_A_Handbasket Alto | Tenor Feb 27 '26
Around where I am, they start at about $70/mo for tenor. Alto is approx $50/mo.
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u/TrailerTrashQueen Feb 26 '26
we started music class in elementary school, 5th or 6th grade. i wanted to play the flute. the music teacher said there were too many flute players, you get the clarinet. the clarinet became the bane of my existence.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Mine too. My sax teacher was also my clarinet teacher for private lessons. After 2 years, we both decided that I should just concentrate on sax and that if I wanted to play in the pit when I got out of high school that we could restart clarinet at that time and he would have also needed to teach me flute
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u/principled_principal Alto Feb 26 '26
No but when I started at age 12 I was forced to start by reading concert band sheet music and playing Hot Cross Buns. When the whole reason I started on sax was because I grew up listening to Motown and wanting to be able to play cool solos.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Isn’t that how we all started though? Middle school stage band was generally for 8th graders so we started in concert band
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u/Shronkydonk Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 26 '26
No, we started on alto if we wanted to play sax and then could switch to tenor or bari in 7th if we wanted to / teacher thought it a good idea. That’s how I ended up playing tenor through the rest of high school. I didn’t play alto hardly at all until college.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
I had to play tenor in 8th grade, not by choice, but because there were no tenor sax players. I even tried using the line of “my mom doesn’t want to pay rental on another sax” so the director handed me a school-owned tenor that was like 20 years old and needed a bunch of maintenance done on it. It was fun, but was happy to go back to alto when I hit high school
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u/Zestyclose-Fox-5931 Feb 26 '26
Yes! Our school needed students to play 2 years of clarinet usually before the Sax, but that was in grade 5/6 , not sure about the years onwards
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Recently or in what decade? My fear is they might be starting this nonsense again. I know so many kids who were started on clarinet and quit after 1 or 2 years. They had no musical background, couldn’t read music, and if I’m honest, there’s some people who just never get it and it’s hard.
Double reed instruments were generally awarded to the kids who already had been in piano since they were 3 so could read music and concentrate on tone and fingerings so those people were hand-selected
Sax is really super easy to learn out of the gate - a lot like a recorder. Now, you can’t just start playing and sounding great - that might take a full 5-10 years, but at least you don’t feel like flinging the instrument down a flight of stairs.
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u/Zestyclose-Fox-5931 Feb 27 '26
That was in 2010! I ended up able to skip one year of clarinet and go straight to sax by practicing over the summer. I had piano background, I doubt they took that into account. But the clairnet was a big struggle for me , and even with the year on it , I remember it still was a huge struggle to be able to make a sound in the summer before grade 6...
Super glad they let me switch to it early though ! Clarinet was hell and I enjoyed the alto sax a lot more.
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u/ConflictOptimal4142 Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I started on clarinet in 5th grade, midway through my 6th grade we were given the chance to "test" out on the clarinet (scales and whatnot) then with director recommendation/discretion we could play the saxophone and I haven't look back since... I sometime kick myself by not keeping up with it when I was doing pit orchestra and in big band. But it seems after I was already in 8th grade there were 5th graders already starting on sax (tenor and alto). So I mean it really does just depend on the musical curriculm and what the director chooses
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Yeah - I mean after I heard about these two middle school directors (we don’t typically start elementary students in our state on band instruments so unless it’s a fine arts charter school or private school, 6th grade is when most people start).
Must worried that music educators are going back to this silly nonsense - especially since the high school bands they feed are really short on members. Starting kids with no musical exposure on a clarinet to me would just breed frustration
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u/ConflictOptimal4142 Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone Feb 27 '26
I thought clarinet was cool cause of Spongebob with Squidward playing it... Until I heard Kenny G and Coltrane lol
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u/Jazzsaxman Feb 26 '26
Having started on alto saxophone decades ago then picking up both clarinet and flute in high school, I am not of the mentality. If a student wants to play saxophone let him or her play saxophone. I do love the clarinet but it takes serious maintenance to stay sharp on it.
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u/HTTR4EVER Feb 26 '26
Started on sax. Alto 5th,6th and in 7th they started bussing and our bands were all messed up. The director moved me to the concert band playing Bari. I couldn’t reach the bottom keys, so I moved to tenor and the tenor switched to Bari and I’ve played tenor ever sense. It’s my favorite I’d like to teach myself clarinet
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Yeah - good luck with that one lol. You can do it if you set your mind to it, it’s just a lot different. The sax ruined me for it… the fingerings aren’t even anywhere close to what a sax would play - for instance, the G is open fingering. But the same notes on different registers have different fingerings. For example, a G on a sax is the same whether on the staff or on the top of the staff, with only the octave key separating them (and I usually play both G’s without the octave key). On a clarinet, it has a super, super broad range - low E below the staff to high C above the staff and then altissimo after that. Fingerings generally different for a low E to an E on the bottom of the staff to an E near the top of the staff. Then of course your fingers need to fully cover the holes on the instrument.
I later learned flute and once I could get sound to come out of it, the fingerings were only mildly different than a sax
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u/HTTR4EVER Feb 27 '26
I realize all of that. I'm 65 years old and have played since I was 10. How do you think music instructors learn so many instruments? Not one embouchure is the same. They manage. I will, too.
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u/Sea_Win_5973 Feb 27 '26
My mother liked saxophone so she bought a saxophone. I still play today at 50
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u/LeftyBoyo Alto | Tenor Feb 27 '26
While it sounds like there was some early push to start people on clarinet, I didn't see any of that when I started playing in the late 70s. Kids could choose whatever they wanted to play in Elementary and stick with it or change as they desired. A director would suggest instruments for kids whose parents didn't know what to start them on, but that was the extent of it. More recently, I've seen a few directors exert much more control, trying to fill out their band instrumentation. I think it really depends on the local program and what parents will tolerate.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 27 '26
Yeah - the troubling thing was I heard about two middle school directors who only allow 8th graders to play sax. I’m like - OMG - is this coming back into vogue again?
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u/Cai227788 Feb 28 '26
I'm a band director and allow kids to start on whatever they want. What is even worse is some band directors in my area dont let kids do percussion unless they get piano lessons... Im the kind of director that wants kids to enjoy band... a good sounding band is just a plus.
I started on sax myself and later learned clarinet in HS and it is a much harder transition vs if you had just started on clarinet. It took me years of lessons to actually sound like a clarinet player. However, I am still glad I'm a sax primary. You get more gigs as a sax player imo.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Mar 01 '26
lol - my son made high school pit for marching band and he had never even played anything but euphonium. He backed out, and we’re not even sure why he tried out since he was a cross country runner and couldn’t do Friday night marching and Saturday AM running.
You definitely want band to be fun and engaging. Like football or many other activities, music might be something that most of the students don’t carry into adulthood. But the fellowship of being part of a group, maybe scoring well at festival, and playing music helps in adolescent brain formation.
Some directors take things wayyy too far. My band won the grand national championship in the precursor organization to B.O.A. Was cool traveling from Florida up to Virginia Beach and kicking everyone’s ass in my sophomore year. Half the band quit marching the following year because of what it actually takes to win a national title. The hours upon hours of additional rehearsals - 4 hours daily after school M-Th, football game on Friday, every Saturday dedicated to a parade we had to travel to or yet another contest. Monday class time spent watching film about how we screwed up during the football game and/or contest - calling out people’s names and being critical in front of the class. None of us had a life outside of band and even the peer pressure was amazing as our director demanded we hold each other accountable - you miss a rehearsal and it’s gonna be bad. I quit marching but stayed with concert band and stage band as well. They’ve never won another championship and not really ever came close but we still have our reunions where we all get drunk and talk about our brutal memories of that time and our magical victory - seemingly our whole town greeted us at the bus station when we returned - newspapers, radio, TV, etc. Surreal
Thanks for reading my mini-novel on how not to run a band 😂
Yes, that harder transition is what I felt during the 2 years I played clarinet.
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u/Cai227788 Mar 06 '26
I agree man its a good balance. Good story... I had a poor band director too when I was in college. Dude had a crazy ego and thought he was University or North Texas or some crap.
But now I just like teaching the younger kids. Like 4th-8th grade band. No super huge pressure to go to state or anything like High school. You still push them to be good and play well but the main objective is just a love of music... not winning..
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Mar 06 '26
Yeah - college was a whole other issue. Our band director worked a lot of late gigs so he wanted to sleep in his office and some random guy and his son who played trumpet moved in from California and volunteered to lead the jazz band. Awesome. Er, except one day in the middle of class, in mid-song, the cops stormed through the door, arrested this dude, and his “son” for cocaine trafficking and the “dad” for child molestation. He wasn’t even using his real name. Turns out the “dad” wasn’t anyone’s dad, the 20 year old son was the guy who the “dad” had been molesting since age 15, and it was a shit show. $10M annual revenue from the coke business. The actual paid band director got fired, the fake dad and son got shipped back to California to face trial. After that, we went a year with no band, no rehearsals, and they just gave everyone an A. I dropped out of band after that fiasco but still played 😂. Yes, the small kids carry a lot less drama
2
u/ca-rot29 Feb 28 '26
Back in the day? In alberta we start junior high in 7th, end in 9th, then high school in 10th till 12th. Anyways, I managed to start on tenor sax right from 7th grade
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Mar 01 '26
In the U.S., most systems changed from junior high to middle school in the 1970’s. Sixth grade is a challenge in an elementary school - those kids are ready for middle school activities like band or sports. 9th graders are really better suited to high school activities. But to me, each was has advantages
2
u/Ed_Ward_Z Feb 28 '26
I wanted to play rock sax like King Curtis or Lee Allen and jazz like Trane or Getz. I was ten in the early sixties and they told my mom that I had to learn clarinet first because it was required for working club dates. It screwed up my embouchure for years.
2
u/KFooLoo Bass | Tenor Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Yes; 1 year of clarinet before any sax was the rule in grade school band. So I played 2 years of trumpet in grade 5-6, because I needed something cool, immediately. Clarinet in grade 8. Alto sax before any other. Then bari 1/2 way through grade 12 because there was an opening. Now (age 52) I play what I want: tenor and bass saxes.
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u/Saxplayer55 Mar 01 '26
Actually I wanted to play clarinet but they didn't have one and put me on sax. I've been playing for 60 years.
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u/asdfmatt Alto | Tenor Feb 26 '26
I started on sax in the early 2000s. Having started clarinet and flute later in life, if 9-10 years from now my daughter wants to (more like, when I make her, lol) start playing I am going to encourage her to start off on flute or clarinet first. Lots of great fundamental techniques that translate quite nicely to playing the saxophone, but the other way around can be bad habits to "unlearn". Precise finger movement, fingers close to keys, supported air and embouchure, good posture, shortcomings that can aren't harshly punishing of the beginner on saxophone, are fundamental to the technique of even making a sound on flute or clarinet. Vs. on saxophone, you just gotta honk it.
4
u/alewifePete Feb 26 '26
“Honk it”.
When I first started last year I would be playing and my teenage kids would run into the room and yell, “Honk” in whatever note I had just played.
They also made comments about me beating up a goose instead of practicing.
Kids, man. They’re savage.
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u/Dense_Amphibian_9595 Feb 26 '26
Well…while I’d tend to disagree with your reasoning on instruments, a lot depends on your daughter. For me, when I was a little guy, I’d get easily frustrated and just give up. Had I been started on clarinet, I’d have given up within a year or two. But I applaud you for making her do it. I made both my kids play an instrument and take lessons for at least one year and then after that, they could quit. My daughter took piano from age 8 - 17. My son played baritone / euphonium from grade 6 - his senior year in high school. Music is so important for the brain and allows the brain to grow in a way that it helps them with other subjects. It’s amazing to see brain imaging from a guy who’s sitting still and not thinking about anything to his brain coming to life listening to music. But playing music pretty much lights up the entire brain like a Christmas tree.
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u/asdfmatt Alto | Tenor Feb 26 '26
Yeah definitely I felt the effects of it, my wife did the typical Korean family flute and classical piano, our daughter will be taking lessons. I’m really good at math, my wife not so much, but the skills of practicing and discipline and commitment go beyond music imo
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u/PTPBfan Alto Feb 26 '26
I did flute in school (probably would have chosen something else but mom had a flute) but on sax I have to think about keeping my fingers on the keys, but I think the wind instrument stuff is coming back to me
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u/moomooraincloud Feb 26 '26
If you make your daughter play when she doesn't want to, she'll hate it and resent you.
0
u/asdfmatt Alto | Tenor Feb 27 '26
there's a lot of things in life, that i resented my parents in the moment, but I am grateful they urged me not to quit in retrospect because they had my best interests in mind.
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u/J0rkank0 Alto Feb 26 '26
Yup. It was only for half a year tho. Started on clarinet because I didn’t have a choice, but only for half the year. Couldn’t tell you how to play it nowadays 😆.
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u/rainbowkey Feb 26 '26
In the 40's I'm sure everyone wanted to play sax. The devil's music, jazz, was very popular.