<p>For what it’s worth, my S started on clarinet in 4th grade, moved to Sax in 6th and to bassoon in 8th. He continued both sax and bassoon through high school and loved both. Played sax with jazz band and bassoon with concert band.</p>
<p>Have you considered the viola? My S picked it up in the 6th grade because in his words “the cello won’t fit in the car and the violin is too squeaky”. It is an instrument in much demand for orchestras and not many kids play it (compared to the violin). Because of this he had many opportunities to play in youth symphonies and chamber groups that he never would have had had he been playing the violin. Playing with these groups kept his interest in music through HS. If he desired I’m sure he could play with groups now that he’s in college.</p>
<p>One downside - I don’t think they have violas in marching bands.</p>
<p>Can you son begin private lessons outside of school before fourth grade? That is late to begin playing an instrument, especially if there is an interest.</p>
<p>Marching bands usually don’t begin until high school during football season. If his interest is a string instrument, he has years to go and can switch instruments.</p>
<p>I have a child who is on his 18th year of playing the violin. It hasn’t sounded squeaky for years. I fell asleep last night listening to him play concertos.</p>
<p>Another fun instrument is the recorder. I think they come in wood and plastic.
We have a plastic one, given to us by the school in second grade, and it is stilled played.</p>
<p>Hi all. I didn’t realize that this had continued, but I am glad that it did. To clarify on some things:</p>
<p>a) We do not have a marching band. I guess I could call it a school orchestra, but it is only woodwinds, brass, and percussion. No strings at all. The band teacher also puts together a separate jazz band component at the school concerts which is basically brass.</p>
<p>b) I appreciate the advice about clarinet, and I am inclined to put down clarinet and oboe as two of his 3 choices, I don’t know what to put for the third. My intent right now is to let him know that if he cannot play the bassoon now as he wanted to, that there is a “plan” in place to help him get there, and I seem to be reading a lot of opinion that there is no really good instrument to transition from. Of course, his goals may change, maybe he’ll fall in love with another instrument. I think it’s too bad that the flute is probably out, I really like Greg Patillo, the beatbox flute player. But what he will remember is that I tried for him and took him seriously. </p>
<p>c) I suppose I would make the same deal with my son that I made with his sister. I initially rented a flute for my daughter, but I promised her in the 4th grade that if she played her instrument for several years, that I’d eventually buy her one. I did so when she entered the 9th grade. Actually, my daughter had been accepted to a private school on scholarship for 9th grade, and it became evident immediately that she was too musically talented for the school when she surpassed all but 7 of the Juniors and Seniors in competing for a chair and stopped competing because they were getting mad at her. Then the teacher starting using her to help teach the others and she came home saying that they were playing “Barney music”. It seemed obvious that by Junior year, there’d be nothing there for her musically, and I realized that it was important. Over many objections, I allowed her to leave the private school and go back to the public. I do not regret that decision because ultimately she had to do the work and I knew that a school life without music would have impacted her grades and made her miserable. It is ironic though that she is not planning to even minor in music. Still, she will have had the gift of knowing how to play that instrument for the rest of her life. </p>
<p>d) I don’t think that my son minds being unique, he is social, but also does not seem to care much about whether his peers like him. He stayed in dance lessons as the only boy, and yesterday he blew me away. We watched him at his dance recital and it is unreal how he can tap after only a year of lessons. For his ballet, he actually had to turn the little girl and then do a lift, and he did look exasperated but he did his part (she’s not his favorite person after she said she didn’t want to be touched by a boy). But he really commanded the stage. What I find amazing is that he remembers his routines without music, and as smart as I am, I always forgot my steps once I left the dance studio. He also has a real knack for puzzles. He’s also now the best gymnast in his group and has been invited to try out for a team. He can put almost anything together. If I were to base his capabilities solely on his school performance, I’d rule out an oboe, french horn, or basssoon because I have a hell of a time getting him to write and do his homework. However, these other physical talents/traits make me think that he may be really good at remember physical things, like touching the keys of an instrument. </p>
<p>The local music store does have one close holed flute and he did say that they are rare. </p>
<p>Someone on another board suggested a mini-bassoon or temporoon, but they are not available in the U.S…</p>
<p>All of this stuff about making reeds does seem to be a big deterrent to even starting on an oboe or bassoon, because I am afraid that I will end up with a child who gave up on music. At our school, you do basically have to keep moving with the band from the 4th grade on. You really can’t just sign up in the 8th grade and say “I want to learn an instrument”, whereas you can in the 4th grade.</p>
<p>D started with clarinet in grade 4–switched to bassoon at end of grade 8. Still plays for ‘fun’ in college, not a music major.</p>
<p>Playing bassoon requires big enough hands. A starter bassoon is 3K-5K! When your child gets older, he or she can probably borrow an instrument from their HS and try it out.</p>
<p>Another issue with bassoon is finding a teacher. We live in the crowded northeast, and D had to travel 30 min. each way for a lesson.</p>
<p>Let your child experience music, see if the love is there, then think about bassoons later!</p>
<p>Re strings: try to interest your S in the cello! There is always a huge demand for violas and cellos in ensembles, and the competition for spots is less fierce than among violins. (My S plays the violin: my pro-cello efforts failed with him! 
) The cello has two advantages over the viola for your S: it is a true solo instrument as well as an ensemble instrument, and it comes in sizes. (You said he was small for his age.) Violas do vary in size, but they don’t come in half and three-quarter sizes and the like.</p>
<p>Personally, I love the oboe, but it does have the reputation of being hard to play. It is easy to transport, though!</p>
<p>I’d stay away from the tuba. Not only does it have a limited repertoire, but it is a pain to carry around and orchestras usually have only one. In my area, the same very good tuba player was the only one in the youth symphony and in All State for his entire high school career. The rest of the tuba players never got the chance to play orchestral music. </p>
<p>There’s a lot to be said for the sax as a band instrument. And it also takes a major role in rock, blues, and jazz groups, so there are lots of musical options.</p>
<p>As someone else said, private lessons are crucial.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This depends on the school. DD plays oboe/English horn (no marching band music for those instruments). She was NEVER asked to play another instrument when the band marched. She carried the banners or flags, and as a senior started the color guard. Her high school band director didn’t support the idea of forcing a student who had chosen an “orphan instrument” to play something else during marching band. Plus the embochure for the oboe/english horn/bassoon is VERY different than for other instruments. No point in having a student deal with this just for the sake of marching. Someone had to carry the flags. Our band director chose the double reed players.</p>
<p>To the OP…your school has what our school has…a Concert Band…that is a band that primarily plays in concerts, and doesn’t really march. Our bands only march three times a year in parades…we don’t have a football team.</p>
<p>And you don’t HAVE to make your own reeds…there are a lot of places that sell them. An elementary school student will NOT be required to make their own reeds…even a middle school student doesn’t have to do so. You can buy them. Don’t view that as a deterrent. The thing is that as the players become more proficient, they actually WANT to make their own reed because they can customize them. My daughter started making her own reeds in 9th grade, but we still continued to purchase premade ones also. And she would “fix those up” to suit her needs. She is a college student and only began to use oboe reeds that SHE made herself the last year she was in high school. She purchases ALL of her English Horn reeds from Forrests in the bay area (where she goes to college).</p>
<p>I posed the subject of this thread to D who is a pretty serious musician. She has been been playing the bassoon since sixth grade and has been very successful with it. She has also dabbled with a few other instruments over the years, but bassoon has always been her first love. </p>
<p>She agreed that she has seen others go from clarinet to bassoon. But interestingly, she suggested that the best pre-instrument preparation for the bassoon is the piano. She said the keys/notes follow the same order, and the written music for piano is almost the same as for the bassoon which makes for an easy transition in that regard. </p>
<p>That said, her opinion is that it would probably be fine to just start with a beginning bassoon whereby the keys are a little closer together. She said although it was hard to reach some of the keys in the beginning, she has literally grown into the instrument over time. Her experience is that you find ways to get it done even though it’s not a perfect fit in the beginning. Plus, she says in the beginning you are working so many basic principles and techniques the fact you can’t reach all the keys or play all the notes is not a hindrance to your overall progression. To a lesser extent she also expressed the possibility of getting into bad habits trying to go between different types of wind instruments. She says some of the the techniques you learn with the bassoon are pretty specific in nature and can sometimes be made harder to learn if you are used to playing a different wind instrument, or worse, switching back and forth between them regularly. </p>
<p>Lastly, as others have said, it’s not necessary to know how to make your own reeds. She has leaned how to make them, and enjoys doing so, but she just learned that skill about a year ago. Even so, she still prefers the ones made by one of her private instructors. I personally can’t tell the difference, but they are somehow able to discern one from another. </p>
<p>Speaking of private instructors, I agree with the others that it is a must for anyone who wants to play bassoon. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your messages. </p>
<p>I am still waiting to hear from the man who is going to try to modify the bassoon. I ran into my son’s future school music teacher and she was in a hurry, but said that the modified bassoon is fine, that if it doesn’t work, he can start on either the clarinet or oboe, whichever! </p>
<p>AHHHH! I REALLY wish that she would have made this decision for me, told me that one is REALLY better than the other, because I take from this that I’m going to have to take him to music stores over the summer, let him have a crack at both, and see which goes better. This way of doing things kind of goes against my policy of giving things time though! I mean, if I were to start him on oboe, I expect that it could take many lessons before we are justified in saying “Ok, let’s forget the oboe”, and would not want him to just quit over the first stumbling block. Or I can start him on the clarinet, which sounds “easier” to learn, but why underestimate my son’s abilities and he’d get to learn a “rarer” instrument? </p>
<p>My daughter did work with my son on the flute last night to see if he could do it (because that was also a possible transition to bassoon), and while he was able to blow into it, she did say that while he could do it, his “parrot” lip does impede him a bit. So I am probably not even going to consider that, why bother.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but I agreed to let my son try violin this summer because he’d hassled me for months and the rental is free for the summer with lessons. His school band does not have any string instruments, and I am still going to insist that he pick something for school band because whereas his access to music at school will be consistent, access to my pocketbook for private lessons may not be, and I wanted him to be involved in fun activities at school.</p>
<p>Well, my son was taught how to hold the violin and bow and how to bow each string in the first lesson. He came home after the lesson, and with minor sloppiness at times, nailed the bowing in about 10 minutes. My husband vaguely remembered some of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, and showed him what he knew. My son then proceeded to goof off with the violin the next several days, and hadn’t really picked it up for a couple of days.</p>
<p>I thought that he wouldn’t learn to read music for awhile. We go into the 2nd lesson last night, and he went right into the bowing. She complimented the way that he held the violin, said that his bowing was good, and so she’s going to skip the plucking and go right to bowing and reading music (!!!). My son learned how to read A and D notes and played 3 little musical sections where the A and D are alternated just fine, and that’s his assignment for the week.</p>
<p>Having no training, I do not know if this is a normal pace, but I am thinking that if things continue like this, I will feel compelled to continue these lessons after the summer. This is on top of his invitation to try out for the gymnastics team (mucho bucks unless I’m a good fundraiser), his clear aptitude for dance demonstrated to me at last weekend’s dance recital, and his interest in playing the bassoon in school. </p>
<p>The things is that I think that ALL of these things are very worthwhile, there is a learning benefit in doing these things young, and for some of them there is a clear disadvantage in not doing them young (gymnastics/dance, supposedly the violin). </p>
<p>I am happy for him that he is doing well at these things. But with the monetary pressure of these activities, I am also starting to feel like I can’t afford my son, and that I feel sorry for him for being stuck with us as parents!</p>
<p>If the teacher says the modified bassoon is fine, if you can swing it logistically, and if he wants to play the bassoon, then there is a lot to be said for the bassoon.</p>
<p>If bassoon won’t work, and the teacher says that either clarinet or oboe is fine, and if you can handle both logistically, then there is a great deal to be said for asking your son which he likes better and going with that. </p>
<p>The single most important thing about an instrument is that the student likes it. Not the alleged ease or difficulty of playing it, not the “rarity” of it.</p>
<p>I’ve played the clarinet. The clarinet might be “easy” to start, but no instrument, certainly not the clarinet imho, is easy to play at a high level. All instruments require skill, dedication, endless practice to reach a high level. A child is far, far more likely to do the work if he/she actually likes the instrument!</p>
<hr>
<p>Choose with confidence: a reasonable choice in fourth grade is not likely to be a “wrong” choice. Learning to read music, learning to practice, getting some satisfaction out of playing the instrument and being in an ensemble, are all going to be beneficial even if, a year or two down the road, your son switches to another instrument.</p>
<p>ADad is absolutely correct: the single most important thing is that the kid like the instrument. Nothing else really matters, because if s/he loves it, s/he will practice it. Many kids actually switch instruments after a few years, and are very successful with the second one because of that basis, so no time put into an instrument is “lost.” </p>
<p>It sounds as if your son really likes the violin. I suggest that you pursue that, and only add another instrument if he asks for it. (I’ve known a number of people who play both the violin and the viola, and it expands ensemble opportunities. I also know at least one kid who switched from violin to cello.) Playing the violin is great for ear training, and the earlier the better.</p>
<p>My S never had a school string program to participate in either. Instead, he played in the regional youth symphony (and before that in their ensembles for younger string players). He also participated in some string quartet seminars and programs, which are very rewarding. At school, he did find ways to participate:he played the violin in the pit orchestra for several drama club musicals, and would occasionally be asked to play a solo at some school event. So there are ways to make it happen.</p>