Author: hautbois francais
Date: 2010-07-18 13:51
Some more of my 2c comments:
I started with the piano at 4. Violin at 7. Guitar at 9. Bagpipes at 12. Finally, oboe at 13. I took the ABRSM exams for all except the Bagpipes. I went the furthest in terms of graded exams on the oboe. Why the oboe ?
Few played the Oboe in the 70s and there was little or no compeition in getting a place into youth orchestras. It was a hard instrument to play and reeds took a lot of patience to learn and to make good reeds.
At my school band recruiting exercise, I tried out for the clarinet and hated the sound. Many in those days played it. Saxophones were popular then too. Youth orchestra auditions had tens of people trying out for 2 places in the orchestra. So, to experience orchestra was a 0% chance for me on a clarinet. That limited to band exposure for the clarinet, because most bands have at least a handful of clarinetists. And also, I hated band music, because we had to do march along with the music and fully dressed in band uniforms in the scorching sun. Instead, I joined the bagpipe band and at least there was some challenge in blowing the pipes and the reed was also a double reed. Pipe music was interesting in that it used, trills and ornaments to break up the notes. The air is continous. And generally more fun to play and be good at it.
In short, expose kids to as many thing as possible and they may end up liking something very much or NONE at all. You can influence them as much as you can, but ultimately, kids will need to do all the work on the instrument. Are they willng to put in the time ? Have they the patience to take it all the way to be good ? These are things that kids must be willing to do. Mastering an instrument is part of character building for kids. These are questions you must ask yourself about your kids. Mastering an instrument is a big investment for parents, if they give up halfway after u have spent a bunch of $$$, then it will be $$$ down the drain......and dont regret if you kid decides to give up music in favor of sports or studies for example or BNG relationships for most teenagers !!
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The Oboe BBoard
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