Teaching Clarinet to Sax
In the past several years I have read how starting out a student on clarinet then moving them to sax is a positive process.
Being a clarinet and sax player I though from what I read that that was a good idea. Though in my personal experience I started out on sax then 4 years later on my own picked up clarinet. I was equally good at both of them. Of course being a student I really wanted to learn clarinet and picked it up quickly and progressed quickly. Of course, later on I also picked up french horn, flute, percussion and cello. So I loved to learn.
But being a parent puts us in a position of seeing out children go through this process.
My oldest son picked up the saxophone. I think he did this primarily because I was a sax player.
My second oldest son this past year also wanted to play saxophone. But, to my surprise they now put kids on clarinet and then they switchover to saxophone.
What I found what that my son liked playing the clarinet though had difficulties. First difficulty was putting the clarinet together properly. I sanded the corks down to make it ever so easy to put together, and worked with him for literally hours over several weeks just on putting the clarinet together. But he never really got the knack of it. He practiced but only occasionally.
His finger placement was different. He has much thicker fingers than me and was able to play the rings with his second digit versus his finger tip. I cant even do that as my 2nd digit is too thin and boney to cover the rings properly.
But luckily with the new year someone switched to saxophone, thus the sax that I bought him replaced the clarinet and off he went. He nearly practices everyday now. He is much more involved in looking through the internet and finding YouTube players learning to play the music that they are learning. And over all the experience is much more positive for him.
Thus he played clarinet for approximately 4 months.
The biggest difficulty we had was the transition. There basically was no transition. I had to teach him the basics of playing the saxophone as they were already in many pages in the beginner book and there was no going back. Thus we did all the beginner beginner stuff under my tutelage. Luckily he picked it up quickly and has never looked back.
Thus looking back at the idea of clarinet to saxophone I have to say that I certainly didnt like the structure. My son didnt really like the clarinet but he stumbled through it. Then the transition was nonexistent.
Going back now I should have contacted the director, but one would assume communications to the parents. Apparently one parent switched him and then slowly a few other switched after the kids told their parents.
Additionally, having to teach my own child is one thing, but parents out there in the same situation that are not players can create another sort of havoc.
In the end I think the clarinet to sax process is a bad one, but then I also know the process in place was also a bad one.
Im curious what other experiences people have had with their children.
In the past several years I have read how starting out a student on clarinet then moving them to sax is a positive process.
Being a clarinet and sax player I though from what I read that that was a good idea. Though in my personal experience I started out on sax then 4 years later on my own picked up clarinet. I was equally good at both of them. Of course being a student I really wanted to learn clarinet and picked it up quickly and progressed quickly. Of course, later on I also picked up french horn, flute, percussion and cello. So I loved to learn.
But being a parent puts us in a position of seeing out children go through this process.
My oldest son picked up the saxophone. I think he did this primarily because I was a sax player.
My second oldest son this past year also wanted to play saxophone. But, to my surprise they now put kids on clarinet and then they switchover to saxophone.
What I found what that my son liked playing the clarinet though had difficulties. First difficulty was putting the clarinet together properly. I sanded the corks down to make it ever so easy to put together, and worked with him for literally hours over several weeks just on putting the clarinet together. But he never really got the knack of it. He practiced but only occasionally.
His finger placement was different. He has much thicker fingers than me and was able to play the rings with his second digit versus his finger tip. I cant even do that as my 2nd digit is too thin and boney to cover the rings properly.
But luckily with the new year someone switched to saxophone, thus the sax that I bought him replaced the clarinet and off he went. He nearly practices everyday now. He is much more involved in looking through the internet and finding YouTube players learning to play the music that they are learning. And over all the experience is much more positive for him.
Thus he played clarinet for approximately 4 months.
The biggest difficulty we had was the transition. There basically was no transition. I had to teach him the basics of playing the saxophone as they were already in many pages in the beginner book and there was no going back. Thus we did all the beginner beginner stuff under my tutelage. Luckily he picked it up quickly and has never looked back.
Thus looking back at the idea of clarinet to saxophone I have to say that I certainly didnt like the structure. My son didnt really like the clarinet but he stumbled through it. Then the transition was nonexistent.
Going back now I should have contacted the director, but one would assume communications to the parents. Apparently one parent switched him and then slowly a few other switched after the kids told their parents.
Additionally, having to teach my own child is one thing, but parents out there in the same situation that are not players can create another sort of havoc.
In the end I think the clarinet to sax process is a bad one, but then I also know the process in place was also a bad one.
Im curious what other experiences people have had with their children.