Can anyone tell me what is fun about playing the clarinet?

[toomuchtooold]

My kids (not in the UK) are getting the chance to learn a wind instrument at school and they've both picked clarinet. I did clarinet at school but this was in Scotland in the 80s, you didn't get to pick what instrument you wanted, they just sized you up and went "aye she's got a decent pair of lungs on her, give her the clarinet" and that was it. My kids have had the full choice of brass and woodwind and they've both opted for the parping black pipe... I just don't get it. Did I miss the point? I played the bloody thing for five years before I managed to get out of it and I hated every minute of it.

Whaaaat?! It's a lovely instrument and a great one to learn on. You can get a good sound even as a beginner, and you can go on to play loads of different types of music. (Jazz, classical, wind band etc...). Also, an easier instrument to lug around to classes than the tuba or euphonium...(I switched from the latter to the clarinet at about 11 for many reasons...but this was not a minor one!).

The only problem is there are so many about, you do have to be pretty good to get into youth orchestras where there are only a couple of spaces (I never made the cut), but that's not generally an issue at school level. And there are other groups to play in.

Plus, all other wind players have major personality flaws, but clarinettists are very normal and nice

I played the clarinet and loved it. You can play either classical or jazz stuff. Good for orchestras and bands without the drama of the violinists who always seemed to be fighting over who got first seat. Later on I moved on to bass clarinet which was fab as there was little competition so I got in to a very reputable group without practicing 6 hours a day, got to do tours and play at the Albert Hall and so on.

Don't know tbh, OP. I played the oboe for years (my parents'choice) and never really saw the attraction of it. I'd have been much happier with a stringed instrument, personally...violin, viola or maybe cello.

I'm 48 and thinking about getting a clarinet. I played the oboe at school, but they are so expensive.

The learners sound terrible. On a par with the early violin scrapers imo.

Anything you choose yourself is the best though.

@rbe78 has beaten me to it - I was about to say "you get to play the opening of Rhapsody in Blue."

And the Mozart concerto and quintet.

And jazz - not many instruments are suited to both (yes, I know in theory you can play jazz on anything, but in reality it just doesn't work on everything - as a violinist I'm pretty meh about jazz violin, and as for jazz flue, shudder.)

The clarinet has a massive and diverse repertoire, including orchestral, jazz and big band. Tried to get my DC to go for trumpet or clarinet on this basis. Obviously this put them right off, and I now have a flautist and and oboeist. It's baroque around the clock in our house.

I loved playing the clarinet even though my hands weren’t big enough when I started playing. I guess I chose a woodwind because of my asthma, but the clarinet is much better than oboe or flute!! You can also play all different types when you get better. I used to play bass clarinet in an orchestra and enjoyed that too. We had a group of five of us with four different types I think