Learning clarinet, bad idea?

[ChattingAlong]

Ds plays the piano to a decent standard (ABRSM Grade 3 with distinction and plays pieces at grade 5 or 6 level reasonably well)

He barely practices nowadays though and really has lost his mojo. He is busy with secondary school, friends and sports. Whilst he enjoys playing the piano, he is a sociable and rather extrovert character and doesn't like the solitary element of playing the piano. He says he'd much rather be a member of an orchestra than be tucked away in a room and play a solitary instrument.

He has a decent grasp of music theory, how long would it realistically take him to be play at Grade 2 level and join the school orchestra (he's currently in Y7)? I don't expect he'd practice more than 15 minutes a day, knowing him. Is it a bad idea to let him try? What other orchestra instruments are relatively 'easy' if he wanted to try?

It’s a single line instrument and once he’s got the hang of breath control and where the notes are he should do well and pick it up quite easily. It’s worth a try

Within six months, if he practices. Once he masters breath control and tonguing, it's mostly fingering and then musicality.

I guess it depends how often he has lessons and practises. My daughter got to grade 2 clarinet with no previous knowledge of playing an instrument or reading music within 2 terms with a 20 minute lesson once a week and practising a couple of times a week. She loved being in an orchestra and went in to learn jazz piano which she loved too. What's also brilliant is that she could pick up the Sax relatively easily since she said it was similar to a clarinet (I have no idea as I don't play!)

Having played instruments from all the orchestral sections, clarinet is the easiest overall. Strings take years of technique. Brass takes practice to blow. Percussion is a PITA to have at home. And of the woodwind you have single and double reed, clarinet is single reed and also cheap to pick up second hand.

DS started learning the clarinet in Y7. Once they have developed the embouchure and learned the finger positions, they can progress quite quickly.
He was at a standard to join a school band by Y8, and went on to get his Grade 8 in Y12.

He had fixed braces for a couple of years in the middle, but managed to adjust.

If he wants to play in an orchestra
Then I'd say avoid woodwind instruments as once you get a bit better there are only a couple of each instrument per orchestra and it's often hard to find one with a space (speaking from bitter experience here!). I'd suggest either brass or strings as there's far more scope for playing.

Definitely worth a try.

Re: piano, remind him that grade 8 is equivalent to an A-level (I think?) on uni applications, and it sounds like with not too much work he could get there before his GCSEs. And accompanying people is very sociable, as is playing piano at parties.

I’d suggest he looks at trumpet or trombone as well. Opens up a world of brass band playing later on (though if he plays trumpet he might want / need to switch to cornet at that stage), and once you can play one brass instrument it’s relatively easy to switch to others.

DS1 was at grade 5 Piano when he started learning the Saxophone. He got a distinction at grade 4 within about 4 months of starting At the end of his first lesson he asked his teacher how to play chords on it 😮. When she laughed and told him that you can't, his response was 'oh it's easy then' 🤣.
DS2 made similar progress on Clarinet having started on piano.

He will pick it up very quickly, so he will enjoy it more. Hopefully.

It’s actually grade 6 upwards, but obviously more points the higher the grade and result.

That sounds all really positive, thank you for your comments, he''l most likely give it a go. It's a bit heart breaking that he will leave the pain behind (most likely) although he may come back to it on his ins terms later on.

he will leave the piano* behind 😊(although it's been a huge pain to get him to practice recent.