Which instrument for ds (8) - cello, flute, clarinet or oboe?

[bisjaralympics]

He is going to try them at school and will chose one. What are the pros and cons of each? Is one a better choice than the others?

Ds has tried the flute, clarinet and oboe. He said harps are for girls (I didn't bother to correct him!). He didn't mention the guitar but I'd rather he learnt an orchestral instrument.

He said he didn't do very well on the clarinet but did well on both the flute and the oboe. His favourite was the oboe. I shall speak to the director of music to check and then buy and endless supply of earplugs if ds does take up the oboe

My DS (9) plays the harp (lever not pedal), his teacher hasn't taught another boy and loves teaching him! Although expensive the best thing is that it sounds beautiful from the very early days. Luckily he is also tall so managed to go straight to a full size, though dreading the day he might want to move/try a pedal harp.

Good luck with the ear plugs.

DD, now 20 and at uni, plays flute and cello. She's much, much better on flute but gets more opportunities to play cello in orchestras. Flute players are very thick on the ground indeed while cellists are head-hunted.
But an orchestra would snap up a good oboe player and, as someone said, a clarinetist gets more opportunities to play jazz.

The cello is less easily transportable - watch the parental cars at orchestra drop off and you'll see that the cellists heave their instruments out of large hatchbacks while the woodwinds step lightly out of micras! (Until they're in the sixth form, then it's amazing how many kids and instruments can squeeze into a small car.)

Same when the school orchestra comes back from a tour. It takes ages to unload the big instruments from the coach. The flute players are heading home while the cellos are still being pulled out. But a flute is very easy to mislay.

A cello is a bit hard to live with when the beginner can't tune it and there's no one else in the house who can so it does need a bit more persistence at the start than the woodwind instruments.

A cello does take up a lot of room, especially in a student flat. Of the two instruments over the years the cello has demanded more maintenance. It isn't popular on a train and DD has one shoulder lower than the other from carrying hers. She loves it and wouldn't part with it for anything but the flute is an extension of her body.

Both continue to give immense pleasure!

It is great that he could try them. I hope he enjoys the oboe. A friend of mine plays to a very high standard at the national orchestra here (we're overseas) and when he plays it sounds lovely but of course at that level probably everything does!

My DS plays Clarinet (started at 7) was told about the teeth thing but he was OK

'tis indeed true about the cars. Ours houses 3 children, 2 trombones, 1 cello (still 3/4 thank god) a baritone sax, alto sax and a tuba. And stands. We are always last.

The coach didn't come for County Youth Orchestra one Saturday - and I phoned my dad to give me (and the two lads) a lift home (3.5miles home for me, no public transport available). Unfortunately he turned up in my mother's car - an old-style mini (attractive mustard yellow colour too). The two lads (one about 6') got into the back of the car with an oboe and somehow got a cello in there too, and my 6'4" father drove with his knees up around the steering wheel with me with the viola partially obscuring his visibility to the left. So cars with a cello don't need to be that big. In fact, we've managed two adults plus DS in his first stage seat and DH's double bass in a Polo.

[Harps are awful to transport!!!]

Child's instrument is more valuable than the car. Says it all. OP watch out!

I've just replaced my 10 year old car so I hope it will be many years before any instrument ds plays is more valuable than my new car!! At least the oboe is easy to transport but I'm amazed at how expensive it is. I'd (wrongly) assumed it would be a similar price to a clarinet. Not sure I understand why it seems to be five times the cost of a good student clarinet.

they are expensive, aren't they? I don't know why that is though.

The main advantages of the oboe - it is more portable than cello

• it is in C so no need to transpose music (Clarinet is in B flat)
• it is a "rarer" instrument, dd plays in a wind band and they are short of oboes!

If you are considering music scholarship for private school, playing a rare instrument could be an advantage as your child would stand out from all the violins and flutes!

It is definitely an advantage to play a rarer instrument - though it also means that good specialist teachers are scarcer. Most school orchestras/bands seem to resort to 'floboes'.

One advantage of a string instrument, certainly in this area, is that the county makes available small instruments for young beginners. You don't have to buy an instrument until you reach grade 4 or are big enough for a full-sized one.

If you want a 'rarer' instrument, play the viola or double bass - you still need many more of them in orchestras so are much more likely to be able to play in the long term (ie into adulthood)

Agree about double bassists being in demand in general. However, I've noticed over the years that these things go in waves locally. The availability of a good teacher in an area can make a less common instrument suddenly popular. After a few years there are some very good young players on the scene.
Here the cello used to be a rarity. When my DD began secondary school the cello section was padded out with staff players. A new teacher had come to the area the year before. Now there are cellos a-plenty but still no double bassists.
Mind you, tomorrow morning DD is going to attempt to squeeze all her worldy goods, including a cello, into a small car to go back to uni and I'm glad she decided on cello rather than double bass all those years ago.

I played the oboe from 11-14 and was in the school orchestra. It was hard, and I always wanted a clarinet instead, but my music teacher insisted that I had the right lips for the oboe and wouldn't let me change .

I remember always feeling light headed after practice sessions because I was only small and it took a lot of effort to get a tune out of the bloody thing it.

what are oboe lips like?

Quite a few seem to have oboe lessons at ds's school. Ds's teacher has offered to source a good secondhand oboe for me, which is great as I've no clue what to look for or where. I may have to get ds to do his practising at school until he can play something tuneful .