Can someone tell me about clarinets please?

[MrsWobbleTheWaitress]

We want to buy one for DD1 for her birthday next month. We can't spend a fortune. We're happy to buy second hand...we were thinking ebay but not sure how to do so sensibly.

What makes? What do we need to consider? What do we need to buy with it?

Also, what book would be good for her to start with. A teacher isn't an option right now - we just want it for her to fiddle around with until she gets keen enough to want to learn it formally. She's been learning recorder from a book for the last year.

When I was 8 I wanted to play the saxophone, but myself and my parents were told the same as you that I was too young, and should start the clarinet first.

But I didn't want to play the clarinet I wanted to play the saxophone.

Eventually my parents knowing how stubborn I was, got the school to provide music lessons on sax for me.

I was able to play it properly, and by 11 was Grade 4. I stopped at Grade 5, as I have no rhythm .

Two things I would say about the sax, one you need to learn how to blow correctly without blowing out your cheeks as that's a really hard habit to break, two it is very heavy, and does hurt around the neck esp at a young age, so buy the best possible sling you can, and ensure that it has plenty of padding around the back of the neck.

can anyone give me an idea as to what it entails to do grade 1 recorder or clarinet please?
dd has been learning recorder for 4 years and can play quite well(i believe and the teacher says she is good too)and can read the music really well.tunes she is enjoying at the moment are: a groovy kind of love, everybody loves saturday night,an abba and either westlife or some other pop group song as well as a disney tune(will come back and say the tunes but she has her music bag at school)
clarinet -she is doing alright but we get absolutely no feedback from the teacher as it s through the school day and he is not about at pick up time-has been playing greensleeves recently
is it worth doing exams?she is quite motivated and likes to see rewards to her work
thanks for the help as i am really not musically minded but it appears dd is and enjoys it.

I started playing the clarinet at 5 - had braces - due to overcrowding of jaw - played with brace in no problem
DC2 started clarinet at 7 - and sax at 11 - perfect teeth doesn't need braces.... plays about 2-3 hours a day.
I would advise getting a teacher if only to teach correct technique, mouth - breathing etc

The advice already given about waiting until the teeth are through and set is certainly what I've always heard from woodwind teachers.

You could find her a clarinet & sax teacher who also teaches recorder - many do. They could then start by taking her recorder playing a bit further, and be in a position to advise when to move on to another instrument.

Or you could get her some piano/keyboard lessons, which will be useful as a supporting skill whatever she does.

One thing I don't understand is why people often suggest the clarinet > sax progression? Why is the clarinet better to do first? I don't kno whether frakkinnuts or one of the other ww insiders could enlighten me on this.

It seems to me if a kid really likes jazz, then it's going to be sax that they end up wanting to play. I've heard clarinet is harder, so it may be useful to do that first as the sax is then easier. But if they really aren't going to end up bothering with the clarinet, why take the trouble? Especially when the sax is very similar fingering to the recorder, and the clarinet isn't. Why not just go straight from recorder to sax and make it easier?

Oh and frakkinnuts, I don't understand this:

Recorder is good - the fingering is the same for sax (sop and tenor)

I thought the fingering was the same for all saxes, it's only the transposition that's different? As recorder is in C, tenor sax is in Bb and Alto in Eb, then EITHER tenor or alto would involve a transposition of the original fingering in C... so surely it wouldn't make any difference which kind of sax (?)

Sorry for the derail... confused.