Help with choice of instument for dd will be 7.6 when she starts

[lexcat]

DD is desperate to start lesson but didn't want to do recorder this year but has got her heart set on the cello but the school don't do the cello. Her second choice is the saxaphone with trumpet or trombone as the next choices.
Is there some way for her to handle and try the intrument before she makes up her mind.
Plus is 7 1/2 a little young for the saxaphone. We are thinking about it now as it won't be long and we will need to put her name down for when she starts Y3 and can start lessons.

7 may be a touch young for brass generally too. ds was 9 when he took up tenor horn in September and only one or two younger ones play other brass instruments, most same age or older.

Think she may be too young for saxophone too my daughter's teacher wouldn't consider anyone who didn't have all their permanent incisors.

You need your adult front teeth (2 top, 2 bottom) for trumpet or trombone. Of course, trombone is quite cumbersome and heavy and needs fairly long arms. My dh has taught a couple of year 3s trombone, but probably best to wait until yr 4 or 5 (obviously depending on their size). He has taught loads of yr 3s (with front teeth) on trumpet, however. Cornet is slightly more compact and easier to hold than trumpet, though not a huge amount of difference.

He doesn't know much about saxophone, but thinks that most teachers don't start until at least year 4. My dh is always happy to see a child who is interested and let them have a go on the instrument before committing to any lessons.

From personal experience, would recommend an orchestral instrument (ie, not piano) as a lot of the fun when you're young comes from playing with other kids in windband, jazz bands etc. Plus once you know one instrument and can read music, it's pretty easy to pick up another like the piano.

In my school they used to assess you for musical , and those with 'it' got to do the string instruments. rest of us did recorder

DD has two friends the year above her who both play the trumpet both where 7 when they started.
Just googled info on the saxaphone and the clainet seen too be a good start.
Anyone start with the clarinet and moved to the sax and would that be a better instrument for dd to start with.
Hard as dd has had a thing for the sax since she was tiny. The other instrument are more recent loves.

NOT a violin - they sound so bloody awful until you are really proficient

I know a girl who started on clarinet and now plays sax. She is 14 now. My dd1 plays clarinet - she started when she was just past 8 and it seems to be going pretty well so far I have a friend who teaches bassoon btw - she has some younger pupils who have started on a mini bassoon as tyhe bassoon itself is pretty big! Don't know if that's very widely available though

Did the clarinet, it's supposedly easier than the sax (smaller) but hard on the mouth. I did clarient and the piano, much preferred teh piano but like I said, clarinet is more social

My daughter started with the clarinet then moved onto the alto sax but needed her two top and bottom front teeth before she could play and her hands had to have a certain span for the keys. It's fairly easy to move from clarinet to saxophone as the fingering is the same. Clarinet sounds truly horrible as her class teacher described it "like a wounded seal".

Ds1 has done violin since he was 5 and is loving it - he's in 2 orchestras (he's 6.10 now), and he is doing piano as well - he can hammer out Pirates of the Caribbean pretty well now! There are benefits to each, the violin is very sociable, but the piano is easier to get started on in that you don't have to hold it.

Flute might be easier than saxophone, or recorder is a good start for saxophone - if she learnt treble recorder then the fingering is the same as for saxophone. Bear in mind that you don't get saxes in orchestras - they are more 'band' instruments. So she might want to do something like flute or clarinet first, but again clarinet is a bit tougher for littlies.

I play the flute and she has nearly got the breathing but not really intrested. Had the chance to do recorder at start of Y2 and refused point blank as still does.
Really wished she would have tried the recorder as it a great fountation for music.

my dd did recorder first and enjoyed it - so then we thought we'd try clarinet. She already knows far more than me - not hard!

dd. is 8 nearly 9 and plays the clarinet among other instruments. She is doing really well but she is very small so progression will slow down. Also was advised to wait a while before starting clarinet due to teeth coming in.

She has been told to wait until year 6 to start sax.

If she continues with recorder for a year or so she will be giving herself a head start when she goes onto clarinet - dd. did this and is now able to teach herself recorder on the side.

I suggest one to one lessons - she will progress so much quicker

and practice most days

DS started the cornet (a smaller trumpet-type instrument, with a mellower sound) aged 5.5 He loved it from day 1. He has always had the same teacher (a peripatetic one at school, and luckily his school is 2-18 to he still has the same teacher now he is in senior school) He has 1 on 1 lessons, but I sat in with him for the first month or so, just so I knew what to do to help him practise at home!

He now plays for the County Junior Band, where the requirements are Grades 4-6 and most members are aged between 10 and 13 (and there are about 50 of them!)

IMO, minimum age for starting an instrument is dependent on emotional maturity, rather than physical age

Think she's coming round to the clarinet but will try the hard sell on the recorder again.
Thanks for all you help.
Will also ask the local music shop if she is able to handle a clarinet and saxaphone. So she can really get the idea of the wieght differents.

My 6-yr-old DD plays cornet too, aiming for trumpet when she's bigger. I asked about the teeth, but her teacher just shrugged and said 'So we miss a few weeks if we need to.' (He started playing at 3, so thinks 6 is positively ancient.)

Did anyone else hear the report about the gender bias in instrument choice? It caused some indignation in our house over breakfast (boy flautist and girl cornet-player here, and we also know a 12-yr-old boy harpist).

dd took her grade 1 clarinet after 6 months of lessons and got distinction - the recorder really helped her to move fast. She learnt the descant and treble and got to grade 3 before changing to the clarinet.

Play her some fabulous recorder music and take her to listen to some if you can.

very unusual ot have a boy harpist.

we have a boy flautist.

Cellos and Harps are expensive. My friend plays the Cello (professionally, so her cello is a good one but she has two, and the less valuable one cost 13,000stg.

I played the flute when I was younger. Lovely instrument for a child to play imo. You can get a piccolo if her hands are too small for a concertina flute.

You don't need to keep replacing the reeds either like on a clarinet.

I did recorder then flute then sax (with violin thrown in the middle). My flute teacher was NOT happy when I took up the sax due to the differences in embouchure. So, I gave up the flute.

In hindsight, I should have done clarinet instead of flute but I was able to pick up the clarinet at A-level because I played the sax. It was all made much easier by playing a range of recorders first though.

The different saxophones use different fingering so they are not all the same as the clarinet - the clarinet and treble recorder is the same fingering as a tenor saxophone but the alto sax (which is slightly smaller so more likely to be the one to go onto) is the same fingering as a descant recorder and flute.

So, I would recommend starting with descant recorder and then doing the treble as a really good basis. Hard to tell a child that though !

dd has just taken up violin. I have been trying to talk her out of it for quite some time but thought in the end I would give it a couple of months with a rented instrument and see whether she perserveres despite the difficulties. I think it is too difficult for her and she'll just get frustrated but we'll see. Doesn't sound as bad as everyone makes out.

Lexcat, shame your school doesn't offer cello. Cello is lovely. In fact I have always had cello in mind for dd but I have now given in. I couldn't get lessons at a music school (which is the usual way you do it here in Germany), they're all booked out so I have a private teacher coming once a week for 45 minutes. THought I'd do that for a time and see how she goes. Is that an option for your dc/for you perhaps inititally?

Dh is positively shocked at number of young children (assuming without adult teeth) playing trumpets/cornets.

DDs1 and 3 play violin, DD2 cello. TBH it really irks me when someone posts a thread on here asking about instruments for the children and a whole load of people leap in and say not a violin cos it sounds so horrible when they are learning. It does, for a couple of years, but DD1 is preparing for Grade Two now and when she gets the hang of a piece it sounds fantastic and she gets so much pleasure out of it. I think it is really unfair to put a child off an instrument for such a superficial reason.
I know this doesn't apply to the OP as her daughter really wants to do a wind instrument, but when I noticed the anti-violin comments YET AGAIN I couldn't restrain myself.
As for Cello, I am just about to buy a half-size for DD2, it is £250. Not cheap, but cheaper than a lot of wind instruments.

we can rent instruments from school.

Yes that's true too, Beetroot. I have been renting a quarter-size for £10 a month, but now DD2 is moving up to a half-size it is going to be more economic in the long run to buy as she should get four or five years out of it.