Many students going into middle school want to try new things, whether it be sports, clubs, or music. Picking up a new instrument can be fun and exciting, but it can be challenging and even costly!
You may be nervous to encourage your young student to pick up an expensive, loud, and time-hogging hobby. But the outcome can be quite impressive and beautiful even, watching your children perform is an indescribable experience. However, in order to even get to that point, your child must pick an instrument, what fits the best for their and your needs?
Taking in size; including portability and weight, cost, noise level; how high/low and how loud/soft it is, and availability, picking an instrument can be quite difficult. But don’t fear! As a junior in high school, flute/piccolo/trombone player, I’m here to offer my experience.
Starting off, we have section referred to as woodwinds. In this department, there are smaller, higher-pitched instruments such as flute, clarinet, oboe and saxophone.
Here we have the flute, a small instrument that has the same fingerings as the piccolo, -slightly less annoying though. Flute isn’t incredibly loud so don’t worry about your student practicing. It’s not expensive and it’s a great first choice, partly because it can play a lot of styles of music. From classical, to jazz, to pop, and all the way to beatboxing! I play the flute and I love it very much, I’m sure your young musician would too.
Here is the clarinet, an affordable woodwind that uses reeds. While noise level isn’t high, be prepared for plenty of squeaks. You will have to buy replacement reeds from time to time, however they’re relatively cheap. It’s also a smaller instrument that can be easily brought back and forth from school and home because the cased clarinet is only about a foot long. This instrument is great for your young instrumentalist because it can play a variety of cool music styles, and it’s easy to learn.
Benny Goodwin, a swing clarinet player, known as the “king of swing”, even played clarinet in a jazz setting. -But don’t worry! Clarinet can also play in more classical settings, such as Richard Stoltzman, an American clarinet player who plays older, classical pieces.
Next we have the alto saxophone, and while there’s a lot of other kinds of saxophones, this is usually the one that people start on. It’s usually pretty affordable depending on the model. The alto sax is another reeded instrument, that is a bit noisier, and just as squeaky as clarinet. Saxophone is a bit bigger than all the other woodwinds, however it’s still portable and the size shouldn’t be an issue for your child. This is a popular choice for young musicians because of the variety of music the saxophone can play.
Highly influential jazz player Charlie Parker, also played the alto saxophone. He was an incredible soloist and performer for his time. However there’s not only jazz, but you guessed it, there’s also classical saxophone, such as Marcel Mule. A French saxophonist known worldwide for his excellence.
Moving onto a whole other section of instruments, otherwise known as brass, we have instruments such as the trumpet, trombone, french horn, and tuba.
To begin, we have the highest brass instrument, the trumpet. It is one of the loudest instruments in the band and will certainly keep you up all night. However, despite the noise, trumpets aren’t very costly and are around the same size as a saxophone, making trips from home to school and back, not so difficult. This is another popular choice for young musicians since it’s quite easy to produce sound and have a good time with.
Louis Armstrong is a great example of a jazz trumpet player who helped kick off the start of jazz for his time. But like all the other instruments trumpet can also play classical too. Such as Wynton Marsalis, an incredible American trumpet player, who’s played both jazz and classical tunes.
Next is a personal favorite of mine, warm welcome to the trombone. The trombone is a large clunky instrument that unlike most other instruments, uses a slide. Which is crazy fun. Trombones can be just as loud as trumpets, and they cost about the same as well. However trombone isn’t nearly as possible because it’s much less portable and sort of awkward to carry around. However, it’s still worth giving a shot!
Joseph Alessi, is a classical trombone player part of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. This instrument also rocks in jazz too, such as J. J. Johnson, an American trombonist and was one of the earliest to embrace jazz.
Lastly, there’s the Tuba, the lowest, and the very biggest instrument in the band. If your student (or you) play tuba, it is likely they’ll have borrow this instrument from their school as it’s very expensive. Tuba is also very large so they’ll also leave it at school and bring it home over long breaks. However, that doesn’t mean tuba is not incredible, tuba hold together the whole band, and is super important. While you may not hear your student practicing all that much, the tuba is still an excellent choice.
Professional Jazz Tubist Bob Stewart, is a great example of a jazz musician, but tuba is often seen in more classical pieces. Harvey Philips is a good example.
Now that we’ve covered the two smaller groups of instruments, it’s time to introduce percussion. Since there’s an ENORMOUS amount of percussion equipment I won’t be going into depth about each one. However, if your child chooses percussion they’ll get the opportunity to play all of these instruments. -All of these instruments as in bass drum, drum set, snare drum, marimba, xylophone, mallets, bell kit, gong, crash cymbals, chimes, blocks and plenty more. Percussionists only have to buy drumsticks (there’s even really cool light up ones) because all of the equipment is already at school. Which means unless your student has a drum set, you won’t hear anything at all. Percussion is a great starting place to learn all the basics of music while not having to spend too much money, or time.
While there is classical and jazz percussionists which are cool and all, percussion is even heard in today’s music, everything from Neil Young, to Nirvana, and even Taylor Swift!
Whether your kiddo wants to be in band for only a year, or throughout high school, or maybe even into college; I promise that period of time will be something they never forget. Making music alongside all of your friends, going on trips, and participating in competitions and concerts, have given me unforgettable amazing experiences.
Not only has it helped me and plenty of others find a place to belong, and friends to laugh with, it’s also taught me things I couldn’t have learned otherwise. From social skills;learning how to work with others, to learning how to stick with commitments. While this may only be a guide on what instrument might suit you the best; it’s also me, a junior flute player in high school, saying stick with it, you never know where it might take you!
What Instrument Should Your Student Play? 