[Dixielandjazz] Playing/owning..what's easiest

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Obviously you haven't heard many beginning sax players.  Every instrument 
has it's difficult parts.  With the sax it seems to take about 10 years if 
ever to get a really good sound. I had a method book that the preface said 
in it's very first line.  "The Saxophone is the easiest instrument to play 
badly." In that way it's a lot like the Oboe.  A good sound seems to come 
earlier on brass.  The clarinet while a difficult instrument is probably the 
easiest one to get a characteristic sound right off.  The clarinet has other 
pit falls.  The trombone has it's own unique problems such as intonation 
that eclipse the tonal problems.

I would agree that it takes most kids at least a year to start sounding like 
their horn should.  Sax players have the most difficulty with overcoming 
poor tone and I will say it again, that many never get the sound that it's 
capable of or even a good sound.  The reason being that tone production is a 
whole lot more complicated and subtle than just blowing on the thing, buying 
the best horn around or endlessly trying different reeds and mouthpieces.

The best thing about almost every other beginning instrument is that they 
are a whole lot cheaper than Saxes.

There is no easiest instrument but there may be one that  a kid might do 
better on than some other.  It's very individual.

You hear all these things every time you start a new group of kids.  The 
parents always want to know which is the right one.  By the way, couple the 
low price to start the drums  and the perception that drums are easy, leads 
to a lot of  kids starting the wrong instrument.  What usually happens is 
that you end up with about 10 kids on drums with 8 of them having ADHD. 
Percussion instruments are boring  to start (the kids all want to be rock 
stars and go nuts ) and worse still it requires a lot of concentration. 
This is a down hill situation.

If I were going to rate the instruments I would list percussion (drums) 
among the more difficult to start and get good on.  Drums are probably the 
least understood by prospective musicians and their parents.
Larry
St. Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kashishian" <jim at kashprod.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 4:06 PM
Subject: FW: [Dixielandjazz] Playing/owning...


>
>
> When I was 11 years old, my father advised me to take up trombone because 
> he
> said, "It is the easiest instrument to learn how to play."
> Rick Knittel - JAZZBONE
>
> Well, now you know, your Daddy's not always right!  It is said that 
> included
> in the hardest to learn instruments are the violin, the trombone, and the
> oboe.
>
> I can only speak for the trombone, and the few classes I have tried to 
> give
> to kids.  Getting the "move your slide at the same time as you stop the 
> air
> with your tongue (1)" bit is the hardest thing to get.
>
> Put a kid on a sax, he'll blow you a tune in a couple of days.  A young
> trombonist sounds like an sick elephant for about a year!  (One's got a
> reed, the other doesn't.)
>
> (1)  That's right...stop the air, not blow.  The "push" is there all the
> time, and the flow of air is "stopped" with the tongue.  Like spitting a
> piece of paper out of your mouth. Put your tongue to the back of your 
> lips.
> Push air up from below.  Pull the tongue back & the air is released.  A
> tu-tu will get a stacatto sound, a du-du will get a legatto sound, etc.
>
> Speaking of the spit paper reminds me of the city youth band I was in from
> age 9 to 18.  When the band leader would step out of the room, we
> trombonists sometimes would wet a piece of paper, take off the outside
> trombone slide, and spit the paper out through the tube.  I vividly 
> remember
> the look on the clarinetist's face on the other side of the band sitting
> there with a gooey piece of paper stuck to his cheek!   :>
>
> I'll stop there with my stories for the time being!
>
> Jim
>
>
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