Help???

[LaurenD]

Hey my name is Lauren I have been playing the flute for 3 years in band and in private lessons. In our band we did chairs like 1st 2nd 3rd. I was first chair and now that the second chair(my best friend) has moved to oboe, she and 2 of my other friends are saying that the flute is really easy, and their instruments(oboe, sax, and clarinet)are much MUCH harder. It's really bugging me. What should I do?

[embum79]

Tell them in the nicest way possible to f*** off. It was very rude of them to say that.. even if flute WAS easier (which it's not), why would they say that? My guess is to make themselves look better.

Anyone can learn fingerings of an instrument and how to make a note out of it, but not just anyone can really master the instrument. Just concentrate on being the most kick-a** flutist you can be, and eventually they'll shut up.

[LaurenD]

Thanks so much, ~Lauren(to both of you)

[pandagirl11]

Playing instruments is always easy...mastering it isn't. Anyone can play instruments but it's hard to sound good. I'm not in band (doing private lessons instead) so I wouldn't know how hard the other instruments are but I am in Strings so I understand that while first and second violins are equal, first has the melody in a higher range which is much harder to play. Thus, the first chair (concertmaster) has the hardest parts. I'm guessing that goes same for band.

[MeLizzard]

Well......I've heard several people say, when teaching elementary band, "put your dumb kids on sax" !! After playing both, I'll say flute is a bit harder, though truly mastering any instrument is much harder than blowing a few notes. Clarinet is moderately difficult, with many notes requiring sets of fingerings, instead of just one. Many notes can be fingered with a combination using either the left-hand little finger or the right-hand little finger, depending on the fingering of the note which follows. Hence the player must not only learn more than one fingering at an early point, but the correct usage of all of these...not superhard, but often confusing to young players. I also play clarinet and bassoon, and think many people find double reeds (oboe, bassoon, English horn) difficult because of the manner of tone production. There's not a mouthpiece, but a thin, two-sided reed, which is usually terribly tempermental! Sax is my simplest woodwind, with fingerings similar to flute in the middle register. It's harder to refine tone on sax, but when I spend too much time with it, my upper lip goes a little numb, which kills my flute playing Which one is hardest depends on each player's strengths, so someone who has a hard time getting a nice tone on flute may be a great clarinet (or whatever) player. But it's great to play flute, frequently playing melodies, and being (with the piccolo-my personal band favorite) the highest sound in the band!!! Usually in band writing, the first (usually higher)and second flute parts will be written in thirds, fourths, or other close intervals, same kinds of fingerings, and none of those pesky position shifts like on strings. So play the instrument that makes you happy, as well as you possibly can, and leave those horn-hopping experimenters in the dust!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LaurenD]

Thanks everyone!

[MeLizzard]

That exploding bubble thing is cute!

[LaurenD]

Thanks!!