What are the best wind instruments for a left handed person to learn?
The woodwind instruments all use both hands pretty equally. They’re played in exactly the same way whether you’re left- or right-handed, and I’m not aware of any particular advantage or disadvantage to being right-handed in any case. Indeed, the first notes you learn on (I believe) any woodwind instruments will involve your left hand alone.What determines the difficulty of fingering a woodwind instrument is which (and how many) fingers you need to move to switch from one note to the next. I’m not aware of any statistical analysis that shows which fingers are most heavily used - I’d love to see such a thing, if anyone knows of one - but my gut feeling is that the left and right hand fingers are used pretty evenly.The exception may be the clarinet. This is because the instrument overblows a twelfth, whereas you only have eight or so usable fingers. In layman’s terms, this means that you can’t get all the notes just by lifting one finger each time. Some fingers have to do double duty. A lot of this extra load is taken by the thumb and first couple of fingers on the left hand, so it may give left-handed players a very slight advantage. I’d be interested to hear a clarinettist’s view on this.
Does playing the harmonica, flute, clarinet or any wind instrument have an effect on your mouth, jaw bones, or teeth?
I play the harmonica, and it's had a few effects on my body.1) On the less desirable side: my teeth have been pushed back in my mouth a little by the pressure of the hand holding the harmonica. It's not drastic, but it's there.2) On the desirable side, playing the harmonica--and I suppose other wind instruments as well--works the muscles in your face. The result is that your face looks younger. 3) Also on the desirable side, and unique to the harmonica, because the instrument is played by breathing in AND out, it works your lungs and upper body in ways that other instruments don't. So it's very good for your cardiovascular system.
Can I double as a woodwind and brass player?
I am also a flute player. Flute is my primary instrument but I also play euphonium occasionally. It is a little adjustment of embouchure but overall, you get used to it. I really encourage you to continue flute and try to find a brass instrument. It will be a little challenging at first. That's why I started on tuba. It uses as much air as the flute believe it or not! I didn't like the weight of it so I went to the euphonium. Maybe try one like that or maybe trumpet. Good luck, happy fluting, and happy brass playing my friend!
Is it hard to go from tenor to bass trombone?
Its not that difficult if youve been playing trombone for a while. its not as hard as trumpet to trombone, for example, but it is a bit harder. everything on a bass trombone is different. larger mouthpiece, larger bore, larger braces, etc. if you've ever switched from a small bore tenor to large bore tenor, the switch is some what like that. is it do able? of course. but you must stay dedicated in the first two weeks to get used to it. it takes A LOT more air. do a lot of slow scales, long tones, and lip slurs to get used to the larger bore. youll do fine. good luck and enjoy!!! also, if your band is small, you dont really need to switch to bass trombone. if you are an accomplished tenor player, you can easily play low notes on a large bore F attachment trombone like a Conn 88H or Bach 42B. i doubt you will need to be playing in that low register a lot. the bass trombone has more power and is easier to play low notes on. try getting a 42B so you can play tenor and bass parts. or a single valve Bach 50B. it has a bass trombone bore with only 1 valve.
Does playing a musical instrument make you better at oral?
As a dedicated player of flutes, saxophones, clarinets, and various other things like conch shells, I can’t qualify my answer as “better” (too subjective), but I’ve found it certainly improved my own skills.Playing a wind instrument well requires developing an embouchure, which is the foundation formation of the mouth in working the mouthpiece of the instrument. This includes the teeth, but more importantly the muscles of the lips, mouth, face, jaws, and neck. Having well-toned muscles is virtually always a positive in doing anything physical.And then there’s the technique of “flutter tonguing” - that’s always had very positive reviews for my performances (sly wink here).
I play the trombone and I want to play a secondary interment should I pick the trumpet or alto sax?
Baritone would be ideal. Saxophone is an entirely different instrument, and it would be nearly impossible to learn it easily. I am a clarinet player, and I double as a flute and sax player. Last year, I tried to learn the Tuba. SO hard. The hardest part was learning to read bass clef. You should stay with an instrument that is similar to trombone. Tuba or baritone would be good. If you really want to play sax, try bari sax.
Does playing saxophone effect your voice?
For those who play sax, especially tenor sax, would you say that your voices have changed due to all the workout that your lungs, lips and tounge go through to learn the sax, do you think it has an effect on the tone of your voice (deeper vs. nasally)? Does it give you a stronger voice? No effect at all? I always wondered what kind of an effect having to control breath in such sustained and pressured manner would effect the quality of one's voice. Not to mention the lip pressure and control and tounge placement vital to a good sound. Anybody with anecdotal or personal experience or even opinion or conjecture, please share whatever you got.
Having difficulty tuning my alto saxophone?
Obviously without being there to see what you are doing I can only guess but here are some things that may help you. a) are you blowing the exact same way when you tune as when you play. For example, some people have a tendency to blow weaker when they tune and then bust out of the gates with a big sound when the go to play, that changes tuning big time. b) as everyone is saying check out a harder reed you should be playing on at least a 3. Some good brands to try are La Voz Medium (or Medium Hard), Alexander Surperials (Yellow box), Vandorens (I don't know a lot about Vandorens, but I'm currently checking out their Javas) ... I've also played Rico Jazz Selects - Filed (pink colour on the edge), that are easy to work with. c) Assuming you are playing the same way when you tune as when you play, you may be tightening up as you go into the upper register. The saxophone (as you probably know) is a conical bore, meaning it's cone shaped. What this means is you need to treat each register of the saxophone differently as the air and tuning works differently in each register (smaller part of the cone or bigger) When I play I have a tendency (which you may have this problem too) to close my throat as I go higher which causes the pitch to go up. What I have to do is constantly play with a VERY open throat and to bring up the tuning in the middle use you lips i.e. outer embouchure by applying pressure - still maintaining your 'O' emboucher c) As a percauition, have your horn checked out (mouthpiece too), just in case it's a mechanical problem, but I honestly don't think that's the case since I have dealt with a lot the same problems since last year when I had a vastly different embouchure introduced to me in first year masterclass. Other than that, if you are playing that open in your middle register that you are pushed on that much, that is GREAT - especially if you are going for a contemporary sound! That's exactly what my first year masterclass prof in university wanted us all to go for. Anyways, I hope this helped. If you have any questions about anything I have tried to explain here, feel free to email me!