Hi. I am a member of the "wh"orchestra and I play cello. Lately I have been thinking of learning a wind (brass) instrument since I will have a free period next semester. What I am having trouble with is which of the millions of instruments to learn.. Violin family is easy, since there are really only 4 instruments plus the harp and they are pretty much interchangable to a point. Now wind instruments, there are so many!! I am personally leaning towards the Baritone. But there are so many possibilities. Since I don't know wind instruments that well, I'm looking for an instrument that isn't TOO deep (Tuba), but not too high and piercing (trumpet). Somewhere in the middle, with a nice mellow sound. From the research I have done, it seems like the French Horn and the Baritone meet that standard. Any other suggestions?

 

I play (played) the trumpet/baritone, but I've had experiance with all the valved instuments and some reeds... Really there is not much different between a trumpet and a baritone, all the baritone is, is a trumpet in bass clef (in terms of valve-combinations). The baritone is easier on the lips, but requires a lot more air (equalling stronger lungs). The trumpet is probably the best choice, especially if you just want to pick it up for 1 semester, but if you don't like the sound, I guess you could go with the baritone. Also, french horn is very hard to learn and play.

Just my $0.02.

EDIT: Also, I guess you could try the alto horn (sometimes called the trompa), but like the french horn, it's somewhat hard to play, but it's easy to learn.

 

I swim so I don't think the lung capacity will be that much of a problem..

 

I played alto saxophone all through high school and wish that I never put it down, have you considered it? If you like something deeper you could go with the tenor or higher go with the soprano. The good thing about all of them is the buttons are positioned the same they are just in different keys.

 

I filled in on the French Horn ( no jokes ) for a while, I really enjoyed it.. now that I have the lung capacity of a mouse, I'll stick to the strings

 

I would recommend baritone. I started playing it in HS after switching from French Horn and loved it. It's not too hard to learn and is pretty close to trombone if you ever want to try out jazz. Trumpet would give you the ability to do that without having to switch and the instrument is much more affordable if you decide you want to own one. If you can you should play around on both of them and see which one you prefer. I know that my embouchure wasn't very good for horn and my band director recommended I switch to baritone and it was amazing how much better I was at that. That was probably a combination of how much easier baritone is than horn (horn is ridiculously hard so don't think about that if you just want to play casually) and my embouchure.

The best part of playing a brass instrument for me was marching in a drum & bugle corps one summer in college. That was an amazing experience that I highly recommend since you're so young. You have until you turn 21 to do it and there are plenty in California to choose from. Check out http://www.dci.org to find a show in your area this summer. Go see it and I guarantee you'll be impressed. It's amazing what 135 talented musicians can do when they have all summer to rehearse and get better. Oh, and yell out "SUTA" or "Go Buicks" really loud for my old corps, the Phantom Regiment. The Buicks are the nickname for the baritone/euphonium section.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MrForgetable
...............

 

I was thinking about trombone.. since it is in C and it is in Bass Clef, not much different from the cello in reading music. But eh.. I was thinking about something a little more different, thus my 1st instinct for Baritone.

By the way:
I am still confused about what is a Euphonium and what is a Baritone??

 

i played the flute for 2 years in school then switched to the tenor saxophone in high school...i say go for the saxophone...there's several kinds though, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax and i think baritone sax (which is really low/deep). alto and tenor would be a good choice if you want something in the middle range. tenor is a bit bigger in size than the alto but i adore the sound of the tenor.

there are too many girls playing the flute...that's why i switched.

my 2 cents.

 

French horn is too difficult to play well.

I played clarinet through HS and might have continued to try to make it pro, but then I decided I wanted to earn money as an adult so I went with engineering.

As for a brass instrument, the trumpet has really appealed to me because of the amazing artists I've heard such as Wynton Marsalis.