I'm just curious to know how long people stuck at getting sounds on their various wind instruments.

I'm always impressed by people who stuck at it. I know that I got a sound the first time I ever picked up a flute (long before I owned one - I can still remember the flute's owner's surprise!), and was playing tunes on my first flute (made of plastic plumbing pipes ) within minutes (I think that may have been part of what convinced my parents that buying me a flute wasn't a waste of money!).

I don't remember that well my first experience of playing the clarinet, I know I found it a lot more difficult than the flute, but I think it was controlling the sound and making a nice sound that I found hardest, rather than actually producing a sound in the first instance.

My only noises from an oboe have been quite ducky, not sure they counted as notes

So I'm curious how long it took people and wondering who took the longest? (or do you know someone who stuck at it for ages before they succeeded?)

I honestly don't know how long I would stick at an instrument I couldn't make a sound out of which makes me doubly intrigued!

Does anyone know what's "normal", or is it just too variable? I know some of the people I know who took a long time have turned into fine players, so clearly it doesn't have a long term bad effect.

I put this in Viva Woodwind as (apart from brass maybe?!) most things it's quality of sound, not an actual sound, (ie piano or strings) so it seemed most appropriate here.

It took me a lesson and a half to get a sound from my clarinet (I had 30 minute lessons). It 'clicked' about half way through my second lesson. Initially, I didn't find the clarinet particularly easy.

Got a sound from the sax really from the word 'go' (but it was somewhat clarinet-like, and I needed to work on the embouchure). Although I enjoy playing sax, it has never quite taken the place in my heart that the clarinet has...

Flute *thinks*... think it must have taken about 20 minutes to get what I'd call a flute-ish sort of sound, but to refine it took rather longer...

Presumably clari was your 1st of the 3?

It was Sarah, clarinet, then saxophone, then flute.

Goes to show it didn't slow you down much in the long term

thank you Sarah.

My first year or so I had to really think hard about certain aspects of my playing. I was a cheekblower, for a start, and it took me ages to break that habit.

I then had an appalling right hand thumb position, which was only picked up on 4-5 years into my clarinet playing life. Cue more breaking of bad habits...

I also found the altissimo register very difficult, when I reached the time to learn about it.

With the Oboe, about 10mins...



I tryed my friend's Sax, and that took about 2 mins of blowing before I got a sound

I think I was the same as Sarah, I played my friends flute and got flutey noises out of it first time. Then got my first flute about 6 months later.
Saxophone was my first 'proper' woodwind instrument after recorder, and that took about 10 minutes or something, it was a while ago, I was 14 I think. Then clarinet was easy, not time at all!

Oboe and bassoon was immediate, I knew the technique required to get a sound so I managed ok.

Every instrument I have ever tried I have blown straight away. And I think I have tried most wind instruments

I got clarinet straight away, that was the first instrument (Not counting recorder as I can't see how one can fail to get a sound out of it!), then Sax again first time, followed by a friends flute and an oboe, also first time. Getting a nice sound, well, we can hope

I had flute lessons at school for a year. I got a sound out of the flute straight away in my lesson but then got it home and couldn't get one anymore.

The oboe I had had for a fortnight before I started having lessons and I had got a sound of it pretty much straight away when I tried it at home. The problem with the oboe was not so much getting a sound but being able to play for any length of time.

Not that this is entirely connected to your question I would like t add this to your thoughts..

The oboe is possibly the most demanding of all the wind instruments...it has very special requirements.

Firstly to get any sound it is imperative to relax and allow the throat to open as if you were going to sing...

The Diaphragm must support the breath and the shoulders should not rise, the breath must be allowed clear passge to the reed. Let the breath come from the diaphragm and support it, the reed will sound, you can adjust the tone and pitch by increasing or decreasing the pressure on the reed with the lips but not the teeth.

Whilst the reed rests on the cushion of the lips, there is a terrible temptation to bite the reed at first to assist the embouchre...this should be avoided, the lips, given time will develop the muscles required to support the reed and adjust the tuning as necessary. Biting the reed will cause pain and not help the embouchre. The trick I found was to practice as first, little and often until the muscles have developed sufficiently to support the reed. Given a few months the embouchre will develop and the control will come...it won't happen overnight.

Long notes played, adjusting the tone by using the embouchre, developing from PP<<<<>>>>>>FF whilst keeping the tone and pitch in check...all the time trying to keep an opened throat and using the diaphragm, the more you do this the better the control over the diaphragm will become and you will find you are able to play very quietly whilst retaining the note and the tone...the same can be said for FF notes...rising through the scales slowly, some slurred some tongued will all develop the tone and control Control CONTROL...

Its a slow but worthy process and given time the tone will come...

And for what it's worth I had a great friend who was a Flautist/flutist/flooteriser of some repute (or so they told me),...who tried in vain to get me to sound a well rounded note on a flute...I WAS AWFUL and never got to grips with it (nicki Flute and Sarah Flute you would have been ashamed of me ) but my embouchre was so developed for the double reed I just couldn't manage it. How some of you go from instrument to instrument astounds me and I applaud you..

Good luck I hope the above helps...I learned that from my first teacher who was a concert player...I was very lucky to study with her...

Kindest regards

Andrew

The bottom line is that it really doesn't matter how long it takes to get a sound from an instrument so long as when it comes it is a beautiful sound, rich and round and played as beautifully as you can manage...everyday will see improvement.

And me! Thank goodness.


It always such a relief when a student gets a sound somewhere in their first lesson!!

I've been fortunate like that too. Dunno what it is that makes some people that way inclined though. Some sort of natural instinct for the embouchure I guess.

It doesn't mean a lot though, does it. I think the only instrument I have come across that I had trouble making a sound on (and that was in that it I find it hard - I still got one) is the oboe, so far. Oh, and didgeridoo! (Don't know how to spell that, sorry...) I even got "Merrily We Roll Along" out of a friend's tuba.

I don't think it's made me an especially better player on any of them (those that I have learned beyond "make a sound!") than people who took a long time. It's fun, and I guess it's lucky, but it doesn't mean a lot in the long run.

I think thats right. I seem to be able to adjust my embouchure instrinctivly to make a better sound/get a different octave/play anything woodwindy. The problem then is to keep it like that!

I think it took me about 2 weeks to get a sound out of my flute when I first got it. I was 7 at the time!
I can't believe some of you can pick up an instrument and play it like that!

my daughter couldn't get a sound out of her Flute at first either, may have has somehting to do with tonsilitis. She's had no problem with any other woodwind instrument. She has found Sax the easiest by far to play well in a short time.

I've mentioned before that my own teacher took six weeks to get a sound out of the flute and ended up a gold medal winner at the RCM.

I didn't take that long, but I don't remember being particularly quick - a couple of weeks, perhaps.

Longest I've known is my retired lady who was still trying 12 weeks in, but passed Grade 1 last term.

I'm not sure how long it took me to get a noise out of the flute.... possibly about a week??? Not sure!!

Obviously i got a note on piano right away!!!!!

I got a sound out of the flute the very first time I tried it. I will never forget that very same day my music teacher gave me the oldest most battered flute in the world home with me to practice blowing before I actually got my first lesson a few weeks later. Those were the longest few weeks of my life, I was trying desperately to figure out note fingerings but being only 9 years old I had no idea. If the internet had of been a big thing then I probably would have learnt them. I was able to play 3 notes on that flute (A-C) before having to get one that actually worked haha!

The first time I got hold of a clarinet I managed to get a sound within under a minute. The first few blows produced deadly squeeks but once I figured out I was blowing too hard I managed to play a scale as I had an idea of the fingerings for the flute. Not long after that I bought a clarinet and it rarely sees day light! One day I hope to learn it properly.

When I tried a saxophone I managed to produce a sound straight away also and I loved it so this is the next instrument I will buy!

Which just goes to show


Now that's dedication

Flute took me the 'longest' but wasn't too long, all the others straight away.

Youngest tried her sisters Clarinet today, she's played it about 5 times in the past and went through the whole of Abracadabra, sight reading to a very reasonable standard. Strangely she's keen to learn double Bass but is not that good with string instruments.

She obviously likes a challenge...its strange how we take to some instruments sound...it's like it speaks to us...everyone here plays the instruments they do I imagine for that very reason...

Good luck...I hope your daughter gets to grips with the double bass..

Kindest regards

Andrew

if by sound you literally mean a noise, then my first puff into a bassoon produced quite a satisfying honk.

if by sound you mean some semblance of a bassoon's tone... well, 2 1/2 years and counting

The first day I picked a flute up it made a sound but not straight away. It was before my lesson and I had a tutor book (take up the flute by graham lyons?) and it told me to laugh to get a sound. it worked but I think I had to try quite hard to do it again! lol

Sax got a sound almost straight away, although it was more of a honk! Clarinet had to put in quite an effort to get a clarinet sort of sound though.

Oboe was surprisingly quickly...I think!

Flute...a few attempts on various days...but that was when I was smaller and I teach myself....my mum showed me sort of how.

Recorder, too long ago to remember, but all you need to do is blow, however disgusting it sounds at the beginning

Now for stuff I've just had a 'go' on

Clarinet was immediate

Sax was the same

Bassoon was quite fast, but I expected the technique to be the same as the oboe...

It took me a while to get a sound out of a clarinet, 2 to 3 lessons I think before something clicked. I'd been playing clarinet for 15+ years when I started sax so get a sound out of it straight away, but I was playing tenor and with the tighter clarinet embouchure I was always blowing it up an octave, it took me quite a while to be able to get the bottom notes reliably and years to get the clarinet habits out of my sax playing. I haven't touched clarinet for maybe 10-12 years now and sometimes wonder if I'd still be able to play it at all.

Any wind instrument with less than 2 reeds (including none e.g. flute, brass): Immediate note. Never been able to work 2 reeds! I suspect it's actually impossible and the idea that there are people out there who can actually "play" an instrument with 2 reeds is really just a programming fault in the Matrix!!

To get a note - oboe, straight away, but a nice note, on my own oboe, never, and first found I could actually make a nice noise on an oboe when lent my teacher's one after five years of playing. I suspect I could have made one rather sooner given a good instrument, but this poor workman is definitely going to blame her tools....

Flute - got a sound out of my sister's flute straight away, but then I'd blown across bottles before that. Probably never been a nice noise, but I wasn't really allowed to keep trying, because it was her instrument.

Trumpet - got an arpeggio out of one straight away. The cat's heels couldn't be seen for dust .

Recorder - yes, of course it speaks immediately. But only now is my tone beginning to develop fully, after four years of lessons and twenty years of ownership.

"Playing the Oboe is very much like blowing into a weasel"....Eddie izzard

No it doesn't necessarily indicate whether someone will be any good in the long run. Rather, it shows more of an instinctive technical/physical understanding of HOW the sound is produced on a particular instrument. If it's a reed instrument the reed(s) need to vibrate, for a flute, thinking of the action similar to that of blowing across the top of a bottle. Some people, for whatever reason, seem to be able to form and change the shape of the embouchure or move the angle of it slightly until the correct sound is produced, in a remarkably short space of time. Quality of tone at that point in time is a little doubtful perhaps, but it's like learning to ride a bike, you don't forget and it gets easier and better the more you do it.

You'd be amazed how many people out there think you just puff out your cheeks, blow into the gap at the top of the instrument and expect a sound (of some sort!) to be emitted.


I'm not quite sure what to make of that comment.

Neither do I but it made me laugh when he said it I guess you just have to use the image...

0.5 hour try-out:

Flute - no sound

Oboe, Clarinet and Sax - immediate sound



I've never tried playing a weasel, so can't comment on that. Is it a woodwind instrument? Is it double reeded?

Not really a woodwind instrument but I imagine that if you blew into a weasel the sound would not be dissimilar...

I have to say that, contrary to popular opinion, I found that getting a sound out of a flute much harder than blowing across the top of a bottle. I could get a sound out of a bottle before I had flute lessons, but that didn't help me get a sound out of the flute in the slightest.

The main reason why people take different amounts of time is variations in the physical shape and size of their lips. Those blessed with full lips, thin lips or a 'teardrop' almost inevitably take longer, as the embouchure has to be formed in a less than ideal way.

All woodwind instruments - first try. I tried my friend's trombone but didn't like the buzzing feeling on my lips.

Th funny thing is that my husband is a very good pianist, but can't get a single noise out of the flute. I quite like having something that only I can do (he's better/faster/stronger than me in most things we do).

I tried my daughter's trombone and didn't like the buzzing feeling either!

I find the trombone mouthpiece difficult to get a sound out of because of its shape/size...



I found freanch horn quite easy to get a sound out of though

Oh! I so want to try French horn...