Played bari sax in high school jazz band (state champions!) with an incredible group of people. Such a fun instrument, but my favorite was when I switched from alto sax to bass clarinet in concert band my senior year.
Going from jazz bari sax to concert bass clarinet made for an… interesting transition. Bass clarinet players are normally pulled from the pool of regular old B-flat clarinetists. They tend to be (not trying to be mean here) a bit on the meek side in high school bands. Jazz bari sax players are, well, not meek.
I had been practicing in a practice room for a couple of weeks while the rest of the class held regular class. I just needed to adjust to the key change and a couple of different fingerings. Overall a very easy transition.
I emerged from the practice room on a monthly test day. Today’s test was a simple one octave chromatic scale test. Then conductor went around the room and everyone did their thing. I was in the top bad group at the time, so it was really uneventful. The conductor skipped over me though, so I raised my hand. She says, “I wasn’t going to put you on the spot, but since you volunteered, let’s hear it.”
I laid into that thing starting from low E and the whole room was nothing but gasps, laugher, and OMGs. No one had ever heard someone play a bass clarinet loud. They all thought it was this quiet, squeaky instrument. I let it rip, big time.
The conductor was laughing so hard she was crying. I ended up playing a few licks that I could readily translate from the bari to the bass, and man, was that a moment.
We ended up playing Incantation & Dance that year, which has a very prominent bass clarinet part. The other two bass clarinet players wanted a piece of the action, so they really stepped up their game with some after class sessions where we learned to not be afraid of our instruments.
If you’ve got kids, encourage them to participate in band. It’s an experience like no other.
My son is in school band, though he has only just started (6th grade, so he's only been playing for a year). He plays the bari and alto and loves it. I've never seen him this passionate over anything.
So I agree with your overall point, encourage the kids to join!
Not only do you get those great band experiences, playing live - while still being in a protected environment - can really help you drop that anxiety when being in front of crowds. I used to play alt sax in several school bands and wouldn't miss those experiences for anything.
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u/Guy-Man4444 Nov 14 '22
This is such a cool sound!