Unless he's a big strapping 10 yr old I'd stay away from the trombone. I played one at age 9 and could barely lift the thing.

Trombone. Because when he's older, he can play this:

If you're looking for something transferable to other instruments and music in general it's voice/piano with guitar an underdog.

They make every single music major take a few semesters of voice and piano(no matter your principal instrument). Clarinet? Trombone? Don't even get mentioned as secondary instruments unless you're an Ed major branching out

Teaching lessons is phenomenal part time work, clarinet will give more opportunity than the 'bone more possible students.

But if you want a full teaching studio do strings or voice + piano.

Oh man, definately Trombone. Just ask ''La Bamba'', Richie Rosenberg!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCqqncW2sds


I remember him with the Asbury Jukes when they played the Stone Pony with an eight piece horn section. H was the most ''bad ass'' guy in the band!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Clarinet. Everything you learn there is pretty transferable to other woodwind instrument (saxophone, flute, etc). Of the family of instruments clarinet is one of the harder ones to learn but it makes everything else a breeze later. If you try to learn clarinet last it's a bitch.

If you pick up a couple instruments following it makes you a super versatile musician, can play in virtually any setting from symphony orchestra to jazz, theater, etc.

A couple of people said this. The biggest problem with clarinet is that its not a gigging instrument.

If there's any future for the kid in music:

Trombone has less competition (fewer players)
Trombone has far more professional opportunities




But in all honesty, let the kid pick. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter as long as he likes it.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

Not a gigging instrument?

EDIT - Ok so today they apparently told him he wasn't suite to the clarinet and have offered him the Baritone. I know nothing about this instrument. And why would he not be suited to the clarinet? Several responses here said smaller kids might not suit the trombone. His mum suspects it was just too many people picking clarinet and he missed out.

The two instruments require slightly different mechanics. I'm not sure how one determines that a kid is not suited for a particular instrument, but this could be one possible reason. With two kids in that same zone, I'm sure that part of it is a numbers game. You can't have 60% of your ensemble playing clarinet.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

Baritone is a good instrument, plays a lot of the same parts as trombone. Don't expect to hear many solos though. In my school they steered girls towards flute and clarinet and the boys towards the brass. And by steered I mean it was the next thing to a rule. Oddly though they had girls almost exclusively play french horn.

The good news for you is baritones are too expensive for schools to expect you to buy one. Most of the time schools provide those.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

If they provide the instrument then that's good!

I just want him to learn to read music then see if he might sway back towards the guitar and keyboard I bought him. Well at least the music won't be as foreign to read.

Any instrument is good though

I played both baritone and trombone. My mom pushed me into trombone, I wanted to play drums. I never really liked it. You are always playing harmony and can barely be heard over the trumpets, spit puddles up on the floor, and for a 10 year the lower slide positions can be a stretch (that was the age I started). I switched to baritone for the solo & ensembles and I enjoyed it more, it is relatively easier to play but harder to carry around. Mostly they play similar parts as far as high school band goes. I dropped it all after 5 years.

Guitar and piano, which I'm learning now (and my kids are taking piano) are both exponentially harder. Well, I suppose if you played the same parts on each instrument piano would be the easiest, but in reality you advance in piano very fast beyond complexity of a high school marching band trombone part, and it gets hard as you try to get both hands involved. But my modest background from trombone at least allows me to know the basics of reading music.

Baritone is a great instrument. It's often a lot easier for someone who is good at the baritone to make it through auditions and into a seat on an orchestra, primarily because there's less competition. You might have 100s auditioning for a 4 or 5 clarinet spots, but only 3 auditioning for 2 baritone spaces.

My guess is the school needs someone to play baritone, thus what he's not suited for clarinet.

Depends on the person doing the selection. I was somewhat skeptical of the options given my daughter ( oboe, base clarinet) the claim was her natural embouchure suited those instruments. 6 Months into oboe and I have to say she actually sounds good and has progressed way faster than she did playing the violin the past few years. So in some cases the music director really does know what they are talking about. Or it could just be then need a baritone :)

If you are halfway decent at trombone you can play baritone 95% as good with 3 days practice. Not clarinet, not baritone - trombone.

Jpo nailed it. A baritone will be part of a band or orchestra, but never a lead melodic instrument. If you want to do melody, stick with the bone. There are valve trombones as well

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
Creating custom made furnishing to your requirements

Trombone suicides...enough said!

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Fester from Detroit, Mi