Why does everyone think an oboe is a clarinet? I can understand the 4+ people asking me if I was carrying a clarinet inside my case, and two girls asking me what the heck that hing was, but the other day, after assurance from 4 or 5 ninth graders and my 8th grade self, another 8th grader still refused to believe it wasn`t a clarinet!

Are they really that alike? I don`t think they look the same.

Well... when someone asks me what an oboe is I usually describe it looking like a clarinet, except that there is a stick like reed sticking out of the top.

Many people don`t know much about instruments.

My father used to call my oboe a flute... even though the flute is really my primary instrument , he really should know that they aren`t both flutes... but he doesn`t have any interest to commit an instrument name to memory.

Look, when I carry my cello about people always ask me if I play GUITAR professionally. A bus driver once mistook my cello for a VIOLIN. I said, "Well, it`s a member of the violin family." (It`s the BIG violin, Jethro.)

yea, most people dont recognize insruments with there names. Heck, my aunt played clarinet and I play clarinet now, and my grandpa still calls it a horn. hahaha.

Wow. Thinking its a flute? That`s kinda funny. And aren`t cellos like a lot bigger than violins? *I`m still working on my string instrument recognition.* This makes me wonder if anyone has ever mistook a clarinet for an oboe. I guess that`s not likely at all.

One of my friends is also an oboist. She was out shopping at Sam`s Club with her 4-yr-old daughter, and the little girl spotted a clarinet (First Act probably) and piped up, "Mommy, why are they selling oboes at Sam`s Club?" So yeah, I guess it goes the other way too, but leave it to a 4-year-old.

That`s so cute! That is one smart little girl. I didn`t even know what an oboe was until last year, nor did I see one until last September.

Re: "That`s so cute! That is one smart little girl. I didn`t even know what an oboe was [sic] until last year, nor did I see one until last September."

Um....NEITHER did the child in question know what an oboe is (nor, presumably, what it was or will be).

By the bye, had the child`s mother a sense a social responsibility, she would not have been shopping at Wal-Mart in the first place.

Actually Scotch, I nag her about that ALL of the time. She was a PIRG person all through college, actually canvassed for political groups for years, buys green energy, and... shops at Wal-Mart. I personally think Wal-Mart is the anti-Christ...

"One does not...simply....walk into Wal-Mart...

There is an evil there than does not sleep."

I don`t think Wal-Mart is that bad...

They don`t carry a very good video game selection, and their classical section has no oboe/trumpet/clarinet/flute concertos!

Maybe they are kind of bad...

(that`s all I ever look for in Wal-Mart. Oh, and the instruments they sometimes have... only the basic four, though... bad selection!)

Meep, you need to go here and read up: http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/

Wal-Mart *really* is EVIL. Their business practices have driven not only mom-and-pop stores out of business, but also manufacturers who end up providing merchandise to them that costs more to make then they get paid. The majority of their employees are paid so little that they cannot even afford to shop there. Health care costs of their employees are picked up by the states (to the tunes of billions, BTW) instead of the company because Wal-Mart *designed* it to be too expensive for the average worker to afford to cut down on their own costs. And then there is they way they manipulate hiring to avoid higher health care costs. And this from one of the richest companies in the country.

Read up on it, and then tell me if you still can stomach setting foot in a place that evil.

It`s way more involved than just their selection of videos. Really.

Well its nice to see this post stayed on topic.......for the love of god please take the flame wars elseware, this is a music forum

No flame wars here, just some godd, old-fashioned discussion. If you want to see flame wars, go visit the flute forum; there`s usually something intersting going on over there. Don`t forget your asbestos underwear, however.

<Added>

good, not godd. Fat-fingered that one, I did.

*sigh* Now, for an oboe-related thing to say:

Oboes are the best instruments ever. Unless you happen to play something else. I think it beats my trumpet. And I played that for 2 1/2 years! Only a month and a half for my oboe.

What`s all of your favorite instruments?