I am a seventh grade oboist in a middle school band. I am contemplating what do play in marching band, because you can`t play the oboe there. We HAVE to take marching band. My first choice would be the trumpet,but my band director says it might mess up my oboe emboucher. In addition, I also dislike instruments that don`t play the melody (low brass, bass clarinet). Can you please give me some suggestions?

play flute.. and as a second choice, clarinet... the flute would be the best since the flute iasn`t known to mess up the embouchures of double reed players...

or you could play percussion... i mean, it`s not melody but it keeps the band on beat... lol. or colour guard... =/

ask you`re band director to march piccolo. flute is a great idea, but piccolo has a tighter ambachure (cant spell that). so it will be so much easier to play. thats what i did for the past 2 years and i find that it does nothing to my oboe playing. if you cant march piccolo (i hate when bands march flutes!) be in the pit, play the bells or something. ultimatly its up to you, but brass instruments will mess with your tone on oboe.

I was in the same situation! I just do not play during marching season! I usually stay in and practice the numerous solos I aquire every day!

I am too in the same situation, but an 8th grader oboist and have a choice.

But I am planning on joining the marching band, and have absolutely NO idea what I am to play.


I have in thought of the pit/battery or pick up the flute.

Two reasons why these:

1. The flute`s fingering is somewhat similar to the oboe`s fingering. [Won`t make me forget, and I can learn quickly.]

2. Percussion is something I don`t have to keep up with much. Just the rhythm. [Won`t have to stick something else in my mind, so I don`t have to forget anything.]


Because we play oboe, we have many, many more opportunities to pick up another instrument than others.

It`s a tough choice.


BTW: Even though I am in 8th grade, I don`t quite fully understand the concept of marching band.
Is it just for the football season? And if so, any other time?
[Please answer within an email, for I am quite busy, so I do not have enough time to go back and check here. Thank you!]

HI I think you should play the flute or clarinet, that would be best for your embesser

play the mellophone! (or marching french horn) That`s what I did. It was extremely easy to play the whole range of the instrument and if it did anything to my oboe tone it made it better. I also learned how to play the fench horn and it only took me a few months to be able to play better than the other 6 hornists in my school. I am also first chair oboe and have been 1st chair in our top band since my freshman year (I`m a junior now). Good luck!

If all else fails, do pit. We had 6 flutists playing in the pit this year because we did not have enough people in the pit without them. It is not at all hard to play cymbals.

I did pit this year. If I wasn`t playing soccer I would`ve had time to march instead (b/c I can play other instrumens too). But pit was a blast! Very awesome when you go to competitions, the percussion gets 1s as well as first place and you know that that means you did very well and contributed to it! Haha, cymbals really aren`t hard either, I did that my sophomore year(I`m a junior). But if you have time to actually march then learn an instrument that you can march with, by all means. If you are like me and have to be at soccer practice more than you can be at after-scool band, do pit! Because it really is fun!

Best of luck,

Corinne

I would recommend either the flute or percussion. The flute has many similar fingerings as the oboe. Someone mentioned the piccolo, which would work as well, but you may want to learn the flute first so you don`t end up making listeners cringing in pain or deaf or something.

If you decide to learn a wind instrument, be sure to keep oboe your primary instrument. If you practice it less, it`s very likely that your embouchure can deteriorate and change as you focus on the other instrument. Of course, it can change from playing the other one in general, but it (hopefully) won`t be as drastic.

Alto Sax!!! That is what I marched with. The fingerings are very similar to the oboe, more so than clarinet or flute (I played them too, but only for fun at home). Alto Sax and oboe work very well together!

I was in the sme situation and i play pit, i really think thts what you should do cause its awesome! We may not always have the melody but we usually always have very good interesting parts.

Same situation girl!!! I would go with the flute i know some people who play the oboe but march the flute

Alto sax, Tenor sax, and mellophone are the best. the saxes have very close fingerings and does not really harm the tone of the oboe. while mellophone has a very small mouth part and may help the tone. we have 5 oboes in our whole school(and 1 bassoon with like 70-80 band members, how sad) and two of them play alto, one on tenor, and one on mellophone. They are awesome on them and oboe. Pit is just that, THE PITS! I did pit for a year and it sucked! You fell seperated from the band and it is not that much fun not learning the drills. Well that is my advice.

Devon (Wicked the musical rocks!!)

I was principal oboe and english horn in my high school.... I played clarinet my freshman year and bass drum my sophomore year. Then, the director made a wise choice... he made me the Drum Major for the next two years. PROBLEM SOLVED! I didn`t have to play an instrument!