I don`t know if this has been said, but a sax embrouchore (sp?) is completely different from a clarinet one. I believe the clarinet embrouchore is tighter and more controlled. Besides, the angle at which the mouthpiece goes in your mouth is different for the instruments. I read this in _The Art of Saxophone Playing_ (something like that) by Larry Teal.

I have been playing the clarinet for 5 years now and I recently took up saxophone about 3 weeks ago because I didn`t want to ruin my clarinet during the marching season of high school. I personally think that they both require the same amount of concentration and practice, but because I played the clarinet for a long time, the sax was very easy for me because most of the fingerings are the same.

I think that the most important difference between the sax and the clarinet is the angle that the mouthpeice goes in because that basically is where you get good/bad sound from. This was the hardest thing to do for me and I am still working to improve it.

Again, I think that they are very much the same as far as the difficulty level goes.

(Oh yeah...and whoever said that clarinetists don`t use vibrato: that is VERY untrue. Clarinet players use vibrato all the time in different styles of music.)

I have a question: why do people think clarinets don`t do vibrato? Is it because they can`t do it well, or is there some rule? One of my friends (he plays the clarinet) asked me this.

I`m thinking of going from clarinet to soprano saxaphone but someone told me soprano saxaphone wasn`t a good choice to switch to from clarinet. Any ideas what I should do (switch to soprano or not)?

I personally have been playing Clarinet 6 years now almost half my life (cuz i`m only 14) and Just took up saX last summer for marching band becase my music instructor asked me to take it up and In 1 week I was reading 1st Alto music with no problem at all, and I had just been learning it. I was actually a better player then most of the more experienced alto players. I think the alto is much more easier then clarinet, i personally enjoy it more,It is easier to get a sound out of an alto saxapohne or any sax rather then clarinet. So I definately think the saxaphone is easier.

I`ve been playing the saxaphone for about 4 years now and I know i`ve been gaining more skill by each time I practice(i hope) But i `am noyt really sure on this subject as a matter of fact. All I think is that most peple think the saxaphone would be better because of how cool it looks Hope i helped

im in marching band, and ive played both clarinet and saxophone. i would recommend the saxohpone to play. not only is it easier to pick and play for a beginner, but it is also the most easily heard horn on the field

Well, being that I have played both the saxaphone and clarinet for about 3 years now, its actually not as straight forward as everyone here is saying. In general, the saxaphone is much easier to pick up, but MUCH harder to master. Producing a sound on your saxaphone will be easier than compared to clarinet, but producing a good IN TUNE sound on sax will be much more difficult. Problem is that saxaphone players, classicly, have to be very aware of their tuning, seeing as how most parts are shared with either the french horn or the trumpets, both instruments that tend to stay generally in tune, while with your saxaphone, every single note you play will reqruire a fairly large change in embochure, especially when you start to go above G (register). Infact, once you`re that high, producing an in tune sound will require to drop your jaw to the point where you have virtually no support any more, and its all about the air.

Then again, clarinet, you will have high notes, now im speaking in classical music here. Hitting notes is generally pretty easy on a saxaphone, especially if you`ve figured out a clarinet half decently, while on your clarinet, you`re continually trying to reach higher notes, which you will end up using. Tuning is still an issue, but not to the same degree as a saxophone. You will probably take longer to develop a decent sound on clarinet as compared to saxophone, but developing a great sound will take much longer on sax than on clarinet.



So in conclusion lol, in general

sax easier to learn, hard to get good at, extremely difficult to keep in tune, easy to hit notes

clarinet hard to learn, easier to get good at, easier to keep in tune, harder to hit notes.

I know i`ve posted somewhere on these forums regarding a similar question.. but oh well, I`m bored and have nothing better to do.

I`m going to say it right away, Saxophone is by far the easiest Band/Orchestra instrument to play, minus basic percussion instruments (bass drum isn`t all that hard, trust me...) My friends and I used to joke that if you put a monkey inside of a room and locked it in there with a saxophone, in 2 days he would be playing sax... probly as well as Kenny G. (oooh dis)
When Adolphe Sax invented this instrument, he knew what he was doing. This man had already invented like 50 instruments in Belgium, including the Omnitonic Horn, Saxtrombas, Trombones with 7 bells (resulting in perfect tuning always, except they weighed more than the people who played them...), Saxhorns, Sigurd trumpets, a plethora of new clarinets, (he actually improved the bass clarinet we play today), about 20 instruments that resembled trumpets/euphoniums, new versions of bass drums and symmabls, even sticks. He basically improved all the instruments we play today in band, and his one thing he`s remembered commonly for is the invention of the saxophone. The saxophone, and I`m not saying this just because I play it (although I`m probably a little biased), is the perfect mix of all band instruments. It was one of the last instruments he invented, and he therefore took all of the best parts of the instruments he made and put them all together. He took the fingering system of the easiest instrument, the flute, and only changed a couple of combinations (C is 1st finger on flute, and you raise the first finger on notes like D, D#, and E on flute). He took the key mechanisms of the clarinet and combined them with the flute fingerings, giving a solid seal and a complex system of rods. He also took the mouthpiece style of the clarinet, a style that would be easiest to create a tone with. The vibrating reed is much more simple to make sounds on than with a brass mouthpiece or a flute headjoint. Ever see a 6th grader playing flute or a brass instrument for the first time? He/she can`t even produce a tone the first time... clarinet and sax players just put their mouth on it and blow... Then he took the brass material used in.. brass instruments.. and made a conical shaped instrument that was originally nearly straight. The shape, while it has many pluses, was made with the idea that it would be easier to produce over tones (or partials, in the brass world). These over tones are the basics of altissimo. So, he took all of the best parts of these instruments and formed one single instrument.
The original purpose of the saxophone was to replace all of the "weird/un-needed" instruments that were on the marching field. I.E. Bassoons and French Horns (of course mellophones were later created... using designs by Adolphe).

The clarinet is harder than the saxophone for many reasons. First off, like it`s been said before, the embechoure is much more difficult to master on a clarinet. To those of you who have never tried to play on a clarinet mouthpiece, it`s a little bit more tight than a soprano sax mouthpiece. The air is backed up much more on a clarinet since you`re blowing through a smaller hole. As you get better, you learn to control your air (much like you do on a saxophone with awkwardly played notes) and you learn to not waste so much air blowing your brain out your ears. Clarinets also have open key holes. As soon as you start you have to learn to cover up the holes completely or else you get leaks.. and squeeks. On saxophone, you could play it by pressing the keys closed with chopsticks (granted that would be just a tad bit hard...)
The conical shape also helps with altissimo. While it`s possible to play altissimo on clarinet, it`s infinitely times easier on saxophone. The squeeks you hear on clarinet because of their poor fingerings are not altissimo, btw....
The one thing that`s easier to do on clarinet is produce a pleasant tone. A clarinet player only has 2 main tones. A "i`m too tired to play because i`ve been tightening my mouth too much" tone, where you loosen your embechoure and get a goose-like tone, and the "other" tone, where you`re firm and have a clean, rich tone. On saxophone, sadly, everyone thinks (and it`s true) that it`s incredibly easy to play it. So you get all the people who pick it up and play without knowing how their mouth works. You get about 80% of the people way too loose and getting again that duck sound, and then you get like 10% of the people doing it too tight and getting the nasal sound. Even when you fall into that last 10% of the correct embechoure, you have to learn to keep it and control it. All of the notes should feel different on your embechoure. A middle D should always be lipped down and high A`s are a punk to get in tune. High D`s are normally 30 cents too sharp and anything above a D on soprano sax is generally an entire half step too high if you don`t control yourself. On clarinet... you finger and you blow. If it doesnt squeek, then voala, you`re in tune! =)

Quote:
"Last, the saxophone is much more fun to play, because you can do so much fun stuff with it, for instance, flutter tounge, growling, altissimo notes, overtone, vibrato, bending tones (I think I can bend a note one-and-a-half half steps)."

You can do all of that stuff on clarinet.. except over tones have different intervals.

But I do agree sax is much more fun to play... Jazz Bands, Marching Bands, Ska Bands, etc. The only down side is that composers like to think we`re french horns in lots of compositions, meaning we end up playing upbeats more often than not. Then again, playing upbeats gets you prepared for Ska... and who doesn`t love ska?

www.thirdgradescuffle.com <- My Ska Band

I don`t think its been mentioned yet about the question on clarinet vibrato.

Yes clarinet vibrato is possible, I`ve done it before, but the only condition it is ever called for is in Jazz. A flute, sax, trumpet, and most other instruments use vibrato in Concert Band to enchance the sound. However clarinet vibrato more often than not doesn`t match well. Its pointless to play vibrato in Marching Band generally speaking as well. It is implied that clarinets do not use vibrato unless they are in jazz, which uses a player`s embouchere (sp?) in many different ways

Saxophone is easier than clarinet, but as a saxophone teacher told me "saxophone is one of the easiest instruments to play...badly."

I`ve been playin sax for about ten years now, and clarinet for about three... they both have their own little nitches but it is much easier to switch to sax after calr.Also, the break on the clar. is a big pain to get down

In my opinion, it is easier to start on clarinet and then switch to sax. On the sax, all the notes are fingered the same way in all registers. On clarinet, though, all the notes are fingered differently in each register. However, the advantage of starting on clarinet is that the fingerings on the saxaphone are the same as the higher register fingerings on the clarinet.