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I'm a dude. I was the concert master (1st chair, 1st clarinet) for my high school concert band, the 1st chair Tenor sax for jazz band (as well as the clarinet lead), I was the concert master for the High Desert High School Honor Band....

Ahh...I feel so out of place here. Everyone's first chair, and I'm just a regular. (Well, no, I'm 1st chair bass clarinet, but still..) I'm not good enough to play regular clarinet well, but I can whip a lot of people at bass.

I play tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, and soprano clarinet. I have tried to play an alto clarinet and a bass, contraalto, contrabass (you get the picture), and I found that after playing tenor sax, alto clarinet was easy; believe it or not, an alto saxophone might not help at all due to the fact that the mouthpiece on an alto sax is smaller than tat of the soprano clarinet. The mouthpiece of a tenor sax is about the same size as the mouthpiece for the alto clarinet; the mouthpiece for the bass clarinet is closer in size to that of the baritone saxophone.

I'll tell you from experience, the smaller the mouthpiece the harder it is and the larger the mouthpiece the harder it is. One thing to remember is that it's all relative. Music is music and it doesn't change based on the instrument. The instrument may change, but the musician behind it (yourself) won't unless you want to. I play the tenor saxophone well, because I picked it up (it's in the same key as soprano clarinet, b flat) with the mindset that this is just a bigger, metallic clarinet. If you're good at the clarinet, treat other instruments that way. It helps to gain confidence, which helps gain drive. Drive helps you learn better and properly, and well...you get the point.

the only all girls section i know so far is the flute section! I know only two guys who play the flute...i think there are a few others in the other period...i'll soon find out one day...MUAHAH O.O -_-;;. Wow only guys...thats interesting...it would be odd if the conductor was a girl o.o;; now i'm starting to wonder if all the girls in your school stay away as far as possible from the band room.... sweatdrop

I wanted to try out for first chair in the wind ensemble this year when i get in, but around June we were told that we had to split the wind ensemble into youth and older. older-eighth graders youth-seventh and sixth just because our band is reallllllllllllllllllll big (no seriously i'm not lying o.o, once someone stepped on my clarinet because it was really cramped in the band room)! I wanted to try and get that chair from the eighth graders domokun but nooo...oh well biggrin I hope i could still go to london....

when i went to my sister's high school to see her band perform (even though she isn't band I found out by looking at her agenda biggrin besides...she has a friend there xD) I was so shocked, the first chair for the clarinetist was a guy! I've been use to seeing first chair females...o.o even though the sixth grade band in my school had a guy as first chair...though he says he's not gonna make it into the wind ensemble xP whoo lol

yes...this year I'm gonna try and stop that!! Er...if there isn't someone whose already trying to do that...I'm not use to seeing first chair clarinetists being guys.......

unless we got into the discussion about some orchestras....guys have first chair there....never saw a girl clarinetist there gonk actually i did...but she was third chair? sweatdrop

I have never been in an orchestra...but I have had a first chair male clarinet player, and it was David Nava.

no, i don't really agree with that thing about the mouthpiece comparisons. The alto sax mp is bigger than the Bb clarinet. Though, the shape is different, that's probably what makes you say that.

Remember, the saxophone is "part brass" mostly in it's shape, than in it's material.

The body is cone shaped.

That's a very characteristic trait of brass horns. Also the reason I believe the saxophone is more like the oboe in many ways than the clarinet.

Flute's and clarinets are generally straight cylinders. Generally.

Because of that, the mp on saxophone had to be sculpted differently, to project the air properly through the horn.
Adolf Sax was a clarinetist and flautist, as the stories go.

He even is credited as a contributor to the design of the bass clarinet. (Makes you think, huh?)

Another difference is the angle you play at. The saxophone mouthpiece is much closer to parallel with the ground than clarinet. A reason you shouldn't try to play soprano at the angle you would play clarinet.

Oh, and sax mps come in a much wider scale of sizes than clarinet ones. That's probably because the mp is more external than the clarinet. You just plug the clarinet mp into the barrel, with the sax you put it on the neck
Right.
For example, I use a big a** bundy mp on my tenor. (Interestingly enough, the bari mp i use my school gave me too is very very narrow, and much thinner than that tenor mp) When I went to go buy a Rovner, they were out, but we found out that the bass clarinet rovner works just fine.

(I didn't buy it, if you're wondering)

Anyway, I also feel that the bigger the mp, the easier, at least with saxs. Sax embochure is loose and flexible, especially for modern sax players. Because of that, the bigger the horn, the bigger the mp, and the looser the embochure. That's why I think tenor players generally have a better reputation of emoting than alto players do : (
Playing the bigger saxs greatly improved my flexibility on alto. They also can potentially increase your lung capacity, which is INVALUABLE

However, clarinet embochure needs to be much firmer than saxophone.
Because of this, the comparison might not work, I still need to play bass ; ;
I've read that people who have gone to just bass after years of playing have trouble going back to Bb

Oh, and btw, I thought soprano clarinet usually refers to the Eb : (


: ) I do agree with you that playing an instrument is relative. It's just a medium. You're still the artist. Remember, it's you who makes the music, regardless of what you're using. And yes, I did think of saxophone with every other woodwind I've played. It helps.