<p>Does your son have any opportunity to try out any of these instruments? It's all very well to be talking about whether they will be hooks or whatever, but if he can't play the chosen instrument to a good level, it won't be much of anything at all.</p>
<p>I play the violin (and secondarily the viola) to a level that was high enough to get recruited to a couple of schools and offered scholarships at others, but from fooling around with other people's brass instruments my impression is that I would struggle to be even an average school brass player. There is something about the physicality of a tuba, for example, that I just couldn't get my head, and indeed body, around. Of course you can get different sized instruments and so on, but it just felt awkward and wrong in my arms. I also don't much care for the noise of some brass instruments and the time it takes to get to a level where it doesn't just sound mostly awful, so I would probably also have been very unmotivated to pursue playing it to a level where it would help me in the college application process.</p>
<p>Yes, he is now getting the opportunity to try oboe, trombone, tuba (which is just not appealing to him). The band is so eager for these instruments, they are giving him some chance to experiment. </p>
<p>It's too soon to know if the double reed instrument will make sense. The hard part is that he was in a jazz band as a pianist, but will face really stiff competition to keep that kind of position. That and the teachers comments caused me to inquire about whether these unusual instruments did help in admissions.</p>
<p>my kids were/are very musical, on a competitve level, but neither majored in music. HOWEVER, both created the best "package" possible for their college applications. I like this word rather than "hook", as hook sounds so limiting. EVERYONE can create their best face! so they both sent in professionally recorded CDs of their particular musical talent. it's a more noticeable kind of EC presentation...it worked!</p>