Spaw

Our bassoonist didn't usually march with the bassoon, although there were a couple of exceptions when the weather was nice. He was, however, an excellent musician - one of those kids whose parents got him started early on an unusual (and incredibly expensive and difficult) instrument to assure that he'd follow a musical career. (And I don't know if he did.) He played in both band and orchestra, and was much in demand for "outside" events, since good bassoonists were, and probably are still, pretty rare.

When the band went out to march, usually he picked up a bass drum or a pair of cymbals.

Sorry, but I don't place your Eefer clarinet as anything I've seen (and remembered). There have been a lot of "deviant" instruments popular with specific performers, or with a particular "cult(?)" of music, but most of these don't find a place in conventional bands, and kids who turn up at a playalong aren't too likely to bring one.

The standard Bb clarinet is already something of a "screecher" if a kid has learned to get into the upper notes, and an alto sax player (especially a kid) who's learned to get into the top (4th) octave can "break glass" (or eardrums). Kids in my era were usually only taught the first 2.5 octaves on a sax, but quite a few now are being taught to "explore" the full 4 octaves of the instrument.

Instrument range does bring up a minor thing to be consideered by leeneia, or anyon else doing transpositions. Especially with "beginner" level kids, each instrument does have a fairly limited range in which the kids (beginners) will be "most comfortable" playing - especially unfamiliar tunes. It does make some difference where the transposed music "fits on the staff" for each kind of instrument, so you have to decide whether to go up or down with key changes, to get to where they're used to seeing stuff written. Unfortunately, what they'll want depends a lot on what kind of music they're being taught, and on who shows up; so I'd recommend just taking a reasonable "songbook," in three or four key versions, to the first session or two, and waiting for them to tell you what changes they need.

The fundamental problem likely to arise is the very popular guitar vs band/orchestra instrumentation. At beginner levels, they often mix about as well as oil and water (or maybe like drain cleaner and gasoline).

John