Flute or Clarinet

[K_rock923]

I'm a alto/bari/sop (in order of preference) player, a senior in high school. In the last few weeks, I got to play in my first theater pit - Anything Goes. However, things got extremely boring because I don't play other woodwind instruments. I love the sound a flute makes but I think that I'd do better learning clarinet. Is it common when you're starting out learning a second instrument for it to screw up your sax playing. Say I was concentrating so much on learning clarinet fingerings, that I go to hit a note on my alto and I use the wrong fingering. Is it really possible to have both instruments have the second nature feel that the sax does without having to totally shift your mind? Thanks for any advice.

[saxfreak]

At first it is confusing to play another woodwind, but you can adjust to it. It's pretty much a matter of time and experience. If you are learning to play flute or clarinet, you probably won't be using those fingerings on sax, because sax is so familiar. You might tend to use sax fingerings on the other instruments. You could find the clarinet fingerings a little frustrating because it overblows at a twelfth instead of an octave, so the same fingerings are different notes when the register key is added. If you learn flute, you'll be in for a project with the embouchure.
If you enjoy playing in a pit, doubles are absolutely required - flute, clarinet, and sax at the minimum. If you can add either oboe or bassoon you will be more valuable. Plus, eventually you'll need bass clarinet and piccolo. It takes time to learn all these horns and acquire them, but it's worth it if you enjoy that kind of playing. Anything Goes is a fun show, and it has better than average sax parts, but there are also woodwind parts that need to be played on each book.
Although this is a somewhat controversial issue, you will probably not find that learning other woodwinds will harm your sax playing, except for the amount of time taken away from sax to develop the other horns. You will be surprised that some of the things you learn on the new instruments actually might help out your sax playing.
As far as the first double, probably clarinet is more immediately useful, plus it's similar to sax in a lot of respects - especially soprano sax. Eventually you should also learn flute. After a while, all the doubles become second nature, but it takes a while to get to that point. You'll have to have patience. If you enjoy the new instruments, that keeps the interest up. If possible, try to find someone to teach you the new instruments instead of learning bad habits on your own. There are (or at least there were) music schools that have a major in woodwind instrument performance - I got that degree at Indiana in the early 1970's.
It's a big job to develop good skills on all the woodwinds, but if you have a chance to perform in a great show like West Side Story or many others, it's an absolute blast.