Doubling on Reeds

[Denny]

Johnny Almond

[Herb]

Back in my (miss-spent?!?) youth I played in pit bands for musical theatre productions. Often the woodwind books required 4-5 instruments. Typically, such combinations as flute/picc., oboe, clarinet and alto sax, or clarinet, bass clar., tenor sax, bassoon would require rapid instrument changes in a matter of only a few measures. Beyond figuring out how to keep the reeds wet and ready to go, the real skill was in the embouchure changes. I actually spent many hours practicing playing, putting one horn down and picking up another and playing immediately it in order to master the changeovers. Interestingly, changing fingerings never caused the least bit of problem. Good woodwind doublers play very well indeed, but for me the desire to play one instrument at a higher level brought me to the point where I stopped doing that work.

My point is, you can practice making the changeovers as an isolated skill, and get very good at it.

Also, FWIW, I always found that practicing piccolo was very beneficial to my flute playing, and I know teachers who would agree. IMHO it helps to create focus and flexibility for the flute embouchure. I find that playing simple system flutes with their smaller embouchure holes and shallower risers have a similar effect on modern Boehm flute playing.

[Rob Sharer]

Say hello to Peaches for me.


Rob

[michael ward]

I have played all the saxes and clarinets for many years as well as silver flutes. One of the big things is getting your set ups right..ie your horn, mouthpiece and reed..Once you aren't fighting those doubling becomes a lot easier. Having good instruments in perfect order takes a lot of the pain away. For example I think I've played bari sax and bass clarinet about once this year but I know within ten minutes I'll be comfortable because my equipment and concept are sound.

[MeaghanEryn]

I have a friend who played on a cruise ship for a year. Woodwinds are required to double on sax, flute, and clarinet, as I recall--she was a sax major but was passable on the other two. I have to agree with the majority of the posts, though--I can't imagine you'd get fantastic sound on both reeds and flute without a good amount of time spent on both, but this just goes to show that, particularly in the jazz world, such doubling is Expected.

As for brass playing, when I took my brass techniques class we progressed from small brass to big brass (trumpet-horn-trombone), and I found it substantially easier each time...whether from the size of the mouthpiece or from the simple fact that I was getting more used to buzzing my lips, I'm not sure! But generally, the bigger the mouthpiece the looser the embouchure, and the easier for flute players to switch...flute players are actually pretty good candidates for switching to tuba if you have a fairly normal band of two trombones and fifty flutes....

Piccolo is generally an instrument you want to give to a flute player who has a fairly consistent embouchure. It can be especially good for flute players who have to firm up their embouchure a bit...on the other hand, it can be a really bad idea to give a piccolo to a flute player who already has a tight embouchure.

I played piccolo and flute in the wind orchestra at school this year, and I definitely noticed that it took a little while to ease into my flute playing if I'd been on piccolo a lot right before. For my recital, I played a Vivaldi piccolo concerto followed directly by a 12-minute flute piece; I just played some nice low long-tones backstage while the recital assistants were switching the music over and I was good to go. Another more ITM-related switch that bothers me is from whistle to flute. I think my biggest issue is just the shape of the Susato whistle mouthpiece; I might have to find a different whistle at some point!

[crookedtune]

Thanks for all the input, folks. I've now gone three weeks without reeds, and playing flute for 1-2 hours every day. Things are improving. The clarinet sold today on Craig's List, at a modest profit.

Hey, what's that smoke wafting from my pocket?

[greenspiderweb]

Hey, what's that smoke wafting from my pocket?

And, glad to hear your lips are not rubber on the flute anymore! Here's to ya and your recovery!