Klarinet Archive - Posting 000423.txt from 1994/02

From: Claudia Zornow <claudia@-----.COM>
Subj: Doubling
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 18:40:59 -0500

Michael B. Favreau asks about doubling. This will be long!

Doubling, for me, opens up opportunities for more fun. My belief
(unsupported by any hard evidence) is that, if you're not at a
professional level of playing, doubling won't take away from your
abilities on your primary instrument *unless* you spend time on your
doubles that you would otherwise have spent practicing the primary horn.
Perhaps if your embouchure is close to perfect you might notice a loss
after playing another instrument, but I've never had to worry about that
particular problem :-(.

I suspect that a lot of doubling ability is in the mind. Sure, it feels
funny to put down a tenor sax (to use Dan Leeson's favorite example
instrument) and pick up a clarinet. Especially if you have one measure
to do that, turn the page, and make a key change. (Those of you who
play in pits should recognize this scenario.) But if you've spent
enough time on each of your doubles to be able to play them well by
themselves, *and* if you believe that you are sufficiently flexible and
adaptable to make that change, then you should be able to do it. You
need the core competence, though. If you don't have a good piccolo
embouchure under the best of conditions, you won't have one when you're
making a quick switch from bass clarinet.

My doubling history is as checkered as anyone's, I suppose. I started
on clarinet in 5th grade, picked up tuba in 8th grade just for the heck
of it (it was fun being audible in high school marching band, and I
still play tuba regularly although I never practice it), took up
saxophone in college because I had a summer job at a place (IBM
Rochester) that had a jazz band with a baritone sax and no one to play
it, and finally added flute a few years after college graduation for the
purpose of playing those jazz band doubles. (Flute has also come in handy
for allowing me to play the reed I/II books in shows so I get more
interesting parts and don't have to carry the heavy artillery.) I've
accumulated the usual soprano/alto/tenor saxes, Eb and bass clarinets,
and piccolo along the way. When someone asks me how many instruments
I play, I don't know whether to say 4 or 10.

I think that, if you enjoy playing an instrument such as clarinet,
you're very likely to enjoy playing another instrument; they all have
their delights and virtues. There's nothing quite like roaring out a
unison with the bass trombone when you're playing bari sax in a big
band, or like playing a gorgeous flute countermelody to the soprano's
line, and <many examples omitted>. Doubling lets you have more kinds
of musical fun.

Claudia (clarinet, Nova Vista Symphony
alto sax, Redwood Symphony [occasional]
tuba, HP Symphony and HP Brass quintet
assorted reeds, assorted pits -- _Singing in the Rain_ opens
on Thursday and I'm playing picc/flute/clarinet/alto and
maybe soprano sax if I'm not too lazy to carry it; I'm
definitely playing the 8 bars written for oboe on flute!)