 The Doublers BBoard
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Author: oboesax
Date: 2010-10-22 18:20
Some questions for those of you who have performed this musical. These are the woodwind parts:
1: Piccolo, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone
2: Piccolo [optional], flute [optional], clarinet, alto saxophone
3: Oboe [optional], English horn [optional], clarinet, tenor saxophone
4: Clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon [optional], tenor saxophone
5: Clarinet, bass clarinet [optional], bassoon, baritone saxophone
My daughter's high school will be performing this. She can choose which Reed part she wants; the other Reed parts will be covered by professional musicians. The MD doesn't believe in splitting parts. She studies sax, oboe and bassoon seriously. She can play clarinet but doesn't practice it regularly and would not want the lead clarinet book. She doesn't play flute yet. Last year she played the oboe/soprano sax/tenor sax/clarinet book in Thoroughly Modern Millie and really enjoyed it.
Book 3: How many solos or good parts are there for oboe and EH? Any tenor sax solos? Any exposed clarinet parts, particularly high notes? Which instrument is played most?
Books 4 and 5: Which book has bassoon solos, if any?
Ideally she'd like to play the book with the lead alto sax parts (alto and soprano sax are her favorite instruments), but she knows she doesn't have the clarinet skills for that yet, particularly when she's playing in a pit band made up mostly of professional musicians. Tenor is her least favorite sax to play, but I'm willing to rent a good instrument this year as she had to play on a fairly poor one last year as that's all her school has. She has a decent (intermediate) baritone sax borrowed from school and plays it in one of her jazz bands. She owns her own oboe, EH, bassoon and has my brother's good clarinet. I assume we could borrow a bass clarinet if needed. The MD will probably want her on Book 3, but as I said she can pick. If you could pick between Books 3, 4, and 5, which one would you pick?
Thank you in advance.
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Author: oboeidaho
Date: 2010-10-25 23:31
I would pick book 3. She CAN play all the instruments in that book. Would definitely rent a better tenor. If she really likes that low down part, book 5 would be fun - and you could rent the bass clarinet. I wouldn't do book 4 as you would need to rent TWO instruments, but hard to know which is best unless someone remembers the actual division of parts. I have not played this show myself.
If she really loves playing alto sax and wants to do pit work seriously, I would start working on flute asap, they almost always share a book. And clarinet is like the workhorse of the pit - can and will be in almost every book.
If she is less "into" pit playing, just wants to play whatever parts come her way, that's great! Sounds like she is a very talented young woman. Good luck!
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Author: oboesax
Date: 2010-10-26 00:55
Thanks oboeidaho. My daughter really does like pit work, but as a 9th grader she hasn't done many yet and I don't think she is in a position to decide exactly what she wants to do when she's older. She does blow into my flute occasionally (the flute is the "only" instrument I play!) just to work on the embouchure a bit, and gets a nice sound on the piccolo, but I'm not sure that adding more instruments right now, as she is inclined to do, is a great idea. Her private teachers tell her to study one of them in college, and perhaps get a MM in multiple woodwinds. It's hard enough right now for her to fit in her practice time with sax, oboe, bassoon and all the homework!
I do like that she wants to try all books in the pit orchestras, and playing Reed 5 would allow her to try out playing the bass parts. The school just bought a new bass clarinet she can use, so I wouldn't have to pay for that.
She's always been enthralled with the idea of playing the baritone sax. This year she will have the opportunity to be the baritone sax player in a jazz band (private) that she just auditioned into. I'm waiting to see if, over time, she really will prefer the bass line to the alto. My personal opnion is that she really likes the lead and will prefer being the lead alto, but I'll let her figure that out for herself.
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2010-10-26 03:27
The Reed 5 experience will be good for her. I played all the lead stuff on alto when I was her age, and when I had a chance to play bari in jazz band, I jumped on it. It definitely opened up my mind as to how the music is written and scored, and how the bari part is just as important as the lead alto. Playing bari in a show will be even more educational.
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Author: rcnelson
Date: 2013-05-03 18:30
YANKEES hasn't been talked about for a bit but for those of you who have done it: this is my next one, 3 weekends in June. 2 of us are splitting the 5 reed books. Right now, I have books 2 and 3. The question I have: when having to chose between the alto sax in reed 2 and the tenor sax in reed 3 with the other player playing reed 1, at first glance, the answer is: it depends on which selection. But I thought I would throw this out to those who are familiar with the show.
Ron
Selmer Mark VI tenor (1957), Selmer Mark VII alto (1975)
Buescher True Tone soprano (1924), Selmer CL210 Bb Clarinet, Gemeinhardt 3SHB Flute, Pearl PFP105 Piccolo
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