 The Doublers BBoard
|
Author: MikeC855
Date: 2015-10-30 20:36
Interesting that an oboe teacher would give you grief about doubling on flute. It's usually the flute instructors that go insane over suggestions of doubling. For that I concur, flute embouchures are easily "broken" if my own experience is any indication.
My absolute worst double? French horn to piccolo. Both are very tight and fatiguing, and very "needy" in terms of control. In truth, decades of mostly playing brass has all but put an end to my flute playing, which is sad because flute is my most technically facile instrument.
Oddest but easiest? Tuba to oboe and back. The embouchures are (to me) complementary, where one relaxes overworked muscles of the other. Tuba after oboe is almost a relief.
Most fun is tuba to piccolo. Aside from the sheer goofiness of swapping extremes (I play a 5/4 tuba - i.e., very big, with a large bore), it's a hoot to torment the flute section on Stars & Stripes with the piccolo obligato suddenly emanating from the back of the ensemble.
A difficult double for me is bassoon to oboe. I tend to "chomp down" too much on the bassoon reed if I've swapped straight from oboe without a break, timbre and intonation suffering accordingly.
Managing doubles (or triples, etc.), like everything else in instrumental proficiency, is a matter of practicing the changes. As Ron suggested, it's a matter of learning the switch. When I was more generally active in different ensembles on different instruments, I had a practice routine where I would pick a piece - Mozart horn concertos work well for this - changing instruments with almost every phrase. It was also a handy exercise in transposition.
-----
Confounding band directors since 1964.
|
|
|
OboePrince |
2015-04-30 09:17 |
|
concertmaster3 |
2015-05-06 17:29 |
   |
Re: Worst Double Ever new |
|
MikeC855 |
2015-10-30 20:36 |
|
fromsfca |
2016-05-01 05:17 |
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
