 The Doublers BBoard
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-05-27 20:27
I've done a number of orchestral gigs where I ended up playing bass clarinet or sax on one piece, then percussion for another.
First time I played at Roy Thomson Hall with the Scarborough Phil, I played bass clarinet and bass drum!
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-05-28 11:20
I play bodran, but preferably not where anyone can hear me. I played simple percussion a few times back in high school, but only when not enough real percussionists showed up. They'd put me on bass drum--less likely to mess up on that one. Drums were my first choice of instrument back in grade school, but the instructor (1957) felt that, "Girls don't play the drums." I never have learned how to play snares or tympani--I've taken pity on my husband, who tries hard not to look stricken every time we see a trap set for sale at a flea market....
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: stevesklar
Date: 2006-05-29 03:45
I absolutely love certain percussion. I was one of our xylophone players back in high school when needed. also filled in on marching band on tri-toms and other things. could never do a drum roll worth anything though.
college and sax majoring there were too many *real* players so i never touched one again.
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Stephen Sklar
My YouTube Channel of Clarinet Information
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Author: clarinets1
Date: 2006-05-30 16:25
for one show, in addition to saxophone, i played chimes and glockenspiel. not hard to do, set up just like a piano keyboard.
JK
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2006-05-30 19:06
I'm considered the finest cowbell and guero ('scratcher' or 'gourd') player in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. For what it's worth. Which is nothing. But when I'm playing in a rock/Top-40/wedding band and have no sax parts, it's better to beat on some percussion than to stand around or leave the stage (I think). So I try to beat them noisemakers in time, and with what little musical taste I can muster for the occasion.
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Author: Jaysne
Date: 2006-08-09 03:22
I often am called to play bass clarinet or sax in a local orchestra, but last spring I played triangle for their rendition of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. What an experience! You're standing back there, overlooking the entire orchestra. Then you count 35 measures of rest, followd by another 28 measures, then the time signature changes while you rest another 17 measures, then you come in with a few quarter notes. This goes on over and over until you break loose at the end with some triangle rolls.
It gave me a whole new perspective on how the percussion functions in a piece like that. It also showed me how hard being a percussionist can be, mainly due to having to concentrate on counting all those rests--and you either come in at the right time or you don't. And there is no hiding--you're the only one on the instrument.
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Author: EuGeneSee
Date: 2006-08-11 03:09
I can agree with jaysne on having to count a lot better when you are doubling on percussion . . . I remember in my school band clarinet playing days that if I got lost I could usually find my place by listening to the band around me. That sort of spoiled me, I think. Now that I'm trying to relearn clarinet after decades of being away from it, our community band director put me on the bass drum. He said that he needed a bass drummer for one thing, and that it would give me plenty of practice on rhythm and keeping up with where I am in the score since I can't always depend on the melody line to tell me where I am.
Help! Somebody just give me a clarinet part to put beside my drum part so I can figure out where we are!!!!
EuGene
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-08-16 14:40
If you do Broadway show pits, or play in a modern-oriented group, you'll end up doing this at one point or another. For example, Guys And Dolls has Latin percussion stuff in a couple of the sax parts during the "Havana" dance number. WHen you've only got one or two percussion people, it's hard to cover all of the parts in a Cuban or Brazilian based composition.
In my group, most of the percussion doubles are taken up by the vocalists. However, I've got a couple of tunes where my baritone part is replaced by a woodblock, cowbell or claves part, and my bass trombone player doubles conga, quero and bongos as needed.
Some vocalists have been difficult in the past about doing this, but the parts have to be covered for the tunes to "work", and a decent vocalist who cooperates is preferred over a great vocalist who won't. Some of the vocalists are positive artists with the cowbell and tambourine, and it really makes the finished product all that much better.
All told, the auxiliary percussion equipment (tambourines, shakers, claves, "the pig", scratcher and so forth) takes up one Eldon file tub in the van, while Billy's stuff fills up a small snare drum case and a percussion kit bag.
There's a great "video" clip (done in Java, or so I'm told) of a sax player over on the Sax On The Web forum, that of the poster whaling the hell out of a cowbell. Sometimes, how well you play sax is secondary to the performance; he's doing a great job.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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