Eddie Daniels is not a doubler
Great video of Eddie Daniels talking about doubling—er, not doubling.
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Woodwind Doubler Census results, part 6: benefits
In this installment, we look at why woodwind doublers do what they do.
Q. What is the greatest benefit of being a woodwind doubler?
Here’s my own breakdown of the most common types of answers. Many answers fit into more than one category.
- More gigs: Unsurprisingly, this was a factor for over half of the respondents. However, many if not most indicated some non-monetary motivation:
- Variety
- Fun/satisfaction
- Artistic expression: A number of respondents mentioned the ability to access a variety of tone colors as a motivating factor.
- Cross-training: Several respondents indicated that playing one instrument improves their skills at another.
- Challenge
Here is the complete list of responses, with only very minor editing, in random order.
Read More “Woodwind Doubler Census results, part 6: benefits”“Problems” vs. solutions
I often see this kind of thing in woodwind pedagogical books, workshop handouts, and lecture notes:
Common clarinet problems
- embouchure too loose
- chin not flat
- fingers not curved enough
This bothers me because it’s really not clear that these are “problems.” Would you have a student tighten a “too loose” embouchure if they sound great and play with ease and control? Would you insist on a flatter chin or more curved fingers if there weren’t some persuasive reason to do so?
Real problems in woodwind playing generally have some audible result: notes that don’t respond well, or are out of tune, or have an uncharacteristic tone, or come too late because the fingers didn’t arrive in time. Alterations to embouchure, hand position, and so forth are solutions to specific issues, not commandments to be preached and enforced indiscriminately. Your doctor doesn’t give out a standard grab bag of medications to every patient—he or she (hopefully) finds out what your symptoms are and prescribes something appropriate (or tells you you don’t need any pills at all).
Diagnose problems mostly with your ears, not with a checklist of questionable dicta, and not with a picture from a textbook of what good playing should look like. Then offer solutions that fit the problems.
Preparing for a multiple woodwinds recital
For over a decade, all of my solo recital performances have been on multiple woodwind instruments. Last month I performed (twice) a recital program with pieces played on flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and three saxophones. Here are some of the things I do to prepare.
- Practice the physical changes. I opened my program with an oboe piece, and followed that with a flute piece with a delicate entrance. As the recital approached, I made sure to follow each oboe practice session by practicing that flute entrance, to be sure I could do it under those conditions. Something that didn’t work very well: after the oboe, flute, and bassoon pieces, my hands and jaw tended to be a little tense for clarinet playing. If I were preparing this recital again, I would bump the clarinet to the end of my practice sessions to work on playing relaxed even when fatigued.
- Practice the mental changes. If I can put myself into the right place mentally for the instrument I’m about to play, my physical technique seems to fall into place. Sometimes I will do some rotating warmups—play, for instance, some scales on one instrument, and then immediately play them on another, and another. That gives me a chance to practice shifting mental gears. Once I have my program order set, I also make liberal use of Post-it Notes to give myself reminders between pieces: “take a moment to relax embouchure,” “keep breath support strong in low register,” “clear moisture from octave vent.”
- Make thorough checklists. With seven instruments on my most recent recital, I surely would have forgotten something—a bassoon seat strap, a case of clarinet reeds, a piece of sheet music. I made a detailed list and used it to set up for a dress rehearsal. Sure enough, there were a few things that hadn’t made it onto the list, and I was able to retrieve those items and add them to the list before the first public performance. When I traveled a few hours for another performance, I was confident that I had everything I needed.
- Use good stands. Good ones are sturdy and make it easy to set down or pick up an instrument without fuss. Since I played flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon on the first half without leaving the stage, having some good stands kept things moving smoothly and let me stay focused.
- Do thorough warmups. As the performance approaches, it’s tempting to practice in panic mode, and skip over things like warmups. I always play much better if I do my warmups faithfully all the way up to the day of the performance. I find that if I warm up slowly and thoroughly on each instrument before the performance (this might take a few hours with multiple instruments! I usually do it in the morning), then I’m able to switch between them more easily.
Break a leg!
Understanding woodwind key nomenclature systems
- Photo, Allan Reyes
Most woodwind instruments come in several sizes, and a naming system is required for describing the size and pitch of each. The most familiar for players of modern Western woodwinds is that used for (for example) the clarinet and saxophone families, with most of those instruments being described as “in B-flat” or “in E-flat.” However, there are several other systems in use in the larger woodwind family tree. This can be confounding for newcomers to folk, ethnic, and period woodwinds, but I’ll attempt to shed some light on things.
Here are the four primary systems. The names are my own:
- Modern. This system is used for modern Western orchestral/band woodwinds and brasses. In this system, each member of the instrument family (such as all of the clarinets) match a written pitch to a fingering, so that, for example, a written C can be fingered the same way on any of the clarinets, and the actual pitch produced depends on the instrument’s size. (Playing written C, incidentally, produces the sounding pitch for which an instrument is named: Playing “C” on a B-flat clarinet produces a sounding B-flat, “C” on an A clarinet produces a sounding A, and so forth.) This is convenient to the clarinetist, but awkward for composers, copyists, conductors, and others dealing with multiple transpositions. It also leads to oddities such as the lowest contrabass clarinets, like all their clarinet siblings, being notated in treble clef. Read More “Understanding woodwind key nomenclature systems”
That is an interesting philosophy. I’ve seen many people say they are not a doubler, but rather, and instrumentalist. But, I can see some pro’s and con’s to this mind-set. If it works for him that is great, it might even work for me. I think I won’t adapt it until I get through with Saxophone in my undergrad. But this is a very nice link, thank you for posting it.
It was also nice to see all the repair machines in the background.
This is exactly why, as a saxophonist, I fought so hard to become a clarinet primary during my graduate work as a woodwind specialist. In order to become very proficient on more than one woodwind instrument, you need to treat each additional one like it is your primary. Becoming comfortable with the clarinet has taken many years, and it probably would have taken even longer if I had to prepare for a saxophone lesson each week as well.
Such a great approach to the concept of playing multiple woodwind instruments. I’ve had conversations with some of the great woodwind artists in LA (Sal Lozano, Dan Higgins, Jay Mason) and they all have the same philosophy.