Re: Brass Instrument Doubling


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Posted by Tom Mason on April 24, 2001 at 11:19:32:

In Reply to: Brass Instrument Doubling posted by Tim Zimmerman on April 24, 2001 at 10:54:34:

I cover tuba, bass trombone, baritone/euph, clarinets, saxes, and string/electric bass.

The advantages are:
1. More gigs, more money.
2. More playing, more technique that is common between instruments leads to more facility by playing. (common fingering patterns get used more if more playing is done).
3. More flexibility. (recently was called to play an f2 on bach 50 K3L with a schilke 60 on a gig).

The disadvantages are:
1. Embouchure changes can be be difficult when making fast changes for brief periods. (for me, I need a little time to fully feel the change going from large to small mouthpieces).
2. Lots of stuff to have at one time.
3. Lots of money invested in instruments.
4. People don't take you as serious if you try to cover a lot of instruments.

By the way, and not wanting to toot my own horn, but I did my undergrad work on clarinets, and my grad work on bass trombone. I always marched tuba, and played in the university tuba/euph choir. I enjoyed tuba lessons with Dr. William Holmes, and was able to work a lot on breathing as well as technique. I play most of my pro gigs on string bass/tuba.

Hope this helps.

Tom


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