Master of One and Jack-of-All-Trades for the rest?

[Ken]

According to this doubler (http://www.purtle.com/maryallyeb_articles_doubling.html) (see about half way down the page) you should choose a primary instrument and practice the majority of the basic skills on one instrument then practice the skills needed on each of the other instruments.

To me that means you have one instrument that is your primary focus to master, e.g. sax, and the other instruments like clarinet and flute are all secondary, ones that you can play but not to same standard as your primary.

I was wondering how other doublers approach their instruments. As above, or equal emphasis on all? I have always done the latter.

[Single_Reed]

I originaly started on clarinet, before i started sax, but sax is now my main instrument and clarinet and flute are my others, I would like to say I can play equaly as good on sax and clarinet, but flute is another story. I have not taken the time, but I really should practice and master the flute, because I am primarily a jazz/big band player. Although I almost never see a flute part, except for if I am playing the bari in a big band or 2nd alto, It would be awesome if I could realy sing on the flute because in my bands if anyone has a flute part written of course they pass it on down to the "flute player", me, and trade for my part if possible or we rewrite the parts so I can play both. (this was especialy hard playing maynard ferguson's sesame street which has a flute intro and then goes right to a bari sax part!!!, I was playing bari then) <-- sorry kind of off subject. anyways it all matters what you want to do, If you want to be able to just cover parts or be able to make the parts realy sing it is up to you, but I would suggest mastering each instrument you want to double on. Now for me off to practicing my flute!!!

[bpimentel]

Ms. Purtle, at the link you provided, differentiates between technical skills, which are largely instrument-specific, and musicianship skills, which are not. I think this distinction is germane to the question you have asked.

Having strong technical skills on one primary instrument has given me lots of opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten if I only had a collection of "secondary" instruments. The experience gained from these opportunities has allowed me to improve my musicianship skills.

Now I find that more and more opportunities pop up for me to use my secondary instruments, even when my technical skills aren't top-level, because my musicianship skills are adequately developed for the opportunity in question. Employers have commented to me in many cases that they prefer to hire someone with musicianship and experience than to hire someone with technical chops.

The danger of being too much the jack-of-all-trades is becoming a practice room hermit who slowly, laboriously develops technical skills on a half-dozen instruments, while never getting any playing opportunities because their technical skills are still lacking on every instrument. This delays the development of musicianship skills, which are only learned properly from experience.

Better, I think, to achieve a certain level of proficiency on one instrument first, get a little momentum going in terms of getting gigs, then begin to add in secondary instruments as musicianship develops. Once the secondary instruments' technical skills begin to stand on their own, it may be time to equalize the emphasis on each.

My two cents.

Bret

[Ken]

My clarinet teacher does theatre work so I guess I can ask him about this as well.

If I want to do pit band work I need to improve my clarinet sound. My teacher can also help on sax to make sure I have a suitable sound for pit work if needed. However for jazz I need to focus on sax as my primary instrument. I am playing flute/piccolo in a community concert band. That together with limited practice time is probably why I place equal emphasis on each.

I could probably get away with placing more emphasis on sax, so that is still a possibility.

Thanks

[saxfreak]

Ms. Purtle, at the link you provided, differentiates between technical skills, which are largely instrument-specific, and musicianship skills, which are not. I think this distinction is germane to the question you have asked.

Having strong technical skills on one primary instrument has given me lots of opportunities that I wouldn't have gotten if I only had a collection of "secondary" instruments. The experience gained from these opportunities has allowed me to improve my musicianship skills.

Now I find that more and more opportunities pop up for me to use my secondary instruments, even when my technical skills aren't top-level, because my musicianship skills are adequately developed for the opportunity in question. Employers have commented to me in many cases that they prefer to hire someone with musicianship and experience than to hire someone with technical chops.

The danger of being too much the jack-of-all-trades is becoming a practice room hermit who slowly, laboriously develops technical skills on a half-dozen instruments, while never getting any playing opportunities because their technical skills are still lacking on every instrument. This delays the development of musicianship skills, which are only learned properly from experience.

Better, I think, to achieve a certain level of proficiency on one instrument first, get a little momentum going in terms of getting gigs, then begin to add in secondary instruments as musicianship develops. Once the secondary instruments' technical skills begin to stand on their own, it may be time to equalize the emphasis on each.

My two cents.

Bret

This is excellent advice.
In my experience, I had a foundation in clarinet before I started to branch out to other woodwinds in college. While I was learning secondary instruments one at a time I was still primarily studying clarinet. After I finished music school I was able to obsess on whichever secondary double was interesting to me at the time, or necessary for me to perfom on. A lot of the foundation from the first instrument will carry over to the secondary instruments, provided it is firmly established on the main horn.
P.S. I'm impressed with your website and the resources on it.

[jaysne]

I've been a sax player all my life and have gradually picked up secondary instruments along the way. I've made sure, however, to study with real flute players, real clarinet players, real trumpet players, and so on, as opposed to, say, studying clarinet with a sax player who knows some clarinet.

This way my secondary instrument abilities, though they may be modest, are honest and pure and not just knock-offs of my sax abilities. Meanwhile, the musicianship I've acquired from years of sax playing and lessons can carry me along when I pick up the other horns.

[Fader]

I was on the road in the 80's as a vocalist, sax, and guitarist - back then, the only practice we did was on the show itself. For the past 20+ years I have been producing, composing and creating music for commercial reasons. Primarily my niche is elotronic music. The same applies, but now I am heavily into mixing, keyboards, and sequencers as well. If I needed a sax I'd practice (sometimes for 3 or 4 days) to get the tone and chops needed for the part. Once the track was done, I didn't even open the case until the next "need". Sometimes that has been years.


In the past year, I started playing with a band (two actually) as a horn player and guitarist again - The first few months I practiced the sax daily (my guitar chops are as good as they are ever gonna be). Now that the shows are set I don't practice anymore at all. I get my practice during the gigs :)

I'm still making a few commercials here and there, and working on two CD projects so practice happens when writing parts.

[saxydouble]

when I was at school i certainly took the approach that I should practice all my instruments an equal amount. I wish I still had the time to do this - as it is sax is my main study and I practice a few hours a day the others come out of their cases when I have time... as a classical musician it seems to me that i'm going to get more work in the long run from the saxophone than the others, but I keep them ticking alongside because I know that decent doublers are rare :)