| Playing my first book without a primary instrument. |
| Giving degree recitals on all of them. |
| Playing at major university graduation ceremonies |
| Being able to play flute proficiently as a sub on a show in Florida. I no longer have to transpose flute parts on the clarinet! |
| Getting into a DMA program in Multiple Woodwinds |
| Performed West Side Story multiple times. |
| Being able to teach beginners in middle school band settings and help them see it’s possible to do more than one. One student has gone on to become proficient in multiple woodwinds and is considering it for employment after college because of this setup. |
| Cover an Oboe/Eng Horn pit orchestra part after 6 weeks of playing (after not playing oboe for 30 years). |
| I’ve been a hired member of a national tour. |
| That sometimes at a gig people will think I’m a clarinetist until they hear me play the saxophone. The other proudest achievement was getting that look people give you when something really stood out in a good way, and it was after one of the piccolo solos in the Addam’s Family Reed 1 book |
| Helping with a workshop production of a new musical |
| Generally speaking, the times that I have been able to take what was once a double and represent myself as a specialist on that instrument are the memories that stand out (ex. playing principal chair or a major solo in an orchestra on my former “double,” performing on a former “double” at major a conference). Nothing too major to report here. :) |
| Feeling confident enough in my abilities to accept any and all doubling gigs… and getting called back to do more |
| Professional oboe/English horn playing |
| 25 years in the Orpheum theater orchestra in Memphis. |
| Performing with a major musical production touring through the city. Also performing with one of the finest opera companies on earth (though not as a doubler) |
| Touring with a show and getting to know the other band members |
| Playing the oboe/English horn parts on WEST SIDE STORY and TUCK EVERLASTING. |
| Learning to play the flute to a professional standard |
| Getting non-doubling gigs on my secondary instruments as it makes me feel like I am legit on them rather than the stereotype of just a doubler who is dabbling. |
| Playing my first pit gig on oboe and tenor saxophone, and mostly teaching myself tenor sax and clarinet |
| Performing in over a hundred different groups / situations. |
| Being asked to play an off Broadway tour |
| Feeling adequate enough to finally step up and attempt flute for a live gig (Drowsy Chaperone) |
| I achieved a tenure-track position as assistant professor of flute and clarinet. |
| Traveling with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, being a first call sub at a union opera house. |
| my first season as a gig muscian |
| My proudest accomplishment was subbing on a few shows on Broadway, and having it all go well! I worked very hard preparing the books and following all of the advice I was given by peers and past teachers. The recurring positive comments I have heard from other reed players, music directors, and contractors has confirmed that I am on the right path. Working as a regular sub on Broadway has been one of my greatest performance (and life) accomplishments. |
| Depping in the west end |
Being able to do orchestral excerpts better than majors – eg rhapsody in blue opening excerpt better than a clarinet major
Also getting recognised for my efforts. |
| Getting a contra alto clarinet solo in a wind ensemble. |
| Making a living on Broadway in NYC |
| One of my proudest achievements as a woodwind doubler was learning the book for my first show as a doubler. Another achievement was playing the Oboe/English Horn book in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I wasn’t proficient with double reeds at the time, so I transposed the whole book to saxophone! It was a lot of work, but it was totally worth it. Getting to play in a show gives me such a sense of joy! |
| Getting props from Edgar Meyer while playing contrabass clarinet on his own bass concerto |
| composing and performing a concerto for woodwind doubler and orchestra |
| One of only very few people within a 100km radius that plays all five woodwind families at a pro level, and owns the instruments. |
| Playing major difficult community theater pits like West Side Story and Chicago. |
| Being the teacher of record on two different instruments at a major university. |
| playing as a local hire of broadway tours in multiple cities in the region |
| Don’t know if this counts: In High School, after my sophomore year, our only oboe player graduated. My band director asked if I wanted to learn oboe over the summer, so I did. Played it the next two years in concert band (while playing alto sax in jazz band) |
| Graduating with my Masters in Multiple Woodwind Performance from NJCU! (And seeing my students succeed due to my skills as a doubler/educator.) |
| Being the first call for many of the Music Directors in my area. |
| Making oboe reeds that work! |
| When I first made a decent sound on a flute and then again on piccolo. |
| Being able to sight read the music on tenor sax an clarinet. Being able to cover my own part w/out another player sitting next to me to cover the clarinet part. |
| I played the whole run of community theater Once Upon a Mattress splitting both the horn book and the oboe book. (1/2 the run on horn, 1/2 the run on oboe) |
| Doubling in a jazz band |
| Getting paid as a doubler in a community theater setting, which is what I love doing. |
| West Side Story |
| Making first woodwind chair in a regonal production of “The Wizard Of Oz” |
| Appearing on several albums and soundtracks |
| Subbing on shows with lots of fast horn changes, difficult technical passages, and exposed solos, and doing it well. Finding time to practice, heh. |
| A collegiate musical premiere |
| At a read-through, playing more accurately than my colleagues |
| 1. Recital with a world-class pianist, playing major literature on flute, clarinet, and alto sax. 2. Subbing flute/picc/clarinet/sax book on the 1st National tour of Les Miz with no rehearsal |
| My reputation as a doubler has grown and people identify my musicianship with this skill. |
| Subbing for Beautiful a Carole King Musical National Tour! |
| Being able to play what I’m needed to play on the instrument wanted. |
| Playing almost all of the woodwind books of West Side Story during various production runs. |
| Broadway shows |
| Broadway |
| Being able to play nearly any woodwind asked for |
| Oboe |
| West Side Story WW books…having played 3 different books over different shows. |
| I can now fluently cross the break on clarinet. |
| Playing on Broadway and LA Studio work. I also currently play on all the Disney on Ice recordings. |
| Being able to play at a level on each instrument where people assume each instrument is my only instrument |
| Playing more professional gigs that more heavily involved doubles, even gigs only on doubles (no saxophone) |
| Playing some sax heavy show books, laughing about my soprano sax debut. |
| Being able to come into a sub situation and knock it out of the park. I’ve gotten most of my regular gigs from subbing in musicals and jazz bands. |
| Getting the opportunity to play the pre-Broadway run of Frozen |
| Being on two national Broadway tours |
| Playing for Penn State School of Theatre productions. |
| Performing as a guest artist at the Aspen Music Festival on flute, clarinet, saxophone, and oboe |
| Learning oboe/English horn on request from beginner to anchoring the chair for a production of Les Mis in 6 months, and playing well enough that everyone who didn’t know me thought I was an oboist and asked to hire me for orchestra gigs only on oboe. 😂 |
| I was part of a professional recording session in high school. In graduate school, I got to play in a side-by-side performance with the local professional orchestra. |
| Sight-reading on Broadway |
| Developing my abilities on my secondary instruments to gain enough confidence to seek out gigs including those instruments, knowing that I can manage them reasonably. |
| Arranging wind books and playing all three for an album |
| Playing a show where i had to cover sax and clarinet parts out of 5 reed books because the only other WW player was flute/piccolo. I basically made my own book. |
| got a call when the band need some doubles |
| Reed 2 – Music Man |
| An American in Paris – Westchester Broadway Theatre 2019 |
| Moving to a new area and almost immediately getting gigs – also companies enjoying my playing and keeping me in the loop |
| professional work |
| Playing 7 instruments in one show; flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, soprano/alto/tenor saxophone. |
| Getting the opportunity to play for a filled production of beauty and the beast for Disney’s “Encores!” |
| Phone rings again |
| Playing clarinet/bass clarinet in my university’s top orchestra, subbing on clarinet in a semi-professional orchestra, playing clarinet/bass clarinet/alto flute on a Gil Evans repertory concert and getting complimented by a flute professor who didn’t know me |
| I was very hesitant to write this, as the gig has not happened yet. — But I recently booked a Broadway tour as a permanent member. I will be going later this year. I feel that this is a major milestone for me & it’s something ive been working towards since my youth. |
| Hearing my students progress. |
| I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to play so many different musical theater productions. |
| Having others in the ensemble not be able to tell which instruments are my primary/secondary |
| Getting a (part-time) University job before even completing my Masters. |
| Making a respectable living performing full-time as a doubler. |
| Being able to hold my own in an orchestra section on my secondary (bassoon in this case) |
| Playing a regional broadway show. |
| Top call woodwind doubler in Houston and playing An American in Paris movie score with the Houston Symphony (tenor sax/Bb clarinet) |
| Being able to read and pick up most parts on the spot, and being able to translate jazz improvisation to doubles |
| Live performance concerts with stars traveling to town to perform. |
| Being able to go from tenor sax to clarinet w/out a glitch. Really being able to nail the parts. |
| Subbing on Broadway, hearing myself in a film score for the first time. |
| extending my flute register was so rewarding, something i struggled with for a while. |
| Being asked by the music director of a show I was subbing in , which instrument was my primary. She could not tell. |
| Recording an album last year |
| called again by the contractor of a big city musical show a second time :-) |
| Performing as Reed 1 at the American Repertory Theater. |
| Making music with some of the best musicians in the world |
| 6 Instruments on one musical. |
| I have enjoyed being able to play across multiple books with facility. I enjoy the challenge of performing multiple woodwinds at a single performance (typically a musical). |
| Subbing on a well known and long-standing Broadway musical. |
| Having a fine violinist in NYC tap me on the shoulder with her now and ask which of my six instruments in the gig was my first instrument. Of course I never told her |
| International competition wins on multiple instruments |
| I agreed to play a production is Oklahoma, knowing it would REALLY stretch my clarinet chops. I knew I’d be playing 2nd, to a far superior clarinetist/friend so I thought it would be great. All the bass was in the 2nd book, so she took that and said “You’re on 1st. Have fun!” It was terrifying, at first, but ended up being one of my best experiences and that one run raised my clarinet chops from passable (at best) to a place I felt confident, moving forward, taking predominantly clarinet books. |
| Receiving a return call to play from a contractor. |
| Live tv, session work, pro theatre |
| Being able to switch onto clarinet and still feel somewhat comfortable. Being given a very heavy doubling book all to myself show coming up!) |
| Playing West Side Story professionally. |
| Finally feeling comfortable on all my doubles but always more to learn |
| Regular, paid theater work at a local professionally managed theater |
| The Cor Anglais solo in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels |
| Forty years on Broadway, Concerts, recordings, tours |
| Working in musical theatre |
| Learning to play the Eb Clarinet for a specific gig. |
| Playing for a major cancer fundraiser cabaret event, personal connection and great musicians. |
| Playing the original US production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
| Dixieland and ragtime solos in musicals on secondary instrument, playing with a group of reeds where everyone is formally trained on their primary and very very good on the others |
| I have fairly quickly become one of the top woodwind players in the area and I (under normal circumstances) often have more offers to perform than will fit in my schedule. What more could I ask for? |
| Playing in the orchestra for the premiere of “Ain’t Too Proud” |
| Playing for touring musicals in Denver |
| Played in 117 different shows on Broadway |
| Become a competent oboist |
| Creating Doublers Collective |
| Touring Broadway show local hire. |
| I recorded an an album that featured a set of original music and features myself as a soloist on 10 different woodwinds. |
| Played on a few Broadway shows that passed through town |
| Broadway and first national tours. |
| Playing an entire reed book for a musical is very satisfying, particularly as a non-major/non-career musician |
| Performing on multiple secondary instruments that I taught myself and haven’t played very much and being successful. Playing 6 instruments for one Broadway musical. |
| Playing in multiple ensembles for fun |
| learning and playing in two community theatre performances at the same time |
| Community theatre is enough for me!😁 at least thus far |
| Playing the flute in a show, and people commenting that they thought it was an actual flutist. Playing clarinet in a Dixieland group. |
| High level of ability across most major woodwind families, high level of flexibility, and ability to learn quickly (either styles or instruments) |
| Hired to play flute books on shows |
| Playing several touring shows as local hire. Being by company to play in another city because they liked my work. |
| That I can play multiple instruments |
| Playing (tenor/clarinet) with Lady Gaga in her Jazz & Piano show in Vegas. Outside of that, all of the subbing I’ve done on production shows and musicals. |
| National Tour |
| Becoming the alto sax player at six flags fiesta texas |
| easily switching between different families of winds |
| Being reviewed by you! |
| When someone thinks a double is my primary |
| Building a solid reputation as being a great musician and nice person. |
| Woodwind-doubling has checked items of my bucket list I never knew I had! Because of doubling, I have gotten to tour the world and have landed in a lovely corner of the world. |
| Touring Japan with a show. Also performing with celebrity artists like Johnny Mathis |
| Reading an entire musical book that used 98% flute |
| I have a contracted position in a pit orchestra where I play over 100 performances per year. |
| My flute sound. |
| Masters recital at UNT where I performed on all five woodwind instruments |
| 1. Writing and recording my own works. 2. Film scores |
| Being able to play both flute and dizi for multiple concerts in a wide variety of musical group types (ethnic orchestra, concert band, guitar ensemble, etc.) |
| Being told that they couldn’t tell what my primary instrument was. |
| Traveling with a production to perform at the International Thespian Society Conference in Nebraska |
| Playing flute for the first time in a show this weekend!:)) Being flexibile!:) Being able to play so many shows!:) |
Flute: learning Nielsen’s flute concerto
Clarinet: learning the Brahms sonatas
Saxophone: final recording project (small group jazz) for my undergraduate degree |
| Being hired to do full performances on secondary instruments |
| Being the first to incorporate electronic wind instruments into professional theatre pits in my area. |
| Talking about ocarinas long enough that people around me became interested in the instrument, eventually resulting in the credits song of this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92HX8Zstijs |
| I landed myself on a national tour of a musical |
| Getting a gig where I had to play 14 instruments in one night, while simultaneously compèring for the event! |
| Becoming just as sufficient on flute as the other flute majors at my university. |
| playing bassoon and contrabass clarinet for my university’s production of a musical after having “played” clarinet for all of six weeks |
| Winning a Premier Military Big Band seat |
| I had to pick up clarinet for a university jazz gig after having not played in about two years and it went really well. |
| Hired for a show at a professional summer stock theater |
| Some shows made me get good at instruments. For example bass clarinet and clarinet. |
| I’m proud of when I played reed 3 on Annie as it was the first time I did a show that didn’t include my primary instrument. |
| Playing a show with a Bari on a harness and making the switch to the bass clarinet in 4 beats |
| I am most proud of getting into a Master’s degree and switching from a flute primary to oboe primary. |
| Being the only doubler in high school band concerts |
| I received two awards for “best instrumentalist” in high school for two different instruments. It allowed me to get a significant music scholarship. |
| Being a big band MD commissioning new works and being able to offer composers the choice of lots of woodwinds |
| Getting my first paid gig in a pit band |
| Playing in various orchestras with directors on different Instruments at different times, and then not suspecting that I wasn’t on my primary instrument. |
Spot on, Bret. This post reminded me of a certain woodwinds accessory company (who shall go unnamed here) that sells a ligature made primarily of string, with a minimum amount of metal parts (e.g., the screw). When I read about how the cryogenically treated gold parts “significantly” improve resonance and response (as opposed to the less expensive model, which has silver parts), I become a bit suspicious. And all this for a mere $200! Yeah, okay.
Thanks for this, Bret. I know your article is talking more generally about what to watch for, but I’m curious what you think about the lefreQue “acoustic bridge”. The marketing sounds like exactly what you are describing, but it’s being endorsed by some heavyweights (yes, they might all be paid endorsements) and also by personal colleagues. I haven’t had a chance to try one out yet, and given your skepticism I thought you would have the most pragmatic opinion on the product.
I haven’t tried one and so can’t give any kind of informed review. But the concept seems sketchy to me, and certainly the emphasis on shiny jewelry metals is suspect.
Most gadgets etc. that claim to emphasize or improve the vibrations of the instrument’s body seem to me to affect how the player hears themselves much more than how anyone else hears them. (See the Backus article listed in the notes of this old blog post for some good science on instrument body vibrations and their audibility.) However, if something affects the way I hear myself, then that might change the way I play (which someone else can definitely hear).
Your statement that “Most gadgets etc. that claim to emphasize or improve the vibrations of the instrument’s body seem to me to affect how the player hears themselves much more than how anyone else hears them” is right on, in my experience, and better stated than I’ve been able to articulate. I play with another gadget on my instrument (not a LefreQue, but a previous “fad” from about 15 years ago). It works great for me. Do I sound different to my audience? Not sure, but it makes ME feel like a million bucks when I play. It may be a placebo effect, but if the end result is a performance I’m happy with, it’s worth it to me. I don’t push them on my students, as I’d rather they put a couple hundred into repairs or upgrades rather than the latest trend.
Not sure how I stumbled across this post almost 5 years after the fact. But I do find the Le freQue acoustic bridge a curious one. I know there are these “heavy screws,” too, that screw onto the saxophones (I believe in the lyre screw hole) that claim to make a difference.
I’m open to the possibility but a little skeptical, too. But I will say that your statement, “if something affects the way I hear myself, then that might change the way I play (which someone else can definitely hear)” sums it up for sure.
Two instances of that come to mind. for one, I notice that any time I’ve tested a P Mauriat sax (several, now) I notice that the horns seem to always have a bit of “back pressure” to them – in other words, my Cannonballs blow freely like blowing through a garden hose; the Mauriat always seems to have a little resistance to the air flow. It DOES affect the way I play when I’m on one.
The other thing I notice that makes a difference too (which is why, although I’m skeptical, I’m open to the idea that it might make a difference) is that I notice a difference even with ligatures. One in particular is a Rovner that I have that has different “tone plates” that drop into a slot inside a pocket in the ligature. Playing with or without the plates does make a difference. In this case, I think it is more “resistance” that I feel, but that resistance does affect the way I hear myself, and like you said, I think it makes me feel different when I play, which, I believe, affects the sound.
Good web site, by the way.