Time required for instrument switches

ByBret Pimentel
Photo, mbshane

I got some questions by email yesterday from Sy Brandon, about the multiple woodwinds piece (Divertissement) he is writing funded by my Co-op Press Commission Assistance Grant. He is considering a movement that involves switching between instruments, and wanted to know about some of the technical details. Here are my answers:

Keeping reeds wet is a minor hassle but quite doable, especially for a movement that’s only a few minutes long.

Time required for switching instruments is an interesting question. Short answer: anything shorter than about five seconds is risky.

A slightly shorter switch might be possible with something like saxophone to flute or clarinet, since you can just let the saxophone hang from its neckstrap. And switches among flute and clarinet and, to a lesser extent, oboe (due to its fragile reed) are reasonably fast because there aren’t any straps to unhook and you can pick one up while you’re setting the other down. Bassoon is more difficult—it uses either a seat strap or a somewhat awkward harness, and definitely requires both hands to pick it up or put it down.

Slower switches (8-10 seconds or more) are safer and even provide a chance to re-wet the reed, etc., but doublers are used to having to shift gears quickly and sort of pride themselves on it. It may be worth taking the visual aspect into consideration—it can become a little bit of a comedy act if the switches are frequent. Not that a little humor is bad, as long as it’s intended.

Like most doublers, I’ll make any reasonable effort to accommodate even the fastest switches, but if some little thing goes wrong (a tangled neckstrap, an instrument stand moving on a slippery stage, etc.) I will sacrifice the entrance to rescue my instruments.

One thing that I didn’t mention in my emailed answer, but that is worth considering as a performer, is whether to sit or stand in performance. The advantages of sitting are that you can use a bassoon seat strap (still my preferred method) and that you’re down closer to your instrument stands. Sitting also becomes a requirement if you are using any instrument supported by a floor peg, such as one of the larger clarinets. Standing, on the other hand, makes for a nicer stage presence and may contribute to better playing posture.

It should also go without saying that good, reliable stands are also a must for quick instrument switches. Don’t skimp!

I’d be interested to hear other doublers’ thoughts or tips—leave a comment below if you have something to contribute.

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    I often see poor hand position among developing saxophonists. It’s not as much of a problem for oboists, clarinetists, or bassoonists, since those instruments’ finger holes demand a higher degree of finger-placement precision in order to close them properly; an open-holed flute also requires a little more care. But the saxophone’s toneholes are all covered by pads affixed to relatively large keys, so even with a casual approach to hand position getting the holes covered isn’t a serious problem.

    But there are a number of advantages to more careful hand positioning, and on a well-designed instrument it’s also really easy: just put the tips of the three middle fingers of each hand on the corresponding key touchpieces. (Not the tippy-tips, like a violinist, with the fingers perpendicular to the key surface, but the fleshy pad or “pulp” of the finger, just to the palm side of the tippy-tip.)

    Let’s look at the left hand first. I have superimposed (poorly) the key touches over my fingers to show their locations.

    Good hand position
    Good hand position
    Poor hand position
    Poor hand position

    Here are the problems that the poor hand position causes:

    • In order to fully depress the keys, the fingers may lock straight or even collapse backwards a bit. This makes the fingers’ motion more complicated and tense, and less efficient.
    • The fingers may contact the keys farther down the finger pad, perhaps even at or below the first knuckle crease. This decreases control over the keys. And/or…
    • The pads of the fingers contact the keys somewhere beyond the key touchpieces, giving the fingers less leverage and requiring more effort to depress the keys.
    • The pinky finger is shifted to a position where it is more difficult to reach the low C-sharp key, and where more effort is required to fully depress it.
    • Although not pictured here, the thumb should also be situated to that its pad contacts the octave key in a strong position with good leverage.

    Now the right hand.

    Good hand position
    Good hand position
    Poor hand position
    Poor hand position

    If poor right hand position is used:

    • As with the left hand, the fingers lose their neutral curve and become unnecessarily straightened.
    • As with the left hand, the contact points between the fingers and keys are less than optimal.
    • The pinky finger is shifted into a position where either the finger must be contorted to contact the E-flat key properly, or a less-optimal part of the finger contacts the key.
    • The ring finger must bend uncomfortably to reach the side F-sharp key, or that key must be pressed by stiffening the finger and contacting the key near the base of the finger, which is imprecise and awkward.
    • Sometimes poor right-hand position results from allowing the crook of the thumb and index finger to sit in the thumb hook. In these cases, good hand position will require repositioning the thumb so that the thumb’s distal joint is in the thumb hook.

    Some of my students, when asked to shift their hand position, have initially objected, insisting that their poor hand position is required due to their individual anatomy or the configuration of their individual saxophones. I have yet to see this prove true. I suppose I can’t eliminate the possibility that very rare situations exist that might call for a slight adjustment to the finger-pads-on-the-touchpieces positioning, but I haven’t encountered a significant case of this yet. Even with my larger-than-average hands (you may be able to spot my custom extra-high green palm key touchpieces in the photos), putting my fingertips on the touchpieces immediately creates an open, relaxed, and efficient hand position, with fast finger movement and a light touch on the keys. If your saxophone has badly-positioned touchpieces, you might consider visiting a good repair technician to have them relocated (or consider it a warning sign of a poorly-made instrument that should be replaced).

    Good hand position is a prerequisite to smooth, effortless saxophone technique. Check yours carefully, and set yourself up for success.

  • How to get 10 good reeds from a box

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    1. If you are getting less than 80% playable clarinet or saxophone reeds from the boxes you are currently buying, buy different ones.
    2. Be realistic about strengths. If you are only getting 2-3 good reeds out of a box, you aren’t just being “choosy.” You are probably playing on reeds that are too resistant, and those 2-3 are the softer ones. Let go of the nonsensical old myth that better players play stiffer reeds. If you are getting less than 80% “good” reeds from a box, try moving down (or, in rarer cases, up) a half strength.
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    4. Skip the sandpaper, mostly. If you are buying reeds that actually work for you, you won’t have to do more than a few minutes’ worth of adjustment over the reed’s useful lifetime. The available variety of cuts and profiles is staggering. And modern reed companies can shape reed vamps with very good consistency and accuracy.

    A brand that genuinely makes clarinet or saxophone reeds with less than 80% success doesn’t deserve your repeat business. But there’s a strong chance you have simply mismatched the reeds to your mouthpiece and playing requirements. Keep searching!

  • Quick quote: woodwind doubling in the 17th and 18th centuries

    ByBret Pimentel

    From Bruce Haynes’s The Eloquent Oboe: A History of the Hautboy, Oxford University Press, 2001:

    In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a wind player was an hautboist who might by circumstance be led into a concentration on some other type of instrument. The modern idea of a musician who would limit himself to one instrument, and become a virtuoso on it, took hold at the Dresden court at about the beginning of the eighteenth century, perhaps as a result of the numerous Italian musicians who worked there, and who tended to specialize. But it remained unusual in Germany for some time.

    More insight from the footnotes:

    Based on archival evidence, Oleskiewicz (1998: 49) believes woodwind doubling ‘completely disappeared sometime between 1717 and 1719.’

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    There is evidence that hautboy players in bands in the early 18th c. could not necessarily switch to bassoon.

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    This is a technique I recommend often to students who are struggling with notey passages. I can’t remember where I picked it up, or whether “anchoring” is my own name for it or someone else’s. No doubt credit for this belongs to somebody smarter than I.

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    from Debussy Première rhapsodie
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    with added tenuto-accent-fermata
    with added tenuto-accent-fermatas

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    Here’s what this accomplishes:

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    • It encourages effective phrasing by treating the notes as leading toward downbeats.
    • It trains your ears to hear the notes in fours (at least in this 2/4 passage—try threes instead if the situation calls for it). Now as you return to playing the passage evenly, you are more likely to notice if you are omitting or adding notes.

    To transition from this technique into a more performable approach, gradually decrease the duration of the fermatas and the weight of the accents, while continuing to mentally emphasize the anchor notes and place them carefully in tempo (time to get the metronome back out). Also try spacing the anchors farther apart as an intermediate step—one at the beginning of each measure, for example, or every few measures as appropriate.

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    I identify very much as a woodwind player: as far as I’m concerned, if it’s a woodwind, it’s part of what I do. But when I introduce myself to someone that way, I am frequently asked, “But which one is your main instrument?”

    I am hesitant to give a straightforward response to this. To identify a “main” instrument feels like an admission of failure. I work hard to play all of my instruments at a high enough level to be qualified for whatever gig you were thinking of hiring me for—if I pick just one, are you going to write me off as a possibility for the others?

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    photo, Neil Moralee

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    Not all woodwind doublers feel the same way about it, nor should they, necessarily. There are lots of ways to be successful and fulfilled as a woodwind player. But my own goal is to play them all well enough that I could convincingly claim any of them as a “main” instrument. My favorite compliment is when, after hearing me play several instruments, someone still asks which is my main one. Sometimes I receive that compliment, and sometimes I don’t.

  • Dissertation on Divertissement for multiple woodwinds

    ByBret Pimentel

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9 Comments

  1. As long as we’re considering just the time to switch instruments, I think to/from bass clarinet is the slowest switch for me. My Hercules bass clarinet stand holds the instrument securely – perhaps a little too securely. The Hercules stand works best for me if it is more beside the chair than in front of it, which at least results in the music stand not interfering with the switch. The second slowest switch for me is to/from tenor sax. Getting it under the music stand and into its stand without bumping anything is sometimes challenging.

    Reply

    1. Hi Jim,

      I’ve done quick bass clarinet changes by not even removing the instrument from the stand—situating it so that I can just tilt the instrument to me with the peg still in the stand’s base. (Mine is a similar design to the Hercules.) I usually try to keep the tenor at my right hand—as close to playing position as possible. If I slouch for a second, I can just hook up the neckstrap, sit up, and be ready to go. Or, of course, you can plan ahead for a quick switch and keep the tenor in your lap, neckstrap attached, while playing flute or even (awkwardly) clarinet.

      Reply

  2. I have to switch from bari sax to bass clarinet all the time. I just let the bari sit on my lap with the strap still on and play the bass clarinet out front of that with a peg. Still 8 second or less to swap drive me crazy.

    Reply

  3. There is not only the time to change instruments in the hands, but getting the mouth ready too. Any sax or clarinet to flute or piccolo, especially if it has been a number of minutes since the flute or picc has been played is difficult. Five seconds is not long. 8 to 10 if better.

    Reply

    1. Hi Ron,

      For me the biggest part of getting the mouth ready is getting the brain ready. If I can successfully make the mental shift, I can mostly count on the body to follow.

      Granted, flute and piccolo are something of a special case because of the particular demands on the embouchure. If I do a good, thorough warm-up on flute before the gig, I find that my embouchure stays in better shape even if I’m doing a lot of reed playing in between.

      Reply

      1. You hit it on the head, Bret. The key to the whole thing is the warmups. That’s the reason why my standard is 5 minutes warmup time on each instrument. SO…if I have all 6 of mine (soprano, alto, tenor, clarinet, flute, piccolo) on a gig (and I did that for 1 show), then I need 30 minutes. And the flute and picc may get steal an extra minute from 1 of the reeds.

  4. The slowest change for me is baritone saxophone to / from bassoon because the both hang over on the right side of the lap when being played. For shows that call for bari sax, bass clarinet, and bassoon, I have the bari on the right on a Hercules stand and I can play it while still on the stand, the bass clarinet tilts over from front-left with the peg still on the stand to play from there and the bassoon rests, still attached to the seat strap, on the neck of the bassoon stand which is next to the bass clarinet stand. Every thing is precariously positioned but makes the under 2 seconds switches possible. So short time is possible, but stressful. I would be very grateful for 5+ seconds for a switch.

    Reply

  5. I’m a jazz player doubling on clarinet and sax. My biggest challenge in switching is that the instrument I’ve just picked up has invariably cooled off a bit, and will play somewhat flat. Since I live in Canada, this can sometimes be a real challenge during the winter. No kidding! So even if I’ve warmed everything up completely prior to a gig, I hope for a furtive moment or two of blowing hot air through my horn before wailing away.

    Reply

    1. I hear you! I play a show with the air conditioning blowing right on my doubles. I tune cold. Most times on this particular show I don’t play enough for the double to warm up. Plus most of the brass players play a little sharp. So it works out! Short clarinet barrels help too.

      Reply

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