Woodwind doubling gigs: seven basic tips

ByBret Pimentel

Here are seven simple things you can do to make a woodwind doubling gig go more smoothly.

  1. Mistrust the pre-gig info. I had a smart doubler tell me once that I should always bring my flute and my clarinet on a big band saxophone gig. Mostly, I have taken that advice. Twice I have ignored it, and guess what? Regretted it both times. In both cases the contractor told me I would need saxophone only. Both times the contractor was mistaken. Never again. If you’re playing oboe, bring your English horn no matter what. Flute gig? Don’t leave home without your piccolo.
  2. Bring your tuner. If it’s the kind of gig where a tuning note will be given, don’t expect to have time to tune a half-dozen instruments. Arrive early enough to check each instrument ahead of time, according to the pitch level you anticipate (probably A=440 in the US). Then tune with the group on the first instrument you will be playing. If the group tunes a little flatter or sharper than you expected, at least you will know what to expect as you pick up each horn.
  3. Warm up thoroughly on each instrument. I find that once I’m well warmed up on an instrument, I’m pretty comfortable with that instrument for the rest of the day (or at least until the end of the gig), even if I play other instruments in between. For me, this is especially important on flute and piccolo—those embouchures take some good warming up even if you’re not playing any reeds.
  4. Have the right stands. Especially if you are making quick switches, having a reliable stand for each instrument makes everything go more smoothly. Setting an instrument on the ground, on its case, or across your lap takes longer, is riskier to the instrument’s well-being, and is more likely to cause an embarassing distraction. A music stand shelf is a must if you will be dealing with double reeds that need soaking, etc.
  5. Know what accessories to keep nearby. If you’re playing a lot of instruments, you will probably have to stash your cases somewhere backstage. I always grab a case full of reeds for each instrument, a mouthpiece cap for each mouthpiece, and cigarette papers if I’m playing oboe or clarinet (for removing water from toneholes). I also make sure my trusty Swiss Army penknife is in my pocket, in case I need to deal with adjustment screws or other minor mechanical issues. All this gets piled discreetly under my chair, and hopefully goes back into the cases untouched after the gig.
  6. Keep reeds and instruments wet and warm. Keep mouthpiece caps on mouthpieces where practical, and put them in a consistent place when you take them off, so you can find them again quickly. Some doublers use sponges inside mouthpiece caps for extra moisture, or use plastic sandwich bags instead. I usually just use plain mouthpiece caps, but do something to keep those reeds from drying out or getting chipped during a frantic trumpet mute change. Keep instruments warm, too, if you can, so they won’t play flat when your big solo comes up. Even a few seconds with both hands wrapped around the clarinet barrel can make the difference  getting the first note of the big solo up to pitch.
  7. Rehearse your choreography. Especially with musical theater gigs, where I’m playing a bunch of instruments with lots of quick switches and few pauses, I try to have a clear plan for getting the right instrument to my face at the right time. Arrange your instruments on stands around you, and keep that configuration from show to show. Don’t be afraid to mark your part liberally in rehearsal, especially with marks like “clip tenor on neckstrap, hold flute, and be ready to grab clarinet quickly,” which can help you under pressure to get the instruments where they need to be and prepare you mentally for what’s coming up. I might also mark something like “soak oboe reed” during a rest so it will be ready to play halfway through the next tune when I need it.

Also, try to play good.

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    Every so often I am told by a band director or parent that a child wishes to play a certain woodwind instrument, and then I am asked which instrument the student should “start” on, instead of the one they have apparently already chosen.

    I don’t see a good reason, at least within the woodwind group, for a beginner to start on a different instrument family than the one they ultimately wish to play. There may be wisdom in some cases in requiring a beginner to start with a “main” family member: a student who really wants to play the piccolo, for example, will find their opportunities limited if they do not have a strong foundation in the flute—they will be of less usefulness to a school band program, and, should they continue to more advanced studies, may find the piccolo’s repertoire and pedagogical resources comparatively limited. I also think the piccolo is inherently a bit more difficult to play, although that in itself is not sufficient reason to deter a strongly-motivated student; however, for some students a more difficult instrument might be frustrating enough to bring their musical pursuits to a premature end. I likewise generally recommend that oboists start with the oboe rather than the English horn, clarinetists start on the B-flat instrument rather than a “harmony” clarinet, bassoonists leave the contrabassoon until later, and saxophonists start on the alto, or maybe the tenor.

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  • The problem with “ethnic” woodwinds

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    I mentioned in a recent post that I am trying to get away from using the term “ethnic” woodwinds, one that I have used frequently in the past as a catch-all for the instruments I play that aren’t modern Western flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, or saxophones. The term was problematic from the beginning, since, for example, I was using it to include instruments like recorders, which fall squarely under the umbrella of Western music traditions, but are arguably period or historical instruments.

    Additionally, I find that the term “ethnic” increasingly grates on my ear as too ethnocentric and limited a view, and incompatible with my real attitudes concerning music from cultures and traditions other than my native ones. For example, it’s clearly not politically correct to lump non-white people or non-Americans together under the label “ethnic,” so it doesn’t seem to make sense for me to use similarly divisive and condescending language to refer to musical traditions, either.

    photo, Vernon Hyde
    photo, Vernon Hyde

    I currently favor the term “major modern woodwinds” as an acceptable (though flawed) shorthand for all the Western orchestral woodwinds plus saxophones. But there isn’t a really accurate and culturally-sensitive way to lump together the woodwinds that don’t fall into that category. I frequently need to express verbally or in writing what instruments I play. If I am speaking to someone musically savvy, I can say that I play “woodwinds” and they will assume that I play most or all of the major modern woodwinds. They are unlikely to just assume, though, that I can also play recorders and dizi and Lakota flutes and a bunch of others, and that might be information that I want them to have.

    Recently I expressed this concern on social media, and got a few interesting suggestions. “World” woodwinds came up, and is what I have adopted for now on this website, though I think ultimately it has some of the same issues as “ethnic:” aren’t my clarinets “world” instruments (and, for that matter, don’t they have ethnicity, too)? Someone else suggested “woodwinds of various cultural origins,” which I think is pretty good but too wordy to be practical. Someone else suggested that I simply list the instruments individually rather than trying to affix a single label; I think this idea has clear merit in terms of cultural sensitivity, but it does fail the practicality test.

    It’s tempting to consider something clever like Pedro Eustache’s term “multidirectional flute soloist,” but, though charming, it doesn’t communicate the concept with any clarity. I have also experimented with materials-based terminology as in “wooden and bamboo flutes,” but this isn’t inclusive enough and ultimately has the same problem as the word “woodwinds” itself—wood construction isn’t what makes a woodwind a woodwind.

    So for now it’s “world” woodwinds, or perhaps “woodwinds of various cultural origins” when that kind of wordiness is practicable. I welcome additional suggestions in the comments section.

  • Achieving an ideal tone

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    A lot of the questions people have about woodwind playing center on tone: how can I get a better tone? a darker tone? a tone like _____’s? There’s not a lot of clarity on this, for a few reasons:

    • Firstly, of course, “good” tone is subjective, and trying to communicate clearly about tone in more dispassionate terms is problematic due to inconsistent vocabulary.
    • Tone is made from a recipe of factors, so it’s hard to isolate individual ones. Will adding another egg improve your cake? Depends on what else is in it. Will a certain warm-up exercise or piece of equipment have a specific effect on your tone? Depends on what other equipment and playing techniques you are using.
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    Let’s look at the physical factors that influence tone:

    • Yes, of course, equipment. It’s axiomatic in woodwind playing that your equipment does affect your tone, but not as much as you affect your tone. Still, your particular combination of headjoint, reed, mouthpiece, ligature, barrel, bocal, instrument, and various other parts and accessories does influence in some way the sound that you make. Equipment of good design and construction, and within typical parameters, will contribute to an essentially characteristic tone quality. (By characteristic I mean easily identifiable as a specific instrument by someone with a musically-educated ear.)
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    • Some subtle aspects of those woodwind-playing techniques that are hard to pin down. These small things determine how the tone fits into the larger world of characteristic tone qualities, usually described poorly in vague terms like “good” or “pure” or “rich” or “buttery” or “vocal.” For example, an oboist’s embouchure puts different pressures on different parts of the reed. Those pressures can be adjusted very subtly using the small and flexible muscles of the embouchure, but most oboists probably aren’t very aware of exactly what adjustments they are making (though they may know what it feels like). Most are also not very capable of passing that wisdom (i.e. a feeling) along to a student or colleague. Some of them can be described in too-general terms (“bring the corners of your mouth in more”), or can be evoked with spotty accuracy through metaphor or through tone exercises.
    photo, Tom Page
    photo, Tom Page

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    • Use appropriate equipment.
    • Employ solid fundamental woodwind-playing techniques.
    • Listen frequently, widely, and at length to good music, particularly on your instrument, to develop a tone concept—an aural impression of your ideal tone. In early stages, that might be based on how deeply you have absorbed the sound of a favorite musician, perhaps your teacher. In later stages, it might be a sort of composite of your favorite aspects of many tones that you have internalized, perhaps even things that inspired you about a performance on an instrument other than your own (or a voice). Ultimately, it might be a tone that you have never heard before, but which you can imagine.

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    All those subtleties of woodwind technique that affect tone, the ones that are so hard to understand and communicate? You can find them with patient and dedicated practice, if you know what you are listening for. As you have already discovered, your tone tends to change from day to day. This inconsistency can be a problem, but can also be a way of stumbling, even subconsciously, onto something positive. (When it’s a conscious process, your thought might be, “when I hold my embouchure this way, I get a sound that is more _____.”) Additionally, a clear tone concept may aid you in intuitively pursuing it; you already use the muscles of breathing, voicing, and embouchure to intuitively produce a huge and subtly-differentiated set of speech sounds, and for most of those you would be hard-pressed to explain how you make them. If you get comfortable and familiar enough with your instrument through years of practice, you can begin to tap into that intuitive control, but again: only if you know what sound you want to make.

    An ideal tone is a lifelong pursuit—invest in yours by listening and practicing daily.

  • |

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    I hope you all are finding this as fascinating as I am. Here’s the latest batch of results from the Great Woodwind Doubler Census of 2011.

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One Comment

  1. Geesh, I should have read this last week. At least it was a practice only. Apparently the regular 4th tenor player doesn’t double. Oh well, fool me once.

    Reply

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