As a woodwind musician, you might find that some of the easier jobs to get hold of are those that require you to play multiple woodwind instruments. Doubling can be difficult, particularly if you have only ever played one instrument before. I’ve looked into which instruments are widely accepted to be the easiest doubling groups and whether there are any that should be avoided.
One of the easiest doublings is between clarinet and saxophone. Most people doing this will have started on the clarinet and added the saxophone into their repertoire. Flute and saxophone can also be quite a good combination, but flute and clarinet tends to be a bit more difficult. People that play double reeds don’t often double, except between oboe and cor anglais.
Some doubling combinations are definitely easier than others, and the more you can do, the better. Some obvious easy ones are flute and piccolo, Bb and A clarinet, alto and tenor sax and oboe and cor anglais. It’s not so difficult to double between these, and most people that can play one can learn to play the other without too much trouble. The difficulty comes when you start trying to double between instruments that have more differences.
What does flute usually double with?
The most common doubling instrument for flute is obviously the piccolo. Usually, if you can play the flute, you can learn to play the piccolo. The obvious difference between the two is the size, with the piccolo mouthpiece being a lot smaller and a bit more difficult to play. Once mastered, though, it’s not too different. There are also larger flutes, the most common being alto and bass flutes. These, again, aren’t hugely different to the flute, but embouchure going between them can have its challenges.
In terms of other woodwind instruments that double with the flute, the most common is the saxophone. The fingering between the two instruments has very few differences, making it quite easy to start. The embouchure is very different between the two instruments, which is the main difficulty when picking up the sax from playing the flute. However, once the embouchure is mastered, the notes fall into place pretty easily. Flautists are often able to play fast passages well on the sax.
What does clarinet usually double with?
As with flute, there are plenty of other clarinets that you can double on if you play the clarinet. The most widely used is probably the bass clarinet. This is usually pretty transferable from the Bb clarinet, although it’s larger and so requires more air, whereas the Bb clarinet requires a tighter embouchure. Other clarinets, such as the A clarinet and Eb clarinet are similarly transferable, although a tighter embouchure again is required for the Eb clarinet so this could require some extra muscle training.
The clarinet also often doubles with the sax. Unlike the flute, it doesn’t have the same fingering for all of the notes – it’s only the same for the higher octave. However, they are both single reed instruments, which helps a lot when learning, as the embouchure is very similar, other than the amount of tightness.
Doubling between the flute and the clarinet is a bit less common. Flute and clarinet are very often first instruments for players, who then add the saxophone into their repertoire. If a flautist progresses to clarinet, or vice versa, it will usually be as a third instrument. They have neither the fingering, nor the embouchure in common, so players will often find the transition a bit more difficult than the transition to saxophone.
What do saxophones normally double with?
The saxophone is one of the most modern instruments, and because of this, it is designed for ease of playing. Saxophonists can therefore often find it hard to progress to another instrument, and often the saxophone is a second instrument anyway. The clarinet is probably the most common instrument for a saxophonist to move onto. It’s a bit more difficult, as the set of notes over the break are added, meaning that the lower octave doesn’t have the same fingering as the sax.
Moving from sax to flute can be very tricky. Flute as a second instrument can be quite off-putting, because the difficult part is usually learning to make a sound. When you’re a beginner and don’t play an instrument at all, you’re expecting to take a while to learn, but when you already play an instrument, you hope progress will be quicker and can easilyi give up if it’s a slow process.
Do double reed players double?
Double reed players are usually much less likely to double than other woodwind players. The obvious doubling is between the oboe and the cor anglais, and this is often expected in orchestras. Very few players will double between the oboe and the bassoon or the cor anglais and the bassoon, because the difference in embouchure can be very difficult to navigate well.
Doubling between double reeds and other woodwind instruments is also quite rare. Probably the most common is between oboe and clarinet, as these do have some similarities. Bassoon and bass clarinet can sometimes be a doubling pair as well. The embouchure required for double reed instruments is so tight that it can be very difficult to switch between these and other instruments.
Doubling between double reeds and other woodwind is very rarely required, however, if it were to be needed, it would most likely be in musical theatre scores. In these, there will often be a part for oboe and cor anglais, and there often isn’t a bassoon part at all. However, if there are only small amounts of double reed parts needed, these might be fitted into the other reed parts.
Some musicals have a lower reed part that includes bassoon – this will likely be something like bassoon, bass clarinet and baritone sax. Similarly, an upper reed part will sometimes include oboe, along with flute, clarinet and also sax. This type of part doesn’t tend to be played by double reed specialists that often, it’ll usually be a woodwind player who specialises in flute or a single reed instrument who has picked up a double reed instrument later on, when they’ve already had a lot of experience with doubling.
Playing a larger range of instruments can really improve your chances of getting work as a musician. If you can learn to double on more instruments, that’s great and even better if you own or have access to as many as possible. Usually, the smaller instruments are the cheapest, so this can be a good place to start, however, because of this, they’re also usually the most competitive.
Summary
To sum up this article, probably the most common instrument for players to have as a doubling instrument is the sax. It’s often the easiest to come to as a second instrument, because it’s designed in a more modern era for ease of playing. Double reed players don’t often double with other woodwind instruments, but this is occasionally needed, particularly in musical theatre work.