Saxophone Doubling
A post form Neal over at the ever informative Sax Station, got me thinking. Neal mentioned that he likes to take a Clarinet along for portability purposes when traveling, where my preference is for my Curved Soprano Sax.
Depending on who you ask, most people understand the term doubling as meaning having a main instrument, but in addition playing a similar instrument usually of a similar type. For example, a sax player might double with a Trumpet, Clarinet, Oboe, or similar. The argument for this is that each instrument brings it’s own challenges, style of playing and technique, that can often translate or influence variety on your main instrument. There are many people in favour of this as bringing something fresh to their main instrument, however. Many people (including the likes of Larry Teal and many other pro players) believe that in order to double properly you have to invest proper time and effort into the secondary instrument.
Whilst I have no plans of doubling anytime soon (beyond guitar and keyboard, which can’t really be considered doubling in the vein of this post), my thoughts are that surely serving two masters, for instance the clarinet and saxophone, splits your focus, and time you’re investing into the second instrument, might be better spent focusing purely on your main?
Obviously it’s hard to have objective experience, since you can’t be in two places at the same time, but I’d love to hear from other doublers regarding their thoughts and experiences on the subject?