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What are your doubles?

Through the years and somewhat in chronological order:
  • Trombone
  • Tenor Recorder
  • Alto Recorder
  • Soprano Recorder
  • Bass Trombone
  • Oboe
  • Bassoon
  • Baritone Horn
  • Valved Trombone
  • Flugelhorn (brief period - chops)
  • Cello
  • Guitar
  • Banjo (5 String)
  • Renaissance Lute
  • Baroque Lute
  • Theorbo
  • Tenor Saxophone
  • Alto Saxophone
  • Baritone Saxophone
I'm now totally devoted to jazz and am doubling on Sax and Trombone.

-Rob
 
Well, being an obsessed newb here, I'll resurrect another old thread. This one's interesting to me--having been in so many directions over the years. I've performed (from most recent to first):

reggae (keys, drums) current gig ... age 50
bluegrass (bass) also current
scandi (bass, bouzouki, guitar, mandolins)
cajun, & other American folk (fiddle)
salsa (bass)
jazz, and all other styles (drums) also current
contradance (bass, bouzouki, diatonic accordian, concertina, 4-str banjo)
dixieland-ragtime (tenor banjo)
country (pedal steel)
rock (electric guitar)
classical guitar
alto sax ... age 8

solo performing on classical, flamenco and fingerstyle guitar, 4 & 5-str banjo, fiddle, mandolins, accordians, concertinas, harp for the last 20 years or so. Oh, and singing. The only instruments I haven't gigged with are hammered dulcimer (too dam* heavy and cumbersome to tune on site--I play O'Carolan harp tunes) and horns--my first instrument.

I'm looking forward to playing out with woodwinds, my first love
 
That is to say, if I can get chops on the horns. I do play a few jigs and slides on Boehm flute--something my sister had arround 40 years ago--so I always could get a good sound out one...I was born in Clvd ohio, raised around det mich .. moved west and never been back

Now older age keeps me from playing the clubs--i try to avoid it..i'd love to just pack a horn instead of haul around a kit, amp, whatever.. i'm lazy. But there suren't as many horn gigs!
 
Bob-

I notice among the old threads that you were getting into banjo (presumably bluegrass). How's that going?

When I was a kid (having fallen out of love with sax for electric guitar), I was obsessed with copping Jimmy Page licks. When zep gave it up around '73 or whenever, I went looking for something to fill that void. Earl Scruggs was very impressive to me, and so I started Scruggs-style picking. I didn't care much for bluegrass--being more into Mitch Ryder, MC5 and all that--but I liked that fancy banjo picking. Being a classical guitar player, picking it up was easy.

30 years later--after getting into folk music--I started playing frailing (clawhammer, rapping, etc.) and other fingerstyles on banjo.

These days, when I entertain at area nursing homes--something I regard as a human servcie--I present a whole "banjo show": starting with all manner of picking blues and bluegrass--then some Joplin rags, then switch to 4-string and more rags--Jelly Roll Morton, Ellington, standards from the early 20th c.
 
Bb Clarinet
Alto Eb Clarinet
Percussion (Snare, Set, Hand Percussion, Steel Drums, Marimba, Xyplophone)

Yah not extensive, but only in highschool so I have time ^^
 
doubles

I only play flutes (c, picc, alto and recorders) but daughter plays

Oboe EH
SATB saxes
Bb, Eb and bass clarinet
bassoon
some flute and picc

--she makes fun of me because I can "only" play flute
 
I recently bit the bullet and in the past year added:
*Soprano saxophone
*Eb clarinet
*Alto flute

I'd say out of the three newest additions, alto flute is probably my favorite to play.
 
ok
in the interest of brevity,
I will set a parameter of only gigs Ive been paid for;
and only instruments that have been played on the same gig as others.
here we go.

Highland Pipes standard pitch
Highland Pipes A440
Highland Pipes Bb
Highland Pipes in B nat
Mouthblown Fireside pipes A & Bb
Uilleann pipes concert D set
Scapoli 25 Zampogna
Scapoli 32 Zampogna
5 Palmi Zampogna
6 Palmi Zampogna
16 pouce Musette Bechonnét
Biniou Kozh
Kaba Gaida

Ciaramella (sol)
Bombarde
Tin whistle D
Low D whistle
Oboe
English horn
Bb Clarinet
Alto Sax
Tenor Sax

o yeh almost forgot:
tamburello, tambourene, castanets, triangle, ankle bells.

Im still waiting for my aspercreme endorsement...
 
CHasR, I nominate your above post as having the most instruments listed that I've never heard of. Although, I think I'd have to disqualify it because you just list a bunch of different pipes.

:p

I've gotta say that the literal translation of one of those instruments is "16 thumbs" which is either an extremely good description or one of the oddest I've ever heard of.
 
I finally got to add English horn to my list of owned instruments. Picked up a great deal on a Linton.

Linton had English horns made by Malerne during the sixties and seventies. These are often great sounding and playing instruments. Malerne made stencils for a lot of companies - including Laubin! Of course Laubin's finishing is what made his EH's legendary, but the instrument he started with was pretty darn good.

This one needs a bit of TLC. I think I'm going to replace the remaining bladder pads with synthetics, and then get a left hand F key added.
 
Congratulations on your new addition to your "arsenal". My hat is off to anyone who doubles on double reeds---especially the English Horn.

This reminds me of a story I heard from Jeff Peterson at the sax workshop. His music store got a call from a customer wanting to rent an English horn. After being told by the clerk several times that they did not carry English horns, the customer kept insisting that they must have one somewhere she could rent. The clerk finally relented and said they could get her a French horn and an interpreter for about the same price.
 
CHasR, I nominate your above post as having the most instruments listed that I've never heard of. Although, I think I'd have to disqualify it because you just list a bunch of different pipes.

:p

I've gotta say that the literal translation of one of those instruments is "16 thumbs" which is either an extremely good description or one of the oddest I've ever heard of.
thanks Pete, just found this thread again,
DQ? ok, but we'll have to dq every SATbB sax listing too :)
one might think oh, its just another bagpipe, but not so.

Pouce, French for thumb, is how the instruments were originally measured. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Xk3G3LCsw
(Think "cubit"). Zampogne are still measured in "Palmi", length of an outstretched palm. No need for that newfangled 'inch' stuff. ;)
 
I think SOTSDO mentioned this on another thread: I don't think of myself as a "doubler", per se, because, in a lot of people's minds, that implies you're a jack of all trades and a master of none.
I wouldn't consider any instrument a double unless people who don't know me think my "double" is my main instrument. When I'm playing it, it is. If I can't play it well enough to be considered a main instrument, it isn't a double either.
 
I wouldn't consider any instrument a double unless people who don't know me think my "double" is my main instrument. When I'm playing it, it is. If I can't play it well enough to be considered a main instrument, it isn't a double either.
If that isn't the best musical quote I've heard all year, I don't know what is!
 
thanks Pete, just found this thread again,
DQ? ok, but we'll have to dq every SATbB sax listing too :)
one might think oh, its just another bagpipe, but not so.

Pouce, French for thumb, is how the instruments were originally measured. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Xk3G3LCsw
(Think "cubit"). Zampogne are still measured in "Palmi", length of an outstretched palm. No need for that newfangled 'inch' stuff. ;)
Thanks for the knowledge. I'll mention it to my wife, who has played pipes. Highland, I think.

Of course I am joking around a bit regarding a DQ, because you're right to some extent: you play a Bb soprano sax a bit differently than a Bb bass and vice-versa and each has their own tonal quality and the player can either express that or not, depending on how he plays.

I remember how fascinating it was when I first played Bb contrabass clarinet, because I had never heard one before. I also remember the horn, a Leblanc "paper clip" model, bouncing around as I tried to hit all the keys for Leroy Andersen's "A Christmas Festival" (if you've never heard it, there's a spot at 5:21 -- which a poster says, "The Nukes Start Landing!" -- that concludes around 6:21 where the basses, etc. go ballistic in tutti).
 
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