Posted by Scott Norberg on January 25, 2004 at 11:55:07:
In Reply to: Re: Advantage of doubling? posted by Kenneth Sloan on January 24, 2004 at 20:53:04:
> Those who report diminishing returns are simply saying that more advanced players don't have all that much trouble "hearing" the extremes
Actually no, that's not what I was trying to say. It's part of it, I suppose, and I should have thought of it. Perhaps here's a better example. In order to play the F above the staff on tuba and euphonium, you can do so with roughly the same embouchure, air stream, etc. However, it's important for the more advanced players to play the high F on tuba with a tuba embouchure and so on for consistency and quality of sound. This is consistency and quality that your average high schooler wouldn't notice (or need). Putting it in another way, if you practice euph with the sole intent of helping your tuba high range, you're going to play the high register of the tuba like a euph. That won't be a problem at first, but your high register will sound weak and reedy compared to the people who do it "right", and you'll have trouble jumping frequently from the higher to middle registers (and back again) because you're using two different embouchures for the two registers. So will doubling help you immediately? Yes. Will it help you in the long run? No, it didn't help me at least for the reasons I've outlined above.
On the other hand, I've occasionally used what I've learned on another instrument to help build upon what I've already learned. (I double on tuba and euph, so I would use one to help the other.) However, I would always use what I've learned on another instrument to build upon what I've already done, not help me learn something new.
Does that make sense?
Scott