Misc instruments What other instrument could you just not...

[mizmar]

... get along with?

Lots of folks double or dabble; but have you ever fancied adding an instrument but just could not come to terms with it (or them)?

Myself, I fancy a blues harp/mouth organ. I just don't get it. Luckily, trying costs little in that case.

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[Grumps]

About thirty years ago I bought a trumpet off the wall at Ted's in Baltimore for twenty-five bucks and taught myself how to use it. I was between gigs at the time, but figured I wasn't doing my saxophone playing any good by focusing on another instrument and I abandoned the project after less than a year. Still have the trumpet though.

 

[JayeNM]

flute.

I love flute in jazz and Latin. In all other places I have lived, sax players doubled on it...but oddly not here is SW...and it is reputedly the most common (Bb) sax double, and for sure the fingerings are familiar....but for the life of me I cannot get a consistent tone/sound out of it....cannot keep a steady embouchure...

 

[ghostler]

Similar to @JayeNM , I bought a 1960's open hole Artley C flute. Intended to learn to play it. Never did get a good tone on it.

Remains am unfulfilled project.

 

[skeller047]

I worked as a saxophonist in a casino showroom for about a decade (and freelanced the decade before), so clarinet and flute are required. I have, and have used in shows, flute, piccolo and alto flute, as well as clarinet and bass clarinet.

But at one point it became obvious I needed to play oboe. OMG. Just no. I mean, I did, and I could make a decent sound on it (and English horn), but I hated it. When I left my casino position it went into the case and has stayed there. I have no interest in bringing it out again.

To be fair, what I really played was "show-boe"... I would not call myself an oboe player. I know lots of other players who love it, and they are welcome to it. In the right hands (or mouth...) it sounds lovely. It's just that, well, to paraphrase - "They're writing songs of reeds, but Not For Me".

 

[ghostler]

But at one point it became obvious I needed to play oboe. OMG. Just no. I mean, I did, and I could make a decent sound on it (and English horn), but I hated it. When I left my casino position it went into the case and has stayed there. I have no interest in bringing it out again.

I played oboe during my senior high school year early 1970's for concert band. Think it was a Linton. Never touched it after.

Surprised they didn't transcribe the part for sop. IMO, its haunting timbre is very oboe-like, makes a good substitute for oboe.

 

[Wade Cornell]

For me the duduk has that sorrowful singing quality. So I jumped in and found that it's kind of easy to play since it's a primitive instrument, however the large double reed is an embouchure killer and the back pressure will eventually blow your cheek muscles out (Dizzy style). I'll pick it up occasionally for a special recording, but don't want to kill my cheek muscles or my sax embouchure, so it's very infrequent.

 

[skeller047]

I played oboe during my senior high school year early 1970's for concert band. Think it was a Linton. Never touched it after.

Surprised they didn't transcribe the part for sop. IMO, its haunting timbre is very oboe-like, makes a good substitute for oboe.

Oboe ==> soprano sax is often done for traveling Broadway shows, because finding competent reed players in small towns can be difficult. However, at the larger metropolitan level, oboe is a standard double. I would say that of the shows I played in casinos, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the singers had parts with oboe double. It's a standard double for either lead alto or tenor. As lead alto, I occasionally got an extra double on tenor because the oboe part was in the tenor book. Which meant an extra 5% in my pay that week...

Arrangers would disagree with your characterization of the soprano's timbre. It can be played that way, but most of the work for oboe behind singers is an exposed solo line behind a singer in a quieter piece, like a ballad. So they want oboe.

 

[Pete Thomas]

For me it was piano. In one way I regretted it when I switched my main profession from performing to composing and production. From time to time I’d be doing stuff that meant I was sometimes a conductor or MD and the latter especially was something that may have got me further in that arena had I been able to play the pinano.

 

[turf3]

Oboe ==> soprano sax is often done for traveling Broadway shows, because finding competent reed players in small towns can be difficult. However, at the larger metropolitan level, oboe is a standard double. I would say that of the shows I played in casinos, about 1/3 to 1/2 of the singers had parts with oboe double. It's a standard double for either lead alto or tenor. As lead alto, I occasionally got an extra double on tenor because the oboe part was in the tenor book. Which meant an extra 5% in my pay that week...

Arrangers would disagree with your characterization of the soprano's timbre. It can be played that way, but most of the work for oboe behind singers is an exposed solo line behind a singer in a quieter piece, like a ballad. So they want oboe.

I have hoped that at some point I'd be back in concert band and able to use my lovely C soprano for oboe parts. The C is so much less brash than the Bb soprano that I think it could make an OK substitute. Not a great one, but usable.

 

[Wade Cornell]

I have hoped that at some point I'd be back in concert band and able to use my lovely C soprano for oboe parts. The C is so much less brash than the Bb soprano that I think it could make an OK substitute. Not a great one, but usable.

I play a lot of C soprano. You don't need anything written as an excuse. Just play it when improvising instead of other saxes. Super mellow sound that can be pushed if required. Do you still have your C sop? If so which maker?

 

[Stephen Howard]

I tried for many years to play the blues harp. I worked with some of the finest blues harp players on the London circuit back in the day - so had heaps of advice, hints and tips...as well as a shop full of Marine Band and Pro Harp etc. harmonicas. Just could never get my head around the concept of the things.
Also, cannot do percussion.

 

[ghostler]

Arrangers would disagree with your characterization of the soprano's timbre. It can be played that way, but most of the work for oboe behind singers is an exposed solo line behind a singer in a quieter piece, like a ballad. So they want oboe.

Being a motorcyclist, a bit outside the norm and a practicalist, unless one has the backing of chamber combo or orchestra, feel that as long as the part is well done will please the audience. IMO, so what if it doesn't sound 100% like an oboe.

Of course in your case it is the demands of the job and as such there is no negotiating room, so understand.

The C is so much less brash than the Bb soprano that I think it could make an OK substitute. Not a great one, but usable.

I tend to differ regarding great versus useable. Well done with appropriate expression at a volume complimenting the singer in a piece IMO is well pulled off and audience appreciated.

Occasionally I've heard a comment regarding a rendition that I did with midi loops on my arranger keyboard leading congregational singing that it didn't sound like say, the Hillsong recording. I'm not here to sound like the radio.

Also, cannot do percussion.

Everyone has their gifts. Yours are in other areas.

I drove my high school teachers nuts banging on my desktop as a drum set. Am good at bongos, cahons, etc.

 

[LostCircuits]

I'd guess that the problem with the blues harp is its perceived ease of playing and then you try it and it is not easy after all.

My nemesis is the Stratocaster. I don't have an issue with a Tele or Les Paul or PRS but Strats and I don't get along.

 

[Taragot]

Yes, oboe is hard. I love the sound and regretted sometimes that I picked the flute when I wanted to start something serious in my teens.
But I failed completely trying to be a part time oboe player.
And blues harp, too. I can get that Bob Dylan sound, but this exciting blues style - nope.