Friday, March 04, 2011

What are some good switches?


So let's say you have a student that is struggling with their instrument do to some physical limitations. What are some good switches? Well some are obvious like moving a trumpet player to baritone if they have trouble with range. I have recently moved a student from trumpet to baritone and now to tuba. He seems to be much happier having to worry about rhythm and musicality rather than his range. He actually has the full range of the tuba so this is great. Some trumpet players also make very good horn players if they have the ear to hear the partials. I have been surprised by the fact that some trumpet players that struggle with range have no problem on horn. What about flute players with trouble. Believe it or not tuba is an excellent option for them. The embouchure is similar in that they are both fairly loose. So it might be a great thing to try. Flute players may also find success playing bassoon and we all need double reeds. Here is the sad thing though. What to do with the percussionists that continue to struggle? Sad thins is that it is very difficult to switch them over to a wind instrument especially if it is not done early in the students learning. This is why percussion may be the most important instrument for which to stress the importance of selecting the correct instrument.


What are some switches that have worked for you?

1 Comments:

Blogger Scott Slatton said...

Bob switched me from alto saxohphone to percussion. What does that tell you?

9:49 AM  

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