Time to practice it all??

[bari_sax_diva]

Here's a question I haven't seen yet...

When you double, how do you get in practice time for everything? Especially if you have a day job?

I started as a clarinet player, moved to sax in H.S., played both a while and into college (had more time then), the dropped everything to go to business school. Now I'm back to sax for about three years, migrated from alto down to baritone as my main axe (I play all from time to time, tenor being most common), but I have to scramble for an hour or two on bari and sometimes tenor, so working seriously on doubles is next to impossible. The saxes carry over to a large extent--moving from bari to the smaller ones seems easier than the other way around--but my clarinet and flute chops are barely adequate, though I *used* to be good. Any suggestions for a bare-bones minimum workout in order to improve those enough for section work, while not losing too much of my bari time?

Thanks in advance,
Leanne

[Razzy]

One thing I definitely find in terms of embouchure is that practicing a higher pitched saxophone will keep all of the lower pitched ones in pretty good working order, and not the vice versa. I could practice soprano and nothing else for two weeks, and still sound very good on the other horns. I do this very often. However, I could not get away with practicing only my bari and tenor (as much as I love them), for even a couple of days, and expect to keep my alto and soprano chops in working order. So, this could eliminate some of your time issues. I would recommend practicing bari and soprano (or whatever your highest saxophone is), so that you keep up both breath capacity and embouchure muscle tone on the extremes.

You simply have to cut something else out, be it sleep, leisure time, or whatever. I find that sleep generally goes first for me (only a few hours, and if that, only once or twice a week, health is important as well), then leisure and social time.

[Bootman]

Finding the time is the hardest thing to do particularly when making a living and family issues come into play as well. I am fortunate that I can play all my main horns many times a week. This is done whilst teaching and playing. Advanced students are an absolute godsend for getting some more playing time in.

Sleep, what is that? I have herd about it. :wink:

[MS]

Over a period of years, you'll probably find mouthpiece/reed/horn combinations that switch easier. Might not be what you'd play if you only played one horn. I find that if I change mps or reed type on one horn, it effects the others.
I do a fair amount of teaching, which also helps (as Bootman mentioned).

[Benny]

I agree with the others totally - especially the teaching bit. For me, my tenor students make up the bulk of my tenor practise. Even beginner students allow you to work on the most basic things.
Apart from that, I find it helpful to have a main horn that will always be your home base, on which you refine your tone production, pitch, articulation, vibrato etc to the highest possible level, which is different for everyone depending on what you do. Having set-ups that allow you to change easily is a big factor too.
I terms of practise, do your normal workout on your main sax, and then practise (as much as time and life allows) the things that are differant about the others. For me this means: doing my regular practise on my alto (working on pitch, vib, articulation, transcribing, learning tunes etc), and tackling the others when I get called to play them. On sop, I mainly focus on getting a nice response down low. Tenor poses some different altissimo fingerings and weird low note things and clarinet means practising around the break.
Flute is weird. It needs to be done everyday if you want to have it souding good when you get called. Once again, pick the things that are really unique to flute - playing loud down low, soft up top, fingerings around the break and the 3rd register, vibrato etc.
I got most of these ideas from an interview I read with Lenny Pickett (ex T.O.P and currently opn Saturday Night live).