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Does anybody out their play more than one instrument during a typical performance ? How's that go over with the crowd ?



Well, Joe, by now you must realize that I'm a multi-instrumentalist, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Pianos, Organs, Keyboards, Synths, Theremin and, of course, Guitar.

Bob "Notes" Norton is another who frequents this forum, a saxophonist (with the nickname of "One Take Jake") who also plays guitar in his act.

I only will switch instrument if absolutely necessary to make the song happen, though.

Switching instruments can take a toll on the performance, if the instrument you switch over to is not played with as much skill and conviction as the one you started out with. Audiences are people and thus cannot be fooled, which is my way of saying that the audience will see through any attempt to pick up and play another instrument just for the sake of doing so.

The real aspect of the thing is practice, practice, practice - and not rushing to take that second instrument out for performance until you really have worked up the ability to perform on it. That doeswn't necessarily mean "mastering" said instrument, but it does mean that you at least know the instrument well enough to be at home with it in circumstances other than a memorized small repertoire.

That said, over the years (yes, it takes years but this is a labor of love) I have found that spending the time to learn and play a different instrument has other joys associated with it. For example, my piano playing skills jumped up to a new plateau from working out hard on the guitar those many years ago. Working hard to read notation without TAB, I found I had to deal with different note stacks in chords, lots of the more or less standard guitar chord voicings that are easy to grab with the LH on a guitar neck are kind of hidden when confronting the linearity of a keyboard. Single note lines from Trumpet and even Clarinet books yielded guitar drills that greatly improved single note soloing capabilities, note choice, phrasing, etc. Many of the great jazz guitar players mention practicing Horn Solos on the guitar, this to better emulate the phrasing inherent in singing or playing a horn. That concept of playing a line, then the "pause to take a breath" before playing the next line really can change much guitar soloing for the better. You tend not to just keep on playing lines, lines, lines, which, in certain genres may be a good thing, but in others doesn't make for a solo that makes more coherent sense.


--Mac

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