What Instrument Should I Double for Pit Ochestra Work?

[maximilian.welch3]

I want to try to do put orchestras for a living. I thought it might be a good idea to learn a secondary instrument while I’m in college to better my chances of getting a gig. I was thinking of doing french horn. Is this a good idea and if so does anyone have any recommendations for what size mouthpiece and a brand of horn that would be both professional and beginner friendly.
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Bach Stradivarius 37 bell with Blackburn 19-350 leadpipe
Andreas Eastman Flugelhorn

[Jaw04]

Honestly you should focus on one wind instrument (trumpet) and also learn a rhythm section instrument: bass, drums, or piano. If you got really good at piano or bass it would help your overall musicianship and understanding of harmony, and if you excel at it you could actually get a lot of gigs playing those.

[Ed Kennedy]

[Goby]

This is not a good idea. if you can play two instruments passably, but you're not especially proficient on either one, you're not employable in a pit orchestra. People dedicate years of their lives to one singular instrument just to have a shot at the same gigs that you want. Are you really going to be able to outplay these people on your secondary instrument? What about on trumpet? How are you going to compete with someone who spent their life focusing solely on the trumpet while you split your time between trumpet and horn?

Ask yourself: Can you sightread? Can you play lead? Can you play with a polished, orchestral sound (on Bb and C trumpet)? Can you improvise in a jazz style? Can you play section parts and support your lead player? Can you play piccolo trumpet? Can you double on flugelhorn effectively? Can you arrange? Can you play piano? Can you teach? Can you do all of the above at a professional level?

These are all important aspects of being a working musician, and would all benefit you significantly more than being able to double on horn. If you want to play in a pit orchestra, my advice would be to dedicate yourself to the trumpet and become a specialist. Take lessons (in-person or online) with players who are doing what you want to do. Get to know some Broadway players and people your age who share your desire to be a professional musician.

Within the world of trumpet playing there's so much ground to cover that it's impossible to be a master of it all. If you can create an employable skillset that matches up with the needs of a pit orchestra (big sound, good sight-reading, knowledge of a variety of musical styles, easy to be around, able to tolerate going on the road for months on end), you will find success in that field. Best of luck in your musical journey.

[cheiden]

I tend to agree that Bb, C, picc, flugel are all important for serious pit work. I'd cover those first before getting more adventurous. Some keyboard proficiency including some arranging never hurts.

If your interest is more personal than professional then by all means play what you like. I'm a moderately serious amateur and have loved playing the Horn on a few shows, even the newer Le Mis edition which is a Horn heavy show. It usually takes me a month or so to really get lined up on the Horn.

I use the Faxx MC or MDC (can't remember which) and it's not a hard transition from my usual Bach 3C-ish trumpet piece.
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"I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart

[Richard III]

[TrumpetMD]

Good advice given, and good question by the OP. My "2 cents" ...

Your next choice of instrument maybe should be flugelhorn, picc, C trumpet, etc., depending on your career goals. I'd do that before looking at other instruments.

How many French Horn gigs are out there? I suspect not half as many as trumpet. If you want to double on a wind instrument to maximize your gig potential, I think tenor sax or trombone would broaden your opportunities more. But one caveat is that this type of doubling (trumpet-F horn, trumpet-bone, etc), seems to work for some, but for others it can mess up your chops.

I agree that piano, guitar, or bass could be a good choice. This will broaden your gig opportunities and your musical perspective. That's what I did. I had to learn piano anyway as a music major, so for me it was an easy choice to stick with it. Although trumpet is my main instrument, I get more piano gigs nowadays. (For example, I have 6 gigs this month, 4 on piano, 2 on trumpet.)

Mike
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Bach Stradivarius 43* Trumpet (1974), Bach 6C Mouthpiece.
Bach Stradivarius 184 Cornet (1988), Yamaha 13E4 Mouthpiece
Olds L-12 Flugelhorn (1969), Yamaha 13F4 Mouthpiece.
Plus a few other Bach, Getzen, Olds, Carol, HN White, and Besson horns.

[trumpetart]

I have played many shows and operas as a doubler, playing trumpet, flute, french horn, ukulele, and several other things. This kind of diverse doubling is useful for tiny theatres that only have room for a very small ensemble. But everything that I have done is built upon a solid foundation as a professional trumpet player. They know I can play anything they need me to on the trumpet, and then as a bonus I'll also jump over and cover the 2nd flute part when the trumpet part is tacet, and that makes me extra hirable.

It's fun, but I've learned that playing Mozart operas on horn stresses me out like nothing else!
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Daniel Gianola-Norris

[PH]

For shows and general commercial work (in this order): Bb, Flugel, Piccolo trumpet, cornet, C trumpet (most commercial players just play Bb parts on C and get their transposition REALLY together).

After that, learn to play piano and learn to compose and arrange music.

Oh yeah... Memorize as many standard tunes, show tunes, pop tunes, etc. as you possibly can. Learn the melodies, harmony (chord changes & counter melodies), and main horn section licks. This is SUPER important.
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Bach trumpet artist-clinician
Clinical Professor of Jazz Trumpet, University of Illinois
Professor Emeritus of Jazz Studies, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Faculty Jamey Aebersold Jazz Workshops 1976-2019
JazzRetreats.com

[Crazy Finn]

[JoseLindE4]

Counterpoint: in my community, there's a pretty substantial shortage of competent horn players. An ok college-level player would clean up on the small gigs and make a decent supplemental income. It certainly wouldn't be Broadway and you couldn't do that full time (hence the lack of horn players), but there would be steady work.

There's also some pedagogical value in learning horn. It's a much less physical instrument but it takes so much control. Learning both of those things can make you a better trumpet player.

If you're going to double, David Guerrier is a good model:


Link



Link

[Brassnose]

Where I am located there is a a permanent shortage of trombone players, so that is what I would do if I were going in your direction. Tuba as well. Maybe find out what they need in your region?

Now for piccolo that is interesting. I have never played in a pit orchestra but it’s interesting to read that picc is so important. Why is this? Sound? Horribly high trumpet parts?
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2019 Martin Schmidt eXcellence
1992 Bach 43GH/43
1989 Kühnl & Hoyer Model 15 flugel
1980/2023 Custom Blessing Scholastic C 😎
1977 Conn 6B
1951 Buescher 400 Lightweight
AR Resonance, Frate, Klier

[6pk]

I'd say it depends where you are and how the work is distributed.
As a London based player, as you can imagine, it's like NY and a highly skilled competitive market. Most of us trumpeters are pigeon holed whether we like it or not, and have to go with that as a work draw. BTW stylistic versatility is of paramount importance in the West End, and you absolutely must be proficient on the Bb, Picc, Cornet and Flugel. There is also demand for period instruments, and that tends to increase earning potential.
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Jonathan Clarke
Principal Trumpet: Aalborg Symphony Orchestra
London Freelancer 2010-2021
Former Principal Trumpet:
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra 2003-10

[Nonsense Eliminator]

I imagine that some show somewhere has a trumpet/horn double, but as others have said, the standard pit doubles for trumpet are, well, basically trumpets. It isn’t the same as the situation with woodwinds, where the standard books very often include sax, flute, and clarinet (and sometimes oboe and bassoon). If you want to play shows as a woodwind player, being able to play multiple instruments credibly is a very useful skill, and being acceptable at all three may get you hired ahead of somebody who is a virtuoso on one and terrible at the others. But trumpet books do not, as a rule, contain doubles outside of the trumpet family. So the instrument to practice if you want to improve your odds of getting pit work is the trumpet.
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Richard Sandals
NBO

[cheiden]

[trumpetart]

[nieuwguyski]

The other consideration is that simply being competent at transposing can help your hire-ability. I have played plenty of paying community-theater musical gigs with reduced instrumentation and tiny pits. We're certainly not talking Union-Scale pay, but at least some money.

I played the alto sax solos in "Honk," on trumpet, reading the part on the stand of the flute player sitting in front of me. I played as many french horn parts as I could cover in "Into the Woods" on C trumpet. The MD asked if I could play them on flugelhorn and I had to explain that there was literally no room on the floor of the pit for another horn.

I double rather well on trombone and have played entire shows on it, but have never played both trumpet and trombone on the same show -- because no show I've ever played had enough "individual moments" for both instruments to make it worth it. I have played important trombone lines on flugelhorn, playing with octaves as necessary.
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J. Notso Nieuwguyski

[THE BD]

I agree with a lot of the above, I have never seen anyone play both horn and trumpet in a show but it would definitely behoove you to make sure you are proficient in your trumpet doubles and in your transposition skills.

Personally only once have I had a truly odd doubling gig. We were doing Cabaret with a reduced orchestra (2 horns, piano and drums). As sax was my primary in college and I am very comfortable there as well as trumpet and I played from both the stage tenor book and the pit trumpet book.
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Martin D Williams

Yeah, I did that!

[Andy Cooper]

You might be able to find a used Holton Farkas or the next lower Holton in the $3000 range. An H179 or H379 would probably work. They are nickel silver and a little more open blowing and will help take the "trumpet" out of your sound.(I personally liked the old Conn 8D but good ones are now hard to find.) Then try several horn mouthpieces until you find one that brings out the low register. Your high register will be OK - low register is the weak spot for trumpet players. When you find one, have a custom mouthpiece made based on it with a trumpet rim or the Neill Sanders french horn rim. (Osmun does this.)The wider rim will decrease your flexibility reducing your tendency to splat notes all over the harmonic series. (Your lip trills and flexibility will suffer but it's a trade off.)

I gather that you are interested in adding more instruments to increase your marketability and better secure your future income stream.

Could I suggest that switching your major to "Music Business" or adding a minor - perhaps in business administration, marketing, real estate, insurance, or culinary arts - might be a better way.

[JayKosta]