Multi-instrumentalist - Jazz, Modern, and Contemporary Music

Jazz, Modern, and Contemporary Music

Many professional musicians aim to become multi-instrumentalists. This process comes in lots of different forms; some jazz saxophonists are offered gigs where they are also required to play clarinet for example. So they spend time learning the differences and then continue to develop their ability over the rest of musical careers. The different types of saxophone are built to similar designs, varying mainly only in size (and therefore pitch), meaning that once a player has learned to play one it is relatively easy for him/her to pick up another. As a result, many Jazz saxophone players have made careers playing several different instruments, such as John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, both of whom have frequently used both Tenor and Soprano saxophones. To a lesser extent this is the case across the range of woodwind instruments: Jazz flute players often play other instruments as well, such as Eric Dolphy and Herbie Mann, both of whom frequently played flute and saxophone. Dolphy was also frequently recorded on bass clarinet.

Many famous jazz musicians including James Morrison, Don Burrows, Mark Taylor and many more have become detailed multi-instrumentalists.