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A sheep in wolf's clothing.

© Chris Mindel

Many times in a band or orchestra, especially in school bands, a particular instrument is needed which no one in the ensemble plays. Conductors have a few choices at this point. The first choice is to just drop the part from the piece. Sometimes this can be effective, but many times this will lead to thinning or distortion of the harmonic structure. Their second choice is to scramble to find a player of the missing instrument to play just the one piece. This can be time consuming and potentially expensive. The other easy choice the conductor has is to transpose the part for another instrument. And many times when this happens, the saxophone is called on to take over the needed part.

Many times a french horn is missing in the orchestra. The saxophone fills in nicely for the french horn. The saxophone can be played with a more open sound to simulate the french horn’s unique round sound. In fact, certain saxophone brands (like Yamaha) sometimes have a rounder sound than other brands, and can impersonate the french horn will more ease.

Often times the oboe is missing in an ensemble. And sometimes there is no leaving out this unique voice from the piece of music. What to do? A soprano saxophone can easily take over the part. The soprano sax has almost the same range as an oboe and it also can be played with a slightly pinched sound to imitate the haunting sound of the oboe.

Another common instrument doubled by the saxophone is the cello. This often happens in arrangements of string music for a wind ensemble. The tenor saxophone is in a similar range as the cello. Likewise, if a string bass part is needed, a baritone sax can fill in.

There is no end to the parts that a saxophone can double. But, there is one thing to keep in mind. The saxophone player cannot just take the other instrument’s music and play it as written. Because of the different keys of different instruments, the saxophone player must transpose to make sure the concert key (that is the key of the entire piece as seen from the conductor’s score) remains the same.

I found a great article on Sax on the Web by Paul R. Coats, which details many of the transpositions needed to play other instrument parts. Paul's article,Common Transpositions, can be found here. I advise reading through this article and practicing the different transpositions. You should be able to do it in your head as your read the music. Not an easy task, but one that will help you become a better musician. Because, eventually, you can play all the parts in an ensemble with out leaving your seat, and everyone else will be extremely impressed!

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