When should I indicate a change in instruments in a Score?
Hi everyone,
I have a student who needs to go from a Vibraphone to a Glockenspiel with rests in between. Should I indicate a change in instrument as soon as the one instrument is done playing, or indicate a change in instruments above the notes of the next one?
Attached pictures as examples.
Comments
What I have seen most is having the change indicated immediately after the last note played on one instrument. I occasionally see it just before the next note, or even in both places, which seems very ridiculous to me.
Unless the Vibes & Glock players ALWAYS only play pitched instruments, I think it would be important to always tell the musician what their next instrument is.
I'm actually writing an original score at the moment that I think I will use 3 percussionist for it. I don't see a way to always have the same person play the Marimba, Glock and Bells since there are places the Marimba and Bells are played at the same time. There are also places where the Marimba plays with 2 other instruments and other places where the Bells play with 2 other instruments. Even if I decide I need 4 percussionists, there will have to be some overlap between the percussionists. The point of telling you this is, I will definitely need to make sure every percussionist knows where to go next. I would suggest that you do the same for your vibes & glock player.