What Can You Learn from the Other Musical Instruments?

I teach both flute and piano. When I’m in piano world and tell people that I also play flute, pianists remark on how well flutists know their ornamentation. When I’m in flute world and tell people that I also play piano, the other flutists remark on how pianists tend to find patterns and think in chords.

It’s good to know who to talk to when you get stumped on something. Certain instruments are better at teaching certain things better than others for 3 reasons:

1.) The design of their instruments

2.) The most common music written for their instrument

3.) The types of people that certain instruments attract

Here’s a list of what I’ve observed. I’ll try to go in concert order, but there will be some skipped instruments because either I haven’t had enough access to them or because I haven’t had a recommendation.

Singers – Tone and Breathing.

Flutes – Ornamentation

Oboes – Anything about reeds

Clarinets – Organization (of anything)

Saxophones – Playing with attitude

Trumpets – Confidence (only ask the nice ones)

French Horns – Keeping off-beats from going onto the on-beats

Trombones – Articulation

Percussion – Rhythm

Pianos – Hearing the entire song, not just the melody. Thinking in chords and patterns.

What have you heard about the strengths of other instruments?