Multi-instrumentalist

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Multi-instrumentalist" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Full of unsourced content and repeated material; could use separating the primary information from the examples. Please help improve this article if you can. (July 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments,^[1] often but not exclusively at a professional level of proficiency.

Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where a particular instrument may be employed only briefly or sporadically during a performance. Doubling is not uncommon in orchestra (e.g., flutists who double on piccolo) and jazz (saxophone/flute players); double bass players might also perform on electric bass. In music theatre, a pit orchestra's reed players might be required to perform on multiple instruments. Church piano players are often expected to play the church's pipe organ or Hammond organ as well.

In popular music it is more common than in classical or jazz for performers to be proficient on instruments not from the same family, for instance to play both guitar and keyboards. Many bluegrass musicians are multi-instrumentalists. Some musicians' unions or associations specify a higher rate of pay, for musicians who double on two or more instruments for a performance or recording.