Comments for Bret Pimentel, woodwinds

Comment on Three Fingering Diagram Builder tutorials by Christel Rice

Christel Rice — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:55:14 +0000

You had me at Rahsaan Roland Kirk. This is quite helpful, and will be turning this over to a couple of my “doubler” colleagues/friends. thanks!

Comment on Reader email: doubling opportunities by Bret

Bret — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:32:39 +0000

Matt,

You might trying asking your question at one of these forums (use their search functions first):
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/forumdisplay.php?378-Shows
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/list.html?f=17
http://woodwindforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=219

Often reed books are somewhat mixed up—the “lead” clarinet part might be in book 1 some of the time, book 2 some of the time…

Comment on Reader email: doubling opportunities by Matt Krueger

Matt Krueger — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:52:27 +0000

does anyone know which books are the lead books for certain shows? For instance, 42nd Street , I would like to know which book has the lead clarinet lines.

Thanks,
Matt K

Comment on Recorder notation vs. band/orchestral woodwind notation by Pierre Vyncke

Pierre Vyncke — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:53:29 +0000

It’s hard to tell. The ancesters of the oboe and the bassoon (resp. the shawm and the dulcian) were declined in several sizes from soprano to bass. As we know today, only the small versions of the shawms were upgraded to become the oboes we know and only the low version of the dulcian was upgraded to the bassoon we know. I have no idea why it was done that way and not another, but I think we were that close to read oboe litterature in bass clef and playing bassoon in treble clef.

Now I guess those instruments used the system Bret described in this article so it doesn’t really count as transposing instrument but there’s research to be done about this.

Comment on Recorder notation vs. band/orchestral woodwind notation by Theresa Koenig

Theresa Koenig — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:41:54 +0000

I think some of the confusion may come from variations in the different musical “worlds”. In the Renaissance world, instruments “in C” are instruments for which their lowest is C. Instruments “in F” have their lowest note as F. It would be easy to assume that these are transposing instruments, which is probably what happened with the Broadway score. However, they should be notated at pitch, there isn’t any actual transposition involved.

(although Renaissance wind players did sometimes transpose in consort settings in order to avoid playing instruments tuned a fifth apart, but this would have simply meant you played C fingerings on F and visa versa)

Comment on Recorder notation vs. band/orchestral woodwind notation by Ronnal Ford

Ronnal Ford — Sat, 05 May 2012 04:05:00 +0000

I would think that Oboes were the first…D’amore and English horn (Da Caccia) were around before.

Comment on Recorder notation vs. band/orchestral woodwind notation by Dave Wells

Dave Wells — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:27:52 +0000

Nice explanation! Just to add a bit, this system is the most visible remnant of an older Western woodwind tradition. Other instruments arranged in consorts – shawms, dulcians, crumhorns, etc. – work the same way. Anything an instrumental ensemble would’ve played in the Renaissance was likely written as vocal music anyway, so the idea of a transposed part wouldn’t have made sense.

This makes me wonder – what was the first transposing woodwind instrument family (not counting octave displacement)? Clarinets?

Comment on MS Word music hack: Automatic sharps, flats, and naturals by Ulisses

Ulisses — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:15:10 +0000

Hi, just to let someone who needed it just as myself. Here’s a website where you can download the font “accidentals”
http://www.hindson.com.au/wordpress/free/free-fonts-available-for-download/

Then, it’s just to adapt the line spacing and font position (Ctrl+D) and follow the steps just as Bret oriented.

Thanks again!

Comment on MS Word music hack: Automatic sharps, flats, and naturals by Ulisses

Ulisses — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:57:38 +0000

Hi! Wow you’re great! Now, just a doubt. How about a double flat/sharp? Cheers

Comment on Breath support by Jeremy Griffith

Jeremy Griffith — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:02:40 +0000

Great article! I played the saxophone through middle and high school and never had a clear concept of what was meant by breath support. Now I’m starting to play again after a 10 year break and I’m trying to start from scratch to keep from re-forming my old bad habits. This article is the first to give me an actionable idea of what breath support is and how to improve it. Thanks!