Here are some highlights (to me) of what happened on the blog this year. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for new, non-meta content once the holidays are over.
- Some technique talk for flutists, oboists, and clarinetists, and some stuff for reed players of various stripes.
- Some stuff for woodwind doublers: finding gigs, why fingerings aren’t that big of a deal, an interview with a real live doubler on a touring musical, which instrument you should tackle next, and getting and keeping your skills up to snuff.
- Some jazz insights for classically-trained musicians, including a chord symbol primer and some debunking of common jazz myths.
- Wholly unsolicited opinions about things like full-range scales, class woodwinds textbooks, pencils, snobbery, instrument value, music education curricula, and, naturally, purple violins.
- Product reviews: Rico’s new “Reserve” clarinet mouthpiece (plus a sequel), a woodwind doubles stand by Hercules, and a saxophone book by Ben Britton.
- Reports on a couple of events: the very awesome/nerdy John Mack Oboe Camp, and my annual faculty recital.
- A couple of new software projects designed to help bloggers and other web-dwelling folk to use proper musical accidental symbols, and a diatribe about why they should. Some significant improvements to these tools are on the way.
- An overhaul of the Fingering Diagram Builder, and some tutorials. Still more improvements to the FDB are in the works.
- Some snark about internet forums and about my students’ excuses, and a possibly borderline-felonious April Fools joke that seemed mostly to fly under the radar. Luckily I do those for my entertainment, not yours.
Don’t forget to subscribe via your favorite feed reader or social network, and hit me up with your questions, comments, and requests. Happy New Year!