Year: 2019

Favorite blog posts, February 2019

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See the woodwind blogs I’m following, and suggest others!

Switching between saxophones

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If you are an alto saxophone player and pick up a tenor or baritone for the first time, it’s pretty common to have a thin, weak tone, to be on the sharp side, to struggle with low note response, and to have issues like the top-of-the-staff G and G-sharp squeaking. If you are a tenor … Read more

What should be on your musician website

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It’s cheap and easy to create a website. Any serious freelance musician (or aspiring musician) should have one. This should be a website about you, an individual musician. It should be separate from your ensemble’s website or your academic institution’s website. It should exist long-term, and serve as a sort of permanent address for finding … Read more

Favorite blog posts, January 2019

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, January 2019 edition.

Decrescendo to zero

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Woodwind players often struggle with decrescendos that quit too soon. (“Decrescendi” if you prefer.) It’s pretty disappointing to play a graceful phrase and have the last note end abruptly instead of fading down smoothly to zero. There’s not a special technique to deploy in order to make successful decrescendos to niente. This delicate dynamic effect … Read more

Observing woodwind playing objectively

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If you are teaching a woodwind methods course, you might be interested in my book.I have my woodwind methods classes do a lot of observing of woodwind playing. They comment on each other’s woodwind playing in class, write concert/recital reports, and make written comments on each other’s playing exams (for my eyes only). This is … Read more