Announcements and news

Fifth anniversary

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I always think that the worst blog posts are the ones where people blog about their blogs. So brace yourself. Sorry. I try not to indulge in this kind of thing too often.

Anyway, today is the fifth anniversary of my first, rather inauspicious blog post. (You might notice that I do have posts dated older than that; those are older writings, many from college courses, that I retroactively turned into blog posts.) Five years isn’t that long by most measures, but it seems that, in the sea of abandoned blogs out there, five years and still active isn’t something to take for granted.

I was working on a graduate degree in multiple woodwinds performance at the time this blog was born, and had read and reread everything I could find online about woodwind doubling, plus as many print sources as I could get my hands on. I will admit that the conceit did cross my mind that one day my website might be a primary web destination for woodwind doublers, and I flatter myself that that is now the case. Woodwind doublers form a fairly small club, but still the growth has been gratifying:

Five years of site traffic
Five years of site traffic

What excites me even more than the traffic is the engagement. I’ve been pleased and flattered to hear from many, many of you—everyone from young, aspiring doublers to old friends to colleagues in academia to musicians who are some of my real heroes. Thanks for your emails, blog comments, content contributions, donations, and other shows of support.

A few other things I’m really proud of:

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Fingering Diagram Builder, version 0.5

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I am pleased to announce the release of the Fingering Diagram Builder, version 0.5. The updates are mostly tech-nerdy stuff and won’t affect how you use it. Read on to find out what’s new, or just check it out yourself.

It has been a bit over a year since the last “major” release, which I hope didn’t led anyone to believe that the project was abandoned. I still have every intention of continuing to update and improve it, and your suggestions and bug reports (also donations) are always welcomed.

Here’s what’s new:

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Random Note Picker, version 0.2

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A little over a year ago I made the Random Note Picker, a small web app for generating groups of random pitches. I mostly use it to quiz students on their scales. It otherwise hasn’t gotten much use, but if anyone is interested there is now a slightly improved version. Check it out.

2012 in review

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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 … Read more

Best practices for accidentals in online music writing, and introducing jQuery Accidentals

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In an ideal world, you see five musical symbols here:

flat natural sharp double-flat double-sharp
♭ ♮ ♯

But, depending on the device you are using to read this, you may notice one of these problems:

  • None of the symbols show up properly: they are either missing or replaced with squares, diamonds, question marks, or some other “placeholder” symbol.
  • The flat, natural, and sharp appear properly, but the double-sharp and double-flat are missing or placeholders.
  • The symbols don’t quite match each other—they appear as though they come from different fonts.

And for the blogger or other online writer, there is an additional problem: these characters aren’t easily typed from a keyboard. Using them means copy-and-pasting or remembering obscure numeric codes. And then you hope that your readers’ devices can display them.

So, for most situations, some kind of text substitution is made. Two styles are fairly common:

  • Spelling out the symbols in words, such as “A-flat.”
  • Using a “close-enough” character, such as “A#” (pound sign, number sign, or hash) or “Bb” (lower-case B).

Using words is my preferred method, since using “#” and “b” is semantically incorrect, garbles the meaning for non-visual browsing devices (such as screen readers for the blind), isn’t compatible with all fonts (such as those that don’t have a clearly-differentiated upper- and lowercase B), and can be ambiguous:

  • “Today I did my patented Ab Workout. It’s basically all the major and minor scales starting from Ab.”
  • “Today I did my patented Ab Workout. It’s basically a bunch of sit-ups.”

Thus, I recommend this usage: “A-flat,” “B-natural,” “C-sharp,” “D-double-sharp,” “E-double-flat.” Note the hyphens (with no spaces), and the lower-case accidental names (even for titles: Sonata in D-flat).

This solves the major issues of typing and reading the accidentals in an onscreen situation, but leaves us with a rather inelegant and typographically boring representation of the true musical symbols. This would be intolerable for print media, and, as screen text steadily replaces print text, a better solution is required. Here are some possible scenarios (warning—a little technical):

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New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Sep. 13, 2012

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Here are some sound clips from my faculty recital last month. I try to make a point of keeping myself challenged, and mission accomplished on this one.

The repertoire, selected collaboratively with my outstanding pianist colleague Dr. Kumiko Shimizu, was all pieces with some connection to jazz music. First up on the program was selected movements from Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano. Flute isn’t part of my teaching assignment at Delta State, but this piece was too fun to pass up and my flutist colleague Dr. Shelley Collins is extraordinarily supportive of my flute playing. Since I spend most of my work week living in reed land, however, my flute chops don’t get the attention I would like, and I’m a bit self-conscious about my sound and my control of the instrument. I hear a number of things on the recording that I am less than satisfied with, but overall I think it went okay, and it was well received by the audience (even the part of the audience whose grade doesn’t depend on keeping me happy).

Next was a new-ish piece by young composer Alyssa Morris, a fellow BYU alum. I had heard her Four Personalities for oboe and piano performed by Nancy Ambrose King a few years back at an IDRS conference, and it immediately sprang to mind when I started brainstorming jazz-influenced oboe pieces. We performed the first two movements (second, then first), which, to our ears, had the strongest jazz elements. The first movement (performed second) in particular has characteristic swing rhythms and figures, and it was strange but fun to tackle those things on the oboe.

At the John Mack Oboe Camp over the summer, I heard a fine performance of this piece by the Oregon Symphony’s principal oboist, Martin Hebert. I also got some reed help from Linda Strommen (of Indiana University), which has greatly improved the pitch stability of my reeds. I’m pleased with the improvement over last year’s recital. I’m not sure I have entirely adapted tone-wise to the change, however, and I was a little surprised by my sound on the recording—to me, I don’t quite sound like me.

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Faculty piano and woodwinds recital, Sept. 13, 2012

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Kumiko Shimizu, piano
Bret Pimentel, woodwinds

Faculty Recital
Delta State University Department of Music
Recital Hall, Bologna Performing Arts Center
Thursday, September 13, 2012
7:30 PM

Program

from Suite for Flute and Piano
Claude Bolling (b. 1930)

I. Baroque and Blue
V. Irlandaise
VII. Veloce

from Four Personalities for Oboe and Piano
Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)

II. White
I. Yellow

Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

I.
II.
III.

Naima
John Coltrane (1926-1967), arranged by Bret Pimentel

Peace Piece
Bill Evans (1929-1980), transcribed by Brent Edstrom

Fuzzy Bird Sonata
Takashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953)

1. Run, bird
2. Sing, bird
3. Fly, bird

Ballade
Keri Degg (b. 1975)

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Report: John Mack Oboe Camp, 2012

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You know you are at oboe camp when the rules include “no crowing reeds before 7:30 a.m.” I’m back from the John Mack Oboe Camp, held every June at the Wildacres Retreat in the mountains of North Carolina. The camp has been an institution for over 30 years, and has been carried on by Mr. Mack’s … Read more

Fingering Diagram Builder, version 0.4

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Hello, friends. I’m excited to share the latest round of improvements to the Fingering Diagram Builder. Thanks to all for your suggestions and bug reports, for your donations (every little bit helps), and for sharing with me some of the cool things you are making with the fingering diagrams.

A few names that need mentioning for recent extra-awesome support and/or ideas are bassoonist Dave Wells (check out his high-quality and handsome bassoon fingering charts), saxophonist/doubler Evan Tate, saxophonist Bart Walters (who blogs over at Music Collective), pianist Jason Gray, and clarinetists Kellie Lignitz and Rachel Yoder (who included the FDB in their column in The Clarinet and on Clarinet Cache). You internet people sure are nice!

Check out version 0.4 of the Fingering Diagram Builder, or read on for a guide to what’s new and improved.

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Doublers in the news: Hunter Diamond

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Check out an interview (with audio) of Indiana University undergraduate student Hunter Diamond about his interest in woodwind doubling. He’s hoping his skills on multiple instruments will eventually land him commercial gigs or even a position playing in a pit for musical theater performances. … “The most important thing now is to find something unique … Read more