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Favorite blog posts, May 2013

January 1, 2018May 31, 2013 by Bret Pimentel

Here are some high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from May, in no particular order.

Mark Catoe and Tim Gordon discuss music education, careers, and, of course, woodwind doubling: Interview with Tim Gordon
Flutist Meerenai Shim opens up about success, failure, pursuing your dream, and dealing with the practicalities: To Each Her Own
Jennet Ingle is always one of my favorites. I already responded to her post on sound quality and individuality, but I also liked this one about the realities of freelancing: A Freelance Week
David Erato learns a difficult lesson about swabs, and offers to let others learn from his experience: Don’t do this. Ever.
Helen Kahlke patrols the internet for weird saxophone stuff, and discovers this interesting approach to the octave vent problem: Frankensax’s Offspring Gets Its Patent
Saxophonist Shannon Kennedy deals with a hazard of being a musician in the internet age: There’s Honest and Then There’s Hurtful
Christa Garvey suggests listening to more music, and provides a nice jumping-off point for developing your oboe ears: Living a life WITH music—a guide to listening for the aspiring oboist
Flutist Jolene Harju has an epiphany about making her best sound in a natural, easy way: Open Sound: Why I Love Middle C!
John Bogenschutz of Tone Deaf Comics apparently buys his bassoons from Ikea: “Bundlövstx”

Enjoy! If you have some favorites that I missed, please share them in the comments section below.

Favorite blog posts, April 2013

January 1, 2018April 30, 2013 by Bret Pimentel

I currently have over 400 woodwind-related blogs in my feed reader, and try my best at least to skim the new posts. In the past I’ve occasionally passed along recommendations about some of the blogs that I think are especially good. I’m considering moving toward something like a monthly list of some of my favorite … Read more

Yet more woodwind blogs you should be reading

January 3, 2018February 6, 2013 by Bret Pimentel

I insist that you check out the following woodwind-related blogs, listed in no particular order. Also see my previous roundups:

David A. Wells

David Wells is a bassoonist, educator, and scholar. His blog is excellent and rich in original, thoughtful, useful content. Try these on for size:

“Piccolo Phil” on doubling

January 3, 2018October 27, 2012 by Bret Pimentel

“Piccolo Phil” over at The Balanced Flutist discusses the benefits and challenges of woodwind doubling in preparation for an upcoming gig. Benefits: I actually don’t mind doubling that much, it can be a nice change of pace, plus, show tunes are just so much fun! It’s been great exploring these instruments again, especially since I’ve been … Read more

Still more woodwind blogs you should be reading

January 3, 2018November 1, 2011 by Bret Pimentel

In what is turning out to be an approximately biannual roundup, I present the third installment of woodwind-related blogs that I’m enjoying, and you will too. If you’re late to the party, check out episodes 1 and 2. (In each case I picked at least one excellent blog that shortly thereafter stopped publishing new content, so take a look at today’s picks and see if you can guess which is getting the “Bret Pimentel, woodwinds” curse. Bwahahahaha.)

Tammy Evans Yonce

Tammy is a former classmate of mine (go ‘Dawgs), and a flutist and educator to keep an eye on. Her blog, just a few months old, is outstandingly good: important topics, carefully thought out, and clearly and elegantly written. Tammy writes about flute performance and pedagogy, with a special interest in making practice time really effective. A must-read.

Also check out Tammy on Twitter, and at her other new blog, the collaborative Music Collective.

Historical woodwind recordings on the National Jukebox

January 3, 2018July 7, 2011 by Bret Pimentel

: Photo, alexruthmann

The United States Library of Congress’s National Jukebox project makes American recordings from the days before microphones available for streaming online. This is a fantastic resource for recordings—classical, jazz, and more—from the turn of the 20th century until the mid-1920’s.

These recordings are not in the public domain, like you might think; Sony, the owner of the recordings, has given the Library of Congress special permission to stream them.

Naturally, I’ve been searching the National Jukebox for woodwind players, and here are a few of my favorite discoveries. Some of the gems include oddities like the Heckelphone and bass saxophone, and there are a few woodwind doublers in there, too. Take note of how woodwind playing, like recording technology, has changed over the past century!

To kick things off, here’s a nice tour of the woodwind section of the Victor Orchestra in 1912:

Instruments of the orchestra

A few more woodwind blogs you should be reading

March 14, 2017March 19, 2011 by Bret Pimentel

A few months ago I posted some of my recommendations for good woodwind-related blogs, and shared a couple of tips on getting the most out of your blog reading. I’ve got a few more favorite blogs I’d like to share today, and another blog-reading tip, too.

This time I came up with a blog each for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone, plus a bonus one. Here they are in no particular order:

Barrick Stees (Barry Blogs)

Barrick Stees is the assistant principal bassoonist in the Cleveland Orchestra, and a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Akron. His blog is fairly new (started earlier this year) but is already full of good stuff. Professor Stees shares some insights on playing excerpts at a level suitable to one of the great American orchestras:

He also keeps a travelogue of his tours with the orchestra, and comments on other items of interest to professional or developing musicians, such as:

December links digest

July 23, 2022December 22, 2010 by Bret Pimentel

I try not to just dump lists of links very often, but here are a few fun items that didn’t warrant their own full posts: Flutists in the news: NASA astronaut Cady Coleman makes music in outer space. Artist Matthias Adolfsson proposes some new members of the woodwind family. Musicians can save the world, over … Read more

YouTubeage: Cool EWI videos

February 8, 2021September 20, 2010 by Bret Pimentel

Some of my favorite EWI videos. Enjoy!

Jeff Kashiwa explains and demonstrates the Akai EWI4000s to an appreciative audience. A little loopstation fun, with some Telemann and then a smooth-jazz tune.

EWI specialist Bernie Kenerson does cool stuff with an EWI hooked up to a vocoder.

A few woodwind blogs you should be reading

July 24, 2022August 18, 2010 by Bret Pimentel

If you’re a woodwind player and avid blog reader, you’re likely already following some prominent and popular bloggers like oboist Patty Mitchell (oboeinsight), flutist Jennifer Cluff, and clarinetists David Thomas (The Buzzing Reed) and Marion Harrington.

I read and enjoy all of these, but I would also like to suggest a few others that are particular favorites of mine. These are ones that I think have a somewhat smaller readership, although there’s not a good way to know that without asking nosy questions. So I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that some of these may be new to you. Check them out, and let us know in the comments what else you’re reading.

Also, read to the bottom for a couple of tips on reading blogs like you know what you’re doing.

In no particular order…