Doctor of Musical Arts
Dr. Bret Pimentel, D. M. A.
The University of Georgia
May 9, 2009
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Recital videos, August 2020
I’m pleased to share videos from my recent Delta State University faculty recital. I performed for a very small in-person audience due to COVID-19 precautions.
All the repertoire is unaccompanied. The program begins with multiple-woodwinds repertoire by Samuel Adler, Kyle Tieman-Strauss, and Nicole Chamberlain (a world premiere of a commissioned piece), followed by some odds and ends on recorders, clarinet, and tinwhistles.
Kenneth Fischer, saxophonist, teacher, and friend
One of my former teachers, Dr. Kenneth Fischer, passed away yesterday, after a brief illness.
Dr. Fischer was a protégé of Eugene Rousseau, and, over the past 30 years at the University of Georgia, established himself as a major force in classical saxophone performance and teaching. His close associations with composers like the late Jindřich Feld fueled an influx of new compositions for the instrument. He was active and involved with the World Saxophone Congress and the North American Saxophone Alliance, and was making plans to host the latter’s 2010 conference.
Read the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music announcement here.
Here are a few things that I learned from Dr. Fischer.
Some things about saxophone playing:
- You shouldn’t have to strain for the altissimo notes. Relax and let them come.
- Every note is part of a larger musical gesture. Every note.
- There’s something to be said for keeping the fingers close to the keys and closing them with a feather touch, but it’s also worth exploring larger, more aggressive movements for fingering. Saxophone keys aren’t flute keys.
- Every sound is interesting and beautiful and musical. If the composer calls for key pops or multiphonics or flutter tonguing, commit to making those sounds really work musically. Practice them like you mean it.
- Sometimes, what you really need is to struggle with a piece that’s way over your head. Other times, what you really need is to play a piece that you can absolutely nail. Do some of each.
- A pleasing tone doesn’t mean much without good pitch and rhythm. Don’t just work on fundamentals, work on all the fundamentals.
- One of Dr. Fischer’s favorite things to say to a student after a recital was, “That was terrific! But next time, use a reed.” It was a joke. Or was it?
Some things not about saxophone playing:
- Relationships with other people are more important than anything, even music.
- Take time to talk to people. Hear their stories, and share yours. Everything else can wait.
- Every birthday deserves a celebration, complete with singing and cake.
2017 in review
Here are some highlights from the blog in 2017.
- The top new posts in terms of traffic and social sharing were:
- Review: D’Addario Select Jazz tenor saxophone mouthpieces
- Please lose the music binder
- Quick flute switches and embouchure problems for woodwind doublers
- Advice on graduate performance study and university teaching careers
- Buy intonation, not tone
- Woodwind doubling on both oboe and bassoon
- What I listen for in scholarship auditions
- When you’re too sick for a lesson
- Interview: Jonathan Tunick, Broadway orchestrator and more
- Some evergreen posts that remained popular:
- I put out a couple of new releases of my web tools: Random Note Picker, version 0.3 and Reedcast™ version 2.0. I hinted last year at a new release of the Fingering Diagram Builder, which didn’t happen. Still working on it.
- The big list of woodwind doubling in musicals continues to grow in size and hopefully accuracy. Thanks once again for y’all’s contributions.
- I shared some videos from my all-jazz multiple woodwinds recital.
- I did another 12 months’ worth of my favorite posts from other blogs. Let me know what other blogs I should be reading, including yours.
And, of course, I was pleased to release my book, Woodwind Basics: Core concepts for playing and teaching flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone, which really is a distillation of lots of ideas I’ve explored and refined right here on the blog. I have been thrilled with the response, including teachers of university woodwind methods courses adopting it as their textbook. Get your copy in PDF format or in paperback from Amazon.- Make sure to stay connected in 2018 via RSS, Twitter, and/or Facebook for more woodwind stuff.
Thanks for reading, commenting, sharing, and otherwise connecting in 2017. See you next year!
- The top new posts in terms of traffic and social sharing were:
Congrats Bret! What an accomplishment! Had I stayed with a music as a career I would have received my DMA about 20-25 years ago. Best wishes on the job hunt. And please keep your website going. It’s a great resource.