Eight live microphone tips for woodwind players

ByBret Pimentel

If you are a classically-trained woodwind player, playing into a microphone might be a new experience for you.

A rock band that I play in (flute and saxophone) does a lot of shows in small clubs and bars, and the sound guy (or girl—I’m using “sound guy” from here on out, with gender-neutral intent) is usually used to miking vocals, guitar amps, and drum sets, and may or may not know what to do with a woodwind instrument. I can often help things along, and make sure the band and I sound our best, by coming armed with a small amount of knowledge.

Here are some basic tips for looking and sounding like you know what you’re doing. I’m assuming here that you’re not doing anything fancy gear-wise (there are plenty of options if you want to buy a clip-on mic), just showing up with your instrument and using the venue’s basic sound equipment.

  1. Hopefully this one goes without saying, but be nice to the sound guy. Running audio equipment for a live performance is a thankless job—if everything goes well, the sound guy goes completely unnoticed, but if anything goes wrong, he takes the blame. A cooperative and grateful attitude from you will be appreciated, and may help make sure you get the assistance you need to sound your best over the PA system.
  2. Basic microphones work great for woodwinds. If your venue is well-supplied and your sound guy is well-qualified, there might be some additional possibilities to explore. But the warhorse Shure 57 and 58 microphones that are staples of virtually every live venue are very reliable options.
  3. Know where to point the microphone. The problem that non-woodwind players may not be aware of is that the sound isn’t emitted from any one point, the way it is from the bell of a trumpet. Every tonehole on a woodwind is a potential sound source, so you either need a whole lot of microphones or a good mic placement compromise.
    • For flute, aim the mic at the embouchure hole. Raise the microphone up too high, then angle it down—this makes sure you’re not blowing into the mic itself.
    • For straight reed instruments like oboe, clarinet, or soprano saxophone, aim at approximately your left hand or a little below. This works pretty well for bass clarinet, too.
    • For alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, you can aim the microphone down into the bell, or just a little higher. Remember that most of the sound doesn’t come out of the bell, but that mic placement happens to catch the instrument at about the left-hand-or-below spot that works well for the straight instruments. Be aware of your low notes, which may suddenly blare into the mic. Some players use this as an effect, and some like to lean away from the mic a little to avoid it.
    • For bassoon, I often see a microphone suspended above the bell, but personally I usually bring the mic a little lower, a few inches closer to the center of the instrument. There are toneholes all along the length of that thing, and in situations where a bassoon is going to be miked, it’s probably not playing those lowest bell notes much.
  4. Play into the microphone. Get up good and close, like within an inch of it. If you usually tend to move around a lot when you play, don’t. Keep track of your proximity to the microphone throughout the performance to make sure you haven’t drifted away. If at any point in the performance you get too loud, the sound guy can turn your volume down, but if you get too far from the microphone, he can’t turn you up. Staying close to the mic makes sure the sound guy has plenty of your sound to work with. And it’s perfectly okay to adjust the microphone stand so that you are comfortable.
  5. Make sure that you can hear yourself well in a monitor. (Those are usually wedge-shaped speakers at your feet.) What you and the sound guy might not realize until it’s too late is that you need the same kind of monitoring that a vocalist needs in order to hear what you’re playing, especially if you’re working with electric guitars and drumsets. If you can’t hear yourself, it will be hard tell whether you’re in tune. With something like flute, if I don’t have a good monitor, sometimes I can’t even be 100% sure that I’m making a sound at all.
  6. At the sound check, when it’s your turn to play into the microphone so the sound guy can adjust some things at the sound board, don’t be shy. Play as high and as low as you’re going to play during the show. Play at your “normal” volume, but also do some very loud playing. The sound guy needs to know what to expect out of your instrument.
  7. Be forewarned that this could be a lot louder than your usual playing situations. You can get inexpensive musicians’ earplugs—I use these—that lower the overall volume of the sound around you. Other kinds of earplugs may filter sound unevenly; often you lose more of the high frequencies. Musicians’ earplugs are designed to let you hear everything in balance while protecting your ears. One thing to consider is that these do create the occlusion effect, like closing an ear with your finger while playing so you can hear yourself better. This can be an advantage or disadvantage, depending on what makes you comfortable. The way to avoid the occlusion effect is to spend some extra money and have an ear doctor take deep ear molds so you can have custom in-ear plugs made.
  8. Hopefully this is another no-brainer, although it can be a pitfall if you’re not used to microphones: be aware that the microphone is on. If you make a comment to the musician next to you, will the entire room hear it? Even if the curtain is closed, the audio may be live!

Good luck!

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  • Q&A: Voicing

    ByBret Pimentel

    Here are some of the questions readers sent me in celebration of this blog’s 10-year anniversary. I have edited, combined, and otherwise adapted some of them but hopefully there are answers here for those of you who were kind enough to inquire.

    What are your thought on voicings on the various extensions of the big five? I find I get optimal results on flute with low voicing, but on piccolo I use something more similar to high register alto sax.

    I tend to be generally consistent within instrument families: low voicing for flute, so also low voicing for piccolo, alto flute, etc. High voicing for clarinet, so also high voicing for bass clarinet. Saxophones are a little different because they require a “middle” voicing, and I do think it’s worthwhile to target each member of the saxophone family precisely. The easiest way to do that is with mouthpiece pitch: a baritone mouthpiece should sound a concert D (a ninth above middle C on the piano), a tenor mouthpiece sounds a G, alto an A, and soprano a C.

    I recently purchased a pennywhistle and I’m really enjoying it so far. I was wondering if there’s any specific kind of voicing associated with that kind of instrument. It feels easy to play the lower octave, but going up higher than the fourth or fifth in the second octave is really difficult without absolutely blasting.

    For fipple flutes like recorders and pennywhistles (also known as tinwhistles or “Irish” whistles), I recommend a very low voicing, the same as for concert flute or double reeds. Recorders have a thumb hole that serves (sometimes) as a register vent, which tames the upper registers somewhat. Pennywhistles don’t have that—the only way to get to the upper register is to overblow. With some practice and finesse the registers can be balanced somewhat, but with fipple flutes don’t expect nearly the level of dynamic control that you have on a concert flute or modern reed instrument. Bear in mind, too, that fipple flutes generally take much less air than a band/orchestra woodwind.

    Some nice handmade pennywhistles are designed to improve the register imbalance issue. (Narrower-bore whistles in particular tend toward a sweeter, softer upper register, but a weaker lower register.) But many professional whistle players prefer the more “authentic” sound of inexpensive whistles, and might try out quite a few to find one that plays well enough.

    Thanks for your questions! Voicing is a little-understood, little-taught aspect of woodwind playing.

    More 10-year anniversary Q&A

  • Experiments with electric woodwinds

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    I’ve been having fun with woodwinds enhanced with pickups or microphones. (If you’re interested in natively-electronic instruments like wind controllers, I’ve written about those elsewhere.)

    I still have a lot to learn about working with electronics. But here are a few observations in case anyone finds them helpful.

    Which instrument(s) to use? I find lower-pitched instruments to be more fun, since they can provide convincing bass lines. Electronics can pitch a high instrument down, of course, but I haven’t had the success I would like making this sound good. So far I’ve installed pickups into a bassoon bocal, a bass clarinet neck, and an English horn bocal. I’ve used microphones for other instruments.

    Which gadgets to use? I’m personally using the Little-Jake pickups, a looper, and a multi-effects unit. When I started getting into effects pedals, I found it alarmingly easy to accumulate quite a few. This was a good and inexpensive way to get started. But I quickly discovered that it was becoming unwieldy to try use use more than a few in performance (I literally had to walk back and forth across the stage to get to them all). A multi-effects unit turned out to be much more practical, with a few foot switches I can configure to operate a large number of effects. (I’m currently using one by Boss.) It takes a little more advance setup than individual pedals, but greatly simplifies the onstage footwork. And I was pretty easily able to sell off the individual pedals to fund the purchase.

    Which effects to use? I think the best-known guitar-type effects are distortion, delay/echo, and reverb. Those are fun to play with, but I’ve become more interested in ones I can use to give my instruments new capabilities, rather than just give their sounds a little grittiness or echo. For example, smart harmonizers (which add harmony lines based on a selected key) and pitch shifters (which add harmony lines based on selected intervals) make my instruments polyphonic, a significant upgrade for a woodwind player. And a looper, or even a cleverly-used delay, can create counterpoint.

    Here are a few examples of my experiments:

    There are eight audio tracks here, but each one is performed “live.” I’m trying to somewhat replicate sounds from the original song: two vocal parts, two guitars, piano, electric piano, and electric bass, plus various synthesizer lines that I’ve consolidated into one. I’m using harmonizers and pitch shifters on the “guitars” and “keyboards” to perform chords in real time. I’m also pitch shifting the “bass” to let the English horn play much lower than its natural range.

    I’m using a harmonizer here similarly to how I used it in the English horn video, but you can get a better view of what that involves footwork-wise. I’m using several carefully-programmed footswitches to change the harmonizer’s parameters as I go, in order to get the chromatic harmony that I want. On the A sections of the tune, I’m also using a pitch shifter to double the melody up an octave. The separate bass part that starts at about 0:28 uses pitch shift to drop the sound down an octave.

    This is an example of using a looper (the red unit) to layer multiple lines, while using the multi-effects unit (black) to do real-time harmony and some other things. The “bass” part, shifted down two octaves, isn’t as convincing as I would like (you may have to use earphones to hear it).

    Here’s a live-performance example using looper plus multi-effects unit.

    Here I’m using the multi-effects unit to perform the melody “call” and harmonized “response” (unfortunately distorted and too soft), and using the looper to provide backing for an improvised solo.

    Here’s an attempt to replicate one of Paul Hanson’s incredible electric bassoon “hocket” performances (I fell a bit short). The technique uses a delay to create a single well-timed echo, with the result being that I’m only playing every other note you hear; the in-between notes are echoes of previously-played ones. To get the full effect, check out Paul’s video.

    This one you can actually buy sheet music for; the arranger, Melissa Keeling, provides parameters for using a harmonizer and a delay (which could be separate pedals or functions of a multi-effects unit).

  • Concept-based woodwind methods

    ByBret Pimentel

    If you are teaching a woodwind methods course, you might be interested in my book.

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    Most college students studying instrumental music education have to take a woodwind “methods” course, a sort of crash course in teaching the woodwind instruments. I have taught woodwind methods classes for about the past ten years.

    A typical approach is to divide the semester into instrument-based units: x weeks studying the flute, x weeks studying the oboe, etc. I’ve taught woodwind methods that way, and it’s tough to get through all the material. How can you realistically cover the pedagogy of five instrument families in one semester? (Some schools offer this scant improvement: two semesters.)

    photo, Kerr Photography

    One big reason that woodwind methods teachers get stuck in the one-instrument-at-a-time paradigm is that existing textbooks, syllabi, etc. treat the woodwinds as being hopelessly different from each other. While the woodwinds are more diverse than the brasses or bowed strings (though perhaps not the percussion), the techniques of playing them are not as unrelated as many seem to believe.

    A symptom of this misunderstanding is the woodwind-methods-by-committee approach, in which a textbook has chapters written by five different authors, or in which a course is taught by a rotating cast of woodwind professors. This invariably leads to holes in the curriculum, confusion over vocabulary, and contradictory ideas.

    I have much, much better success when I focus on the basic concepts underlying good woodwind playing. My course addresses audible aspects of how woodwinds sound (tone, response, intonation, volume/dynamics, fluency), and connects them to elements of playing technique (posture/position, breathing and breath support, voicing, embouchure, tuning, articulation, finger movement, and selection from among alternate fingerings). When my students are conversant in those concepts, it’s almost trivial to apply them to a diverse group of instruments: “the clarinet uses a very high voicing, but the flute uses a very low voicing.”

    That’s still a lot to cover in a semester, but I actually find that I can get through the material efficiently enough to leave some days open for review, Q&A, or special/requested topics. And, more importantly, my students absorb widely-applicable concepts rather than trying to memorize seemingly unrelated factoids about seemingly unrelated instruments.

    This is a valuable approach for woodwind doublers, too, who have to parse out the differences in the instruments but also the differences in culture and tradition that have developed around those instruments and their pedagogy. Understanding the underlying concepts helps to make sense of the sometimes very different approaches to the same problems.

    Warning: commercial-ish plug

    I’ve hinted on the blog a few times about my upcoming book, based on materials I have developed for my woodwind methods courses. It clearly and concisely covers the most crucial concepts in woodwind playing. Since I usually teach a mixed-instrument class I pair it with a band method (such as Essential Elements or Accent on Achievement) for hands-on playing activities, but it would work just as well paired with an individual method (such as the Rubank series) if you have the luxury of a full class set of each instrument.

    I’m hoping to get the book launched before 2017 slips away. If you like, you can join a mailing list to be notified if when it becomes available. Update: the book is now available!

  • Woodwind doubling for flutists

    ByBret Pimentel

    Here is a cleaned-up version of my lecture notes from a presentation on woodwind doubling I gave last week at the Mid-South Flute Festival:

    Woodwind doubling for flutists

    • What is doubling?
      • Primary-to-secondary doubling: Playing multiple instruments within a family, such as flute (primary), piccolo (secondary), and alto flute (secondary)
      • Primary-to-primary doubling: Playing instruments from different families, such as flute (primary), clarinet (primary), and saxophone (primary) [The idea of primary-to-secondary or primary-to-primary doubling comes from a web article by Mary AllyeB Purtle.]
    • Why double?
      • More (and more varied) gigs. Also, doublers can sometimes get bonus pay.
      • More teaching opportunities
      • Larger network
      • Fun; expanded horizons
    • Flute with non-flute woodwinds
      • Doubling opportunities in musical theater, backing up singers, jazz big bands (requires strong saxophone). With strong enough skills on secondary instruments, gigs on those instruments become a possibility. Employers often value musicianship over virtuosity.
      • The flutist’s advantage: flute and especially piccolo are often weak spots for woodwind doublers. A strong, soloistic flutist with at least basic reed skills can be a hot commodity.
      • For maximum pre-existing gig opportunities, add alto saxophone first, then clarinet. Convincing swing style is also helpful. For create-your-own opportunities, any combination can work!
      • To do multiple-instrument teaching really well, you need to play all of your teaching instruments well! To do this at a lower level, you will at least need to be familiar with current/respected pedagogical literature, a variety of repertoire (including method books, etudes, and solos), a variety of excellent recordings, and a variety of equipment options.
    • Flute with other flute-like instruments
      • Doubling opportunities in situations that increasingly call for “other” flutes: recent musical theater, studio recording, even recent orchestral music. Check out my dissertation on this topic.
      • “World” transverse flutes: bansuri, dizi, “Irish” flute. Also non-tradition-linked bamboo, wooden, or plastic flutes
      • Historical transverse flutes (baroque, etc.)
      • Fipple flutes: recorders, pennywhistle (tinwhistle)
      • Endblown flutes: quena, shakuhachi, panflutes (Romanian, South American)
    • Getting started
      • Be a beginner (but an informed beginner). Get a good teacher. Buy quality instruments within your price range. Do thorough work from good method books. Give yourself all the advantages you wish you had had when you started the flute.
      • Work out a practice schedule that reflects your priorities. If you are juggling a lot of instruments, it may not make sense to practice each one each day, but do practice each one at least a few days in a row to get some momentum.
      • What to practice? If your goal is maximum gig employability, prioritize intonation, rhythm, tone, and sight reading. Practice scales, arpeggios, and other technical drills in all keys, through the full range of the instrument. (Musicals are notorious for “singer” keys and unforgiving tessituras!) Begin working methodically through time-tested etude and technique books. Start learning the easier standard repertoire if that suits your goals.
    • Will doubling hurt my flute playing?
      • Some flutists believe that doubling can damage your embouchure. Realistically, if reed playing is leaving your embouchure swollen, numb, or sore, you need to reexamine your reed-playing approach. Embouchure muscles are agile, flexible, and accustomed to doing varied tasks: playing the flute, eating, speaking, facial expressions. If your tone production on all instruments is based on solid principles, embouchure is not an issue.
      • The real issue: doubling diverts time, money, and mental energy away from flute playing. Committing to “serious” doubling means committing to less time with the flute.

  • DRQOD: Ghandarvas and powdered wigs

    ByBret Pimentel

    I always enjoy Patty Mitchell’s “BQOD” (Blog Quotes Of the Day) over at oboeinsight. I’m in the thick of dissertation writing these days (technically, it’s “doctoral document” writing, since I’m working on a DMA, not a PhD), and this morning I ran across a couple of items that won’t make it into the finished product but are too fun to keep to myself. And so I present my Dissertation/Document Research Quotes Of the Day: Read More “DRQOD: Ghandarvas and powdered wigs”

  • Please stop telling your clarinet students to tighten their embouchures

    ByBret Pimentel

    “Tighten your embouchure” is bad advice for young clarinetists.

    That goes for young saxophonists, too, and really for any young woodwind players. But young clarinetists hear it often because their pitch is flat and their tone lacks focus. “Tighten your embouchure” gets thrown around as a fix-all, except it doesn’t fix all. It doesn’t fix anything. Unless your students are actually leaking air around the mouthpiece from utter slack-jawedness. In that case, they should tighten, but only a little.

    The real issue isn’t embouchure, it’s voicing. Good clarinet playing requires a high voicing. (The opposite of almost every other instrument in the beginning band.) That’s why your clarinet section is flat and tubby-sounding. Tell them to blow ice-cold air, which fixes the voicing problem. Train them to back it up with powerful breath support. Let them relax their embouchures—not tight, just airtight. And enjoy the clear, full, ringing, and in-tune sounds!

    photo, Melody Joy Kramer
    photo, Melody Joy Kramer

4 Comments

    1. Hi Bruce,

      Certainly most of this applies to brass instruments as well. I expect the biggest differences might be in microphone placement and proximity, since brass instruments are much more directional than woodwinds (the sound radiates from the bell, rather than from toneholes all over the instrument).

      Reply

  2. Any hints on amplifying a woodwind trio (flute, clarinet, bassoon)?

    Would a single cardiod omni work? If so what would be the optimum position?

    Are separate mikes the way to go. Separate pickups?

    We’d be mixing ourselves. I’m really trying to get some infomed advice before spending any money. Many thanks for any words of wisdom you may have.

    Reply

  3. Geoff,

    One good mic can be positioned to pick up a trio; however, the amount of gain before feedback will be less than micing instruments individually.

    If the only thing being mic’d is these three instruments then I personally would try one mic first. Positioning is important. The mic will need to be where all three instruments are blended the way you like. A good condensor cardioid instrument mic works best. I like the Audix Microbooms which are small in profile, or a small pencil mic like Rode NT5. A Shure SM57 would work however you’ll get better performance out of a condensor mic.

    The right mic in the right position can amplify a set of instruments like this naturally (where you don’t notice that the instruments are mic’d… they are just louder).

    The advantage of a mic on each instrument is typically a richer tone, ability to adjust each instrument separately and the ability to make everything overall louder. The downside is someone needs to keep on top of the mix (or use some light compression) and more gear (cables, mics, stands).

    I tend to mic instruments individually if drums, guitar amplifiers, and other loud instruments (brass) are used.

    If money isn’t an issue, DPA makes an instrument mic, 4099, that comes with several different instrument attachments options. We currently have one for a violin and it is really awesome. Audix makes a nice mic you can attach to a flute, ADX10FLP.

    PS. Cardioid is one mic pattern; Omni is another. Omni is great if you sit in a circle; however, you won’t get as much gain before feedback. Cardioid is great if you are positioned more in a line/semi circle. Speaker positioning in relation to your mic position will also dramatically impact the amount of gain before feedback you’ll get.

    Reply

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