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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  • Confidence and air

    ByBret Pimentel

    Working with some woodwind students recently on their upcoming performances, I have been asking them to play with more confidence. Often they have practiced well enough, but play timidly in lessons or rehearsals, and I worry that the same will happen on stage.

    When I ask them to play more confidently, they don’t always seem ready to rise to the challenge. But I’ve worked out a useful equation that helps them get on the right track:

    confidence = air

    Confidence can seem difficult to muster, but air is free. When I point out the equivalence and ask them to just play with more air, they play better and discover the confidence they need.

    When you are playing and feel your confidence start to waver, don’t worry—you have a whole room full of confidence ready for you to breathe it in.

  • Clarinet and saxophone embouchures and the “chin”

    ByBret Pimentel

    The chin is much-discussed in clarinet pedagogy. Keith Stein suggests a “stretching” of the chin, making it feel “long and pointed” and “rather hard.” David Pino, a student of Stein’s, echoes this. Jane Ellsworth describes a chin that is “drawn downward” (while the jaw provides a “controlled” “upward pressure.” Michele Gingras advocates a “flat” chin. Bil Jackson indicates that the chin “flattens naturally” when the lip configuration and voicing are correct. Tom Ridenour explains that the chin should be “down and flat” and that this happens “virtually automatically” as a result of proper voicing.

    The chin gets somewhat less attention in saxophone teaching, but some pedagogical examples can be found. Larry Teal indicates that the “chin muscles” should support the lower lip (as the jaw drops downward), and Timothy McAllister agrees. Tracy Heavner recommends that the chin muscles be “held flat against the chin” with a sensation of those muscles “pushing … down and away from the body.” Brian Utley advocates a “firm but relaxed [chin] position.”

    Most of these sources seem to generally agree that the “chin” (or something) must be flattened or stretched or firmed in some way. Let’s look more closely at exactly what is being described, and how it does or doesn’t differ from the clarinet to the saxophone.

    “Chin” is probably not a specific enough term for our purposes. Is it a bony structure? a muscular one? The pedagogical literature is rather unclear and contradictory about exactly how the “chin” moves, and even whether it is actively engaged or whether its movement is a result of some other thing moving.

    Additionally, there is a common misconception in single-reed teaching that the lower lip forms a “cushion,” without which the teeth would contact the reed. This creates an embouchure that is formed by pressure from the jaw, with the lips serving passively as a gasket, and the lower lip taking quite a bit of abuse from the lower teeth.

    A better way to form the embouchure is to bring the jaw (and teeth, and chin) down, away from the reed, and allow the muscles of the lips to form the embouchure. This moves the effort from the larger, stronger jaw muscles to the smaller but more supple muscles of the lips (of the citations above, Teal’s describes this the most clearly). For early beginners (or those who have played for many years with unnecessary jaw pressure and the resulting shredded lower lip) it may be necessary to gradually develop a little endurance in those muscles.

    Taking this approach, it becomes clear that the pointing/stretching/whatever, which is actually mostly jaw movement, must be more extreme for the clarinet than for the saxophone, to accommodate the clarinet’s steeper angle.

    Left: clarinet jaw position (more open). Right: saxophone jaw position (less open).
    Left: clarinet jaw position (more open). Right: saxophone jaw position (less open). Note that the lower teeth clear the reed; the lip will rise to meet the reed and form a muscle-based (rather than jaw/teeth-based) embouchure.

    However, the chin area does have muscles, too, and these play an additional role. The lower lip has an acoustical damping effect on the reed, which plays a role in response, tone quality, and volume. Pulling the muscles around the chin downward around its bony structure (this is independent of jaw movement!) firms the lip slightly, reducing the damping. Allowing the muscles to relax softens the lip, increasing the damping. To take an oversimplified view of one aspect of this, we could say generally that the smaller clarinet requires a slightly firmer lip (and thus less damping) to accommodate its higher frequencies (pitches), while the larger saxophone needs less firmness (more damping) to accommodate its lower ones. Note that firmness of the lower lip should not be confused with overall embouchure “tightness.”

    Understanding better the anatomical and acoustical aspects of the “chin” (and, of course, the skeletal and muscular systems that combine there) lead to clearer, more accurate teaching and better single reed playing.

  • |

    Practice slump checklist

    ByBret Pimentel

    Sometimes my students complain that they have had bad practicing days or weeks. Not that I have ever had this problem (ahem), but here are a few ideas for breaking out of a practicing slump.

    photo, Katy Wrathall
    photo, Katy Wrathall
    1. Check equipment. Slightly-malfunctioning gear can make you feel like a bad player. Be sure to eliminate this possibility.
      • Are your reeds functioning well? Prioritize response-balanced-with-stability over more subjective and malleable things like tone. Many reed players use unnecessarily stiff reeds; consider trying something a little softer if you haven’t lately.
      • Is your instrument functioning well? If you know how, check the most important adjustment screws (oboe: left hand stack, left G-sharp key, F resonance; saxophone: bis, G-sharp, right hand stack). Re-check basics like alignment of bridge keys. And, of course, make sure your instrument gets regular (at least annual) maintenance checkups. Professional instruments should probably get full mechanical overhauls every 5-10 years.
      • Are you using the best equipment for you? Don’t let new purchases be your go-to solution for every problem, but in some cases replacing an instrument or accessory can remove a roadblock to progress. (Do a reality-check with your teacher to make sure you aren’t just throwing away money chasing a quick fix.)
    2. Check technique. It might be you after all.
      • Have you warmed up thoroughly and correctly today? It’s best to do this at the beginning of your practice session, but there’s no rule that says you can’t warm up some more mid-session to double-check your tone production and reset your mental focus.
      • Have you reviewed all your fundamentals? Take a closer look at your posture, hand position, breath support, embouchure, voicing, finger movement, etc. Have you slipped back into a bad habit? Are you suffering the effects of a technique deficiency you know you should fix but haven’t gotten around to yet? If you don’t know how to fix it, check in with your teacher.
      • Can you release some tension? Frustration often goes hand-in-hand with tense muscles. Consider doing a little deep breathing, stretching, mindfulness practice, yoga, Alexander Technique, or whatever else puts your body back in balance.
      • Have you laid sufficient technical groundwork? If you are working on something especially difficult, is there something else you could practice as an intermediate step? Études, technical exercises, or other preparatory material can help bridge the gap between your current ability level and the ability level you need.
    3. Check your health. If your body isn’t responding well, your practice sessions will be difficult and unpleasant.
      • Have you been getting enough quality sleep? Implementing good sleep habits is a major upgrade to the function of your mind and body.
      • Are you eating balanced meals? Are you eating enough? Are you eating too much? Is your diet too low on good stuff and/or too high in bad stuff?
      • Are you getting outside for at least a few minutes of sunshine and “fresh” air? Sunshine is important to your body’s vitamin D level.
      • Are you stressed, or otherwise not at your best mentally? In some cases, professional counseling and/or treatment may be needed. If you are a college student, there is a good chance there are free, discreet counseling services available on your campus. In other cases, taking a break, getting a little exercise, talking something out with a friend or loved one, or just getting a change of scenery might be enough.
    4. Check your mindset.
      • Are you practicing mindlessly or without direction? Try making a short list of goals you would like to accomplish during this practice session. If you’re not sure where to start, make a quick recording (perhaps with the voice memo app on your smartphone) and listen to it to get some ideas about what needs improvement. If you don’t meet all your goals, you can tackle them again tomorrow or re-prioritize.
    5. Check your environment.
      • At what time of day are your practice sessions the most productive and pleasant? Do you practice best in the morning before your body is tired and your brain is full? Or do you get a second wind after the sun goes down?
      • What locations are most conducive to good practice sessions? Sometimes just changing the scenery can revitalize your focus and productivity. Practicing in places with different acoustical qualities can make you hear yourself in new ways and get your creative juices flowing.
      • What distractions are getting in your way? Can you reduce or remove them?
    6. Check your ego. Practicing should challenge you, but not overwhelm you.
      • Are you working on music that is inappropriately difficult for your current abilities? If you have some freedom to choose what you practice, consider working on something else for now and tackling this project later. If you are committed to a performance of something very difficult and have to make it work, be sure to include other things in your practice session that you can be successful at, to keep your motivation primed.

    Don’t let poor practice sessions bring you down—use them to refine your habits and make the next session your best yet.

  • Should I buy a “step-up” instrument?

    ByBret Pimentel

    Should you buy a “step-up” or “intermediate model” woodwind instrument? In most cases, I think the answer is no.

    For flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, or saxophone, I think the wisest course, if you can afford it, is usually to start with a high-quality, best-in-class student-model instrument. The advantages of this are:

    • Lower price range (though maybe in the upper part of that range)
    • High-quality student instruments are easier to play than low-quality ones, giving beginners an advantage and a positive experience
    • Quality student instruments can, in some cases, be used all the way through high school band
    • Quality student instruments retain their value better, so you may be able to recoup some of your investment if the instrument falls into disuse or you replace it with a more advanced model

    At some point, the option may be suggested, by an educator or a salesperson, to “step up” to an intermediate model. My experience with these is generally:

    • The price range is not much lower than professional-quality instruments
    • The quality not much better than good student instruments
    • Sometimes they have some cosmetic differences that make them seem more “professional” or luxurious but which do not give any real advantage to the player

    So, in most cases my advice is to skip the step-up instrument. Instead consider investing in some private lessons with a good teacher. These will bring much greater benefits.

    And if you intend to audition for college scholarships, participate in competitions, or otherwise play at a high level, the private teacher is a crucial resource when you are ready to buy a professional model. These are instruments suitable for the demands of college music programs and at least semi-professional playing situations. Because they are expensive, it’s worth choosing one very carefully, and a good teacher can help you figure out what you need, connect with a reputable dealer, and get the best price.

  • Keeping your fingers “close”

    ByBret Pimentel

    There’s a common idea with woodwind players and teachers that it’s important to keep your fingers close to the keys. Keeping the fingers within a certain reasonable distance does have benefits:

    • It’s easier to keep track of where the keys are and not “miss,” especially for beginners
    • Allowing the fingers to rise too far can introduce tension into the hands

    But I think finger-closeness is a concept that gets over-taught and over-stressed. It seems to be motivated by a desire for finger speed (or some euphemism like “fluidity”).

    Assuming the fingers are within a reasonable range, I think working toward extreme closeness probably doesn’t offer much if any speed increase, but does make tension more likely. It’s a micro-optimization only worth thinking about when you’ve solved every other problem with your technique, and even then your results may differ on whether it’s productive (or even counterproductive). Definitely don’t stress out your beginning students over it.

    Try this if you like: bring a finger down onto a key from, say, 1-2mm above the key (about the thickness of a couple of credit or ID cards). Then try from ten times that distance, 1-2 cm (the width of a fingernail or two). What do you notice about speed? How about tension?

    Keep the fingers close enough to stay in position and not bend backward, but don’t worry too much about dialing in extreme closeness.

  • What are registers?

    ByBret Pimentel

    “Registers” are a tricky concept in woodwind playing. Here’s how they work.

    For simplicity’s sake, let’s say I am playing a flute with a C footjoint. If I finger a low C, that closes all the instrument’s toneholes and produces a C4:

    Make your own woodwind fingering diagrams: fingering.bretpimentel.com

    As I work my way up the chromatic scale, I gradually open more and more of the flute’s holes. When I reach C-sharp 5, I run out of holes to open. (Using standard fingerings, that is.) To continue upward, the fingerings sort of restart—I close a bunch of toneholes again, fingering D5 in almost the same way I played D4. By the time I get to E5 I am using fingerings identical to the ones from an octave lower.

    I can play higher notes using the same fingerings I used for lower ones because I have moved into a higher register, which in this case is an octave above the lower register. On flute, I do this by changing something about my tone production; on reed instruments I get extra help from octave/register/”whisper” keys.

    If I continue my scale up to C-sharp 6, I run out of toneholes again, and move up to the third register, which is a fifth higher than the second. To play D6, I use a fingering that looks similar to G5, but sounds a fifth higher.

    So, for typical flute playing situations, we can consider the second register to begin at D5, and the third to begin at D6.

    But this doesn’t paint a complete picture in terms of the instrument’s acoustical properties. When the fingerings “start over” at D5, that’s not really starting over—I have left out the low C and C-sharp fingerings. And it turns out I can in fact play C5 and C-sharp 5 using those fingerings. The reason that flutists typically don’t is that the “standard” fingerings (with most of the toneholes opened) happen to work better for most situations, with regard to pitch, tone, and/or response. Likewise, when I reach C-sharp 5 and C-sharp 6, I haven’t completely run out of toneholes to open. If I open everything I have left (both trill keys, plus maybe the G-sharp key) I can get up to about D-sharp in either octave. But I usually don’t do that unless I have a special reason, because the standard fingerings are more usable.

    And starting the third register on D6 with an adapted “G” fingering raises this question again, but with an even larger gap. What about third-register notes using the fingerings from “low C” up to “F-sharp?” The answer is that those fingerings work, too (producing G up to C-sharp, an octave plus a fifth above the corresponding low-register fingerings). But, again, they aren’t as useful because of their pitch, tone, and response characteristics.

    So from an acoustical standpoint the first and second registers overlap in the C5-D-sharp 5 range, and the second and third overlap in the G5-D-sharp 6 range.

    When there’s overlap, there are fingering options available. The “standard” fingerings are the ones that have been chosen over the centuries by flutists as the ones best suited to most situations, but the others (sometimes called “overtone” fingerings or “harmonic” fingerings) can be used to good musical effect at times.

    The flute and most of the reed instruments follow the same pattern of registers: the second register is an octave above the first, and the third is a fifth above that. Additional registers above those are also used sometimes, spaced with increasingly small intervals. This series of intervals is a naturally-occurring phenomenon known as the harmonic series.

    The clarinet is an exception; due to its acoustical characteristics it uses only every other harmonic. This is why the clarinet doesn’t have an “octave” key, it has a “register” key that skips the octave register and goes straight to an octave plus a fifth.

    Understanding registers is helpful in navigating between them and in finding alternate fingerings for special situations. Happy practicing!

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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