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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  • Using “borrowed” fingerings in EWI mode

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    The Akai EWI series’ “EWI” fingering mode is powerful and flexible. It bears a resemblance to basic saxophone fingerings (while wisely eschewing saxophoney compromises like rollers and palm keys). But with a little imagination EWI players can “borrow” a number of useful fingerings from other woodwinds, too.

    For clarity, I’m considering any fingering that appears in the EWI 4000s’s Reference Manual under “EWI Fingerings” as a basic, non-borrowed fingering. Some of the fingerings I’m listing do appear in the manual for other fingering modes (saxophone, flute, and oboe). Some of the fingerings aren’t great-sounding fingerings on the “real” (non-electric) woodwind instruments, but work beautifully on the EWI, which of course isn’t subject to the acoustical problems of air-filled tubes.

    And of course these fingerings work in any octave, which is not always the case with “real” woodwinds. I have arranged them octave-wise here in ways that will mostly look familiar to woodwind players.

    Right C-sharp
    Borrowed from: oboe, clarinet
    Provides a useful alternative in left-hand-pinky-heavy passages.

    Left E-flat
    Borrowed from: oboe, some clarinets
    In the example, prevents having to “jump” the right pinky from one key, over another, to another.

    Side F-sharp
    Borrowed from: saxophone, clarinet
    Similar to using the saxophone’s side F-sharp key or clarinet’s side F-sharp(/B-natural) key (shown here in the wrong octave for clarinet), except using the right pinky rather than the ring finger. Useful for avoiding the right index-middle flip-flop.

    Right G-sharp
    Borrowed from: oboe
    Provides a useful alternative in left-hand-pinky-heavy passages.

    1+1 B-flat
    Borrowed from: flute, saxophone, clarinet
    Similar to a standard flute fingering, or to a problematic saxophone or clarinet alternate fingering (shown here in the wrong octave for clarinet). Of course on the EWI there are no pitch, timbre, or response issues with this (or any) fingering.

    1+2 B-flat
    Borrowed from: saxophone
    A slightly lesser-known alternate fingering for saxophone (which, on saxophones, often sounds better than 1+1). Useful for transitions such as F-sharp to B-flat.

    Right B
    Borrowed from: clarinet
    Similar to the sensation of using the clarinet’s right B(/E) key, but in this case you must use the right pinky to press two keys at once. In the example, this allows you to keep the movement in one hand, rather than having to coordinate both pinkies.

    Side C
    Borrowed from: saxophone
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    These fingerings of course only scratch the surface of what’s possible with the EWI-mode fingering system. But because of their familiarity and time-tested usefulness to players of “real” woodwinds, they can be adapted easily and fruitfully to EWI playing.

  • Tonguing and language sounds

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    Be wary of pedagogical approaches to woodwind articulation that depend on analogies to speech sounds.

    The most common, at least in the English-speaking world, is the idea that tonguing is like saying “too” or “doo.” And certainly there are significant mechanical similarities, especially with “too.” “Doo” doesn’t work as well because it is a voiced consonant, produced essentially the same way as “too” but with vibration of the vocal cords, an undesirable effect for woodwind playing (except for some extended techniques).

    Some teachers recommend something like “too” for crisper articulations and “doo” for gentler ones. If you compare carefully your whispered (unvoiced) “t” and “d” sounds, you may find that they are not, in fact, completely identical. My “t” gives a bit more explosive sound, because I release the entire tongue, and my “d” is softer because I tend to release only the tip of the tongue, keeping the back in contact with my molars. But this difference doesn’t apply to good woodwind playing technique, in which the back of the tongue must be kept independent from the tip in order to manipulate voicing.

    “Loo” is another one that gets mentioned sometimes for gentler articulations. This one also doesn’t work well if taken literally because (1) the “l” sound is voiced and (2) it leaks air around the sides of the tongue. (You can approximate an unvoiced version by whispering “lll…,” but that sound isn’t typically used in English.) A woodwind book I read recently recommends some additional oddities like “droo” or “thoo.” “Droo” doesn’t work well because it has a sequence of two consonant tongue positions, one of which is voiced. “Thoo” (presumably the unvoiced version) leaks air near the tip of the tongue.

    Another point worth making is that consonant sounds in English aren’t necessarily the same as consonants in other languages, so even if we select some workable English consonant sounds, it’s not a given that those are the ideal choices. (Plenty of study has already been done on this topic.)

    And that’s just the consonants. Assuming they are used as a shorthand for describing articulations, with an understanding that they do not precisely represent articulation technique, vowel sounds can still cause confusion. Consider the “oo” in “too.” Vowel sounds are loosely analogous to woodwind voicings, so it is best to match the vowels to the instrument. Is “oo” the right voicing to evoke?

    For low-voiced instruments, an “oh”- or “ah”-like vowel sound is a better match. (“Oh” is still problematic because English speakers pronounce it as a diphthong, two vowel sounds in sequence—this will cause unstable pitch and tone when applied to a woodwind instrument. To avoid this, we must borrow an “o” sound from another language.) For the clarinet, “ee” is the closest match. For saxophones, the vowel sound needs to be somewhere in between, perhaps near the schwa (ə) sound like the “a” in “about.”

    Language sounds can be used only as a very limited analogy for woodwind articulation technique—use them with care.

  • Sam Newsome on not doubling

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    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.]
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      • 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.
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      • 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)
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      • 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.
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      • 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.

  • How to do long tones (and why)

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    Long tones are at the core of most woodwind warmup routines. The most simple and obvious version is this:

    Long tone whole note with a fermata.

    Simple sustained notes are good for developing consistent breath support, which is required to keep the long tone steady in pitch, volume, and tone color. (Some teachers also suggest them for developing “embouchure strength,” one of the harmful and pervasive myths of woodwind playing.)

    Many players and teachers recommend a version more like this:

    Long tone whole note with a fermata, and with a crescendo and decrescendo.

    This is a worthwhile improvement, as dynamic change requires a flexible and relatively relaxed embouchure on top of steady breath support. Exercises like the Herzberg long tones use this concept.

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    Long tone with three tied whole notes. The first crescendos from niente to fortississimo. The third decrescendos to niente. There is a tempo marking of quarter note = 60.

    The first thing to notice is the addition of extreme dynamic markings, from niente (“nothing,” essentially zero volume) to fff (which should be understood here as maximum controlled volume). Achieving a note that starts from 0%, crescendos smoothly and evenly to 100%, and then back to 0%, is much more specific and demanding than just a general “get louder, then softer.” It requires powerful breath support that starts before the note sounds and continues until after it ends, as well as a tuned-in voicing and well-functioning equipment. (And it can serve as a diagnostic to find issues in these areas.) Exercises like the David Weber chromatic exercises use this approach. (At the link, scroll down to “Longtone 1.”

    Less-advanced players should start and end as softly as possible and work toward a true niente. Players at all levels should take the opportunity to discover and then improve their loudest dynamic level.

    The second thing to notice is the addition of a tempo marking. This demands that the dynamic changes happen within a specific timeline, as of course they do in real-world music. Faster or slower tempos than the one marked here may be used; each presents its own challenges.

    A very thorough long tone warmup might involve playing these on every note within the instrument’s range. Each will have slightly (or severely!) different demands. For a more practical approach, consider a rotation: on day one, do these on the instrument’s lowest note, and the note a fifth above that (or some other interval), a fifth above that, and so forth. The next day, start on the second-lowest note, and the next day the note above that, and so forth.

    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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