Favorite blog posts, February 2016
Some woodwind blog posts I liked in February:
- Bassoonist Barry Stees shares an interesting idea about reed autopsies, plus a method for practicing the Rite of Spring solo.
- Oboist Patty Mitchell has some advice for students who think they have unfixable technique problems.
- Rachel Taylor Geier has some suggestions if you need more flute etudes to work on.
- Saxophonist Andy Austin discusses the role of passion in pursuing a musical career.
- Specific instrument brand/model recommendations should always be taken with a grain of salt, but woodwind doubler Josh Johnson discusses the importance of backup instruments, plus some of the issues involved with choosing instruments for situations where crack-proofness is important.
- Clarinetist Meri Dolevski-Lewis shares a process for developing sight-transposition skills [update: link dead].
- Flutist Jennifer Cluff offers some ideas on increasing success on the problematic high B.
- Jolene Harju plays the flute with her feet. (Okay, it’s really a post about having “a grounded, rooted connection between the feet and the floor.”)
- Gaenor Burchett-Vass discovers some favorite treasures of the English horn repertoire [update: link dead].
- Clarinetist Sandy Herrera seeks a new balance between a musical career and family life after having a baby. (Congratulations, Sandy!)
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: