Favorite blog posts, February 2023
- Trent Jacobs, bassoonist: Ruminations on cane selection and density testing, Ruminations on cane density, part 2, Cane density post #3
- DoctorFlute (Angela McBrearty): Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes
Similar Posts
Favorite blog posts, December 2019
- bassoon blog (Betsy Sturdevant): The art of bassoon maintenance
- Just Flutes Blog (Adam Clifford): CITES Regulations of Wooden Instruments – Update
- Steve Neff Music Blog: Buyer Beware! Counterfeit Vintage Saxophone Mouthpieces Galore
- oboeinsight (Patty Mitchell): A Very Good Reminder
Favorite blog posts, April 2016
- Saxophonist Steve Neff shares a Joe Allard overtone exercise. (Read the comments section, too.)
- Clarinetist Diana Haskell shares some results of asking colleagues what are the most important things about orchestral playing.
- Helen Bledsoe shares some flute intonation exercises (could be adapted to other instruments).
- Clarinetist Jenny Maclay offers advice on dealing with the mental baggage of being a musician. (Reminder: blog posts are not a substitute for professional counseling.)
- Woodwind doubler Kelsey Mire makes a case for fair pay for doublers.
- Saxophonist Bill Plake digs into reasons inefficient practice techniques get perpetuated.
- Bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson answers questions about gender in the classical music world.
- Oboist Jennet Ingle seeks balance between expression and technique.
- Woodwind doubler David Freeman shares a funny pit experience. There are possibly teachable moments there if you care to draw them out.
- Cate Hummel discusses solutions to third-octave problems, as well as when to introduce dynamics and vibrato to students.
Favorite blog posts, October 2014
Lots of very fine woodwind-related blog posts this month.
- Barry Stees exposes a common bassoon technique weakness (even for players at the highest level) and begins to explore solutions (promising more to come).
- Oboist Susan Laney Spector explains some of the difficulties musicians face in the highly-competitive world of orchestral auditions.
- Jennet Ingle has a breakthrough with an oboe student just by teaching some vocabulary.
- Saxophonist Bob Reynolds does some YouTube archaeology and shows the difference a couple of decades can make in musical maturity, even for a very accomplished player.
- Anna Norris and Nicolasa Kuster each share their experiences auditioning for the Chicago Symphony principal bassoon vacancy.
- Cate Hummel advises against the “kiss and roll” method of teaching flute.
- Oboist Patty Mitchell comments on practicing quantity vs. quality.
- Jennifer Cluff shares a methodical flute warmup.
- Flutist Katherine Emeneth shares a roundup of tips for “potent practicing.”
- Saxophonist Bill Plake explains how to approach technique a little less, well, technically.
- David Pierce rounds up some editions and recordings of the Mozart bassoon concerto.
- “The Phantom Clarinet” at the Adventures in Woodwindland blog explores the extended low register of the bassoon [update: link dead].
- Saxophonist Ben Britton reviews a new weird gadget that, to my surprise, seems to be getting a number of positive reviews. (I haven’t tried it.)
- On Powell Flutes’s Flute Builder blog: how a wooden headjoint is cut.
Favorite blog posts, March 2021
- Just Flutes Blog (Chris Hankin): International Women’s Day – Fabulous Works by Female Composers
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): 101 Clarinet Compositions Written by Women Composers
- joanmf.com (Joan Martí-Frasquier, saxophone): Women Composers
- Jennet Ingle | Oboist: The Magic of a PLAN
- The Theisen Journal – Alan Theisen, musician (saxophone): Issue No. 22: Kill Your Teacher
- Practice Monster (David Pope, saxophone): The Greatest Saxophonists in the World – and how the very idea is harming us
- Just Flutes Blog (Roderick Seed): “Can you play it in one breath?”
- International Clarinet Association (Barbara Heilmair): Collaboration with Boehm and Oehler Clarinets
Favorite blog posts, June 2025
- Tammy Evans, flutist: Flute Dynamics: Quiet High Notes and Loud Low Notes
- earspasm – read. (Michael Lowenstern, bass clarinet): Classifying the Bore Designs of Pro Clarinets: The good, the bad and the broken.
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): Is your clarinet thumb rest in the optimal position?
- Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever. (Tracy Heavner): How to Select Saxophone Reeds
- The Flute Examiner (Keith Hanlon): Piccolo Lessons – Teaching Woodwind Doublers
- Musings from a Saxophonist… (Ellery Eskelin): Gear & Promo
- Dudukhouse – Dudukhouse Blog: Finally! No More Mental Math: Introducing Duduk Scale Explorer & Duduk Finder
Favorite blog posts, October 2023
Just one post to share this month:
- Nadina Mackie (bassoon): PLAYING BY HEART – memorizing bassoon concerti