Favorite blog posts, June 2024
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): Debunking Popular Clarinet Reed Myths
Similar Posts
Favorite blog posts, February 2025
- International Clarinet Association (Alexandra Doyle): Performance Anxiety: Not Just for Students
- the Operatic Saxophone (Mary Huntimer): Saxophone Mythbusters: Ibert’s Concertino da Camera is NOT Bebop
- Joan Martí-Frasquier (saxophone): Should I Change my Neck?
Favorite blog posts, August 2021
- EG-REEDS (Éric González, oboe): The importance of previous postural and respiratory work at the beginning of the study of woodwind instruments.
- Rachel Taylor Geier (flute): The Myth of the Magic Formula
- Bill Plake Music (saxophone): For This “Career Ending Condition”, There Is Hope
- The Flute Examiner (Kelly Wilson): Do You See What I See?
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): 10 Ways to Create More Musical Phrases
Favorite blog posts, September 2015
- Bassoonist William Short explains his method for evaluating reeds honestly.
- Cleonide, an interesting new blog on musical acoustics, offers some insight on response issues in the saxophone’s low register. (Somewhat technical/mathematical.)
- Ed Joffe pays tribute to Al Block, a distinguished woodwind doubler who passed away recently.
- Cate Hummel discusses a timeline for teaching flute dynamics. (I agree wholeheartedly about waiting to teach dynamics, for all woodwinds, but respectfully disagree about how dynamic changes are produced.) In another post, she discusses teaching students how to practice.
- Flutist Rena Urso-Trapani shares her experience with a recent orchestral audition, and offers some tips.
- Clarinetist Jenny Maclay offers some ways to improve your playing from outside the practice room.
- Jennet Ingle teaches a young oboist a new fingering. (Great minds think alike.)
Favorite blog posts, February 2015
I’m running a little behind, but here are some of my favorite woodwind blog posts from last month:
- Jean-Francois Charles provides a roundup of some interesting music using saxophone with electronics in various ways.
- Bassoonist William Short (of the Metropolitan Opera) focuses on fundamentals, but just for a few minutes.
- Saxophonist Sam Newsome discusses mouthpiece obsession.
- Cate Hummel shares a few thoughts on the flute’s low register.
- Patty Mitchell deals with oboe reeds and attitudes.
- Lynne Krayer-Luke of Flying Flutistas discusses inclusive attention in practicing and performance [update: link dead].
Favorite blog posts, October 2017
- The International Clarinet Association blog provides an introduction to Kornel Wolak’s research on clarinet articulation.
- Érik González shares five tips to improve the oboe reedmaking process.
- Saxophonist Andy Austin does postmortem on a disappointing performance.
- Clarinetist Denise Gainey shares a personal experience with anxiety and self-care.
- Saxophonist Bill Plake takes a deep dive on warming up.
- Bassoonist David Pierce reflects on 35 years of growth as a teacher [update: link dead].
- Jennifer Fraley shares some alternate fingerings for E-flat clarinet.
- Flutist Jennifer Cluff reveals a favorite resource for study of ornaments.
- Stephen Caplan examines the connection between oboe playing and some gastric phenomena.
Favorite blog posts, July 2015
- Patty Mitchell shares insights on oboe finger placement.
- Betsy Sturdevant gives a behind-the-scenes look at playing principal bassoon on Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony and Brahms’s 1st piano concerto.
- Sam Sadigursky explains why saxophonists should play the flute. (I would add to his list of reasons that the flute is a lovely instrument and playing it is a rewarding pursuit on its own merits.)
- Jennifer Cluff gives good down-to-earth advice for beginning flutists.
- The new The Clarinet: Online blog, the digital companion to the International Clarinet Association’s print journal, did some coverage of this year’s ClarinetFest® in Madrid, Spain. Here is day one.
- Christopher Jones shares detailed information about clarinet left hand position.
- The Adventures in Woodwindland blog examines the old question about “how many” instruments doublers play [update: link dead]. (Here’s my take from the early days of this blog.)