Favorite blog posts, September 2022
- DoctorFlute (Angela McBrearty): How Not to Crack on Your Middle Register Notes
- Joffe Woodwinds: Orchestral Saxophone Recordings
- The Flute View (Chelsea Tanner): A Mindset Coach’s Perspective on Performance Anxiety
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Favorite blog posts, February 2024
- The Flute Examiner (Jessica Dunnavant): That’s What You Get for the Money
- Flute Journal (Riley Lee): Some Thoughts on the Music of Hildegard Played on the Shakuhachi
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): Stravinsky’s Secret 4th Piece for Solo Clarinet
- Saxophone Technique (Sarah Anne Wolkowski): Everybody Hurts
Favorite blog posts, August 2015
- Clarinetist Michael Dean examines some resources available for better-informed preparation of the Cyrille Rose “40” and “32” études.
- David Erato compiles some piccolo tips by some top working flutists and doublers (and also me).
- Saxophonist David Freeman shares some settings for the kinds of electronic filter sounds used by Michael Brecker and Jeff Coffin.
- Josh Johnson shares in exhaustive detail the flutes he tried out at the NFA conference. For gear junkies only.
- Heather Roche demonstrates some extended techniques specific to the “paperclip”-style contrabass clarinet.
- Saxophonist Bill Plake discusses some benefits of practicing with a drone.
- The unnamed mom at How About Oboe? gets her 10-year-old oboist to practice difficult things for just two minutes at a time.
- Cate Hummel brings things back to Earth about the flute and the so-called lip “teardrop.” (I also hinted at that topic in a recent post.)
Favorite blog posts, August 2018
- Michael Dean shares a bibliography of editions and resources for the Rose clarinet etudes.
- Alain Vlamynck makes some Baroque oboe reeds. (French language.)
- Flutist Douglas Worthen offers some tips on playing Berio’s Sequenza I.
Favorite blog posts, October 2023
Just one post to share this month:
- Nadina Mackie (bassoon): PLAYING BY HEART – memorizing bassoon concerti
Favorite blog posts, August 2025
Just one post to share this month:
- earspasm – read. (Michael Lowenstern, bass clarinet): Steve Williamson Can Play a 5. You Can’t.
Favorite blog posts, April 2014
- Bassoonist Barry Stees continues his in-depth and insightful series on interpretation, with installments on motive and harmony.
- Flutist Cindy Ellis offers ten piccolo tips.
- Oboist Christa Garvey shares a breathing exercise for quieting performance nerves.
- Saxophonist Ben Britton experiments with some improved altissimo fingerings. And of course I would be remiss not to mention his very attractive saxophone fingering diagrams.
- Woodwind doubler Steve Moffet considers practicing instrument switches.
- Heather Roche catalogs extended clarinet articulation techniques.
- Bassonist David Pierce offers six words to inspire performers.
- Anna Norris explores some issues with beginners and the bassoon.
- Oboist Jill Cathey plays her scales backwards.
- Contraforte-ist Kristopher King shares his reed dimensions for this intriguing instrument.
- Oboist Patty Mitchell asks a question worth considering about music students and immunizations.
- Clarinetist Michael Dean addresses a surprising connection between posture and embouchure.