Masato Honda plays recorder

ByBret Pimentel

I’ve been practicing the Telemann recorder suite this summer, and I had been meaning to write a recorder-related post. I thought I might mention this video of Masato Honda, a Japanese woodwind doubler and fusion/smooth jazz artist, but Gandalfe at The Bis Key Chronicles beat me to the punch today with this post featuring another video, of Mr. Honda’s really nice saxophone playing.

Anyway, in the video below, Mr. Honda makes surprisingly effective use of not one but four recorders (in order of appearance: alto [or “treble”], sopranino, tenor, then sopranino again, alto, sopranino, and finally soprano [or “descant”]). The video is a little over ten minutes; if you’re the impatient type, make sure you at least catch the soprano segment at about 8:20 where he uses an electronic harmonizer. Pretty cool.

Here’s the video. A little additional commentary below.

A few gear observations. The recorders appear to be some of Yamaha’s plastic models, which are excellent instruments and quite inexpensive. They have a very pure sound, which works well for what Mr. Honda is doing, and which also works well for consort (recorder ensemble) playing. My current favorite high-end plastic recorders are by Aulos, and have a reedier, more complex sound that I like for Baroque solo playing. I’ve got a set of Aulos recorders sized from Garklein (smaller than sopranino) to bass; maybe someday I’ll decide I need a set of Yamahas, too.

I’d be curious to know more about his microphone setup. The headset mike plus another mike on a stand seem to work really well.

And the fishing line contraption is a slick idea, if visually a little silly. A while back a composer friend wrote me a solo piece using seven instruments, including several large ones. The logistics were a nightmare. Too bad I didn’t have the ingenuity (or strong enough fishing line!) to suspend them all.

A few technique observations. Mr. Honda’s playing on all his instruments is extremely polished, but I can’t help but recognize in his playing some of the recorder issues that I also struggle with: weak low notes, tenative high notes, chirpy articulation, awkwardness in chromatic passages. I’d like to think I’m a fairly strong recorder player (and so, certainly, is Mr. Honda), but it’s the subtle things that separate a jack-of-all-trades like me from a serious recorder specialist.

I think the reason the recorder sounds fairly natural in this context is because we’ve hear these kinds of pure, near-sine-wave sounds frequently in this kind of music, but usually played by synthesizers (Mr. Honda is a masterful EWI player, too).

Not much about Masato Honda on the web (yet), other than his Japanese-language website and lots of YouTubeage. This one is fun (you’ll recognize the tune if you watched the recorder video): he plays baritone saxophone and what appears to be most of a flute, suspended; he plays something else in this clip, too, but I’ll leave you in suspense. Suffice it to say that it’s a feat of doubling I haven’t felt the need to explore. Enjoy!

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  • Woodwind doubling for flutists

    ByBret Pimentel

    Here is a cleaned-up version of my lecture notes from a presentation on woodwind doubling I gave last week at the Mid-South Flute Festival:

    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.]
    • Why double?
      • 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.
    • Flute with other flute-like instruments
      • 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)
    • Getting started
      • 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.
    • Will doubling hurt my flute playing?
      • 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.

  • Woodwind trill technique

    ByBret Pimentel

    Ideally, a trill is done with one finger, and preferably a finger that is nimble and independent, like an index or middle finger:

    flute bassoon clarinet

    In many cases that isn’t possible. When two fingers (or more!) are needed, it’s best if they can be fingers of the same hand, moving in the same direction (moving down onto keys/holes simultaneously).

    flute clarinet saxophone

    If the most obvious trill fingering involves more than one finger, try moving them each individually and see if you can produce something that works. If the pitch of the trilled note isn’t quite right, many woodwind players lean toward a sharper upper note rather than a flatter one.

    There are good fingering charts available online and in print that offer possible trill fingerings for when common/standard/obvious fingerings don’t work. If you find you need to invent a fingering, a good starting point is to finger the lower note on your instrument, and see what holes there are that you could open with a finger or two to possibly produce the upper note. Try each of them, and some combinations, until hopefully you find one that produces the right pitch. If you have a good understanding of your instrument’s registers, you may also find that you can borrow fingerings for one or both notes from other registers.

    Sometimes the tone, pitch, or response of the trill fingering isn’t good when you sustain it as an individual note, but will work acceptably in the context of a trill.

    The two notes of the trill should be about equally balanced, so that if you were to record it and slow it down you would hear that the individual notes of the trill are equal in duration and volume. Trills should also fit volume-wise into the context of the musical phrase; use strong and consistent breath support, as though you were playing a single long note.

    Trill speed is an artistic decision. Generally trills should be fast enough to give the impression of an effect applied to a single note, rather than a sequence of separate notes. They usually shouldn’t be so fast as to sound jarring or unnatural. The speed of the trill can change for musical effect, and when it does it usually starts slower and accelerates. The best way to learn appropriate trill speeds is by listening to great performances and recordings.

  • Woodwind doubling recital program, Northwestern University, 1950

    ByBret Pimentel

    A new Internet friend shared this gem with me (click for slightly larger):

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  • |

    Dissertation: Woodwind doubling on folk, ethnic, and period instruments in film and theater music

    ByBret Pimentel

    My doctoral dissertation is now available online through the University of Georgia library:

    Woodwind doubling on folk, ethnic, and period instruments in film and theater music: Case studies and a practical manual

    It was completed in 2009 so some things are already out of date. Also, lately I’m trying to steer away from the term “ethnic” instruments (“world” instruments seems slightly less problematic until I can find a better solution).

    Enjoy(?).

    ABSTRACT

    Woodwind doubling is the practice of playing instruments from more than one woodwind family. In musical theater and film music, woodwind doublers are valuable for their ability to produce the sounds of a varied woodwind section for a fraction of the cost of hiring a specialist musician to play each instrument.

    Since the 1990’s, composers and orchestrators in musical theater and film scoring have shown increased interest in instrumental sounds from outside the traditional symphony orchestra. Many have featured folk, ethnic, or period instruments as solo instruments, bringing authentic sounds to scenes set in faraway locations or historical periods, giving an exotic flair to fictional locales, or simply adding new colors to the usual palette of instrumental sounds.

    Composers of film and theater scores have used ethnic woodwinds, in particular, in their scoring. To meet the demand for ethnic woodwind sounds, many prominent woodwind doublers on Broadway and in Hollywood have adopted these instruments, in addition to their usual arrays of modern Western instruments.

    Eight folk, ethnic, and period woodwinds recently employed in film and theater scoring have been selected for study in this document: bamboo flutes (especially the Indian bansuri and flutes used by some flutists in Irish traditional music), the Chinese dizi, the Armenian duduk, the Native American flute, the panflutes of Romania and South America, the pennywhistle, the recorder, and the Japanese shakuhachi.

    For each instrument, a representative example of use in theater or film music has been selected and transcribed from a commercial audio recording. Each transcription is discussed with emphasis on demands placed upon the ethnic woodwind musician. Additional discussion of each instrument includes suggestions for purchasing instruments, fingering charts, description of playing technique, description of instrument-specific performance practices, discussion of various sizes and/or keys of each instrument, discussion of instrument-specific notation practices, annotated bibliographies of available pedagogical materials, lists of representative recordings (including authentic ethnic music and other music), and information on relevant organizations and associations of professional or amateur musicians.

    Read the full text at the UGA library website

  • The right clarinet or saxophone reed strength “for you”

    ByBret Pimentel

    How do you pick the clarinet or saxophone reed that is the right strength “for you?” You mostly don’t, really.

    It’s important that the reed be a good match to the mouthpiece. In most cases the primary consideration is the mouthpiece’s facing curve and resultant tip opening. Generally, a shorter curve and/or wider opening require a softer reed, that can flex enough to meet the mouthpiece while vibrating. A longer curve and/or narrower opening need a stiffer reed, which will have enough guts to spring back after flexing to the mouthpiece.

    This means that the “right” strength for a player using a particular mouthpiece will be pretty close to the “right” reed for anyone else using that mouthpiece.

    Some players and teachers object to this, insisting that the “strength” of the embouchure needs to be accounted for. But the embouchure shouldn’t employ much “strength”—it should close just airtight (but not tight) around the mouthpiece and reed. If you are using your embouchure to muscle the reed around, then you might think you need a stiffer reed, but what you really need is a more open, relaxed embouchure. (If you feel like you will lose control by relaxing your embouchure, make up for it with powerful breath support.)

    So, assuming a reed reasonably well-matched to the mouthpiece, and a correctly-formed embouchure, the only thing left to consider is personal preference for how much resistance is in the setup. A slightly more resistant setup is good for things like soft, gentle articulations and stable pitch and tone. A slightly less resistant setup favors crisp, immediate articulations and some pitch and tone flexibility. I find this acceptable range of reed stiffnesses to be small enough that I can usually find some softer and some stiffer specimens within a box of reeds that are nominally the same strength.

    Some mouthpiece and reed makers publish information about which reeds match to which mouthpieces. If you find yourself straying far from these recommendations, take a closer look at your embouchure and your stability/flexibility priorities.

  • What kind of ligature should I get?

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    I’m on record as believing that clarinet and saxophone ligatures make little if any actual difference in how you sound. You’re welcome to disagree, but you might want to watch Michael Lowenstern’s video about it first.

    So, assuming the ligature has little direct influence on sound, what is the best kind to buy?

    Consider the humble fabric-type ligature:

    Fabric-type clarinet and saxophone ligatures

    They can be made of fabric or various other flexible materials. Fake-leather materials are popular.

    Here are their advantages over most other ligatures:

    • Generally inexpensive, although there are pricier versions available if paying more makes you feel better

    • Relatively easy to fit to even unusual mouthpieces and reeds, since they are flexible

    • Durable: I still have and use one I bought in high school

    • Not easily damaged: can be dropped, stepped on, or otherwise battered with little if any ill effect

    • Won’t dig into or otherwise damage reeds or mouthpieces

    • More expensive than an actual shoelace, but quicker and easier to install

    • Ambidextrous: many of the popular inexpensive ones can be switched for left- or right-handed screw tightening

    • Usually just one screw to tighten, so 50% less tightening/loosening time than the many other kinds of ligatures that have two screws

    • Available: no waiting lists or custom-building, easily purchaseable from just about any brick-and-mortar or online band-instrument retailer

    I have a number of fancy and expensive ligatures that various teachers required I buy over the years of my education, including some plated in actual gold. They don’t outperform my fabric-type ones in any meaningful way. You may still see them in my performance videos, etc., as I am still trying to get my money’s worth out of them. When they break or wear out, I’ll replace them cheaply and easily with good reliable fabric ones.

    Get a good, reliable, no-nonsense ligature to hold your reed in place, and happy practicing!

4 Comments

  1. The airstream necessary is so much less than that of a sax, flute or clarinet. Or is is that just me. It is so easy to overblow this instrument (I have a full set of Aulos). I should spend more time on this instrument.

    Reply

    1. You’re right—a recorder can’t be blown as aggressively as a “modern” woodwind.

      With a flute or reed instrument, you can increase the volume of air for louder dynamics, because you can use the embouchure to compensate for the effects on pitch, register, etc. With the recorder, the “embouchure” is formed for you by the mouthpiece duct, so it can’t be changed. More air means sharper pitch and cracking into the next partial.

      This is a likely reason that the recorder was more or less replaced by the transverse flute in Western music—despite its many charms, it didn’t have the dynamic range to keep up with the musical demands of the Classical period and beyond.

      Reply

  2. Hey. Ive been playing for 11 years now and remember when this video was up, I managed to download a copy before it got removed. Id love to play this piece and just wandered if you knew what it was called?

    Reply

    1. Hi Robin — As I recall, it was a medley of some of his tunes, arranged for recorders. If any videos of him are still available on YouTube, you may be able to identify some of the titles.

      Reply

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