- Everything Saxophone (Ben Britton): Basics of Voicing
- Jennifer Stucki, oboist: Three Common Mistakes New Reed Makers Make
- Recorder Jen: Breath control: How to cure unintentional vibrato
Thinking through scales
My university woodwind students have to pass a scale exam as one of the requirements to progress in their degree program. They have to be able to play major scales and three forms of minor scales, plus arpeggios, through the “full range” of the instrument, from memory. Many of my students learned their major scales … Read more
Does woodwind doubling prevent you from being the “best?”
My recent post about woodwind doubling has been cited lately on various social media sites to fuel discussions over whether doubling is a good or acceptable pursuit. Many of those arguing that woodwind doubling is a bad idea raise the issue that the “best” players of such-and-such instrument don’t double, and you can’t be the … Read more
Does woodwind doubling ruin your embouchure?
Nope. We use our embouchure muscles for all kinds of things: facial expressions, speech, eating, kissing. Do any of those things “ruin” your embouchure? Of course not. The embouchure is made up of very flexible, agile muscles that are very capable of carrying out multiple tasks. When people (almost always non-doublers) express concern about embouchure … Read more
What I’ve learned from playing different musical styles
One of my favorite things about being a performing musician is moving in and out of different styles. Recently I’ve performed as a classical, jazz, rock, and blues musician. I’ve been thinking a little about the skills that I associate with each, especially skills that have expanded my musicianship and carried over into playing other … Read more
Favorite blog posts, February 2019
Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, February 2019 edition.
Performance postmortems
Some post-performance reflection on both positives and negatives can be valuable for setting new goals and preparing for the next one.
Switching between saxophones
If you are an alto saxophone player and pick up a tenor or baritone for the first time, it’s pretty common to have a thin, weak tone, to be on the sharp side, to struggle with low note response, and to have issues like the top-of-the-staff G and G-sharp squeaking. If you are a tenor … Read more
What should be on your musician website
It’s cheap and easy to create a website. Any serious freelance musician (or aspiring musician) should have one. This should be a website about you, an individual musician. It should be separate from your ensemble’s website or your academic institution’s website. It should exist long-term, and serve as a sort of permanent address for finding … Read more
Favorite blog posts, January 2019
Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, January 2019 edition.