Favorite blog posts, November 2019

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See the woodwind blogs I’m following, and suggest others!

Review: Duets for the ‘Double-Reed Doubler’ by Gene Kaplan

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A few years ago I reviewed Gene Kaplan’s Duos for Doublers, a set of duets for woodwind doublers playing flute, clarinet, and saxophone. I was pleased to hear from Gene again recently about his new Duets for the ‘Double-Reed Doubler.’ It contains seven duets in a variety of styles, with one doubler playing oboe, clarinet, … Read more

Sharp, flat, and natural symbols on Android and iOS devices

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There are lots of ways to handle music symbols like sharps (♯), flats (♭), and naturals (♮) on iPhone/iPad and Android devices: Not recommended: Use a pound/hash/number sign for sharp, and a lower-case b for flat. It’s ugly and unprofessional, and in some cases unclear, plus there’s not an obvious solution for natural. Spell it … Read more

MS Word music hack: Automatic sharps, flats, and naturals (Updated 2019)

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Ten years ago in 2009 I wrote a blog post about how to set up auto-complete sharp, flat, and natural symbols in Microsoft Word 2007 running on Windows Vista. Here’s an update for Word 2016 on Windows 10. Thanks to Ariel Detwiler for calling my attention to the need for an update. How it will … Read more

Favorite blog posts, October 2019

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, October 2019 edition.

Woodwind doubling and clarinet problems

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Here are a few of the common problems woodwind doublers have with the clarinet: Flabby/saggy/tubby/airy tone and flat pitch. This is a dead giveaway for a self-“taught” clarinet doubler. The clarinet’s voicing is quite high, higher than any of the other woodwinds, and beginning clarinetists sometimes struggle for years to make that proper voicing a … Read more

Which multiple woodwinds degree programs should I apply to?

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“Which multiple woodwinds degree programs should I apply to?” I get this question a lot, since I write about multiple woodwind degree programs here on the blog, have a couple of those degrees myself, and maintain a list of such programs. (The list is meant to be comprehensive but probably isn’t. If you know of … Read more

Getting the most out of practicing your scales

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When you practice scales (or arpeggios or, really, any other technical material) it’s not really about the scales. Nobody wants to buy tickets to hear you play scales. Scale and technical practice develop the fundamental technique you need for doing more interesting things. You don’t learn multiplication tables or French verb conjugations so you can … Read more

Favorite blog posts, September 2019

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, September 2019 edition.

Review: D’Addario Evolution clarinet mouthpieces

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D’Addario was kind enough to send me a couple of their new(ish) Reserve Evolution clarinet mouthpieces to try out. The Evolution currently comes in a single opening/facing, but the two Evolution mouthpieces I received are different in appearance: one is the standard black, and the other is what’s called “marble” on D’Addario’s website, or “sandstone … Read more