Favorite blog posts, April 2015

Enjoy:

Sparking creative inspiration

It’s tempting sometimes to see my students as either left-brained or right-brained players—either the precise, technically-oriented type or the creative, intuitive type. The reality, of course, is that they are all some of each, but may have greater strengths in one area or the other. And good musicians need both. Trying to get the more … Read more

Handout: Blogging to build your woodwind career

I gave a presentation at last week’s Mid-South Flute Festival on blogging as a means for enhancing a performing/teaching career. The handout says “flute” on it, but I think the advice really is pretty generally applicable. Blogging to Build Your Flute Career (PDF)

Introducing ReedCast™: scientific woodwind reed quality forecasting

Woodwind players know that the way a reed plays is subject to factors like elevation, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. My new web application, ReedCast™, helps to eliminate some of the guesswork. (Or does it?)

Favorite blog posts, March 2015

Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, March 2015 edition.

Handout: woodwind voicing

I have written about voicing here before. I find it to be one of the most neglected topics in woodwind teaching, and when it is taught, is is often taught without a lot of clarity. This is a shame because voicing is crucial to good tone production, affecting response, tone, and intonation.

Three stages of practicing

As my musical standards, maturity, and commitment to practice time improved, it became clear that beginning-to-end practicing was not the best use of my time.

Favorite blog posts, February 2015

Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, February 2015 edition.

Fingering Diagram Builder, version 0.6

I have just released version 0.6 of the Fingering Diagram Builder. It’s almost a maintenance release, that mostly just attempts to fix a few problems and add a little polish. Your suggestions and bug reports are, as always, welcome (as are your donations, social media pings, links, etc.). Go play around with it or read … Read more

Making sense of third-octave flute fingerings

I recall as a beginning flutist (coming from background in saxophone) finding the third-octave fingerings to be a confusing, illogical jumble, but they do actually make some sense. There is an incorrect explanation for these fingerings that I hear every so often, and have seen published on a couple of flute-related blogs recently. It goes … Read more