- International Clarinet Association (Nora-Louise Müller): The Bohlen-Pierce Clarinet: Exploring a New Tonality
The Flute View (Leighann Daihl Ragusa): Developing Your Ornamental Toolbox - Jenny Maclay: The Musician’s Guide to Studying Abroad: How to Turn Your Dreams Into Reality
- Recorder Jen (Jennifer Mackerras): How you breathe in is vital to a good recorder tone
- Dr. Pierce’s Bassoon Studio: A stand for an EWI [update: link dead]
- Nicole Riner, flutist: A graded list of flute etude books available on Petrucci: college level
What are registers?
“Registers” are a tricky concept in woodwind playing. Here’s how they work. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say I am playing a flute with a C footjoint. If I finger a low C, that closes all the instrument’s toneholes and produces a C4: As I work my way up the chromatic scale, I gradually open more … Read more
So you want to hire a horn section
So, you want to hire a “horn” section for an upcoming gig or recording. Great! Horns can add a special touch to your rock, pop, blues, etc. performance. If you haven’t hired horns before, here are some things to keep in mind: A small thing: the word “horn” as it’s used in this kind of … Read more
Woodwind doubling and oboe problems
There’s an increasing expectation that woodwind doublers be competent and confident oboists. It can be a challenging double, but a worthwhile one. Many of my doubling gigs have come to me because of my ability and/or willingness to play the oboe. And even though it’s not my strongest instrument, there are considerable spans of my … Read more
Favorite blog posts, May 2019
Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, May 2019 edition.
Time-crunch vs. long-term practicing
My approach to practicing has to adapt to deadlines. Sometimes the deadlines come up fast, and there isn’t time to make everything as perfect as I would like. Other times I have plenty of preparation time and want to make the best use of it. Suppose the music I’m working on has one or two … Read more
Local vs. big-picture dynamics
An important part of interpreting music is figuring out how to use dynamic markings. They aren’t as simple as just playing louder or softer. It helps a lot to understand the difference between what I call local dynamics and big-picture dynamics. Unfortunately, they are marked in sheet music using the same symbols, so it’s not … Read more
Playing issues vs. reading issues
Sometimes when I struggle with a musical passage it’s because I can’t quite play it—maybe my fingers or tongue won’t move quite fast enough yet, or there’s a difficult slur or interval leap that I’m still mastering. The solution is methodical practice, which of course takes significant time and effort. But there’s an additional set … Read more
Favorite blog posts, April 2019
Jennifer Stucki, oboist: Why is my Reed Playing Sharp and Flat? Rachel Yoder, clarinet: Objective Language in Applied Music Instruction Just Flutes Blog (Roderick Seed): Tips on Andersen Etudes: Op15, No. 3 Sam Newsome’s Blogsite: Soprano Sax Talk: Acute and Chronic Practicing Bassoon Blog (Betsy Sturdevant): Contrabassoon for Dummies The Flute Examiner (Kelly Wilson): 11 … Read more
Why my college band chair placements ended up not mattering a bit
Looking back now, having those particular chairs in those particular semesters seems very unimportant, but my growth during those years laid the groundwork for two graduate degrees and a life in playing and teaching music.