At the 10-year mark: ask me anything

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To my own amazement, this blog is rapidly approaching its 10-year anniversary later this month, May 24th. (Some of the content is dated even earlier than that, because I wrote it before starting the blog and retroactively turned it into blog posts.)

If you like, send me question(s) about whatever you want, about woodwind playing, doubling, blogging, teaching, or whatever. You can remain anonymous if you like. If it makes sense to do so based on the responses, I’ll answer them in one or more blog posts starting on about the 24th. If the response is low or the questions are not particularly of interest to my audience at large, I’ll answer as many as I can privately.

Thanks for reading!

Favorite blog posts, April 2018

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, April 2018 edition.

Students and gig pay

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Over a year ago I wrote about responding to free or underpaid gig “offers.” A commenter asked a fair question, which has haunted me since: I was wondering how much of this still applies when taking on gigs as a student. I’ve wrestled with this a bit and I’m not sure I have a real answer, … Read more

Review: D’Addario Reserve alto saxophone mouthpieces

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If you have read my reviews of the D’Addario clarinet and jazz alto and tenor saxophone mouthpieces, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’m a big fan of their new classical alto saxophone mouthpiece, too. (As with the last several reviews, D’Addario sent me some mouthpieces at no cost, with the possibility but not … Read more

ReedCast™ scientific reed forecasts on Alexa

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I was hoping to announce this a week ago, on the anniversary of the ReedCast™’s debut, April 1, 2015,but things got a little delayed. Anyway, you can now get your guaranteed-accurate, highly scientific ReedCast™ on your Alexa device. Check it out! You can, of course, still get your classic ReedCast™ on the web.

Favorite blog posts, March 2018

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, March 2018 edition.

Grading student practicing

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When I was a first-year undergraduate music major and not yet fully convinced of the importance of practicing several hours per day, a nudge/threat scared me into changing my ways. But the sudden “motivation” to apply myself a little better soon started paying off. It’s exciting to see my students making that same transition.

Avoiding clarinet undertones: published techniques

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Clarinet “undertones” or “grunts” are the unpleasant low sounds that happen usually at the beginning of tongued upper-clarion-register notes (about written G to C, above the staff). My sense is that there isn’t a lot of consensus or clarity among clarinetists about how exactly to prevent this.

A minimal Little-Jake electric bassoon setup

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Be sure to check out my recent interview with Trent Jacobs, the inventor of the Little-Jake bassoon/woodwind pickup. During the past year I got myself a Little-Jake to experiment with some electrified bassoon playing. I didn’t know much about using electronics in this way, and it took some research and trial-and-error to figure out exactly … Read more

Favorite blog posts, February 2018

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, February 2018 edition.