Bret Pimentel, woodwinds

Favorite blog posts, March 2015

January 1, 2018March 31, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

Fine woodwind bloggery from the past month:

Mark Catoe shares a nicely-organized sequence for teaching beginning saxophonists the major scales.
Cate Hummel provides a checklist for improving third-octave playing on the flute.
Oboist Jennet Ingle ponders upon the process of changing playing habits, and works in some important reed concepts, too.
Bassoonist Christin Schillinger gives some down-to-earth advice on dealing with performance anxiety.
Trent Jacobs shares some bassoon “extended low register” (multiphonic) fingerings.

That wraps up the first quarter of 2015 with no clarinet posts featured yet. Clarinet bloggers, let me know you’re out there. Also, all of this month’s featured bloggers are repeats, some several times over. If you have a woodwind blog that you think I may not be following yet, send me a link!

Handout: woodwind voicing

March 14, 2017March 10, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

July 20, 2022March 6, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

July 20, 2022March 2, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

Fingering Diagram Builder, version 0.6

January 1, 2018February 25, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

January 2, 2018February 17, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

Voicing: stable vs. flexible

March 14, 2017February 11, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

There seems to be some debate about voicing: is it something static, or something that changes from note to note? I find that the answer is, sort of, both.

Favorite blog posts, January 2015

July 20, 2022January 31, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

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

Counting rhythms with a non-quarter-note pulse

March 14, 2017January 28, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

Sometimes my students are stymied by rhythms like this: These rhythms are really not at all difficult to play—to actually execute—for an intermediate-level student. The problem is just one of unfamiliar notation. It is usually related to the all-too-common misconception that the rhythmic pulse is always equal to a quarter note. If you approach this … Read more

Interview: Sal Lozano, saxophone and woodwind artist

July 20, 2022January 18, 2015 by Bret Pimentel

Lately I have been enjoying Sal Lozano‘s recent CD, Everything’s Gonna Be Great (available from CD Baby and iTunes). The album is 13 charts by Tom Kubis for 5-piece saxophone section with rhythm section, and Sal plays all five of the saxophone parts. It’s a lot of fun, Sal sounds great, and there’s an all-star … Read more