Favorite blog posts, May 2014

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Kind of a short list this month, so either all the bloggers are on summer vacation or I am getting pickier.

The amazing shrinking woodwind section: increasing demands on woodwind doublers

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21st-century woodwind players need to be able to play a greater number of instruments, from a pool no longer limited to the orchestral woodwinds and saxophones, at a soloist level on each instrument.

Did I play that “right?”

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Execution of musical passages isn’t really about “right” or “wrong,” but rather about degrees of rightness. To borrow an idea from manufacturing or engineering, we might think in terms of tolerances.

Irish flute/whistle ornamentation symbols à la Grey Larsen, in Lilypond

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If you are nerdy/awesome enough to be into (1) the pedagogy of Irish traditional woodwind playing and (2) open-source text-based music notation software, then you may want to check out my set of symbols for Lilypond.

Favorite blog posts, April 2014

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, April 2014 edition.

Practice technique: anchoring

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The “anchoring” technique helps you think about logical groups of notes, encourages effective phrasing, and trains your ears to hear notes in a new and useful way.

Novelty and solo multiple-woodwind performance

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I would like for my performances to stand on their own, regardless of how many or how few instruments I use, but it’s hard to tell when the audience is distracted by the parade of shiny objects.

Favorite blog posts, March 2014

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, March 2014 edition.