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Introducing the Fingering diagram builder
I’m pleased to present something I’ve been working on, on and off, for a while now. I’m pretty excited about it, and I hope you will check it out and let me know what you think.This project developed from my own need to quickly and easily create fingering diagrams for the woodwind instruments that I play and teach. Frequently I find myself scribbling saxophone altissimo fingerings onto a scrap of paper during a private lesson, cutting-and-pasting at the photocopier to put together simplified charts for a woodwind methods class, or penciling cryptic markings into musical scores to remind myself which pinky finger to use.
And so, I’m pleased to introduce the Fingering diagram builder. I hope you’ll take it for a spin. Read More “Introducing the Fingering diagram builder”
Update: Woodwind Doubling in Musicals
I’m pleased to announce the release of a very much new-and-improved version of what used to be my “Woodwind doubling in Broadway musicals” page. Now it’s just “Woodwind Doubling in Musicals,” since I long ago abandoned any idea of limiting it to shows produced on Broadway.
Here is what’s new, besides the title:
- Each show now has its own page. I know some of you will object to this change. Sorry. This has been a long time coming; almost 1,100 shows is clearly way too many for one page. Splitting things up shouldn’t really slow you down if you are using the list as a reference and looking up shows using the navigation at the top of the page; it is, admittedly, less convenient for idle browsing. It is also kinder bandwidth-wise to those visiting from mobile devices, which is more and more of you.
- This is huge: there is now a commenting system. Many of you who have contributed over the years (since about 2005!) have included insightful commentary along with the specifics of instrumentation for each show, and I haven’t had a good way to incorporate that information. Please go to town sharing useful information on each show’s individual page.
- There are some new ways to browse, including by production location, year, etc. This information is far from complete, so please please help me fill in the blanks. In the earliest days of the list, I didn’t keep track of sources or of any background info on each show, so there are still a lot of listings that are pretty bare other than instrumentation.
- If you want to keep track of the very latest updates and are RSS-savvy, you can hook up to feeds. The most useful ones are probably the main site feed, which delivers the most recently modified listings, the whole-site comments feed, and the comments feeds for individual shows that you care about.
- You can now “register.” There aren’t a lot of really clear reasons to do so at this point, but it creates the possibility in the future that I could extend editing privileges to trusted contributors. And I’ll tell you what: if you register for an account and send a donation of any amount at all (except I think the PayPal minimum is a buck), then I’ll turn off advertisements for you when you’re signed in.
- Which reminds me, there are ads on the individual show pages. I know. But I have put many, many hours into this thing. Also, I would happily consider running your ads instead if you have something relevant to promote and want to purchase some space.
- I have brought back the Frequently Asked Questions, and created a new page with hints and guidelines for submitting information.
Please do check it out.
University of Northern Iowa offers new multiple woodwinds degree
The University of Northern Iowa is now offering a Master of Music degree with a multiple woodwinds (3-instrument) emphasis. A few points of interest, according to degree information from their website:- Students take 6 credit hours of study on a “primary” instrument, and 4 hours on a “secondary” instrument, and must “demonstrate proficiency” on a third. Presumably the third instrument must either be at a suitable proficiency level upon entering the program, or the student must study the instrument without the additional credit hours counting toward degree completion.
- Students using oboe or bassoon as one of their three instruments must take an appropriate reedmaking course. This, I guess, means that students choosing both oboe and bassoon must take both reedmaking courses. And the reedmaking course must be completed even for the “demonstrate proficiency” instrument, which might not be part of the student’s coursework.
- Students choosing flute or clarinet as primary or secondary instruments must take an instrument-specific pedagogy course, or presumably both if flute and clarinet are the primary and secondary (or vice versa).
- There does not appear to be any special requirement (such as pedagogy or reedmaking) if saxophone is chosen as one of the three instruments.
- The degree recital must include performances on at least two “of the five” woodwinds. Oddly, it is not specified that these must be the primary and secondary instruments.
- Audition information from elsewhere on the UNI Music website does not make clear what is required for admission to the program.
See my hopefully-comprehensive list for more North American university/conservatory degree programs in multiple woodwind performance. (And please contact me if you see anything that needs to be added, removed, or updated!)
Multiple woodwinds commission, sixth movement (multiple woodwinds or piccolo)
Photo, vpickering Dr. Sy Brandon has posted his work on the sixth and final movement of the Divertissement for multiple woodwinds soloist and piano.
In some early communication, Dr. Brandon suggested that this movement, the “Galop,” be written for piccolo. I was happy with this idea, and even dusted off my piccolo to start getting my chops in shape. But by the next day he had hit on a new idea that I liked even better: using the sixth movement to bring back each of the five previously-featured instruments in one tour-de-force finale.
While I was pleased to have this piece include a chance to show off my skills at switching instruments on the fly, I did think that this might limit the number of doublers who could perform the piece. I like the idea of a piece custom-tailored to my specific skill set, but, on the other hand, I would like to see the piece become a significant addition to the limited repertoire for woodwind doublers.
The problem, of course, is that a “doubler” might play any combination of instruments, and a piece for five specific instruments does drastically narrow the field of capable performers. My initial hope was that the piece might be adaptable to individual doublers’ abilities, either by selectively omitting movements or by providing alternate instrumentations.
Dr. Brandon, unsurprisingly, was two steps ahead of me. He has announced two different versions of the sixth movement: one version is for piccolo, and the other is for doubler playing flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone—the instruments used individually in the preceding movements—plus a brief surprise appearance by the piccolo at the very end. Read More “Multiple woodwinds commission, sixth movement (multiple woodwinds or piccolo)”
