Recital videos, August 2023

Here is a recap of some of my favorite stuff from the blog from 2013. Because hey, I’m on vacation too.

• The Fingering Diagram Builder got a new major release, plus a minor release. Development has slowed down a bit on this, not because I’ve stopped planning and working on improvements to it, but because it’s really working surprisingly well at this point and its popularity is growing in a satisfying way. I expect future releases to be on the deliberate side at least for the foreseeable future. (Don’t let that stop you from sending in your suggestions, feature requests, and bug reports.)
• My Woodwind Doubling in Musicals list got a long-overdue major overhaul. Check it out and share information about the shows you have played.
• I discontinued my “woodwind blogs you should be reading” series in favor of a monthly roundup of my favorite posts. I think it’s more interesting and useful, plus I can give regular shout-outs to woodwind bloggers who are consistently putting out good stuff, or highlight a diamond in the rough.
• I finally got most of my best advice about doing a multiple woodwinds degree all in one place.
• I ranted about why I think music education is important (spoiler: it’s not math skills).
• I gave a presentation and a recital.
• I want my students to show up, to be individuals but also embrace tradition, and to listen critically to themselves.
• I reviewed Butch Hall Native-American-style flutes, Hercules saxophone/woodwind stands, and some innovative new products from Vandoren (note the date on that one). Note to makers/sellers of woodwind products: I get a large amount of traffic to this site for my product reviews, and in more than a few cases my reviews get higher Google placement than the makers’ own websites. Drop me a line if you want to send me cool stuff to check out (even just on loan).
• I wrote about the flutist’s tongue, the clarinet’s break (part 1 and part 2),  the bassoon’s terrifyingly numerous high F-sharp fingerings, and clarinet-to-saxophone doubling or vice versa.
• For electronic-woodwind buffs, you special kind of nerds, you, I did a how-to on playing the Telemann Canonic Sonatas on wind controller with a delay pedal. You, too, can play duets with yourself.
• I gave unsolicited advice to high school and college students on auditioning and on buying new instruments.
• And I did my best to clear up some things for the Twitter generation of musicians.

Thanks for your ongoing support. Best wishes to you and your reeds for 2014.

Here are a few of my favorite blog articles from 2011, for your re-reading pleasure:

• A shocking 187 woodwind doublers participated in my Great Woodwind Doubler Census, and I reported the findings in exhaustive (exhausting?) detail.
• I was pleased to announce the releases of versions 0.2 and 0.3 of the Fingering diagram builder, and to introduce a lot of features and improvements. The plan at this point is to continue to work on it as time permits, and I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve that I hope you will like. I also shared some of the impetus behind the FDB, and some of the problems I hope it will, in a small way, help to solve.
• I started a series of do-it-yourself posts dealing with simple woodwind repair tasks (such as replacing saxophone palm key pads and replacing tenon corks), which I hope to continue in the coming year.
• I started a series of interviews with people working in cool woodwind-related jobs, which I hope to continue. (I’m interested in your nominations/requests.)
• I harnessed some frustration about teaching private lessons, and channeled it into creating a little game (the bidding war between Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley is still ongoing).
• I ranted about classical musicians’ attitudes toward jazz and jazz musicians.
• I reported on some fun offline woodwind-related activities, including the Clarinet Academy of the South, the National Flute Association conference, and my own annual faculty recital at Delta State University.
• I explained a little about the intersection between my faith and my music.
• I expounded what I think is a really crucial concept in woodwind playing, which the woodwind-blog-reading community received with a deafening roar of almost no attention whatsoever. I guess they can’t all be winners. Come back and read it again when you get into playing ethnic flutes, and thank me later.

Remember, you can keep up with my humble blog in 2012 via feed reader, Twitter, or email. I try to cover a lot of ground here, so if you’re interested in narrowing things down, you can find a blog article you like and click on any of the related “instruments,” “categories,” or “topics,” and then subscribe by RSS or email up near the top of the page, under the main header and just above the first article on the page, like so:

Also, I love to hear from the highly intelligent, talented, and attractive people who read my stuff, so please don’t hesitate to check in if you see something you like, something you don’t like, or something you would like to see more or less of. Or if you just want to say hello.

And, as promised:

My New Year’s resolution

Read More “2011 in review, and a New Year’s resolution”