Lots of interesting woodwind blog posts this month. Here are some favorites:
- Flutist Roderick Seed is doing a nice series offering commentary on the Andersen Op. 15 etudes.
- Michael Lowenstern addresses the idea of bass clarinet as a college major. (This one is from very late October but I didn’t catch it in time.)
- Saxophonists Sam Newsome and Ben Britton each offer exercises for improving low register tone production.
- College freshman flute major Hannah Haefele shares what she is learning in her transition from high school practicing to college-level practicing.
- Clarinetist Michael Dean shares his pre-performance checklist.
- Oboist Patty Mitchell distinguishes between knowing your music and knowing your music.
- Flutist Rachel Taylor Geier explains the practicing technique of chunking.
- Cate Hummel recommends against the old flute “kiss and roll” trick.
Barrick Stees is the assistant principal bassoonist in the Cleveland Orchestra, and a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Akron. His blog is fairly new (started earlier this year) but is already full of good stuff. Professor Stees shares some insights on playing excerpts at a level suitable to one of the great American orchestras: