- Practice Monster (David Pope, saxophone): Circular Breathing
- Sax ProShop: #WednesdayWisdom: Sanitizing Your Mouthpiece & Instrument
- Trent Jacobs, bassoonist: Bassoon fingering chart and On communicable diseases and buying reeds
- heather roche: “Ultra-Underblow Mutiphonics”: Part 2 of the recategorisation of Philip Rehfeldt’s chart
- Rachel Taylor Geier (flute): Imperfect Balance – Hand Position Correctors
- The Bassic Sax Blog » (Helen Kahlke): Is a vintage sax right for me?
- The Vintage Clarinet Doctor – Blog (Jeremy Soule): mouthpiece porn vs Mouthpiece Monogamy
- The Flute View (Lauren Monteiro): 4 Rules for Recording Your Practice
- International Clarinet Association (Wesley Ferreira): Master Class: Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), Op. 43 by Niels Gade
- Jenny Maclay (clarinet): 31 Clarinet Compositions Written by Female Composers
- Music Major – Majoring in Music: Music School Decisions When You Can’t Visit
Helen Kahlke
Favorite blog posts, February 2018
- Flutist Nicole Riner assigns her students repertoire that reinforces skill development (a re-“print” from the 2012 A Flutist’s Handbook: Pedagogy Anthology Vol. 2).
- Oboist Stephen Caplan reconsiders concentration in performance.
- Bassoonist Barry Stees shares a simple but revealing way to test reeds.
- Flutist Jessica Dunnavant discusses her complicated relationship with university teaching.
- David Pierce considers a pedagogical order for the Vivaldi bassoon concertos (a re-“print” from a 1987 article in the Journal of the International Double Reed Society) [update: link dead].
- Oboist Jennet Ingle figures out how to give a good tuning A every time.
- Saxophonist Helen Kahlke avoids germs on the gig.
Favorite blog posts, March 2016
- David Wells discusses composing cadenzas for the Mozart bassoon concerto (and shares his finished product).
- Jill Cathey shares some techniques she is using to improve her oboe reedmaking, including giving her reeds names.
- Saxophonist Eddie Rich legislates three laws of practicing [update: link dead].
- Cindy Ellis explains the function of each lip in the flute embouchure.
- Jennet Ingle explains (and demonstrates in a video) a technique for cleaning out oboe reeds.
- Manny Martinez suggests 10 classical saxophone recordings to check out.
- Trent Jacobs uses a power tool to make bassoon reeds.
- Cate Hummel continues her crusade against questionable “kiss-and-roll” flute embouchure pedagogy, and has an insight into that technique’s popularity.
- Jeff Cunningham explores some of the “ups & downs” for beginning saxophonists. It’s good context and advice for woodwind doublers, too, who may be at beginner stage on a secondary instrument.
- Bassoonist Andrew Burn shares some unconventional ideas about recital preparation.
- David Freeman logs a gig experience covering Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, and shares saxophone solo transcriptions.
- Khara Wolf discusses aspects of high-altitude oboe reedmaking.
- Helen Kahlke shares a review of an inexpensive bass saxophone. Don’t reach for your wallets yet, but the takeaway here is that playable, affordable, modern saxophones lower than baritone could be on the horizon.
- Also, I am now a co-author, with Kellie Lignitz-Hahn, of the “Clarinet Cache” column in The Clarinet (journal of the International Clarinet Association), and the related blog. Check it out online or in your latest print issue.
Favorite blog posts, May 2013
Here are some high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from May, in no particular order.
- Mark Catoe and Tim Gordon discuss music education, careers, and, of course, woodwind doubling: Interview with Tim Gordon
- Flutist Meerenai Shim opens up about success, failure, pursuing your dream, and dealing with the practicalities: To Each Her Own
- Jennet Ingle is always one of my favorites. I already responded to her post on sound quality and individuality, but I also liked this one about the realities of freelancing: A Freelance Week
- David Erato learns a difficult lesson about swabs, and offers to let others learn from his experience: Don’t do this. Ever.
- Helen Kahlke patrols the internet for weird saxophone stuff, and discovers this interesting approach to the octave vent problem: Frankensax’s Offspring Gets Its Patent
- Saxophonist Shannon Kennedy deals with a hazard of being a musician in the internet age: There’s Honest and Then There’s Hurtful
- Christa Garvey suggests listening to more music, and provides a nice jumping-off point for developing your oboe ears: Living a life WITH music—a guide to listening for the aspiring oboist
- Flutist Jolene Harju has an epiphany about making her best sound in a natural, easy way: Open Sound: Why I Love Middle C!
- John Bogenschutz of Tone Deaf Comics apparently buys his bassoons from Ikea: “Bundlövstx”
Enjoy! If you have some favorites that I missed, please share them in the comments section below.
Ernie Watts on not doubling
Check out this blog post by Helen over at the Bassic Sax blog for some thoughts from saxophone great Ernie Watts about the downside of doubling.
At some point, you end up in a mush of mediocrity.