A new Internet friend shared this gem with me (click for slightly larger):
If you know these pieces (I’m familiar with all but the Howden—anybody know this one?), you know that this is a very impressive program. None of these are filler pieces, and the Mozart and the Ibert strike me as particularly large and challenging.
I like the use of the understated term “instrumentalist” here. And I’m glad that smoking in the recital hall is no longer an issue.
I asked the person who sent me this, a member of Mr. Tootelian’s family, if it would be all right if I shared this with my readers. Mr. Tootelian, now retired, kindly gave his consent.
Update, August 2012: I was saddened to hear from Mr. Tootelian’s family about his passing last month. No doubt he has gone on to a place where the reeds are always good. Rest in peace. —BP
I got some questions by email yesterday from Sy Brandon, about the multiple woodwinds piece (Divertissement) he is writing funded by my Co-op Press Commission Assistance Grant. He is considering a movement that involves switching between instruments, and wanted to know about some of the technical details. Here are my answers:
Keeping reeds wet is a minor hassle but quite doable, especially for a movement that’s only a few minutes long.
Time required for switching instruments is an interesting question. Short answer: anything shorter than about five seconds is risky.
A slightly shorter switch might be possible with something like saxophone to flute or clarinet, since you can just let the saxophone hang from its neckstrap. And switches among flute and clarinet and, to a lesser extent, oboe (due to its fragile reed) are reasonably fast because there aren’t any straps to unhook and you can pick one up while you’re setting the other down. Bassoon is more difficult—it uses either a seat strap or a somewhat awkward harness, and definitely requires both hands to pick it up or put it down. Read More “Time required for instrument switches”
Non-doublers often seem to think that the most amazing thing about doubling is keeping all the fingerings straight. I don’t find that to be a major problem; the keywork of each instrument feels different enough in my hands that I think I tend to switch into the right fingering mode automatically.
It’s the other stuff that’s a problem. I find I often need to give myself a few reminders as I’m setting down one instrument and picking up the next. Here’s the stuff that has been going through my mind lately—maybe one or more of these will click for you, too. Read More “Doubling reminders for the day”
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I’m on record as believing that clarinet and saxophone ligatures make little if any actual difference in how you sound. You’re welcome to disagree, but you might want to watch Michael Lowenstern’s video about it first.
So, assuming the ligature has little direct influence on sound, what is the best kind to buy?
Consider the humble fabric-type ligature:
They can be made of fabric or various other flexible materials. Fake-leather materials are popular.
Here are their advantages over most other ligatures:
Generally inexpensive, although there are pricier versions available if paying more makes you feel better
Relatively easy to fit to even unusual mouthpieces and reeds, since they are flexible
Durable: I still have and use one I bought in high school
Not easily damaged: can be dropped, stepped on, or otherwise battered with little if any ill effect
Won’t dig into or otherwise damage reeds or mouthpieces
More expensive than an actual shoelace, but quicker and easier to install
Ambidextrous: many of the popular inexpensive ones can be switched for left- or right-handed screw tightening
Usually just one screw to tighten, so 50% less tightening/loosening time than the many other kinds of ligatures that have two screws
Available: no waiting lists or custom-building, easily purchaseable from just about any brick-and-mortar or online band-instrument retailer
I have a number of fancy and expensive ligatures that various teachers required I buy over the years of my education, including some plated in actual gold. They don’t outperform my fabric-type ones in any meaningful way. You may still see them in my performance videos, etc., as I am still trying to get my money’s worth out of them. When they break or wear out, I’ll replace them cheaply and easily with good reliable fabric ones.
Get a good, reliable, no-nonsense ligature to hold your reed in place, and happy practicing!
This is a technique I recommend often to students who are struggling with notey passages. I can’t remember where I picked it up, or whether “anchoring” is my own name for it or someone else’s. No doubt credit for this belongs to somebody smarter than I.
The problem that I sometimes see with my students (and, okay, occasionally with myself) is that fast passages are uneven and panicky. The student sees a long string of notes and frantically dives in, to the detriment of meter and tempo, and with notes accidentally omitted or added.
It’s a challenging passage—shifting harmony, intervallic motion, awkward fingerings. This is a recipe for frustration using the old standby method of playing slowly with the metronome and gradually increasing the tempo. Instead, let’s set the metronome aside for a few minutes, and play the passage in an intentionally uneven way:
with added tenuto-accent-fermatas
Put lots of weight on the metric pulses (the “anchor” notes): play them long, loud, and with emphasis. Hold each fermata long enough to scope out the next four notes, then move through them as quickly as you accurately can, coming to rest again on the next fermata. Repeat the passage in this way as many times as you can stand.
Here’s what this accomplishes:
It makes you think about logical groups of notes, rather than trying either to process each note individually or to deal with the whole phrase as an overwhelming sea of notes. It’s the sweet spot between too much mental chatter and too little focus.
It encourages effective phrasing by treating the notes as leading toward downbeats.
It trains your ears to hear the notes in fours (at least in this 2/4 passage—try threes instead if the situation calls for it). Now as you return to playing the passage evenly, you are more likely to notice if you are omitting or adding notes.
To transition from this technique into a more performable approach, gradually decrease the duration of the fermatas and the weight of the accents, while continuing to mentally emphasize the anchor notes and place them carefully in tempo (time to get the metronome back out). Also try spacing the anchors farther apart as an intermediate step—one at the beginning of each measure, for example, or every few measures as appropriate.
As a ten-year-old beginning saxophonist, I was taught to form an embouchure like this:
Put your top teeth on the mouthpiece
Let your lower lip sort of roll or squish over your lower teeth
Close your mouth
That’s how I played for years. As I advanced and started to practice more, I would sometimes hurt the inside of my lower lip, drawing blood or forming blisters or scar tissue. I considered this a badge of honor: I practiced until I bled.
But I don’t play that way anymore, nor do I teach students that way. I made an important change to my embouchure that lets me play for extended periods pain- and blood-free, while sounding better and having more control.
The problem with the lower-lip-over-the-teeth approach is that it sets the lower lip up to serve as a sacrificial cushion, to protect the reed from the lower teeth. Sure, you can just tell your students to “stop biting,” but if you’re teaching them an embouchure that’s based on biting, then good luck.
It’s more useful to think of the embouchure this way:
Put your top teeth on the mouthpiece
Let your jaw hang open a bit, so your lower teeth stay clear of the reed
Keep your jaw open, and allow your lips to close around the mouthpiece and reed.
This approach makes sure the lips are used to form the embouchure, not the jaw. It improves tone, response, dynamic range, and more, and virtually eliminates lower lip pain.
If you are used to a jaw-formed embouchure concept, you might find that switching to the lip-formed embouchure leaves you feeling like you’ve lost some control of pitch and tone. If so, double-check your breath support; with the jaw out of the way you will need to depend on those support muscles more for stability.
I studied with Bob Tootelian in 1956-57, and he was a very impressive guy. He was the #1 woodwind doubler in Chicago for many years and played all the big touring shows that came through Chicago.
I went to his apartment in Rogers Park several times for oboe and oboe reed making lessons, and was blown away by his collection of woodwinds. He had a whole room full of them — every flute, double reed, clarinet and saxophone imaginable. I had never even seen many of them before.
And he played and taught all of them at a very high professional level. Never met anyone since quite like him. He inspired me to pursue doubling, even though I was often discouraged by my music teachers because it was going to “wreck my lip”. I now have a room full of woodwinds, similar to what I saw back then at Bob’s apartment.
I studied with Bob Tootelian in 1956-57, and he was a very impressive guy. He was the #1 woodwind doubler in Chicago for many years and played all the big touring shows that came through Chicago.
I went to his apartment in Rogers Park several times for oboe and oboe reed making lessons, and was blown away by his collection of woodwinds. He had a whole room full of them — every flute, double reed, clarinet and saxophone imaginable. I had never even seen many of them before.
And he played and taught all of them at a very high professional level. Never met anyone since quite like him. He inspired me to pursue doubling, even though I was often discouraged by my music teachers because it was going to “wreck my lip”. I now have a room full of woodwinds, similar to what I saw back then at Bob’s apartment.
Great memories. Rest in peace “Toot”.