Woodwinds: Clarinet

Favorite blog posts, September 2020

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See the woodwind blogs I’m following, and suggest others!

Stop teaching clarinet and saxophone embouchures like this

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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 … Read more

Recital videos, August 2020

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I’m pleased to share videos from my recent Delta State University faculty recital. I performed for a very small in-person audience due to COVID-19 precautions. All the repertoire is unaccompanied. The program begins with multiple-woodwinds repertoire by Samuel Adler, Kyle Tieman-Strauss, and Nicole Chamberlain (a world premiere of a commissioned piece), followed by some odds … Read more

Favorite blog posts, August 2020

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, August 2020 edition.

Clarinet vibrato

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The question of whether the clarinet should use vibrato has been argued to death, and I won’t pursue the question further here. Suffice it to say that it’s a matter of taste and a matter of tradition. American and European classical clarinetists usually don’t use it. Why that particular quirk of taste and/or tradition has … Read more

Should I tighten the screws on my woodwind instrument?

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For many household items, screws should be tightened if they seem loose. But for woodwind instruments it’s a little more complicated. Woodwind instruments (flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and saxophones) have many screws on them. They are usually the slotted type, for which you would use a standard (“flat-head”) screwdriver. And some of them need to … Read more

Favorite blog posts, May 2020

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, May 2020 edition.

Favorite blog posts, March 2020

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Hand-picked high-quality woodwind-related blog posts from around the web, March 2020 edition.