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Play reeds that fit
Photo, °Florian During a rare visit to a music store this week, I overheard a very young clarinetist asking a salesperson to help him locate some unusually stiff reeds. The salesperson was as surprised...
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Required recordings, fall 2012
Here, once again, are my required recordings for the new semester. These are recordings I select each semester for my university students, a different one for each instrument (I teach oboe, clarinet,...
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Faculty piano and woodwinds recital, Sept. 13, 2012
Kumiko Shimizu, piano Bret Pimentel, woodwinds Faculty Recital Delta State University Department of Music Recital Hall, Bologna Performing Arts Center Thursday, September 13, 2012 7:30 PM Program from...
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Review: Hercules DS538B woodwind stand
After my recent glorious victory in the Saxquest trivia contest, I had a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket and I decided to get a new stand to hold my saxophones and perhaps some other...
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New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Sep. 13, 2012
Here are some sound clips from my faculty recital last month. I try to make a point of keeping myself challenged, and mission accomplished on this one. The repertoire, selected collaboratively with my...
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Review: Ben Britton’s A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist
I have been in touch with saxophonist Ben Britton since I mentioned his blog in a roundup review last year. He’s a nice guy, not to mention a great (and award-winning) saxophone player: I was pleased...
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Required recordings, spring 2013
As regular readers know, I have my university students (oboists, clarinetists, bassoonists, and saxophonists) each add a new recording to their library each semester. During the course of their...
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Clarinet/saxophone doubling and “loose” and “tight” embouchures
I have been watching with dismay some recent online message board conversations about clarinetists picking up the saxophone and saxophonists picking up the clarinet. I am of course a big supporter of...
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Yet more woodwind blogs you should be reading
I insist that you check out the following woodwind-related blogs, listed in no particular order. Also see my previous roundups: A few woodwind blogs you should be reading A few more woodwind blogs you...
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Commonly-fudged woodwind fingerings
Beginning woodwind players, including doublers, sometimes cheat a bit on fingerings, using fingerings that are almost right. If you’re doing this, it’s likely that you have notes with poor tone,...
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Follow-up: Hercules woodwind stands
A few months ago I did a review of the Hercules DS538B dual-saxophone stand with flute/clarinet and soprano saxophone pegs. I had some concerns about the stability of my flute on the flute/clarinet...
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Favorite blog posts, April 2013
I currently have over 400 woodwind-related blogs in my feed reader, and try my best at least to skim the new posts. In the past I’ve occasionally passed along recommendations about some of the blogs...
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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...
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Favorite blog posts, June 2013
Some of the best woodwind-related stuff I’ve read this month: Clarinet professor Adam Ballif shares some thoughts on going paperless as a musician, and takes an easily-digestible look at voicing and...
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Favorite blog posts, July 2013
Required reading: Christa Garvey reports on this year’s John Mack Oboe camp, and shares some masterclass notes. Her post about the fallacy of “doing more with dynamics is really excellent, too. Christa...
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Required recordings, fall 2013
As you know, I require my university woodwind students (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone) to grow their personal listening libraries by a minimum of one recording per semester. Here are this...
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Faculty woodwinds recital, Aug. 27, 2013
Bret Pimentel, woodwinds Kumiko Shimizu, piano Nicole Davis, cello Works by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) Faculty Recital Delta State University Department of Music Recital Hall, Bologna...
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Interview: Jay Mason, saxophone and woodwind artist
One of the cool people I’ve come in contact with through this blog is Jay Mason, a very busy southern California woodwind player. If you’re a fan of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band (and you should be),...
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Favorite blog posts, August 2013
Read these excellent mostly-woodwind-related blog posts from the past month, and thank me later: Bassoonist David Wells shares and comments on early 20th-century recordings of the Weber Andante e Rondo...
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New sound clips: Faculty woodwinds recital, Aug. 27, 2013
It’s time again for the annual post-mortem on my on-campus faculty recital. This year’s program was all Telemann, which was fun. Since some of my most formative years as a musician happened back when I...
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