Photo, thorinside

Some of the questions I am most frequently asked about woodwind doubling involve the similarities in fingerings between the instruments:

• “You play all those instruments? Well, I guess the fingerings must be pretty much the same, right?”
• “I play the oboe, and I would like to learn the saxophone. How close are the fingerings?”

There are, in my opinion, two misconceptions at work here:

1. Fingerings are the biggest hurdle to switching instruments.
2. Similar fingerings are a good thing.

In my experience, neither of these is true.

Memorizing, habituating, and internalizing fingerings for a new instrument isn’t exactly a weekend project, but it is fairly straightforward. Carefully practicing full-range scales and arpeggios with a good fingering chart will go a long way. To me, the subtleties of tone production (response, intonation, and tone quality) are a much greater challenge, and require deeper, longer-term study. They are also less suited to a do-it-yourself approach, really requiring the attuned ear, years of experience, and diagnostic skills of a good teacher.

On the second point, I don’t really find “similar” fingerings to be a significant advantage when switching instruments. Identical fingerings may simplify the process somewhat, but just kind-of-the-same fingerings introduce potential for confusion.

Suppose, for example, that, like many doublers, you started as a saxophonist and later added flute and clarinet. You might have found that the lowest-octave D major scale fingerings are very similar for saxophone and flute—so similar, in fact, that you can probably get away with using saxophone fingerings on the flute, and produce a mediocre but recognizable scale. You might ignore the pinky D-sharp key, use middle-finger F-sharp, and neglect to lift the left index finger for fourth-line D. This will still approximate a D scale, but with sacrifices to pitch, tone, and response. A new doubler might fall into the trap of habituating these compromised fingerings, and blaming deficiencies on equipment or embouchure.

With the clarinet, the fingerings for a lowest-octave D scale are significantly different, which forces the doubler to really learn the fingerings from scratch rather than falling back on close-enough saxophone fingerings.

Be conscientious and detailed about developing finger technique on each one of your instruments. No shortcuts!

Terry Halvorson

I’m always pleased to hear from other woodwind players. Terry Halvorson has been a contributor to my Broadway woodwind doubling list for several years, we’ve communicated periodically online, and we even bumped into each other in person at an IDRS conference a few years back. Terry has been working as a musician with touring musical theater productions for a while now, and I  was curious about life on the road. He was kind enough to take some time out of his schedule to answer a few questions.

BP: What do you do for a living?

TH: I am a woodwind doubler (oboe/English horn, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, recorders, whistles). I am currently 44 years old and have been performing musical theater since I was 14. I have been playing the Reed 2 book (oboe and English horn) with the national tour of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast since February 2010 and will be continuing, switching to the Reed 3 book (clarinet, bass clarinet, 2nd flute) from late September through May 2013.

How did you get the job?

I was called back in late 2005 by a musical director friend to play a reed book on the tour of Will Rogers Follies, but I had commitments at the time that I couldn’t get out of, so I had to turn it down. However the reed player who was hired gave notice four months into the eight-month contract and I was able to join the tour in the middle, replacing him (my first experience seeing a high D on flute!). Toward the end of this tour, we were in the New York City area when NETworks Presentations (my current company) was holding musician auditions, and I was able to attend; I received a call five weeks later asking me if I would like to play with the national tour of The Producers, and here I still am!

What background (education, other experience, etc.) do you have that prepared you for this job?

Wow, loaded question… well, I have been a major woodwind geek since high school (I arranged my favorite band piece for mixed clarinet sextet when I was 14 years old, and we won a command performance at our regional solo and ensemble festival); I also played oboe, clarinet and bassoon in my local youth symphony in various years. I was, of course, a music major (oboe and clarinet) in college as well, beginning as an education major but switching to performance. I freelanced a LOT, playing mostly reed books 2 and 3.

What’s the best part of the job? What’s the worst part?

Best parts are having a steady paycheck as a performing musician (how many people can say that?) and of course seeing and experiencing all the different places we play; I have played all fifty states and most Canadian provinces. The worst part is probably the lack of freedom to come and go and the strict adherence to a schedule.

What’s it like being on the road?

How much space do we have? Haha! Life on the road has its ups and downs; I like to refer to it as living in a bubble, slightly outside of reality. Facebook and smartphones help a lot to keep in touch with family and friends. The average age of a non-equity cast tends to be around 23, and there are usually cliques that happen, sometimes a bit high school like, other times just small groups with similar interests who hang around together a lot. The pit and the crew tend to average slightly older than the cast, maybe around 30-35 years old? On a personal note, I take meds for bipolar and ADHD and was recently diagnosed with HFA (high functioning autism), so I tend to be somewhat awkward in certain social situations, so the road life can be a bit more difficult for me at times, but I have been managing for six and a half years so far.

Does “non-equity” mean non-union?

Yes, but equity is the actors’ union; so a non-equity tour is lower-level, typical doesn’t play a lot of A-list cities, and doesn’t stay long. You also get paid less and have to share hotel rooms, etc.

How is touring different from playing local gigs?

Well for one, I don’t have to work at a restaurant and take the weekends off, losing $120 a night to drive 60 miles round-trip to a $70 gig. But it also stinks sometimes when you’re off for a day or two around Christmas, New Year’s or Easter, but can’t take those great gigs back at home.

Is there a pecking order on the tour, and where does the orchestra fit in? Do the musicians pretty much hang together, or are there typically friendships with the cast, crew, and other tour personnel?

The crew travel separately and don’t hang with the rest of the company all that often (though some do); the cast and orchestra also tend to hang within their respective groups, but but intermingling also happens, especially for birthdays and such.

What’s a typical day like?

Depends on the day; if we’re on a week sit-down, Monday is usually traveling, Tuesday we have company meeting 2 hours and 15 minutes before the show and sound check 2 hours before; the rest of the week is free except for shows. Sometimes the cast will have understudy rehearsals, but we don’t play for those. If we have multiple cities in a week, we usually travel by bus and leave in time to get us to the hotel around 1½-2 hours before company meeting; depending on the length of the travel, we have to stop for a 20-minute restroom break every two hours and have an hour lunch.

What’s your schedule like over the course of a year? Vacations? Holidays?

The schedules (itineraries/routes) vary a lot from show to show, but non-equity tour schedules are generally kind of like the school year: mid-September to late May or early June. Sometimes we have Christmas week off, or at least a day or two. There are no vacations other than layoffs where there are simply no shows scheduled; for most of these we are flown home with no pay (but we can file for unemployment).

Do you get tired of playing the same show over and over? How do you cope? How do you stay “sharp?”

That’s tough; I played The Producers 489 times and have played Beauty and the Beast so far around 680; luckily both of those shows were well written and orchestrated, and are fun to play. I admit that in some tutti sections, my mind will wander a little; sometimes I’ll look around the audience or the theater, other times I’m thinking of what’s going on after the show or my finances. But I always have at least 95% of myself engaged.

What happens if you or one of your orchestra colleagues gets sick or otherwise can’t go on?

Most of the time we simply have to make it work. I actually had to leave in the middle of a show once because I was violently ill; I also had a terrible bout of bronchitis a couple of years ago and we managed to find a local sub who audited and took over for a couple of shows while I went to the hospital; but for the most part, unless it’s serious, we have to play.

Do you find time and space to practice on the road? What are you currently working on?

I am the bad musician who doesn’t practice much on the road (shoot me!). I am planning on changing this, especially since I will be subbing on the Reed 1 books of Aladdin and Hairspray this summer (right after we get home from tour, actually), as well as switching books on the next leg of tour after playing my current book for two and a half years; this will be a nice change up, but I’m a little bummed as it comes just as I’m receiving my new oboe.

How do you deal with reeds on the road? Do you make your own? Do you notice a lot of change in your reeds from location to location?

I, unfortunately, was not blessed with the skills of a fine carpenter that oboists are supposed to have. I have a reedmaker in southern California who sends me small batches of reeds about once a month, and I keep most them, pulling out different ones for different altitudes, climates, temperatures, etc. It generally works. For my single reeds I have been playing on Légères since they first came out, and they are getting better and better all the time. No one has ever noticed, other than the players sitting next to me who can see them.

What advice do you have for musicians who might like to do this job?

See a therapist quickly! Just kidding. The truth of the matter is that the newer shows are being written for smaller and smaller orchestras and some companies are using virtual orchestra machines (bleh!), but be persistent; try to send your resume and .MP3s of your playing to musical director friends and other friends who play your instrument and are doing what you’d like to do; also try to get a hold of reed players in New York City, Los Angeles, and touring shows, and ask if you might sit in the pit.

Do have any favorite doubling tips (or general woodwind-playing tips)?

Hmm… for oboe, generally dip the reeds then lay them out; only leave them in the water if you are in an extremely dry climate like Utah or Arizona. Take the double reeds off the instruments and resoak them whenever you can so they stay wet, and also swab out at regular intervals (I have my swabbing practically choreographed). As for flute, the vibration from playing any reed instrument before playing flute tends to slightly “numb” the center of the lip, thus messing with the correct flute embouchure, so practice going from sax or clarinet to flute a LOT; I try to buzz my lips a bit (turning away from the mic) between these changes, if possible.

Do you have have any career tips that aren’t specifically about woodwind playing?

Be friendly and go with the flow… life on the road can be challenging, but it’s easier when you have friends around you, and often times you will make friends for life from your tours.

What instruments are in your arsenal?

I play:

• Buffet Festival Greenline B-flat clarinet (Fobes and Grabner mpcs, Backun barrel and bell)
• older LeBlanc E-flat and A clarinets
• older Rigoutat Symphonie model oboe
• 1927 Loree English horn
• Tom Hiniker cocobolo oboe (arriving any day now!)
• Muramatsu DS model flute (standard and Straubinger headjoints)
• Woodwind model grenadilla piccolo with synthetic headjoint by Eldred Spell
• Pearl silver-plated alto flute (curved & straight headjoints)
• Cannonball curved soprano sax
• old 1940′s Conn straight silver soprano sax
• old Buescher alto sax
• Yamaha 62 tenor sax (rubber and metal Otto Link mouthpieces refaced by John Reilly)
• several nice wooden recorders (garklein, sopranino, soprano, alto, and tenor)
• Susato chromatic set of pennywhistles (low D to high G)

To hear Terry play, check the Beauty and the Beast tour schedule and buy tickets for a show near you. Thanks, Terry!

Photo, nigel_appleton

I love getting good questions by email:

I have a question about maintenance on your doubles. Once you feel like you have a good foundation and can play them at a high level, how do you maintain that in your practice routine?

There’s no great answer to your question. Playing one instrument “at a high level” takes lots of time and commitment, and playing several just multiplies the requirement.

Photo, Jon Delorey

One of the questions I get most frequently from aspiring woodwind doublers is “Which instrument should I learn next?”

The short answer is “Whichever you want.” Woodwind doublers’ motivations (career, artistic, or personal) are varied, and your interests and goals should override any advice I (or anyone) can offer. If you really want to learn to play a certain instrument, then no need to read further—that’s the one you should tackle next. And if you don’t feel motivated about a certain instrument, then your chances of success aren’t good.

But many of the doublers I hear from have designs on picking up several instruments over the long term, and are just looking for advice to maximize some aspect of their current careers:

Employability

If your goal is to get as many doubling gigs as possible, then there are some relatively common combinations of instruments that are used for musical theater, jazz big bands, and other commercial-type live-performance situations. (If you play another combination, then there are probably still opportunities out there if you find them or make them yourself.) Some of the common ones are:

• Flute, clarinet, and saxophone. For jazz situations, you need good saxophone chops coupled with a good grasp of jazz style and possibly improvisation. If doubling is required, it will almost always be C flute, B-flat clarinet, or both, and often the bar isn’t terribly high on these. For theater, you will find that the weighting depends on the show and the book; often the Reed 1 and Reed 2 books both call for flute, clarinet, and saxophone, but Reed 1 might have the lead flute parts and solos, and Reed 2 is the lead/solo clarinet part. If it’s a jazz-heavy musical, then either part might call for orchestral-type soloing on flute or clarinet, plus demand convincing lead alto saxophone playing. Theater books are also likely to call for doubling on “secondary” instruments like piccolo, E-flat clarinet, and soprano saxophone.
• Low reeds. In a jazz big band, this means primarily baritone saxophone with some bass clarinet (and occasionally B-flat clarinet and/or flute). For theater, a more “classical” show will likely be bassoon-heavy, with bass clarinet and baritone saxophone doubles; a jazzy show will lean toward baritone saxophone and bass clarinet with less (or no) bassoon. Bass saxophone and contrabass clarinets occasionally appear as well; most smart arrangers will provide ossia lines to enable covering these on more standard instruments.
• Oboe specialist. This surprising combination shows up in many musicals: oboe, sometimes with English horn, plus B-flat clarinet and tenor saxophone. Generally the oboe and English horn parts call for a soloist-level player, with little more than inner harmonies on the single reed instruments.

Profitability

Perhaps you aren’t concerned about gigging every night, but you would like to have some leverage on getting the best-paying jobs. In union situations (or other situations where you have enough leverage to set your own terms), you can usually get an additional percentage added onto your base pay for each additional double, so the more skills you have, the greater the potential earnings. There can also sometimes be “cartage” fees if you are transporting heavy instruments (such as baritone saxophone or contrabass clarinets).

Beyond that, I think it really depends on the opportunities (and the competition) in your area. Oboe has been particularly good for me for getting relatively high-paying gigs, even though it is probably not what I do best. I’ve also occasionally earned bonuses from desperate contractors when I’m the only doubler for miles around who is willing to play piccolo.

Pedagogy

One question that seems to come up often is whether skills on one specific instrument make it easier to learn another specific instrument. In other words, is there an optimal order for learning to play the woodwinds?

For me, the answer is a clear no. I find that only the most basic concepts (breath support, voicing, articulation, and maybe a few others) are really transferable between instruments, and, even then, the applications are different. “Similar” fingerings or embouchures are not necessarily an advantage if your goal is to sound like a specialist on each instrument. (There are many who disagree with me on this, since, for example, a good clarinetist can probably pick up a saxophone and play a reasonable beginner-level scale without much coaching and with only minor experimentation on fingering. If reasonable beginner-level scales are your goal, then, well, there you go.)

In conclusion

Often, the most interesting music for woodwind doublers is written with a specific musician’s skills in mind: a Broadway orchestrator does a woodwind-playing friend a favor by writing to his or her strengths (or adding a few bars of piccolo for that extra doubling fee), or a big band’s staff arranger makes sure to include plenty of clarinet for the second tenor player. If you are known for being good at what you do, then any combination of instruments can lead to great opportunities. However, you may need to fit into some pre-made opportunities until you get good and get known.

Practice hard and good luck!

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 Suite for Flute and Piano
Claude Bolling (b. 1930)

I. Baroque and Blue
V. Irlandaise
VII. Veloce

from Four Personalities for Oboe and Piano
Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)

II. White
I. Yellow

Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

I.
II.
III.

Naima
John Coltrane (1926-1967), arranged by Bret Pimentel

Peace Piece
Bill Evans (1929-1980), transcribed by Brent Edstrom

Fuzzy Bird Sonata
Takashi Yoshimatsu (b. 1953)

1. Run, bird
2. Sing, bird
3. Fly, bird

Ballade
Keri Degg (b. 1975)

Notes

by Kumiko Shimizu and Bret Pimentel

Suite for Flute and Piano

Claude Bolling is a French composer, arranger, jazz pianist, band leader, and orchestra conductor. This suite exemplifies his success at juxtaposing classical and jazz styles. It consists of seven contrasting movements. Today’s program presents movements I, V, and VII. The movements I and V have improvisatory (spontaneously composed) sections in the piano part, where the pianist can choose to play as written or to improvise. The suite was written in 1973 and was recorded in 1975.

“White” and “Yellow” from Four Personalities for oboe and piano

The Hartman Personality Profile is a method of classifying personality types, described in Taylor Hartman’s book The Color Code, first published commercially in 1998. Alyssa Morris’s 2007 piece “Four Personalities” is a musical expression of Hartman’s four types: Yellow, White, Blue, and Red. The movements presented here, White and Yellow, use melodic and harmonic language borrowed from jazz. The composer summarizes these two personality types:

“White is a peacekeeper. White is kind, adaptable, and a good listener. Though motivated by peace, White struggles with indecisiveness.

“Yellow is fun loving. The joy that comes from doing something just for the sake of doing it is what motivates and drives Yellow.”

Three Pieces for clarinet solo

Popular legend would have us believe that Igor Stravinsky wrote his Three Pieces after hearing the great New Orleans early jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet perform in Europe, basing the pieces on the freedom and style of Bechet’s ad-libbed warm-up. Historical scholarship does not support this story, but it is clear that Stravinsky was influenced by ragtime and perhaps other early jazz styles. The Three Pieces do exhibit syncopated rhythms and and emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, which are characteristic of but not unique to the jazz tradition. Stravinsky also uses rapidly changing meters and even a fully un-metered second movement, which are often mistakenly used by composers to evoke jazz (in reality, most jazz uses meters that are quite strict, though sometimes obscured). Stravinsky calls for the soloist to use two clarinets, one in the key of B-flat and one in the key of A; there is much disagreement among clarinetists and critics as to whether the difference in sound between the two instruments is really distinguishable to the ear.

Naima

This haunting jazz ballad is a staple of the jazz repertoire. It was written by John Coltrane, one of the most influential of jazz saxophonists and composers, and first released on his seminal 1959 album Giant Steps. The title “Naima” refers to Juanita Naima Grubbs, Coltrane’s first wife.

Peace Piece

Bill Evans was one of the most important jazz pianists. Peace Piece, recorded on the album Everybody Digs Bill Evans in 1958, was born of what Evans was trying to create as an introduction to “Some Other Time” from the musical On the Town by Leonard Bernstein in a recording studio. However, there is a controversy about the origin of the composition: according to Evans’s theory teacher at Southeastern Louisiana University, Evans created it as a student for a written out homework composition. In any case, the final product is this beautiful piano piece, which almost allows us to forget time. The natural flow of melody, the musical development, and harmonic language make it incredible musical architecture. Today’s performance follows a tradition in jazz education of studying and performing from transcriptions (written out scores of music originally improvised by great jazz musicians).

Fuzzy Bird Sonata

This sonata was written for one of the most distinguished Japanese saxophonists, Nobuya Sugawa, in 1991. “Fuzzy Bird”, as translated from Japanese, suggests a bird floats freely between the three styles of music: classical, jazz, and ethnic, as though the boundaries are blurred or fuzzy. Reflecting the image of the bird, the composer uses a variety of musical materials without strictness.

In the first movement the time signature changes frequently, as if portraying the natural movement of the bird’s running. The second movement allows the saxophone to sing the melody “freely,”  while the piano provides an improvisatory effect in the right hand over ostinato (a repeated phrase or rhythm) in the left hand. The ostinato and improvisatory elements continue in the third movement. Around the middle point of the movement, both instrumentalists simultaneously improvise a cadenza.

Born in Tokyo, the composer studied in the engineering department of Keio University and mainly taught himself composition, while performing in several jazz and rock groups. He objects to the “unmusical” character prevalent in “modern music” and composes with tonality and melody. He has been Composer in Residence of Chandos Records since 1998 and all of his orchestra works have been recorded on that label.

Ballade

This recent composition by British composer and saxophonist Keri Degg draws influences from the hybrid “smooth” pop/jazz instrumental style associated with saxophonists such as Grover Washington, Jr., David Sanborn, and Kenny “G” Gorelick, and keyboardists such as Joe Sample and Bob James. Despite the commercial success of musicians performing in this style, or perhaps because of that success, “smooth” jazz artists are sometimes regarded by jazz musicians and critics as non-jazz.

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 woodwinds in my office and on gigs.

I had been tempted previously by SaxRax stands, which I continue to hear good things about but haven’t been able to try out seriously in person. I find it difficult on SaxRax’s website to find out exactly what products they are currently making; I had to use their contact form and wait for a response to determine that their single alto and tenor stands can no longer be joined with a special connector, and the double flute-clarinet peg is no longer made (though some old stock are apparently still available). I had hoped to buy a single saxophone stand and eventually build onto it with a second, but now you have to buy a combo alto-tenor stand, and that is currently out of my price range.

Click for larger.

Next on my list were the stands by Hercules, which are more expensive than the various cheap stands but considerably less costly than the SaxRax. Hercules’s website is very clear about what products they make. I settled on the DS538B, which holds alto and tenor saxophones, and includes a soprano saxophone peg and two flute-or-clarinet pegs. Saxquest currently sells them for USD $69.95, plus a fairly steep shipping charge (the stand is a little heavy, I guess).

Many moons ago, I did some mini-reviews of various stands, including the Hercules DS543B flute-piccolo-clarinet stand. I had a complaint about it, that holds true for the DS538B as well:

It has yellow trim. Not on the pegs, which might be useful in the dark, but on the base, where its only function is to call attention to itself (and perhaps provide a little free advertising).

I got in touch with a Hercules representative, who pointed out a functional reason for the bright trim on the base:

The reason we make the yellow trim eye-catching is to prevent stumbling over the stand or instrument on the dark stage.

The DS538B appears as though I could disassemble it with an adjustable wrench; it’s tempting to attempt this and spray-paint the yellow parts black. (I can only assume that attempting something like this voids applicable warranties.)

The stand gives the impression of being sturdily built, with a respectable heft and stout-looking hardware. The main base has the two saxophone yokes built in, unlike the various cheapies that make you remove the yokes to fold up the base. Even so, it folds up surprisingly compactly.

I will confess that the way the legs fold up makes my OCD a little twitchy.

Due to the spring-loaded locking-pin mechanism on all the folding parts, it unfolds into a fully-locked position in literally about five seconds. Folding it back up requires finding and pressing each of the eight pins, which isn’t so terrible but is a little anticlimactic after the flair and ease of the unfolding. It takes me about 20 seconds. There are three pegs, which attach the old-fashioned way, by screwing into the base. The threaded bits are quite large in diameter, which gives an impression of sturdiness, and perhaps also ensures that competitors’ pegs are not compatible.

The stand’s four angled legs lift it a little less than an inch off the ground, which can be useful on stage if you’re dealing with microphone cables and such. The rubberized feet seem heavy-duty and should prevent slippage on most surfaces.

The alto and tenor saxophone yokes are easily adjustable to hold a horn of either size (just push—no need to tighten or loosen any hardware); you can use this stand for two altos or two tenors if you wish. I find that my saxophones feel quite secure in the yokes, and that even if I drop them in crooked the stand still hangs on to them (not true of most of the cheap stands). The yokes are covered in a foam that seems pretty much like what I see on the cheap saxophone stands, and I wonder if it will eventually separate from the stand like my cheap ones have done. The Hercules representative claims it will not:

You can feel safe with the foam on Saxophone yoke, they have been tested from our R&D team and not going to wear out easily. The foam we use is called Special-Formulated-Foam (SFF), and we have sold this item for more than 5 years, and we have never heard of the problem of wearing out worldwide. You may have confidence in them.

My clarinet feels quite stable on the flute-clarinet pegs, and my oboe even works pretty well. But as I reported previously, I’m disappointed with the peg as a flute holder. My flute sits on it without any immediate danger of falling, but it wobbles considerably, and I find this unnerving and unprofessional. The peg is simply too narrow. I think Hercules would do better to offer separate flute and clarinet pegs rather than try to make one peg that does both. (I’m not against a combo peg if it really does work great for both instruments, but I haven’t seen one yet.)

The Hercules representative indicated that the flute peg has been improved to reduce wobble, but they are unsure if mine is one of the improved models. They also pointed out that they make another flute/clarinet peg, which they believe to be more stable.

One thing I do like about the flute peg is that it has a tapered portion at the tip, which provides an extra bit of leeway when making a quick instrument switch (like playing basketball with a smaller ball). I haven’t seen that from many other flute stands, and I find it to be a significant improvement on the plain cylindrical design. The flute-clarinet pegs have a velvet-ish coating that seems to protect the instrument’s finishes well, and isn’t so grippy that it causes problems taking instruments off the stand.

The soprano saxophone peg has an adjustment that determines how high the instrument sits on the peg. I hadn’t seen this before, and wasn’t sure what its purpose was. However, with a little experimentation I was able to find a height where my tilted-bell soprano sits quite comfortably and securely, something I hadn’t expected. The soprano peg has the velvety finish at its base, and a foam-covered knob that goes up higher in the bore.

The stand did not ship with any warranty information in or on the box, and another quick visit to the website did little to clarify:

Hercules has different warranty policies for different countries. Contact your professional local distributor with any warranty inquiries.

I ended up contacting Hercules, KMC Musicorp (the U. S. distributor), and Saxquest to ask about the U. S. warranty, and here is what I learned. From Hercules:

Please feel free that your products are surely covered by the warranty policy of KMC, our US distributor. They provide life-time warranty, and therefore, your right and products are fully protected. … If you, unfortunately, find malfunction of the stand, please feel free to contact either KMC or us, we are more than happy to assist.

From KMC:

There is a non transferable limited lifetime warranty on Hercules stands. The stand is covered from manufacturer’s defects (excluding rubber and plating).

A Saxquest representative wasn’t sure about the details of the warranty, and took that to be a good sign:

It’s a very good question. They must be built well, because I’ve never had a warranty question come in, in 5+ years of selling these stands.

The verdict

This seems to me like a generally good saxophone/clarinet (or even oboe) stand, and a marginally passable flute stand. It scores points over the various cheap stands for fast and easy assembly, overall robustness of construction, and secure saxophone grip. It’s also pretty reasonably priced—as much as two cheap stands, or a few boxes of reeds. I remain unconvinced that the bright-colored trim is a good idea, and I would have preferred not to have to dig for warranty information, but overall I am satisfied with my purchase.

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 outstanding pianist colleague Dr. Kumiko Shimizu, was all pieces with some connection to jazz music. First up on the program was selected movements from Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano. Flute isn’t part of my teaching assignment at Delta State, but this piece was too fun to pass up and my flutist colleague Dr. Shelley Collins is extraordinarily supportive of my flute playing. Since I spend most of my work week living in reed land, however, my flute chops don’t get the attention I would like, and I’m a bit self-conscious about my sound and my control of the instrument. I hear a number of things on the recording that I am less than satisfied with, but overall I think it went okay, and it was well received by the audience (even the part of the audience whose grade doesn’t depend on keeping me happy).

Next was a new-ish piece by young composer Alyssa Morris, a fellow BYU alum. I had heard her Four Personalities for oboe and piano performed by Nancy Ambrose King a few years back at an IDRS conference, and it immediately sprang to mind when I started brainstorming jazz-influenced oboe pieces. We performed the first two movements (second, then first), which, to our ears, had the strongest jazz elements. The first movement (performed second) in particular has characteristic swing rhythms and figures, and it was strange but fun to tackle those things on the oboe.

At the John Mack Oboe Camp over the summer, I heard a fine performance of this piece by the Oregon Symphony’s principal oboist, Martin Hebert. I also got some reed help from Linda Strommen (of Indiana University), which has greatly improved the pitch stability of my reeds. I’m pleased with the improvement over last year’s recital. I’m not sure I have entirely adapted tone-wise to the change, however, and I was a little surprised by my sound on the recording—to me, I don’t quite sound like me.

I stumbled through Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for clarinet, a piece that, in terms of technique, has eluded me for years. Overall there were some decent moments, but also some brief but disappointing crashings-and-burnings. I do think my tone, which I commented on in last year’s blog post, has improved a bit.

I’m presenting in its entirety my interpretation of Coltrane’s Naima, for solo bassoon and looper pedal. Everything you hear is performed live, with electronic layering of parts. I was pleased with how the “arrangement” turned out; there are some minor adaptations of the original to make it work with the looper. I worked hard at my high E-flat, which was mostly present in performance but not exactly graceful. The piece seemed to be a crowd favorite.

Next my esteemed colleague played a breathtaking transcription of Bill Evans’s Peace Piece for solo piano, which, in all seriousness, was probably my favorite moment of the program.

The climax of the program was the Yoshimatsu Fuzzy Bird Sonata for alto saxophone and piano, a piece I had wanted for years to do but hadn’t worked up the courage. My personal preparations included finally making a serious attempt to master slap tonguing, which I think was basically a success. (I found Rachel Yoder’s video to be the most clear and useful explanation out of the dozens of print and online sources I looked at.) I also brushed up my altissimo register, including some trills and other challenges.

Like I think many musicians are, I am my own worst critic, and it’s sometimes painful to listen to recordings of myself. I waited until a month after the recital to listen to it, mostly because of this piece. For sure, there are some spots that make me cringe. But this was a piece that I needed to tackle to push and challenge myself, and I’m proud of the achievement even though it was a less-than-perfect performance.

As a sort of after-dinner mint, we finished Keri Degg‘s appealing Ballade for saxophone and piano. I used my jazz setup for this piece, and went for what I thought was a Sanborn-esque sound. It didn’t come through on the recording the way I expected; listening back, I think I need an even brighter mouthpiece/reed combination to really get that effect across. The up-close brightness was enough that I was concerned about being sharp, and you can hear me overcompensating in places. Oops.

Thanks for listening!

“Piccolo Phil” over at The Balanced Flutist discusses the benefits and challenges of woodwind doubling in preparation for an upcoming gig. Benefits:

I actually don’t mind doubling that much, it can be a nice change of pace, plus, show tunes are just so much fun! It’s been great exploring these instruments again, especially since I’ve been really aiming to build a foundation on both instruments, not just patch the holes just enough that I can survive the gig.

Challenges: Endurance, jazz style, obtaining necessary instruments and accessories, and, of course, reeds:

As flutists, we’re super-spoiled. We buy our instrument, a nice headjoint, and we’re done. Not so with reeded instruments – reeds suck.

Read the whole post over at Phil’s blog.

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 doubling, but much of the discussion seems to center around embouchure, and the language used is not only misleading but also vaguely pejorative. Clarinetists seem to regard the saxophone embouchure as “loose,” a term I think most saxophonists would take exception to, and saxophonists consider the clarinet embouchure to be “tight,” a concept I would expect clarinetists to shy away from.

Photo, Adrian Midgley

I am not aware of any difference in looseness/tightness between the embouchures of the two instrument families, and can’t think of a reason why there should be one. In both cases, the embouchure—the lips and surrounding facial muscles—need to be “tight” enough to form a non-leaking seal around the mouthpiece and reed, and “loose” enough to allow the reed to vibrate at the desired amplitude (volume). The most common looseness/tightness problem I see in teaching both instruments is excessive tightness, often used in an attempt to compensate for pitch stability problems caused by poor breath support, and resulting in sluggish response, restricted dynamic range, and stuffy tone.

The differences in the saxophone and clarinet embouchures are fairly minor and are mostly dictated by the size and angle of the mouthpiece (closer to vertical for clarinets—even large ones—and closer to horizontal for saxophones). The much more significant but frequently ignored issue is that of voicing. The clarinets, unique among the modern wind instruments, require a very high voicing, as though blowing cold air or pronouncing the long “E” vowel. The saxophones require a somewhat lower voicing, though not as low as flute and the double reeds, and with some variance depending on the size of the saxophone; this is closer to blowing warmish air and pronouncing the vowel in “word.”

The best way to solidify saxophone voicing is through mouthpiece pitch exercises. Pete Thomas has a nice article on mouthpiece pitch; I like his choices of pitches for soprano through baritone. I do think he sometimes says “embouchure” in the article when he is describing voicing, but he correctly emphasizes “tongue position,” which is what voicing is from an anatomical perspective. For the clarinet, I find mouthpiece pitch to be a less useful tool. A saxophonist hitting the right mouthpiece pitch is like a bowler picking up a single-pin spare, but a clarinetist’s all-the-way-to-one-extreme voicing is more like rolling the ball straight down the gutter—relatively easy in terms of aim.

A too-low voicing on clarinet produces the flat, tubby sound that is, unfortunately, the calling-card of the saxophonist who is a casual doubler. (Some insist that their “instrument” requires an unusually short barrel or a special mouthpiece in order to play up to pitch.) A too-high voicing, and a mouthpiece teetering on the very end of the cork, contributes to the pinched, thin tone and low-note difficulties that reveal the clarinetist sitting in the saxophone section.

Embouchure is important, but not the biggest issue in clarinet/saxophone doubling. Get a good teacher on each instrument, keep your breath support firm and your voicing accurate, and pay your dues in the practice room!

I’m back from the the excellent Region VI conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance. I went to soak up some good saxophone playing and to deliver what is becoming more or less my standard spiel on woodwind doubling.

This time I gave away half of the handouts I brought with me. That’s a dramatic improvement over some of my earlier presentations. Unfortunately, it’s not because attendance has gone up, but because I no longer find it realistically necessary to bring extras “just in case.”

photo, Benson Kua

As usual, my presentation was scheduled first thing in the morning, in a distant corner of the conference venue, and conflicting with a masterclass by one of the conference’s most admired performers. But, also as usual, the stalwart few who came were there early and already bubbling over with questions. Some were people I had previously been in touch with through this blog. And, as usual, they were all extremely attentive, and many of them went out of their way throughout the day to offer gratitude and compliments.

I really don’t blame the conference hosts or attendees (of this conference or any of the various others) for giving a woodwind doubling presentation relatively low billing. Woodwind doubling is a niche topic. Most of the conference-goers are probably better served by attending a good masterclass on their instrument. Plus, it works out well to give these presentations to small but enthusiastic groups, with lots of opportunity for questions and discussion. I preach to the (woodwind) choir.

I got an email from a college student taking an Occupational Health and Wellness course. He asked me some questions about health and wellness issues in woodwind doubling, and I tried to answer the best I could.

How do you prepare for the many instrument switches in a musical which require changes of embouchure and hand position/key action adjustments? How do you deal with the physical demands of switches between many instruments?

The best preparation is to develop good, relaxed technique on each instrument independently. I try to practice each instrument carefully and produce the best possible sound on each one.

If I have the luxury of reviewing the part ahead of time, I will often practice the “choreography” for quick instrument switches, and make plenty of pencil marks so that I know ahead of time what switches are coming up. I try to keep a consistent layout of my instrument stands for each show, so that I get used to where each instrument is.

As I am making each switch (even very quick ones) I will try to take a moment to totally relax my facial muscles, hands, etc., and, maybe most importantly, flip a mental switch to oboe mode or clarinet mode or whatever.

Good reliable stands and neckstraps are vital.

Would you say that having to adjust to the action and key pressure of multiple instruments makes you more susceptible to hand/forearm injury than a musician who plays a single instrument?

I’m not an expert, but I would think that playing a single instrument is more dangerous in terms of repetitive motion injuries, etc. If I spend five hours a day practicing (I wish!) then I think I’m better off with more varied physical activities.

Photo, MissTessmacher

Does playing any one instrument create body tension that affects another instrument? (ex. flute might create shoulder tension which affects playing the sax)

Poor technique creates tension. If I’m tense from flute and it affects my saxophone playing, it’s because I’m doing it wrong. When this does happen, for me it’s most often embouchure tension.

How long are typical rehearsals for musicals? How many rehearsals and performances do you typically do?

These vary widely. When I do community theater, it’s often one or two two-to-three hour rehearsals. The show might run anywhere from one night to six weeks. Occasionally there are two shows a day for weekend matinees or weekday performances for school kids.

How do you keep from getting fatigued, mentally and physically, during long rehearsals and shows?

Physical: good posture, comfortable clothing, relaxed technique, breaks as often as possible, stay hydrated.

Mental: Breaks as often as possible. Try to stay engaged by constantly improving the part—sometimes that means trying to play the most gorgeous whole notes I’ve ever played.

Does the carrying of cases and assembling of instruments factor into physical strain of playing musicals at all?

Not significantly for me. I try to arrive early enough to make several trips from the car if necessary, and to set up at my leisure. If I’m bringing a lot of instruments, I’ll pile the smaller ones into a shoulder bag. I don’t have a cart for bigger instruments, but some woodwind players do.

Anything you’d like to add?

Getting good solid instruction on each instrument is crucial to proper, physically-safe playing technique. Woodwind doublers sometimes try to take shortcuts on this.

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 pegs, but got some advice in the comments section that the DS602B peg (sold separately) might be better. In the meantime, I’ve gotten to like other aspects of the stand well enough that I decided I needed a smaller version for one-saxophone gigs, so I recently picked up the DS530BB stand, which holds one alto or tenor saxophone and includes no pegs (though it has sockets to accept up to two). Most of my comments in the previous review apply to the DS530BB, so I’ll just provide a couple of photos:

Despite my poor photography, you can gather that it folds up to just over a foot long.

It also includes a bright yellow drawstring bag, and the string makes it a little easier to carry if you’ve already got your arms full of instruments.

The DS602B “Deluxe” peg, which Hercules indicates is for “French/German Clarinets and Flutes,” is quite good. It works for my clarinets and oboe as well as the standard combination pegs that come with the DS538B, and works much, much better for my flute.

I tried to demonstrate the stability difference between the standard peg and the deluxe peg. You can see it a bit in the photos below, but I think I failed to really capture the improvement in the deluxe peg.

Standard peg

Deluxe peg

The deluxe peg has the same tapered tip as the standard peg, which, as I mentioned in the previous review, is a definite improvement over a cylindrical dowel-type peg in a quick instrument switch. The peg is also lightly spring-loaded. At first I found this a little weird—if my aim isn’t perfect, I end up compressing the spring a bit, moving the tip of the peg while trying to situate the flute. But after getting used to it a little, I think it actually works pretty well, and actually gives me a little more leeway if I’m trying to get the flute onto the stand in a hurry. The spring-loading also ensures a secure fit for conical woodwinds with a variety of (small) bores, and it actually creates a subtle, appealing effect that my oboe is just slightly jumping into my hand when I take it off the peg.

The deluxe peg’s better stability seems to come from a wider base element on the peg that presumably is designed specifically for securing flutes, and the fact that the peg stays wider farther up its height.

Typical flute bore at footjoint is 19mm

With the dual-saxophone stand plus the single-saxophone stand, plus the double stand’s included flute/clarinet combo pegs (2) and soprano saxophone peg, plus the deluxe peg, I’m pretty well set for quite a few playing situations. At the time of this writing, total street price for all three is about $120.

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.

I’m pleased to announce the release of a very much new-and-improved version of what used to be my “Woodwind doubling in Broadway musicals” page. Now it’s just “Woodwind Doubling in Musicals,” since I long ago abandoned any idea of limiting it to shows produced on Broadway.

Here is what’s new, besides the title:

• Each show now has its own page. I know some of you will object to this change. Sorry. This has been a long time coming; almost 1,100 shows is clearly way too many for one page. Splitting things up shouldn’t really slow you down if you are using the list as a reference and looking up shows using the navigation at the top of the page; it is, admittedly, less convenient for idle browsing. It is also kinder bandwidth-wise to those visiting from mobile devices, which is more and more of you.
• This is huge: there is now a commenting system. Many of you who have contributed over the years (since about 2005!) have included insightful commentary along with the specifics of instrumentation for each show, and I haven’t had a good way to incorporate that information. Please go to town sharing useful information on each show’s individual page.
• There are some new ways to browse, including by production location, year, etc. This information is far from complete, so please please help me fill in the blanks. In the earliest days of the list, I didn’t keep track of sources or of any background info on each show, so there are still a lot of listings that are pretty bare other than instrumentation.
• If you want to keep track of the very latest updates and are RSS-savvy, you can hook up to feeds. The most useful ones are probably the main site feed, which delivers the most recently modified listings, the whole-site comments feed, and the comments feeds for individual shows that you care about.
• You can now “register.” There aren’t a lot of really clear reasons to do so at this point, but it creates the possibility in the future that I could extend editing privileges to trusted contributors. And I’ll tell you what: if you register for an account and send a donation of any amount at all (except I think the PayPal minimum is a buck), then I’ll turn off advertisements for you when you’re signed in.
• Which reminds me, there are ads on the individual show pages. I know. But I have put many, many hours into this thing. Also, I would happily consider running your ads instead if you have something relevant to promote and want to purchase some space.
• I have brought back the Frequently Asked Questions, and created a new page with hints and guidelines for submitting information.

Please do check it out.

For me, there was a point in my education and career when I decided that I was a woodwind doubler, or at least that I was going to be one. Prior to that decision, I had really identified as a saxophonist, or maybe a saxophonist who doubled a little on the side.

If you are thinking that serious woodwind doubling—committing to playing several instruments at the highest possible level—might be your thing, then I suggest you ask yourself these questions:

• Am I willing to commit major practice time to each instrument?
• Am I willing to accept a slower rate of improvement and/or more extensive practice routine than I would if I remained committed to a single instrument?
• Am I willing to sacrifice or at least postpone some high-level performance goals on my primary instrument in order to devote time to my secondary instruments?
• Do I have the resources and/or financial discipline to accumulate the necessary high-quality instruments and other equipment?
• Do I have the guts to perform on instruments that aren’t my strongest one(s)?
• Am I genuinely interested in and motivated by each of the instruments I intend to play?

Photo, stonelucifer

If you answered “no” to one or more, then you might be happier and more successful maintaining a single “primary” instrument, and taking a more casual approach to doubling. Or you may not have fully come to terms yet with the realities of woodwind doubling. Playing any one instrument well requires non-trivial investment of time and money, and very little of that can be truly recycled for a second instrument: if it takes you 10,000 practice hours to achieve your goals on your first instrument, expect to take another 10,000 to achieve the same goals on another.

There are of course many advantages to woodwind doubling, which I won’t rehash in depth here other than to list a few: more and/or different employment opportunities, expanded musical experiences, and, for some, great fun. But it’s not for everyone (probably not for most people). If your answer is “yes” to each of the questions above, then carve out some extra practice time, start saving your pennies, and clear your calendar for some new opportunities.

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), you have heard Jay’s baritone anchoring the saxophone section. You may have also heard him on film scores (like the recent Monsters University), on television (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, for one), in the theater (numerous productions around southern California), on high-profile recording projects (Patti Austin, Barry Manilow, Chick Corea…), and backing up a wide variety of marquee acts in concert (Barry White, Kenny Rogers, Michael Bolton, Bob Hope, and many more). He also teaches at Cal State Long Beach and Concordia University – Irvine. Jay was nice enough to take the time to answer some questions about his work.

Jay Mason and friends

BP: What do you do for a living?

JM: A combination of playing saxophones and woodwinds in recording and live situations, and music education.

What education (formal or otherwise) and experience prepared you for the work you do?

I was very fortunate to have several great young players in my high school bands, both jazz and concert band, who have gone on to successful careers in music. The choir director there started a music theory class during my junior year, which was very thorough and inclusive of many styles, which really helped me to understand how music works, not just how to play. In college, quite a few of the professors either were or had been involved in studio and live work, and working with them, talking shop, etc. helped me to understand what I needed to do if I wanted to become part of that scene. In terms of experience, the opportunity to double on flute and clarinet, as well as all of the different types of saxophones, came along in college in a variety of situations in and outside of school: musicals, different ensembles, saxophone quartets, you name it. After college, I performed at Disneyland for quite a while, which put me into a huge variety of situations, playing everything from piccolo to bass saxophone, often having to read new material or learn new parts quickly, and make it happen day in and day out, no matter the weather, the crowd, or my mood and health.

What is a typical work week like for you?

There isn’t one, which is one of the things I like about this business.

How much does your work schedule change seasonally? Do you have a “busy” time of year?

It does change, but fortunately I have enough variety in my musical life that when one thing gets slow, another seems to get busy. Usually spring until mid-June and September until Jan 1st it’s really busy, especially that spring time. For some reason my schedule is always a challenge that time of year—for which I am really thankful.

What projects are you excited about right now?

Aside from the Phat Band (we have a new recording coming out soon, about which I’m excited) there’s a quintet that I’m helping to start that we hope to launch in the fall this year. I’m writing for it, which is something I’ve wanted to get into for a long time, as is everyone else in the group. A former student and great composer, Roger Przytulski, is writing a woodwind doubling concerto for me, that features saxophone, flute, clarinet and English horn, each with its own movement, and concert band—really looking forward to learning and performing that! I’ve also been considering a solo project for quite awhile now, and the idea of what a first project would/should be is finally taking shape. Finally, I just finished recording a new project with Frank Macchia, who orchestrates and writes for a lot of TV and motion pictures here, which features a killer sax section—the rest of the band is amazing too, and Frank’s writing is unbelievable. I ended up being part of the rhythm section on bass sax, and played a couple of solos on it. I’m really blessed be to working on a lot of great stuff!!!

What is the best part of your job? What is the worst part?

The best part is getting to work with amazingly gifted and accomplished colleagues, in a variety of situations and styles. The worst part is commuting. LA traffic has a reputation for a reason.

Do you have time for other interests, hobbies, etc.?

Yes, I am a licensed pilot and have a wonderful wife and two great kids!

What instruments do you consider part of your current professional toolbox?

All the saxophones, soprano through bass (yep, I own one); all of my clarinets (E-flat, B-flat/A, bass, and E-flat/B-flat contrabasses), piccolo, C, alto and bass flutes, and oboe/English Horn. I also play several keys and sizes of pennywhistles and recorders.

Are there others you are working on or would like to add at some point? Any you would rather retire?

There’s always something interesting or intriguing to me, it seems. I still enjoy playing them all, so no, can’t say that I’d retire anything at this point.

Do you self-identify as a “doubler?” A saxophonist who doubles? Something else?

I’m not a big fan of labels, so I don’t really think about it. When a flute is in my hands, I strive to be the strongest flute player possible, and the same goes for oboe, clarinets, all the saxes, etc.

Is it your intention to play all your instruments equally well, or are there one or more that you would prefer to focus on?

See above! Seriously, I’ll always gravitate toward the saxophone, particularly the E-flat horns for some reason. My personal goal is to be equally strong on all of them, but that is a very difficult thing to achieve—which makes what I do interesting and engaging. There’s always something to work on…

You seem to do a certain amount of work as a “low reeds” player. Do you see yourself as a low reeds specialist? Did you intentionally set out to become one?

No, I didn’t set out with any intention of becoming a low reed specialist, nor do I see myself that way. But I have a reputation on those horns, for sure. I was fortunate to play baritone and bass sax in a variety of situations, which led to the baritone chair in the Phat Band, and that position introduced my playing to a whole lot of new folks, who had only heard me on the baritone sax and bass clarinet. Then they start asking “do you play bass saxophone, contrabass clarinet, etc?” Why yes I do! Doing that led to the thought, in many people’s minds at least, that I’m a low reed specialist when that’s just one facet of what I do. In fact I’m playing lead alto in several situations at the present time.

For many saxophonists, the baritone is a secondary instrument in terms of dues-paying. What mistakes do you see alto/tenor players make with regard to the baritone?

An unwillingness to pick it up!! Regarding technique, playing behind the time a little bit is a common issue. The instrument does respond differently, so you have to work out playing with good time. Another is being unable to play with finesse, especially at softer dynamics.

If you could do it over, is there anything you would have done differently to prepare for your current career?

Yes, I would have done more with writing—composing, orchestrating, arranging. I enjoyed those things during my education, and wish that I had kept developing it all along.

What advice would you give to musicians hoping to work in/around Los Angeles? Who want to play in the Big Phat Band or a group of similar caliber? Who want to do studio work?

The modern music business requires one to be as versatile as possible, keeping in mind that whatever mix you choose to develop, you must be able to do those things really well. Listen to performances of all the media you are exposed to, and ask yourself “can I play (insert name of instrument here) at that level? If not, what do I have to do make that so? Could I write a cue like that?” and such. Another excellent strategy is to look for a niche, something that is needed that few, or nobody, can do at the time. If you can write well, and people know you will play well, they may use you in both capacities on a project. Additionally, never forget that, as much as we love what we do, it is a business, so thinking and being entrepreneurial is very important. Entrepreneurs see something where nothing presently exists and create that thing. An album project would be one example of this. A teaching studio in an underserved market would be another.

Do you have any favorite woodwind doubling (or general woodwind-playing) tips?

There are two that come up quite frequently. First, when you’ve committed to playing a double really well, find a great teacher for whom that instrument is their main or only one, and study with them (or perhaps several different folks). No matter how great a doubling player is on a particular instrument, study with a person who has dedicated his or her life to that has helped everyone I know who does it. I still do this, quite often. Second, develop an awareness of the techniques that are common to all your woodwinds. One example: wasting motion in your fingers. Every woodwind instrument benefits from smooth technique without slapping or clamping fingers, or raising them unnecessarily too far from the keys. There are many other things that are common to all of them, or nearly so.

Thank you, Jay! Check out Jay’s website: jaymasonmusic.com

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 Ongarese by William Gruner and Fer­nand Oubradous.
• Multi-instrumentalist Mark Catoe shares some clear thinking about teaching the concept of time signature. This will benefit even some of my college students, who are still trying to shed the “quarter-note-is-always-one-beat-no-matter-what” misinformation they were fed years ago.
• Viviana Guzman at The Flute View declares the first Canadian Flute Convention a success.
• Sherman Friedland offers some comments about purchasing clarinets. He mentions a couple of specific makes and pulls no punches about his opinions, but regardless of your personal taste in instruments there are some general points worth drawing out: just because “everybody” uses one model doesn’t mean it’s the “best;” a good teacher is crucial to the process of obtaining a fine instrument and making it sing; and it doesn’t hurt anybody to at least consider the advantages of instruments made from non-traditional materials.
• Matt Stohrer explains why getting your saxophone overhauled is good for your playing and for your bottom line. Good advice for any woodwind player, really, though of course some of the instrument-specific details will differ.
• Oboist Christa Garvey gives college music majors some sage advice for the new academic year.
• Saxophonist Craig Buhler suggests that a joyful performance requires joyful practice.
• Clarinetist Meri Dolevski-Lewis gives some tips on reading (and, by extension, on writing) advertisements for private teaching. Also: tips on diversifying your musical income streams (including a strong case for woodwind doubling).
• Patty Mitchell shares a compelling argument, in video form, for learning the play the oboe the right way rather than looking for shortcuts. (Spoiler alert: It’s a demonstration of a single-reed mouthpiece for the oboe.)

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 was primarily a saxophonist, I still feel a little out of my depth with Baroque style, and preparations for this recital turned into a great opportunity to study, listen to recordings, and work on my ornamentation skills. (I found Victor Rangel-Ribeiro’s Baroque Music: A Practical Guide for the Performer to be invaluable, and it even has a chapter specifically on Telemann.)

I’m fairly pleased with how the A-minor oboe sonata turned out. My intonation has improved in leaps and bounds since I got some excellent reed advice at the John Mack Oboe Camp a summer ago (what a difference a change in tie length can make!). I did struggle a little bit on stage with the Mississippi Delta August humidity making its way into my octave vents, which you can hear in places in the following clip.

I have also been working on my double-tonguing on the oboe, and while it’s not perfect yet, I think it turned out quite well here. The fact that I wanted to use it on this piece probably belies some issues with my Baroque interpretation: it might have been more authentic either to slow down or to slur more, but I liked the effect and felt good about at least partially mastering the technique.

And, of course, it is great fun to play with harpsichord and cello. As we sadly do not have a full string faculty here at Delta State, I had to convince a cellist to come in from out of town. It’s scary to meet and rehearse with someone for the first time on the day of the recital, but the recommendations I had gotten for her turned out to be solid, and she played like a total pro.

I was determined to finally perform some recorder repertoire on this recital. My initial thought was to do the Telemann recorder suite, but since I already had the basso continuo lined up, I did some more research and discovered the delightful sonata in F major. The humidity had a fairly significant effect on this instrument, too, especially with me perhaps over-practicing on it in the weeks prior to the recital, so my tone and stability aren’t what I would have liked them to be. Too many cracked notes and response issues in the extreme upper and lower registers. Still, bucket list item checked off.

One definite doubling blunder: I went from oboe to recorder on stage, and wasn’t fully in recorder mode when I started the first movement. The recorder’s breath requirements are much lower than the oboe’s, and so I started off the movement with a rather ugly cracked note (not included in this clip…). But I am quite happy with how the slow movement turned out; here it is in its entirety:

I performed the F minor bassoon sonata once before as a graduate student, using my professor’s very detailed and precise ornamentation instructions. I approached the piece again assuming that I would stick to that interpretation perhaps with a few edits, but a few edits quickly turned into nearly a complete overhaul. I kept just a few of my former teacher’s ornaments and a borrowed a few from John Miller (as published in the TrevCo edition), and struck out on my own for the rest. I also decided to use some different fingerings than the ones I had previously used, to improve tone and resonance on certain notes. It was a struggle to break free from some old habits, but mostly successful in the end.

For the second half of the recital, I went with less-traditional approaches to Telemann. I borrowed the E-minor solo flute fantasy (“without bass”) to play on the soprano saxophone. As a personal challenge, I played it from the flute score while transposing at sight. My accuracy wasn’t 100%, but should pass with most people who haven’t studied the piece.

Like many saxophonists, I find intonation on the soprano to be a bit difficult. I had heard from several fine saxophonists over the last few months that they were using clarinet reeds on their sopranos to improve stability and intonation, and so I gave it a try. I was surprised that there didn’t seem to be any negative side effects. I think the clarinet reeds work as well as soprano reeds, though I’m not sure I’m ready to swear that they are actually better.

Here is the third movement:

Since the soprano saxophone piece was providing enough transposition stress, I decided to tackle the oboe d’amore concerto on clarinet in A, so I could read straight from the d’amore part.

It’s a quirky and interesting piece. I might like to revisit it at some point and see if it can be rearranged into something that better takes advantage of the clarinet’s larger tessitura. I experimented briefly with taking some passages up or down an octave, but it was going to require rewrites of the piano reduction so I ended up playing it as-is.

I have an ongoing dissatisfaction with how my clarinet playing sounds in recordings—things that seem okay to me while I’m playing sound strange when I hear them back. I’m not sure what to make of this, as at this point I am generally pretty aware of how I sound on other instruments, and am unsurprised by recordings. A major goal for the next year is to really close the gap between the clarinet tone, response, and intonation that I hear on the recording and what I hear in my mind.

Playing something on the EWI was another thing I really wanted to do on this recital. The canonic sonatas seemed like a no-brainer, as I have already done a tutorial on how to play them on the EWI, playing both parts live using an echo effect. Since playing several movements is a little more involved, I ended up using a digital delay pedal, which worked great (keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up tutorial). Unsurprisingly, it seemed to be the biggest crowd-pleaser of the night.

I had a few tempo issues, which admittedly is tricky when you’re trying to play duets with yourself. The first movement was too fast and the third was sluggish. The middle movement’s tempo was about right, but the two voices started to pull apart a little in mid-movement. Still, I’m happy enough with the result that I’m presenting it in its entirety:

Overall a success, I think. Thanks for listening!

Here’s what I liked on the woodwind-related blogs this month:

• From Casa Valdez, some utterly fascinating recordings (with scores!) of Joe Viola playing overdubbed woodwinds. A must-see for doublers.
• I have been seeing this incredible video of Samuel Barber with the classic Philadelphia Orchestra Wind Quintet all over blogs and social media lately, but Donax Music was the first to bring it to my attention. Worth the half-hour.
• Saxophonist Jody Espina shares the concept he calls “Coltrones”—a sort of combination of long tones and transcription that can help you sound like Coltrane (and others).
• Oboist Jennet Ingle explains how your brain may be sabotaging your playing in a confused attempt to keep you alive, and offers tips for solving this problem.
• David Wells makes freely available his edition of Vivaldi G-minor bassoon concerto RV 495—solo part, score, and orchestral parts.
• Saxophonist Jeff Cunningham shares some tips on maintaining motivation to practice. Geared toward beginners, but solid concepts for experienced musicians as well.
• Trent Jacobs of Midwest Musical Imports does a brief video interview with bassoon maker Peter Wolf. It’s a little bit of an ad for Wolf/Midwest, but I’m a sucker for new technologies/materials in instrument manufacture, and Wolf is full of interesting ideas.
• Soprano saxophone specialist Sam Newsome walks us through a solo by Wayne Shorter (with video).
• Oboist Christa Garvey connects articulation to breathing.
• Saxophonist Bill Plake shares some ideas about attitude and progress toward musical goals.
• Maarten Vonk of Bassoon.com starts a kind of census of the world’s bassoonists.
• Clarinet Cache points out some resources for finding and reading clarinet dissertations.
• Bassoonist Jolene Mason wrestles with the competitive aspects of music and academia.

Enjoy, and keep writing good stuff!

Some good stuff from the woodwind blogs in November:

• I’m totally stoked that oboist Cooper Wright is blogging again, from a new location. Add this one to your RSS reader to follow his transition into a new job as co-principal oboist of the Thailand Philharmonic, and, of course, his endless reedmaking.
• Saxophonist Steve Neff reviews the new John Coltrane Omnibook.
• Helen Bledsoe searches for the elusive tin oboe. Spoiler alert: she doesn’t find one, but she tries some interesting things along the way.
• Saxophonist Bill Plake warms up body and mind.
• Bassoonist Betsy Sturdevant thoroughly prepares the Beethoven 4 solo.
• Matt Otto takes a closer look at the 8th-note “swing” feel of three of the great jazz saxophonists. (Please don’t make the “oh, it’s just triplets” mistake.)
• Jennet Ingle reminds us that effective doubling requires more than just being able to play the solos.
• Adam at A Classical Journey is studying musical instrument repair and documenting the experience very thoroughly. The class has started its woodwind unit, so if you’re fascinated by this stuff like I am, then now is the time to tune in.