• Spring Cleaning: Clarinet Edition

    It’s that time of year again, when you trade in your peppermint mochas for iced coffee, bid adieu to your winter jacket, shamelessly post pictures of blooming flowers on social media…..and reluctantly realize you should really start your spring cleaning. If the idea of spring cleaning is foreign to you, I’m here to help. I’m a lifelong professional neat-freak and organizer. I don’t let seasons dictate my cleaning habits, although there’s something satisfying about marking the end of winter with a clean space. I am a firm believer in the power of an organized room. If you are surrounded by visual clutter, it is transferred into mental clutter (aka stress!). If…

  • 13 Things That Annoy Every Clarinetist

    Playing the clarinet is usually pretty awesome. We can play any genre of music – classical, jazz, Klezmer, pop. We blend well with most instruments. Heck, even Mozart loved us (his favorite instrument was the basset clarinet!). Clarinetists are known for being down-to-earth, but there are some things that will always irritate us: 1. When your ligature slides while changing clarinets 2. Getting spit in your keys 3. Warped reeds 4. Having to play a school-owned auxiliary instrument, which are usually plastic and in serious need of repair 5. Having to transpose C clarinet parts 6. When composers give you zero time to switch clarinets…. 7. ….Or zero time to turn…