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Quick Fix Friday: Ligature Before Reed
If you’re a clarinet player, I’m sure you know the agonizing pain of breaking a reed (especially a good one!). RIP to the hundreds of reeds I’ve unintentionally killed. May you all join the ranks of loyal and noble reeds from yesteryear who have met an untimely demise. One easy way to prevent premature reed deaths? When you’re assembling your clarinet, always put your ligature on before the reed. This avoids the risk of chipping or breaking your reed with the edge of your ligature. Simply loosen the ligature so that you can maneuver the reed to the position you want, then tighten the ligature and voilà – no chipped reed!
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My Favorite Parisian Cafés
Before I moved to Paris, I created a bucket list of places to see, things to do, and yes, coffee to drink. Granted, good coffee is not hard to find in Paris. I’ve spent many an afternoon channeling my inner flâneuse as I savor a café at a typical French brasserie, enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with enjoying a café crème at a traditional brasserie. But I harbor an inner hipster who enjoys cafés with kitschy mismatched dishes, eclectic music, and quirky decorations. I love spending time in these cafés reading, writing, or just daydreaming (although this is considerably more difficult to do…
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Quick Fix Friday: Think Horizontally
What would you say if I told you that you can make your music sound more flowing, lyrical, and expressive with a quick mental adjustment? Think horizontally instead of vertically. Let me explain: A lot of times when musicians practice, we get bogged down by technical passages, individual notes, and the minutiae surrounding individual measures or even single beats. This is thinking vertically. We become so focused on perfecting each beat or measure that we may sometimes forget the larger musical picture. Even when we are “woodshedding” (working on the technical mechanics of a passage), we should always remember the larger music context. A classic example for clarinetists is the hated…
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Q&A with Sean Perrin of Clarineat
If you haven’t heard of Clarineat by now, you’ve probably been locked in a practice room for way too long. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Clarineat, it’s “the podcast and blog for clarinetists. Features interviews with today’s leading artists and manufacturers, videos, news, giveaways, articles, and a store.” Essentially, it’s a mecca for clari-nerds. I first met Sean Perrin, the host and founder of Clarineat, last year at ClarinetFest in Lawrence, Kansas. In addition to the amazing content he produces, he is also a talented clarinetist and all-around interesting person. I invite my readers to get to know the man behind “all that’s new a neat for the clarinet” a little…
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What To Do When You Have A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Practice Session
True story: When I was 10, I was reduced to tears during a practice session spent trying to master “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” I am an impatient person and get easily frustrated when things don’t come quickly to me, so I had a complete meltdown when I couldn’t play this song immediately. I’m happy to share that I can now play a mean “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, but this practice meltdown still sticks out clearly in my head. We’ve all been there before. No matter how many times you repeat that one passage, no matter how many different ways you try to phrase that one section, or no…
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Worst Page Turns in Clarinet Music
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by terrible page turns. Me too. Here’s my (ever-growing) list of page turns so poorly planned they are known to cause heart palpitations among clarinetists worldwide: Grand duo Concertant by Carl Maria von Weber, 3rd movement (TBH I’m equally interested in seeing how performers execute the final page turn as I am at hearing their interpretation of the piece) Time Pieces by Robert Muczynski, 4th movement (Fun fact: 99% of technical errors in this movement are caused by looming page-turning anxiety) Concerto for Clarinet by Henri Tomasi, 3rd movement (*inserts G.P. as I fumble to turn the page*) Premiere Rhapsodie by Claude…
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Applying and Auditioning for Music Degrees – Timeline and Checklist
Applying to university or conservatory music programs is stressful and overwhelming, whether you’re in high school and applying to schools for the first time, or you’re a college senior and planning on auditioning for graduate schools in music. I’ve gone through the process of applying and auditioning for music programs myself, and I’ve also helped many of my students do the same, which is why I’ve created this timeline and checklist. There are hundreds of checklists and timelines for non-music students, but these don’t include the auditions and other components which are unique to prospective music students. My checklist and timeline centers around junior and senior year (of high school or undergraduate degrees),…
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The 5 Senses: Paris Edition
Even though I’ve lived in Paris for over a year, my schedule is so busy that sometimes I forget that I’m in Paris (which is easy to do when most of your time is spent in a practice room). In an effort to be more aware of my surroundings, I’ve collected some of my favorite Paris sensations: Sights: the sparkling Eiffel Tower at night; the font of the metro signs throughout the city; the rolling hills of Montmartre; the view of Paris from the Sacre Coeur or the gazebo at the top of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont; the pastel houses on Rue Cremieux Smells: freshly baked baguettes and other delicious treats…
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12 Days of Clarinet Christmas, Part II
Back by popular demand – the 12 Days of Clarinet Christmas, repertoire edition! My original 12 Days of Clarinet Christmas (which you can read here) is a countdown of scale, etude, and other exercises to improve clarinet fundamentals. This second installment is a collection of (mostly) standard repertoire for clarinet. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I hope my suggestions give you ideas for what pieces to play next. Whether you’re looking for new pieces to perform in 2017 or searching for music to add to your bucket list, I hope these ideas inspire you and help you to share the greatest gift of all – music! 12 Orchestral excerpts Beethoven – Symphony…
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The Clarinet Curse: Composers Who Died After Writing for the Clarinet
Updated September 7, 2021 If you’re thinking about composing a piece for clarinet, you might want to consider choosing another instrument. Here are some famous composers whose final pieces or last substantial works were written for clarinet. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Perhaps the most famous piece in our repertoire, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622 was written in October 1791. Mozart died two months later. Carl Nielsen – Nielsen wanted to compose a concerto for every wind instrument, so he started with flute then created his devilishly difficult clarinet concerto in 1928…and that was as far as he got before his death in…