Last year, I spent a good deal of time learning a new-to-me skill for the world premiere of a solo work. My good friend Orlando Bass composed elleboro for solo clarinet, and each movement features various extended clarinet techniques, including singing while playing. I will be sharing a recording soon, and here is an excerpt from the movement which features this technique. Singing while playing clarinet is an extended technique in which the player vocalizes a pitch while playing another note on the clarinet, creating a unique musical texture. Although I had heard this technique used before in other works, it’s not something I had previously attempted. I spent a…

Have you ever felt bogged down or defeated by all the details in the practice room? (If you said no, I suspect you’re lying!) With so many directions you could choose to focus on during every practice session, it can feel like these tiny details quickly add up and become overwhelming. A few years ago, I was reflecting on my own practice habits. Although I’ve always been good to balance small-scale polishing work and larger scale performance run-throughs, I had a simple shift in perspective that made practice much more enjoyable and productive for me. After finishing a run-through of a piece, I was still getting bogged down by tiny…