The Good Musician

All woodwinds, that is. The so-called woodwind quintet is a flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and french horn. The latter, however, is frequently included in small chamber consorts, especially in the Baroque, as they play those lovely hunting calls and stirring royal fanfares.
The Baroque sonata form often contained a 3/4 or 6/8 meter movement, and horns would feature prominently. The horn can also sustain a pedal tone or sound the root of a chord to support the other four instruments.
There was lots ‘o repertoire written for woodwind quintet in the 20th century. There is a woodwind quintet nestled in …read more

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This was on the wall of a rehearsal room I recently inhabited.
1. Thou shalt attend thy rehearsals with steady faithfulness.
2. Thou shalt not touch graven metal with thy bare hands.
3. Thou shalt not take thy sharps and flats in vain.
4. Remember thy performance dates and keep them holy.
5. Honor thy director that thy days be long upon the land.
6. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s bell assignment.
7. Thou shalt not tap thy foot with exceeding loudness.
8. Thou shalt not steal thy neighbor’s pencil.
9. Thou shalt return thy bells to their …read more

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Do you have an articulated philosophy of music? You are welcome to post it here. In the meantime, I’ll share mine. To me, the term “good” musician means a person who dedicates their entire being to blow, scrape, strum, hit, teach, sing, learn, whistle, compose, tune, or otherwise practice music to the very best of their abilities.
It has nothing to do with judgment, grades, power trips, ego eruptions, the elitist attitude that frequently assaults music. It doesn’t matter what “kind” of music it is. It has to do with being one with The Vibration of the Universe. Literally. Tuning …read more

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King Wenceslas (Szent Vraclav) statue, Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic.
Photo by TGM.
Prazska Muzejni Noc
Web designers: Czech out this gorgeous Web site!
Anniversary of 5th Prague Museum Night, a collaboration among the National Museum, Prague Public Transport Company Inc., and Association of Museum and Galleries of the Czech Republic. 25 cultural institutions and 51 sites were involved. Happens on Thursday evenings. Admission and transportation are free, except for a free will donation to two national sites.
The evening also includes concerts, recitals, movies, theatre, and dance performances, public readings, lectures, and guided tours.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every city in America …read more

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Image details: Mendelssohn served by picapp.com
Neighboring Georgetown is building a nationally recognized mega-festival of the arts. The Georgetown Festival of the Arts is an exemplar of community involvement producing a highly educational, thoroughly interactive, fun place to be for all ages. Kids can explore an instrumental petting zoo, learn the history of the dulcimer, and play along during a performance. Art in the Park ran May 31-June 1, and featured two days of fine arts shows and sales in the lovely San Gabriel Park. Georgetown even has it’s own Festival Pyrotechnician.
This coming weekend, June 5-8 is all about Mendelssohn in …read more

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I have a 1977 Sankyo Prima flute, sterling, low B foot. I love it. It has been my faithful companion for three decades. Flutes can be made out of wood, metal, stone, clay, most any material you can fashion into a long tube. The sound is made by the air spiraling through the tube, usually with finger holes to change the pitch of the notes. Instruments that are played by blowing air into or over them are called aerophones.
Cornell Kinderknecht plays several kinds of flutes, sometimes with Tibetan bowls.
Paul Horn plays an alto flute, among other woodwind instruments, sometimes in …read more

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So you have a Handel oratorio alto part to learn. Whether it’s in two days or two weeks, it never hurts to drill til there are no surprises. Here’s a site for audio files for each voice part, which can be a big help in nailing the notes, or smoothing out tricky turns or skips in a run.
You will have to take the no frills-execution of the mechanical keyboard and shape it into real music. This is where the musicianship comes in. What is the emotional context of the music? If you’re singing Handel, Bach, the Baroque, it will …read more

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I was thrilled to see that my new friends, the White Oak Trio, now have two videos up. This is exciting, because now every Good Musician can hear what a piano trio is supposed to sound like. Not only that, one of the videos interposes an interview with the group and live performances. Listen, and you’ll learn oodles about what goes in to making good music, and good music being made! This is a group to follow closely…

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The Texas Choral Directors Association publishes the member magazine Texas Sings!. The latest issue features an article by Dr. Debbie Rohward from the University of North Texas on the importance of clear, attenuated, immediate, and appropriate feedback to further improvement. We all know that negative feedback results in negative understanding and growth. Rohward suggests that the good music teacher focuses student attention on specific and attainable goals on which to build musical competency.
Examining a musical component such as pitch, tone quality, dynamics, and the like helps build an aural framework that the musician can build on, and leads to …read more

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Heard of tapping? This is a stringed instrument played by tapping the strings on the frets, sorta like playing piano–no strumming or picking. The Tappistry Guild is a whole mess of people who play this style on guitar, bass, et al.
Traktor Topaz put out a very cool series of lessons for the tapper, you should definitely check out his in-depth pedagogy/musicology, delivered via the “Multi-String Shopper” newsletter.
The ultra fabulous Mobius Megatar dreams of taking over the world, one tapper at a time.

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