Category: Articles

John Williams is a living national (world) treasure.

From intellectualtakeout.org, this article was very very good.

“Throughout grade school and high school, I was fortunate to participate in quality music programs. Our high school had a top Illinois state jazz band; I also participated in symphonic band, which gave me a greater appreciation for classical music. It wasn’t enough to just read music. You would need to sight read, meaning you are given a difficult composition to play cold, without any prior practice. Sight reading would quickly reveal how fine-tuned playing “chops” really were. In college I continued in a jazz band and also took a music theory class. The experience gave me the ability to visualize music (If you play by ear only, you will never have that same depth of understanding music construct.)”

Interesting article about preserving antique instruments. From a NYTimes Article:

Fausto Cacciatori, the curator of Cremona’s Museo del Violino, a museum devoted to musical instruments that is assisting with the project, said that each Stradivarius had “its own personality.” But, he added, their distinctive sounds “will inevitably change,” and could even be lost within just a few decades.

“It’s part of their life cycle,” Mr. Cacciatori said. “We preserve and restore them, but after they reach a certain age, they become too fragile to be played and they ‘go to sleep,’ so to speak.”

From Hackaday.com:

Engineers, hackers, and makers can most certainly build a musical gadget of some kind. They’ll build synths, they’ll build aerophones, and they’ll take the idea of mercury delay line memory, two hydrophones, and a really long tube filled with water to build the most absurd delay in existence. One thing they can’t seem to do is build a woodwind MIDI controller. That’s where [J.M.] comes in. He’s created the Open Woodwind Project as an open and extensible interface that can play sax and clarinet while connected to a computer.

One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Believe it grew out of this project. Can’t wait to see what is created with this.

Cool music and sound, but what’s up with that neck??

Not sure why this guy doesn’t have his products all over the place.

Getting an all wood, Low C bass clarinet has been on my list for a while. A long while. But when is a normal musician going to be able to afford the $8K or more that one is going to cost?

Last month I scored a sweet answer to this question. It came from eBay. It is an Amati Bass Clarinet. Made in the Czech Republic, quite honestly I was taking a huge risk plunking out $2500 for this. But since a cheap plastic clarinet was in that price range, I figured it should play as well as those right? Plus The Woodwind and the Brasswind sell it for over $6,000.

Done. Bought. Shipped. Came in a Selmer Bass Clarinet case. Put it together, slapped my Bass Clarinet mouthpiece on it (Vandoren B44 I think)…….and…….WOW. The thing played great. Really great. Much like a Buffet Bass I was able to borrow for a show last year.

So…..if you are in the market for a bass, keep an eye out for one of these. They play great!