Basic Tuning Tips For Woodwinds

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 No Comments

We’d like to talk about the basics of tuning your woodwind instrument. While this may seem oversimplified there are some important details about the different families and the instruments within that are important to know.

All brass and woodwind instruments are designed around the A440/A442 pitch and can be adjusted higher (sharper) or lower (flatter) to a certain extent. Adjusting too far either way will affect the scale of the instrument and can actually cause playing problems.

On this blog we will start with the woodwinds.

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Teens Feel Playing Music Teaches Self Discipline

Monday, January 21, 2019 No Comments

Teens feel that playing music teaches self discipline.

~ Shehan Campbell, Patricia. Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music In and Out of School

Music Helps Students Manage Tasks More Successfully

Friday, January 18, 2019 No Comments

Two-thirds (66%) of Americans say that music education prepares someone to manage the tasks of their job more successfully.

~ The Harris Poll®, July 2014

The Importance Of Breathing Well

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 No Comments

The most important factor in brass and woodwind performance is breathing. If you aren’t breathing well, it is very difficult to achieve a great sound on a wind instrument. The best instruments in the world won’t sound great unless you are breathing well!

Here is a short exercise that will enhance your awareness of your breathing:

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Assiduous Instrument Training Helps Focus

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 No Comments

Studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to tensor calculus.

~ Hearing the music, honing the mind. (2010). Scientific American, 303(5), 16

Music Helps Expression

Thursday, January 10, 2019 No Comments

“I would say that music is the easiest means in which to express, but since words are my talent, I must try to express clumsily in words what the pure music would have done better.”

~ William Faulkner

Basic Tuning Tips for Brass Instruments

Tuesday, January 8, 2019 No Comments

main-tuning-slide

All brass instruments come with slides that move. The largest one is the “main tuning slide”. The others are used to tune individual notes. Some may need to be pulled out to make the instrument flatter, others are pushed in to make the instrument sharper. In the case of trombones, not only is there a “main tuning slide” but each note can be tuned by using the hand slide.

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Rhythm Relates With Reading Skills

Monday, January 7, 2019 No Comments

A 2013 study published in The Journal of Neuroscience found that adolescent-centered studies show that even very basic rhythm abilities, such as tapping to a beat, relate with reading skills.

~ White-Schwoch, T., Woodruff Carr, Anderson, S., Strait, D.L., Kraus, N. (2013), “Older adults benefit from music training early in life: Biological evidence for long-term training-driven plasticity,” The Journal of Neuroscience

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