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Oboe Reed Adjustment 101
Lisa Canning | September 10, 2023In life, we strive for a balance in our everyday activity and lifestyle, and double reeds require the same balance and symmetry on the two pieces of cane we tie together and call a reed. When reeds are balanced and symmetrical, the Oboist will have a solid foundation to get them through their performance sessions […] Read More... -
Clarinet Reeds 101
Lisa Canning | August 20, 2023With marching band in full swing, and beginning clarinet students on the horizon, August seems like a perfect month to talk clarinet reeds 101. REMINDER: Without the reed, the clarinet won’t make a sound. While this might seem a bit obvious, it makes it pretty clear how critical a well-adjusted, properly fitted reed can be […] Read More... -
Air Support in Woodwind Playing
Dr. Pamela Shuler | July 16, 2023By Dr. Pamela Shuler, Assistant Professor of Music, Eastern New Mexico University It is difficult to over-sensationalize the role air support plays in creating a quality tone on woodwind instruments. While the focus of air support is often on the quantity and quality of air that moves into and out of the lungs, there are […] Read More... -
Putting Your Best Sound Forward – Tone Production and Oboe
Suzanne Segredo-Kundler | April 2, 2023Tone, tone, oh my gosh that gorgeous oboe tone! It’s one of the highlights and most sought-after qualities of playing the oboe. It’s discussed in performance reviews, it’s evaluated in music programs, and it creates a reputation in an oboist’s career. Tone is affected by numerous factors. Tone even changes depending on where you live. […] Read More... -
Putting Your Best Sound Forward on the Clarinet with Eva Wasserman-Margolis
Lisa Canning | March 13, 2023Lisa Canning: Eva Wasserman-Margolis and I got to know each other through one of the first virtual clarinet competitions that she helped organize and create: The International Clarinetist Corona Competition. It was created to help working clarinetists who had no work during the Covid-19 pandemic. As an extremely accomplished professional musician, teacher, and composer, she […] Read More... -
Smile and Kiss: Putting Your Best Flute Sound Forward
Celina Charlier | February 19, 2023Beautiful sonority depends on posture, breath control, embouchure, and practicing long notes. Here I will address embouchure, teaching you a technique I have developed over the years, as a concert flutist and music professor. Many flutists use fingering as the defining factor to control pitch and sound, and embouchure to refine it. If instead we […] Read More... -
Recommend a Specialty Woodwind Shop for Holiday Step-Up Instrument Purchases
Lisa Canning | December 15, 2022The holidays are a perfect time to recommend a new instrument purchase to a student. As an educator you know the power the gift of music can create to bring new motivation to a student and equally more energy in your rehearsal room. The holidays are a perfect time to suggest to your students and […] Read More... -
Purpose, Service, and Community Through Music
Christine Carucci | September 5, 2022In a recent recording of the Civil Rights anthem “I Shall Not Be Moved,” Grammy-award winning musician Rhiannon Giddens spoke about the unique opportunity she had to learn this song from her mentor, fiddler Joe Thompson. She explains how in the traditional folk roots of Thompson’s era, music was driven by a sense of purpose […] Read More... -
Respond and Connect to the Music for Lifelong Music Appreciation
Christine Carruci | August 2, 2022The National Standards for Music Education were put into place to help ensure all students receive varied and robust experiences in their training. Each standard is broken into strands, representing specific components of each of the artistic processes of performing, creating, responding, and connecting. While the goal of the 2014 standards was to promote literacy […] Read More... -
Incorporating Affective Learning in the Ensemble Setting
Christine Carucci | July 8, 2022With all the challenging emotions students across the country are feeling these days, I asked former band director, music educator and bassoonist Dr. Christine Carruci to write this article for SBO reflecting on how music educators can best serve music students. -Lisa Canning Ensemble directors can regularly engage and develop the emotions of students through […] Read More... -
Learn Woodwind Emergency Repair This Summer
Lisa Canning | May 2, 2022For the past two years, Lisa’s Clarinet Shop has been successfully teaching woodwind repair online. We have found two common themes among our 50 participants who have been band directors, private lesson teachers, professional musicians, school service representatives and amateurs: it takes too long to get instrument repaired and back into the hands of students, […] Read More... -
Good Saxophone Fundamentals on Good Equipment Yield Good Sounds
Matthew Younglove | March 18, 2022Before discussing the important details of picking a good, and stylistically appropriate, saxophone mouthpiece, it is important that the fundamentals of a good embouchure are present. No mouthpiece and reed combination will sound the way they are designed without them. Saxophone Embouchure All of us are genetically unique. This makes absolutes difficult when teaching. As […] Read More...
