Musical Notes

The Mysterious Mazzeo “System” Clarinet

Like all clarinets that differ from the bog-standard 17/6 Klose-Boehm clarinet, it landed in the clarinet world with a resounding “plop”. Manufactu...

Is a Bass Sax in Your Future?

The bass saxophone is one of the largest members of the saxophone family—larger than the more commonly encountered baritone saxophone.

Musician 101: Developing an Internal Pulse

In this post we hope to give musicians some ideas/exercises to improve on internal pulse. Keeping a steady pulse is a fundamental skill for any mus...

Defining the Swing Tempo

While some jazz musicians have called the concept of “swing” a subjective and elusive notion, they acknowledge that the concept is well-understood ...

The Three Sopranos

I have always purchased soprano saxes that give a hobbyist half a chance to play in tune. My favs to date are pictured below: Eppelsheim soprillo, ...

The Great Flute Debate: Open or Closed Hole?

Many reasons are touted for having open holed key works but for perhaps 95% of players they serve no purpose and have significant detractors. The i...

The New Wonder Conn-O-Sax in F

These are rare instruments indeed. The Conn-O-Sax is a straight-conical bore instrument in F (one step above the E♭ alto) with a slightly curved ne...

NAMM 2015 ~ Music for Musicians

NAMM 2015 was held in Anaheim this year and hosted over 75,000 attendees. Opening day included a visit by the Disneyland band!

Measuring Music Tempo ~ How fast is fast?

Music tempo is important to a practicing musician because although they are all relative, they give you some idea about how fast you are to play a ...