Musical Notes

C. G. Conn's Wartime Contributions

World War II saw the mobilization of money, people, resources and more for the production of equipment used during the conflict. The Allies outpace...

The Mysterious Mazzeo “System” Clarinet

My late, great friend Terry Stibal once waxed poetic with me about a very unique clarinet system. He was a professional musician and band founder o...

Is a Bass Sax in Your Future?

“I wanted an electric train for Christmas but I got the saxophone instead.” ~ Clarence Clemons The bass saxophone is one of the largest members of ...

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

We have talked about Measuring Music Tempos ~ How Fast is Fast? Today we are going to discuss Swing tempo, which has a no published standards. Firs...

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 View

Gordon Palmer, a friend of mine posted this gem on the Sax on the Website. I wanted to put it here for my many sax friends who, like me, struggle w...

The New Wonder Conn-O-Sax in F

A couple of years ago I got to play a Conn-o-sax. We feature this lovely and pristine sax on many of our social media sites. It was the sweetest ...

The Clarinet Deal of a Lifetime

I have spent a lot of time helping family and friends find the perfect instrument within the constraints of their budgets. New musicians, young mus...

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 ...