Are Your Hands Too Small?

I often meet people who are concerned that their hands are too small to play alto, tenor, or bass recorders.

Maybe they’ve tried to produce a low note on an alto or a tenor and haven’t had success. Or perhaps they’re struggling to hold the instrument in a comfortable way. In cases like this, many people wonder: Are my hands simply too small?

As with most questions, the answer is….maybe!

But also, maybe not. There are definitely adults out there with hands that are too small to play conventional tenors. And there are even adults out there with hands too small to play alto. But in my experience, when given the right approach and technique, the first group becomes much smaller than you’d think. And the second group, while extant, is miniscule.

Your hands may not be big, but with patience, experimentation, and technical know-how, it’s more than possible that your hands are big enough.

So how the heck do you tell if your difficulties are physiological, technical, or somewhere in between? It’s not an exact science, but here are some questions to ask yourself:

What’s your hand span? In my experience, if you can play an octave on the piano, you’ll most likely be able to conquer the alto. And if you can play a ninth (my own span) or greater, you can almost always master bass and tenor (Fun fact: the hand spread on the bass is often less than the spread on a tenor!). I like sharing this information with students because often merely knowing that something can be achieved does a lot of the work of getting you there.

Do you have arthritis? Arthritis of the hands can definitely complicate things. But don’t write yourself off up front: manifestations vary widely. I have many students with arthritis who play all sizes of instrument. Experiment and use your personal judgment.

Have you given it time? One of the biggest mistakes I see learners make is to assume that if they can’t access a low note consistently the first few times out, or within the first few weeks or even months, their hands are too small and they’ll never be able to. But low notes are quite difficult on the recorder, and even students with very large hands struggle. Yes, you may have small hands and issues with low notes, but correlation does not imply causation; it may just be that you’re still learning what you need to do technically to produce low notes. Or your hands may simply need time to accustom themselves to a more substantial stretch.

Have you examined your technique? Low notes can be a struggle for a wide variety of reasons entirely unrelated to hand size (e.g., finger coverage, angle of play, how you’re supporting the instrument’s weight, air volume, air speed, mouth position, tongue movement). That’s one reason I really like the hand span metric….if your hands are of suitable size and you’re still struggling, it’s fairly likely that your technique is the culprit.

Can you modify how you play?

If you are struggling with a larger instrument, there are lots of technical shifts you can try before giving up. Can you support the weight of the instrument in a different way (e.g., thumbrest, neck strap, crossbar support)? Can you reposition your right thumb? Can you shift the vertical angle of the instrument? Can you shift the horizontal angle of the instrument (typically this means moving the end of the instrument toward the right)? Can you relax your right hand when not playing?

Can you modify the instrument?

If your hands are, in fact, too small to play a conventional tenor, all hope is not lost! Often, it’s as simple as trying a different model of instrument. First, you could try a conventional tenor that’s on the smaller side (e.g., the Aulos Robin). If that’s still too big, try a tenor with adaptive keywork or even a bent neck (e.g., Mollenauer’s Comfort Tenor). The new Sigo tenor by Kunath may also be an option.

Do you have to play larger sizes of instrument? Of course not. But in my view missing out on tenor should be something you choose, not something you feel forced into by your anatomy!

Three Tips for When You Get Frustrated

Here’s a dirty secret about making music: It’s frustrating.

It’s not frustrating all of the time, or even most of the time. But if you’re trying to get better at music, you must accept that, for a solid chunk of the time, you are going to be trying to do something you can’t quite do yet, or can’t quite do with consistency. And there’s a fair chance that fact will piss you off.

Honestly, musical training is really frustration training in disguise. In order to stick with music, and reap its multitude of rewards, we each have to learn to deal productively and kindly with our own frustration. Yes, this is annoying, but it’s also great training for life!

As a music teacher and a musician, I spend a robust chunk of my time helping people productively negotiate their frustration.

For all of us, it’s a lengthy and ongoing process. But I do have some tips!

Treat mistakes as data

You made a mistake!. Guess what? Mistakes are normal part of practicing and performing. And you know what else? They provide incredibly useful information. When you make a mistake, you learn important things about what is working in your playing and what is not, as well as what you might want to work on moving forward. What you don’t learn is anything about your worth as a human being or as a musician. Mistakes are morally neutral.

Try something different

You know the saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again?” It needs some revision. How about: “If at first you don’t succeed, maybe try again once or twice more, but after that you need to stop trying the same thing in the same way and change something about your approach.”

Slightly less catchy, but, at least for music, infinitely more accurate! If you’re consistently flubbing a specific passage, don’t just keep trying it over and over. Instead slow it down, break it apart, or start from someplace new. Or ask your teacher for some expert guidance.

Walk away

A shocking amount of learning takes place away from the instrument, in between bouts of practice. If you’ve hit a brick wall on something you’re practicing, don’t keep banging your head against it! Move on to something else and come back to the frustrating section later, when you’re fresher and can approach it with curiosity and calm. And who knows? It just might have gotten better overnight!

How Do You Find Other People to Play With?

One of the great joys of playing the recorder is the ability to play with other recorder players. Not only is it musically rewarding, it can plug you into a whole community of curious and interesting people. I’ve seen amazing connections made in the recorder world, sometimes across multiple lines of difference.

Perhaps because of this, one of the most common questions I get asked as a teacher is how to find people to play with. Depending on your geographical situation, the struggle can be real! (I’m looking at you, Wichita!) The truth is that for every city with a vibrant, active recorder chapter, there’s another one in which you might be the only recorder player you know.

Even if you do live an area where other players are plentiful, it can be tough to find a good match in terms of availability, personality, and playing level. As with any human relationship, there’s never a 100% perfect match, but I have noticed that more successful playing relationships tend to be aligned on at least two of the those three elements.

So how do you find your recorder people? Here are some strategies I’ve seen work in the wild.

Use Recorder Society resources

If you have a local Recorder Society chapter, it’s kind of a no-brainer that you should start attending their meetings. At meetings, you’ll encounter wide variety of players, many of whom are eager to make more music! I have seen many students find and form longstanding regular playing groups at monthly recorder society meetings. Some of these groups are even gigging!

If there isn’t a Recorder Society chapter in your area, try searching for, and reaching out to, individual players in the American Recorder Society (or your local version’s) database (membership required). You never know if you might find a good match near you! I’ve even seen people use the directory to find folks to play with while traveling. (As with any situation in which you’re meeting people from the Internet, use good judgment. But I will say it’s a rare villain that regularly pays their American Recorder Society dues!)

Talk about your recorder playing

I kid you not: I have had two different students who happened to be discussing their recorder playing with a neighbor when the neighbor suddenly reveals that they, too, play recorder! Both of these casual conversations resulted in long-term playing relationships. Basically, you never know who plays recorder. And you’ll only find out if the subject comes up in conversation.

Ask your teacher to matchmake

If you study with a local teacher, you can ask them if there’s anyone in the area who might be a good playing match for you. Though I do confess that, as a matchmaker, I have a mixed record. I matched one trio that spectacularly imploded, but I also introduced a pair who are delighted to be playing regularly together. You win some, you lose some!

Grow your own

This is an underrated strategy I’ve seen work time and time again. If you don’t have someone near you to play with, consider handing someone you already know a recorder and a method book. Chances are you already match well with this person with regard to personality and availability, so all that’s left to do is to get them interested in playing! This tends to work especially well when your victim AHEM prospective collaborator has a musical background. (As a bonus benefit, you get to practice doing some teaching –and there’s nothing like teaching others to help solidify your own abilities!)

Faraway play

This is a newer option, and it does require some tech savvy. But did you know that there are low latency platforms out there that enable near-simultaneous playing over the Internet? They are not perfect, and there are a host of caveats (it works better if you’re geographically closer; Internet speeds really matter; you need Ethernet and headphones). But it’s pretty amazing to be able to play a duet with someone the next major metro over! If you know someone who is a good playing match in every way except geographically, and you’re both willing to invest some work in setup, this could be a huge win for you! I use the app Farplay.

Happy playing!

Are you Practicing Dangerously?

Recently, I had the opportunity to perform Corelli’s La Folia for the first time in several decades. For those of you who haven’t yet completely succumbed to recorder nerdery, Corelli’s Folia is set of virtuosic variations on a specific chord progression, originally penned for violin but transcribed for recorder fairly quickly thereafter.

La Folia is a mainstay of baroque recorder repertoire –and consequently, if you grow up playing recorder, it’s a piece that you typically encounter at a fairly young age.

There are definitely advantages to being a young musician. Your processing speed is zippy. Your eyesight is excellent. You can sleep on deeply uncomfortable beds and pillows and wake up with no crick in your neck!

But there are disadvantages, too. I think I first tackled La Folia in high school. I returned to it in college, performing it for my Freshman or Sophomore jury.

As a young musician, I had enthusiasm, but I lacked knowledge about the science of practice. I didn’t know how to harness important principles of practice like relaxation, variability, and spaced repetition to improve my skills, and so when I encountered difficult passagework in La Folia, I did what many young or beginning musicians do: I hurled myself repeatedly at the problem.

Unfortunately, brute force isn’t the smartest practice technique. As I crashed into difficult sections again and again in attempt to subdue them, I *was* getting better at something: I was getting better at anticipatory tension. As I neared the trouble spots, my body and fingers would automatically tighten up, preparing for battle.

I know this because, after college, I mostly put La Folia aside. And when I came back to it several decades later, that anticipatory tension was still there. When I approached particular passages, my body and fingers would tighten up in a way I hadn’t experienced in quite some time.

Practice is incredibly powerful. And this is great! Practice can, over time, help you tackle enormously complex tasks with grace and ease. But it’s also dangerous: If you accidentally practice things like mistakes and tension, you get better at those, too.

After many decades of daily recorder practice , Corelli’s Folia, while still a challenging piece, is no longer the mountainous undertaking it was for me when I was 18. I would hazard a guess that, if I had been coming to the piece for the first time, fresh, at the age that I am now and with the skills I have now, it would not have taken me all that long to work it up.

But I wasn’t coming to fresh. I was coming to it with tension and mistakes baked in. As a result, it took me far, far longer to untangle and master those passages I had practiced badly than it would have if I’d never practiced the piece in the first place.

I am forever telling me students to make sure they prioritize ease and relaxation in the initial learning stages of a piece. But it’s been a while since I’ve felt that lesson so viscerally.

Practice is your super power. Use it wisely!

Want to learn more about how to harness the power of practice? My small group Powerful Practice short course starts April 29!

When Should You Learn a New Size of Recorder?

One of the terrific things about the recorder is how many sizes there are, and, consequently, how many musical roles you can take on as a recorder player. Want to lay down a groovy bass line? Swan around on a soaring descant? Bring a lush inner part to life? There’s a recorder for that!

But the wealth of options brings questions, and one of the most common questions I field as a teacher is about when a beginning student should take on learning a new size.

Students are smart, and they’re curious, so they have very reasonable concerns. Will adding a second size disrupt learning on the first? Is it better to wait until you’re completely confident on one instrument before adding another? Or start earlier to begin building skills sooner? How do they time it right?

The answer is unsatisfying, because it’s the same unsatisfying answer attached to every complex question:

It depends.

(Sidebar: I kind of desperately want a tee-shirt printed with it depends. It will save me so much time! I can just spend all my teaching time pointing to the shirt!! I’m kidding, of course….sort of.)

But…it really does depend! I’ve had students blaze through adding SATB within a year. I’ve had students study for four years before successfully adding another size. And I’ve had everything in between. So I don’t really have a single answer for you. But I do have (drumroll please…..) more questions!

Asking yourself (or your students) these questions can help you decide if it’s time to make the leap to a new size.

Have you sufficiently grown your tolerance for mistakes and discomfort?

Adding a new instrument, especially an instrument with different fingerings, does mean you’ll feel more at sea for a while. This is true both on your newer instrument and on your older instrument, as you will almost certainly experience an increase reading errors for a while. Your brain needs time to sort through and stabilize the different systems, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to flip to the wrong one sometimes. Are you going to accept this and celebrate it a natural part of learning? Or is it going to cause you a lot of mental distress?

Here’s the thing: learning an instrument also requires learning to be bad at stuff for a while. This can be a struggle for adults who are used to experiencing mastery in their personal and professional lives. Where you are on your journey of learning to be OK with feeling inept is meaningful in terms of whether or not you’re ready to take on more challenge!

What’s your level of overwhelm?

Taking on a new size of instrument does add challenge. And in order to be ready to add challenge, you need to not feel like you’re currently drowning. Some students come to recorder with musical experience. Some students do not. And the quality and duration of that musical experience can vary. For students who are brand new to music, or brand new to making music in groups, it does tend to take longer for the overwhelm to subside enough to add another size. Music is insanely complicated!

What’s your learning engine?

If you haven’t taken my learning engine quiz, now’s the time! My experience is that students who are primarily driven by DISCOVERY or PROGRESS tend to be more attracted to, and motivated by, adding a size. In contrast, students driven by MASTERY may struggle more.

Do you play in a recorder group?

If a student plays regularly in a recorder group, I tend to be more intentional about urging them toward adding other sizes. Why? When you play more than one instrument it adds flexibility to the ensemble, enriching and strengthening the group as a whole. Plus there’s a built-in opportunity to apply your new skills!

Why Wait?

All else being equal, I am generally a proponent of trying out a new size sooner rather than later. Like learning a new language, learning a new size of recorder won’t destroy your ability to play the old one. And though there will be bumps, it will ultimately increase your neurological flexibility and enhance your musical experience.

Plus, brass tacks, what’s the worst that could happen? If you end up overwhelmed (and overwhelm is a great guide!) simply set it aside and come back to it later. No big deal!

Why Go to a Summer Workshop?

Trying out crumhorn at Mountain Collegium. Keeping my day job.

Where I live, late February is a sorry time of year. The appeal of Winter faded back in December, but Spring is still weeks away. Sometimes there’s snow. Sometimes there’s mud. Sometimes there’s an unholy cross between snow and mud!

But you know what late February *is* great for? Dreaming of Summer workshops! I love a Summer workshop, and now is a great time to get one on your calendar!

Why? Well, if you’ve been, you already know!

But if you haven’t, you might be wondering if attending a weeklong Summer workshop is worth the time, effort, and cost.

My answer is an enthusiastic yes! Because of their size and length, Summer workshops offer benefits that are difficult to come by anywhere else. Here are a few:

Perspective

No matter how much you love your local teacher, there are limits to each person’s knowledge. Summer workshops almost always offer a slate of faculty, and interacting with multiple teachers can open you up to new ways of thinking and playing, expose you to new repertoire, or give you a different angle on something you’ve been working toward.  I reliably find that my own students benefit from this broader exposure.

Depth

During a shorter workshop, it’s simply not possible to delve deeply into techniques, repertoire, or concepts.  Summer workshops tend to be longer, somewhere around a week, and this allows you more time to deepen your understanding, build skills, and reinforce new habits.

Connections 

Summer workshops draw regionally and nationally, so you’re able to make connections with other players outside your local sphere. Peer-to-peer learning at workshops is real and invaluable. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try out a comfort tenor, or talk to someone who has put together a school concert. Now’s your chance!

Focus

Do you dream of a class devoted entirely to the hurdy gurdy?  Are you keen to try out crumhorn or play with a harpsichordist? How about a class devoted to music for bass recorders?  Summer workshops, with their larger student and faculty pools, are the place to do this.

Time 

For those of us with many commitments outside of playing the recorder, the most precious gift summer workshops offer is time.  Think about how much time you spend each day working, cooking, cleaning, caretaking, commuting, etc.  Now sweep all of that away and replace it with large blocks of time devoted to music. Sound good?  (EDITOR’S NOTE: IT’S GLORIOUS!)

Are you interested in giving a summer workshop a try? Come join me this year– I’m teaching at four!

Virginia Baroque Performance Academy: June 9-15, 2025

Unique, intimate workshop in the Shenandoah Valley offering recorder masterclass and baroque chamber ensembles.  Relaxed schedule (few evening events), supportive environment, smaller enrollment; ideal for high intermediate to advanced amateur players.

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute: June 15-29, 2025

BPI is a large-scale, Baroque-focused summer program that makes use of Oberlin Conservatory’s fabulous musical facilities. Come for one week or stay for two! All recorder players will have masterclass and technique with me in the morning.  In the afternoon, recorder players can choose from one-to-a-part Baroque consort (Locke and Purcell this year!) or mixed-instrument Baroque ensembles.  Suitable for high-intermediate players and above (players should be able to confidently hold your own line in ensemble; mixed chamber applicants should be comfortable at A=415.)  Optional extras include beginning viol, baroque dance, and more. Northern Ohio is beautiful in summer! 

 Mountain Collegium: June 29-July 5, 2025

Exceptionally well-run early music and folk workshop in the North Carolina Mountains.  I’ve taught many times at this workshop and am always impressed by its friendliness.  It features a special track for Emerging players and is a fabulous place to try something new.

Mideast Early Music Week: July 20-26, 2025

Friendly, multi-instrument, multi-era workshop in Pennsylvania! I taught several times at this workshop in pre-pandemic times and am delighted to be returning this year alongside a stellar faculty!

I hope to see you there!

Help! I recorded myself and I hate the way I sound!

As we head deeper into the new year, I’d like to tackle an issue that comes up repeatedly in my teaching.

We all know that recording yourself playing is a terrific idea. By building a healthy practice of recording yourself and listening back, you’re almost guaranteed to increase not only how much you’re able to grow as a player, but how quickly you’re able to do it.

But listening back hard. And it can make you feel bad. I know this not only because my students tell me so, but because I record myself, too! And for a long time, that was en enormous struggle.

Let’s say you’ve taken the leap and pressed record. Hooray!

Then you go back and listen. You’re horrified and discouraged. Do you really sound like that?! What should you do???!

Here’s my three-step process.

1) Take a breath

Before you spiral into self-recrimination, take the time to remind yourself of a couple of things. First, depending on the quality of your audio equipment, you probably don’t sound exactly like that. Especially if you’re recording something on your phone or through your laptop mic, the sound you’re hearing isn’t what a real-life listener would hear. This doesn’t mean you can’t gain useful information from it, or that it isn’t relevant to what you sound like; it just means you need to assume it isn’t a carbon copy.

Second, take a moment to recall the purpose of recording yourself: You are gathering data. A recording is one snapshot of your playing at one time. It is not a pronouncement on your worth as a musician or a human. It merely information. And that information is infinitely more useful to you if you approach it calmly and neutrally.

2) Talk to yourself like you would talk to a colleague

Would you tell a colleague they sound like garbage (awful, hideous, disgusting)? Would you ask your colleague what they think they’re doing or why they even bother to show up at work? You would not. Not only would it net an HR complaint, but that kind of castigation is spectacularly ineffective at improving performance. So why on earth would you say those things to yourself?

Think about the feedback you give if you want to help a colleague improve. You offer both positive and negative feedback. You make sure the colleague knows they are a valued member of the team, and that you are there not to pass judgment, but to help them move forward. Together, you brainstorm strategies to improve performance and then try them out to see if they do.

If you’ve ever worked with other humans, I bet you have a inkling of how to do this. So harness those skills! Treat yourself like you would a colleague– it will pay dividends!

3) Do it again

Recording yourself gets easier the more you do it. After much practice, I can now listen to myself play from a place of calm, kind neutrality. And from that place, it is so, so much easier to make improvements and help myself grow! The more you practice, the easier it gets!

Happy recording!

What Is Playing For?

As we close one year and open another, I’m taking some time to reflect on what I do and why I do it.

Especially in the face of the myriad crises facing the world, playing and teaching recorder can seem, on the surface, less than vital. I help people make and appreciate music– and we don’t actually need music to live.

Yet what I do, and what I encourage other people to do, doesn’t feel meaningless.

In truth, as things around us fray, it feels even more important. Because making music –at any level– is a way to connect. When we play, we connect to our own humanity– our appreciation of beauty, our mistakes, our desires for self-expression and growth. We practice listening and responding, to ourselves and to others.

And we work on encouraging improvement, again in ourselves and others, in a way that is both kind and committed.

When we play in community, we are also connecting, deeply, to the humanity of others. We are learning how to be a contributing part of something greater than ourselves. We are learning to appreciate others’ contributions and work together to improve the whole. We practice doing this while negotiating all the baggage that comes with existing as a human among other humans: Fear, ego, discomfort, and irritation, (WHY DO I/HE/SHE/THEY PLAY SO SHARP?!?!); but also warmth, goodwill humor, and awe.

It’s a privilege to be able to make music together. It is an even greater privilege to be able to facilitate it.

2025 is coming whether we’re ready or not. Let’s play!

Facing a Challenge? Here's the One Question You Should Ask

If you’ve made it as far as reading this blog, you’ve probably figured out that making music isn’t easy.

Rewarding, yes! Worthwhile, yes! But easy?

Definitely not.

And for the most part, that’s a good thing! Engaging in a complex procedural activity like music, something that combines mental and physical and emotional and social exertion, is a great way to keep our minds and bodies flexible. Challenge is good for us, and when we challenge ourselves through music, we are making space in our lives for growth.

But here’s the thing: Not every challenge is productive And learning to distinguish between productive and unproductive challenge is an important part of your musical development.

Productive challenge is the only way we can grow and evolve. Unproductive challenge just makes things pointlessly difficulty.

For a long time, I struggled to make this distinction. Sometimes I still do. If we have successfully nurtured the mindset that challenge is good, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that all challenge is good. And, even more perniciously, that backing down from challenge is bad.

It isn’t. When we choose our challenges judiciously, we’re better able to focus our energies and bring our full capabilities to bear. And we’re not wasting time and energy waging battles for no discernible gain.

So how on earth do we tell the difference?

There’s actually a really simple question you can ask yourself that cuts to the heart of the distinction: Will this challenge help me grow? If the answer is yes, full speed ahead! But if the answer is no, it’s worth taking a step back to consider if there’s an easier way.

Here are some examples of productive vs. unproductive challenges.

Productive Challenge: Reading alto an octave up. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, you could rewrite everything to avoid it, or always refuse to do it. But if you tackle this challenge, you’ll be better able to read more music and participate more readily in recorder groups. Will it help you grow? Absolutely!

Unproductive Challenge: Reading small print. Yes, it’s hard. Will it help you grow? Nope. I guess in theory practicing reading small print will help you get better at reading small print…but I haven’t seen good evidence of this, and anyway why would you bother? Consider enlarging your music for ease of reading.

Productive Challenge: Playing scales fluidly. Playing fluidly (in a relaxed, even, connected, and supported way) builds your technique over time. It is challenging, and generally requires practice at slower speeds, and progressing more slowly, than you might like. Will it help you grow? Absolutely.

Unproductive Challenge: Playing scales quarter note = 144. If you’re simply shooting for a specific metronome marking without thinking about fluidity, connection, and support, you’re more than likely practicing bad habits like tension, unevenness, disconnection, and air dropoff. I cannot tell you the number of players I have seen who have achieved a specific metronome marking by sacrificing technique and sound. Will aiming for a metronome marking help you grow? Unless you’re doing it very intentionally and carefully (see above), probably not.

Productive Challenge: Getting back in when you get lost during chapter meeting. Guess what? You're going to get lost. I get lost. My colleagues get lost. Everyone gets lost. And if you’ve never practiced getting back in, guess what you’re going to be really bad at? Will practicing getting back in be enjoyable? Maybe not. Will it help you grow? 110%

Unproductive Challenge: Never getting lost during chapter meeting. Not only is adopting this goal naive, but it has the potential to be enormously destructive. Sure, we’d all rather not get lost. And we do hope to get lost less frequently over time. But those who prioritize never getting lost not only tend not to practice the essential skill of recovery, they tend to play with enormous tension and fear. Will never getting lost help you grow? Nope!

So the next time you come up against something difficult, my challenge to you is to ask yourself our key question: Will it help me grow? Whatever the answer is, it should help guide you forward!

Transform Your Sound: Build a Tone Library!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you already know that I love talking about tone! I firmly believe working on your tone is the single most important task you can undertake to improve as a recorder player. A beautiful, clear, rich, and resonant tone makes everything you play sound better, and lies at the heart of captivating playing.

But producing good tone is also notoriously difficult. And in the beginning and intermediate stages of developing your tone, producing it requires a lot of thought and focus. If you think of your cognitive resources as fuel, good tone is a gas hog!

Now, Ideally, the production of good tone will become more automatic as you practice it over time, taking up less of your brain space and allowing you to juggle other things.

But in the meantime, because it requires so much focus and attention, good tone is often the first thing to go when music’s cognitive demands increase: if you add another part, say, or you have to play lots of notes or think about articulation, etc. etc.

This lvel where I see many recorder players get stuck. They have done the work to be able to produce good tone on single notes and slow scales. But as soon as they try playing actual music, their tone suffers.

This is where the Tone Library comes in.

A Tone Library is a collection of short, low-demand pieces that don’t tax you technically or rhythmically. They are the kind of pieces you can play almost without thinking, and, thus, are pieces during which you can devote the lion’s share of your cognitive resources to improving your tone!

A Tone Library can be physical (printed or scanned material) or, even better in my view, mental (short memorized pieces). It can be extensive (many pieces) or abbreviated (3-5 pieces). The important thing is that the pieces are easily accessible to you in whatever form they take.

Once you’ve established your Tone Library, use it as a practice repository to help you build your bank of experiences playing music with good tone. Every day you practice, pull out a piece or two from the library and play with the best tone you can muster. It only takes a few minutes, and over time, the “money” you’re putting in the bank of good tone will pay amazing dividends!

What are the characteristics of an ideal Tone ibrary piece?:

1) Not Long

2) Slow or moderate in tempo

3) Lego or mostly legato

4) Non-taxing rhythm and melody

5) Pleasant to play!

I want some examples! Every Tone Library will look a little different. But here are some pieces that have worked for many people.

Simple. Gifts

Tallis Canon

Lo How A Rose

In Dulci Jubilo

Want more tips on tone? I have a webinar for that

Three Quick Hits

Improving as a musician is not a quick or easy process. And guiding someone through that process of improvement isn’t quick or easy, either! Rather, improvement is a dynamic, non-linear, iterative cycle, involving reflective practice over time. And at times, confoundingly, progress can feel like retrenchment, especially if longtime habits must be undone.

But sometimes you just want a quick hit!

And every now and again as a teacher, I can offer one. Here are a few quick , easy changes you can make that are almost guaranteed to improve your playing!

Ditch the Bifocals

The optimal chin position for playing is level. Your chin should form a 90 degree angle with your neck. If you tip your chin up, muscles in your neck and throat will tighten and your airway will be compressed. Much of this time, this leads to a tense, turbulent sound. I can’t tell you the number of tone-challenged students I’ve spotted cranking their chins up, trying to get the sheet music focused in the right part of their bifocals. Or trifocals. Or progressives. None of them are good! If you struggle to read music without vision correction, you’ll want to consider investing in a pair of single-focus lenses optimized for the distance between your eyes and your music stand.

Wear Looser Pants!

If your pants are too tight, they will prevent your abdominal wall from expanding as you inhale and your breathing will be compromised! Embrace comfort!

Clean Your Recorder

It doesn’t matter if it’s plastic or wood; If you play with any frequency, your recorder needs periodic cleaning. If you’re struggling to play your instrument without nearly immediate clogging, it’s time to consider a clean. The American Recorder Society has several helpful resources if you need instruction; you can read about how to clean your plastic recorder here. The Prescott workshop offers a comprehensive wooden recorder care video here. And if you’re more comfortable leaving the cleaning to the professionals, the Von Huene Workshop is a good resource!

The Surprising Playing Motto That Works!

Do the minimum.

If you’re reading this blog, I’m guessing this isn’t a motto that resonates with you.

After all, musicians and music students tend to be achievers, the kind of people who put 110% into anything they do and who, when faced with obstacles, double down on their efforts. Extra credit? Sure! Above and beyond? Yes, please!

And the thing is, making an effort does serve us well in many, many areas of life.

It’s just that that playing the recorder isn’t one of them.

I’m being slightly specious, of course. Consistent effort, applied over time, is the only way improve many of your skills. But in terms of physical effort, the recorder needs very little. And if you overfunction, using more force than the instrument requires, almost every aspect of your playing will suffer.

How do I know this? Well, for starters, because I’m a recovering overfunctioner myself! But also because, of all the playing problems I see in my teaching life, maybe only 10% are due to insufficient physical effort. The remaining 90% are caused by using too much.

Overfunctioning, or putting forth more musicular effort than you need to while playing, can lead to a smorgasbord of playing problems. Like harsh tone. And weak tone. And turbulent tone! Also ugly tonguing, stiff fingers, poor coordination, squeaky high notes, squeaky low notes, voicing while playing, too much air, and even not enough air.

In short, it’s a waste of your time.

Yes, it’s difficult to train yourself to do the minimum!. It’s tough to give to the instrument only what it needs and no more. But your reward is a gorgeous, soaring river of sound!

So go ahead: Kick back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

Three Reasons I Love Teaching Adults!

When I tell people I’m a music teacher, they’ll often assume I teach children. In fact, I have only one child in my studio at the moment, and since he just turned 18, I’m realizing he probably doesn’t count as a child anymore.

It’s not that I don’t like children; I do. I worked with many children for many years. I have my own children. I’m particularly fond of preschoolers, who are nakedly joyful and self-serving, tiny dervishes spreading chaos. When I teach children, it’s gratifying to watch them discover the joy of making music for themselves.

But I don’t think it’s happenstance that my current studio is made up almost entirely of adults, and that, over the years, the percentage of adults in my studio has climbed steadily toward 100%.

Teaching adults is, for me, pure joy. I wish I had the time and space to enumerate all the reasons adults make terrific students, but I’ll settle for sharing a few!

1) Adults want to be there.

With kids, you often (though not always) have to work to help them want to show up. AND you have to work to help their parents want to help them show up! Adults students do all this work for you. Adults show up joyfully. They show up because they are curious, because they want to grow, because they want help improving their skills and deepening their joy in music. They spend their own money and time to see you, heightening their sense of the value of lessons. Honestly, there are few students more pleasurable to teach then those who show up because they want to!

2) Adults have a past.

Kids come to music lessons with very similar sets of experiences, in that their life thus far has consisted of being a kid. Yes, children are individuals, and yes, they learn in different ways at different times with different supports. But on balance their instructional trajectories are more similar to one another than different.

With adults, it’s like drawing a wild card each and every time! The truth is if you’ve met one adult student, you’ve met…one adult student. Adults come with radically different sets of musical and non-musical experiences, ensuring you’ll be teaching very different things in very different ways. At 1:00 PM you might be helping a former homemaker with arthritis troubleshoot her lowest notes; at 2:00 PM you might be talking relaxation strategies with a music teacher. The amount of individualization you need to do with adults is robust, and that keeps things incredibly interesting!

3) Adults are your partners.

Perhaps my favorite thing about adults students is that they are collaborators in their own learning. The shape of this collaboration can vary– I have students who decide what they are going to play and what they would like me to help them with, and students who prefer that I guide the learning process. But in all cases, we are working together, as a team, to empower them to improve their skills. The process is dynamic, reflective, and iterative, building on itself over time. And it’s deeply fulfilling.

Are you an adult learner or a teacher of adults? What do you enjoy about the process?

How a Simple Thing You Already Do Can Help You Perform Better

For the last two weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to be leading recorder masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory’s storied Baroque Performance Institute.

If you’ve ever been a teacher or a student of music, you probably know how masterclasses work. Each student gets a time slot during which to play a piece of music in front of the instructor and their peers. After the student plays, instructor guides the student –and the class– toward ways to strengthen their musicianship.

My first week, the class was very full, so there were few moments to spare. But during the second week, I realized I would have one open slot left after all the students had played. What. to do? In past workshops, I’ve done a variety of things with extra time, But this year I had a new idea: I’d open up the slot to the whole class as a mini performance clinic.

As I explained to my students, the performance clinic was opportunity to practice performing in a low-stakes, supportive environment. Any student could sign up to perform for the class, and after their performance I would offer them no musical feedback whatsoever.

What I would offer them was constructive commentary on the non-musical elements performing, including but not limited to: how the student entered the room, how they set up and turned pages, what they did after they played, and the messages conveyed by their face and body throughout.

In essence, I was offering the students what I wish someone had offered me. It’s possible things have changed, but when I went to music school, the time devoted to cultivating and improving the non-musical aspects of our performances was close to nil.

And that’s a pity, because the truth is, the non-musical elements of performance are important. Performing is about communication, and visual communication is important. In fact, it’s far more integral to audience members’ experience of our performances than many of us, in classical music, would like to think that it is.

Yes, our job is to play music. But our job is also to help our audiences feel welcomed and at ease. Audience members key in on our visible emotions: If you look anxious, you’ll make them anxious. If you look upset, they’ll feel unsettled. Putting the audience at ease is a delicate art, but it’s an essential one.

Fortunately, as I explained to my students during the clinic, there’s a hack for that!

Have you ever invited someone into your home? I bet you have. I’d also bet that, as you did so, you arranged your face and body to project welcome and comfort to the person or people in front of you. Hosting is a real life situation in which many of us have gotten to practice, time and time again, projecting exactly the welcome and comfort we want our audience members to feel. And performing should, at its best, feel very similar.

During the performance clinic, one student played beautifully, but his face and body projected diffidence and apology. At the end of the session, I asked him to imagine what he would look like if he was welcoming someone into his home. It was like flipping a switch: His face lit up and his body relaxed. Why? Because, like many of us, he had already practiced the skill; he just needed to apply it to the performance modality.

Next time you perform, try pretending that you’re inviting someone in. Because in a very real way, you are!

I'm Still Scared

My five-year-old daughter is a natural performer. She sings at top volume. She dresses to impress. If there are people around, she’s mugging for a laugh.

And so it came as something of a shock to me, as I was delivering her backstage for her school’s Kindergarten concert, when she grabbed my hand and said: “Mommy, I’m scared.”

Most of parenting feels like being parachuted, unprepared, into a combination of the reality television shows “American Ninja Warrior” and “Naked and Afraid.” So it is absurdly gratifying when, for once, you are fully equipped to address some facet of your child’s rearing.

I had this one.

“It’s OK to be scared,” I told her. “I’m scared every time I perform. I do it anyway.”

At that point, she let go of my hand to shriek over the presence of a classmate whom she had last seen approximately 37 minutes previously. But I think I’d set the wheels turning. And if I’d done nothing else, I’d spoken the truth.

I really am nervous. Every. Single. Time. Even though I’ve performed, at this point in my career, more times than I can count. And, for me, the nerves exist completely out of proportion to the stakes of the concert– I am just as capable of getting nervous playing Christmas music with a local Community Chorus as I am soloing on a major series.

This used to bother me. As a professional musician, wasn’t I supposed to be beyond nerves? Wasn’t I supposed to feel supremely confident and comfortable on stage?

But after years of playing and teaching, I’ve come to accept fear as my companion. I will always be scared. My daughter (though she proceeded onstage to offer a full-throated, high-octane rendition of the ABC song, complete with extempore dance moves) may always be scared. You may always be scared. It’s OK. We do it anyway.

Play Better with this One Weird Trick!

Yes, I am writing recorder clickbait! I couldn’t resist.

Mostly that’s because I am delighted by the very idea of recorder clickbait!

But it’s also because it’s exceedingly rare that I, or any other music teacher, can offer you a simple trick or quick fix. Learning to play music is a schlep. It involves the slow accretion of a constellation of complex, evolving skills and processes across very long time horizons. It is not straightforward; it is not linear; and in fact I’d pretty much call it hack-proof.

Except, that is, for this one weird trick!

So what is it, already?

Pretend there’s a note after your last note.

Lasts notes are challenging. I can’t tell you how many saggy, warped, droopy final notes I’ve heard (and produced!) over the years. I think it’s because once you get to the last note, it’s easy to drop your concentration. Part of you thinks you’re done playing, so you let your air, and your musical intention, quit before the note does. This leads to endings that are out of tune, wobbly, and/or just plain blah.

But if you pretend there’s a note after your final note, I can almost guarantee that you will invest your former last note, now pretend second-to-last note, with air, life, and shape. You won’t let your breath down early, or lose your musical intention, because you’ve convinced yourself there’s more music to come.

Then, once you’ve played your note, you can let this imagined future dissipate.

Don’t quit making music before you quit making sound! Pretend there’s a note after your last note.

It’s one weird trick that, yes, actually works.

Help! I Can't Get Rid of My Vibrato

You know the sound you wish would come out of your instrument– it’s round and resonant, like a bell. It’s warm and clear and centered, a beautiful, smooth stream of air.

But when you go to play, that’s not the sound you hear. Instead, your air stream is turbulent, maybe even rough, wobbling up and down with a constant vibrato you can’t seem to get rid of, no matter how hard you try.

What’s causing this? What can you do?

Vibrato you don’t have control over, and can’t get rid of, is called involuntary vibrato. It’s an extremely common problem in the recorder world, and one that, with time and proper technique, you absolutely can surmount!

Unlike voluntary vibrato, which is used to intensify or otherwise decorate specific notes and is completely under the control of the player, involuntary vibrato is constant and rudderless, occurring without a player’s conscious direction.

Most of us have heard players who play with involuntary vibrato. Maybe you’re one of them. If you are, read on for answers to some frequently asked questions!

Why does involuntary vibrato happen?

The short answer is constriction. When you play, air needs to get from your lungs to the instrument. You can think of the passage between your lungs and your instrument as a giant tube. If the tube is open and relaxed, air flows smoothly through it, like water through a smooth riverbed. But if there is constriction in the tube, you get turbulence, an air stream that flows more like water moving over rocks. If you’ve got involuntary vibrato, you’ve got constriction somewhere in your tube.

What is causing my involuntary vibrato?

There are three main technical problems that cause involuntary vibrato. One of the three causes usually predominates, although they absolutely can combine.

1) Insufficient air. If you’re not taking in enough air for what you want to play, muscles around your tube will attempt to compensate by squeezing the air you do have out.

2) Too much air. If you’re taking in more air than you need for what you want to play, you’ll have to engage muscles to work to hold some of your air back. This will also cause constriction.

3) Miscellaneous tension! The catch-all category. Something is squeezing where it doesn’t need to squeeze. You’re doing more work than you need to do, which, for recorder, is never a good thing.

How do I get rid of my involuntary vibrato?

For most people, there isn’t a quick fix, but you absolutely can reduce and even eliminate it over time. How you go about doing that depends on what’s causing it.

1) If you have insufficient air, you’ll want to work on taking better breaths that allow you to support your sound without squeezing. Often this will involve breathing lower, allowing the belly and sides to expand. Good breathing is at the heart of any wind instrument’s technique, and the recorder is no exception. Want more tips? My Breathing Webinar is full of practical advice. Get access here.

2) If you have too much air, you’ll want to work on taking in just enough air for your needs, and letting go of all the air you have.

3) If you carry miscellaneous tension, you’ll want to begin to very deliberately practice relaxed production, zeroing in on where you’re carrying tension and experimenting with techniques for letting it go.

What if I like my involuntary vibrato?

I definitely come across people who simply like the way their involuntary vibrato sounds. If that’s you, don’t worry: I’m not here to wrest your vibrato away from you. What I will do, though, is urge you to make that vibrato a choice, something you select deliberately rather than something you simply can’t stop.

Why Go to a Summer Workshop?

Summer workshop season is around the corner, and as usual, I’m excited!  There are some workshops I teach every year and there are other workshops I rotate through, but I enjoy them all, and I can’t imagine my year without these weeks devoted to learning and growing with students and colleagues.

But if you’re new to recorder world, or new to idea of week-long workshops, you might be wondering what’s in it for you. Why carve a whole week out of your life to attend? Is it worth the time, travel, and cost?

My answer is an enthusiastic yes. Summer workshops, by dint of their structure, size, and length, offer opportunities that are tough to come by during day-to-day music-making or shorter workshops Here are a few:

Perspective

No matter how much you love your local teacher, there are limits to each person’s knowledge, abilities, and time.  Summer workshops almost always offer a slate of faculty, and interacting with multiple teachers can open you up to new ways of thinking and playing, expose you to new repertoire, or give you a different angle on something you’ve been working toward.  I reliably find that my own students benefit from this broader exposure.

Depth

During a shorter workshop, it’s simply not possible to delve deeply into techniques, repertoire, or concepts.  Summer workshops tend to be longer, somewhere around a week, and this allows you more time to deepen your understanding, build skills, and reinforce new habits.

Connections 

Summer workshops draw regionally and nationally, so you’re able to make connections with other players outside your local sphere. Peer-to-peer learning at workshops is real and invaluable. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try out a comfort tenor, or talk to someone who has put together a school concert. Now’s your chance!

Focus

Do you dream of a class devoted entirely to the hurdy gurdy?  Are you keen to try out crumhorn or play with a harpsichordist? How about a class devoted to music for bass recorders?  Summer workshops, with their larger student and faculty pools, are the place to do this.

Time 

For those of us with many commitments outside of playing the recorder, the most precious gift summer workshops offer is time.  Think about how much time you spend each day working, cooking, cleaning, caretaking, commuting, etc.  Now sweep all of that away and replace it with large blocks of time devoted to music. Sound good?  (EDITOR’S NOTE: IT’S GLORIOUS!)

Are you interested in giving a summer workshop a try? Come join me this year– I’m teaching at four!

Virginia Baroque Performance Academy: June 9-15, 2024

***FULL FOR RECORDERS IN 2024****. Unique, intimate workshop in the Shenandoah Valley offering recorder masterclass and baroque chamber ensembles.  Relaxed schedule, supportive environment, smaller enrollment; ideal for more advanced amateur players.

Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute: June 16-29, 2024

You can attend either one or both weeks of this storied Baroque summer program!  This is my first year teaching at BPI, and I'm excited! All recorder players will have masterclass and technique with me in the morning.  In the afternoon, recorder players can choose from coached recorder consort (with an opportunity to use some of Oberlin's wonderful instruments!) or mixed-instrument baroque ensembles.  Suitable for high-intermediate players and above (all players should be able to hold your own line in an ensemble).  Optional extras include beginning viol, baroque dance, and more. Northern Ohio is beautiful in summer!  Application deadline is April 5.

 Mountain Collegium: June 30-July 6, 2024

Exceptionally well-run early music and folk workshop in the North Carolina Mountains.  I’ve taught many times at this workshop and am always impressed by its friendliness.  It’s also a great place to try something new. 

SFEMS Recorder Week: July 21-July 27, 2024

Fun with recorder in the Bay Area!  SFEMS is a well-established recorder workshop suitable for players of all levels. It features diverse classes with multiple faculty members, as well as large group playing opportunities.

I hope to see you there!

My Five Most Popular Blog Post of All Time

I’m always curious what resonates with my readers. It isn’t always what I think it will be! But this month is the first time I’ve done a deep dive into the data. I’ve been blogging since 2016, publishing articles about once a month…. that’s a lot of blogging! So I got curious: Out of all the articles I’ve published over the years, which were the ones that got the most traction?

Without further ado, I present my five most popular blog posts of all time. Some weren’t a surprise…but some were!

Transform Your Playing: Keeping a Practice Journal.

This is an old post, but I’m not surprised it took the number one spot…it’s a good one! I still refer my students here sometimes for advice on setting up and tracking their practice.

Practicing Tunefulness: Your Journey Toward Playing in Tune

Tuning is quite difficult on the recorder, so it makes sense that this was a topic of interest.

Better Playing in Five Minutes: No Really!

The hope for a quick fix springs eternal! But truthfully, there’s some verygood advice here.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Recorder Players

How many of these habits do you cultivate? They’re good ones!

The Single Word that Can Transform Your Playing

OK, OK, I cheated a bit: This is actually my eighth most popular entry. But I believe in this one with my whole heart, and I think you should, too!

Were these your favorites? Did I miss something? My hope over the years is that I’ve written at least one thing that has helped you on your musical journey!

How to Navigate a Practicing Slump: Four Tips

You probably know what a practicing slump feels like. Where once you might have practiced happily, even eagerly, now the thought of picking up your instrument makes you tired, or maybe even grumpy. You might dodge the practice room, but then you feel guilty about it. Or, you might succeed in dragging yourself there, but every minute feels like a grind. Why are you doing this again? What’s the point?

Practicing slumps are normal. I have them; my colleagues have them; my students have them. But I think we’re particularly vulnerable to them after we’ve attempted big, sweeping changes….in other words, for many of us, in January.

We make bold promises in January. We embark on new musical journeys and projects. We tell ourselves that this is the year we’re going to get it all done! We practice every day! With enthusiasm!

By February, our resolve beings to flag. Our January pace proves difficult to sustain, and we’re more and more tempted to throw up our hands and maybe also go back to bed. February is like January with a hangover.

Practicing slumps are totally normal, but it’s also important that we know how to navigate through them. A practice slump in an of itself isn’t harmful, but if you let it drag you down, it can diminish your participation in, and enjoyment of, music– and that’s a sad thing!

So how do you deal with a practicing slump, whether in February or any other time? Here are my top four tips!

Take a Break

Sometimes we need to intentionally rest and reset. If you spend three days away from the instrument by accident, intending to play every day, you’re going to fill guilty and powerless. But if you allot yourself three days of time-limited, intentional rest, chances are fairly good that you’ll return to your practice refreshed and reenergized. The key is to make your break purposeful and deliberate.

Wait it Out

This is the route I probably take the most. Sometimes, with a practicing slump, you just need to ride it out. If I’m feeling the tell-tale lack of energy and enthusiasm that signifies a practicing slump, I’ll put in a bare minimum amount of time, stopping once I reach it unless I feel like doing more. Putting in, say, 20 minutes a day keeps me in the game and helps me maintain my technique, as well as the habit of practicing, while I wait for my enthusiasm to return.

Shake it Up

Sometimes you don’t need a break from practicing so much as you need a break from practicing a particular thing. Instead of walking away from the instrument, try something different. Memorize a favorite tune, listen to recorder players online, sight read easy pieces, mess with a different clef. Trying something new, or even just swapping tasks, can bring your practicing slump to a close.

Phone a Friend

There’s nothing like engaging musically with other people to help us a practicing slump! Grab a friend and try something musical. You can play with them, listen to music together, ask them to be your audience for a mini-performance….even teach them the rudiments of the recorder! Getting another human being in the room can be immensely beneficial.

If you find yourself in a practicing slump this month (or any month), try one of these techniques. February may be extra long this year, but your practicing slump doesn’t have to be!