Category Archives: Articles

The Rise and Fall of the Metal Clarinet

I found this article from Bret Pimentel’s great site.

Last summer, I spotted an old brown leather instrument case at a local garage sale. Inside was a metal clarinet. I had seen a metal clarinet once before, at a gypsy jazz gig up in Ann Arbor. I had been enamored by the unique tone it had to offer to the ensemble. With the price tag of only $50, I had to get it! I ended up having the instrument overhauled completely, for about $90. This is what first sparked my interest in this niche topic.

The Mandalorian Theme

I was going to put this on Musescore, but seems you need a PRO account to do anything over like 4 scores on there. Anyone want to gift me with a PRO account? In the meantime, here is the PDF of the Mandalorian Theme from the new Star Wars TV show.

  The Mandalorian Theme for Clarinet (130.6 KiB, 84 hits)
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TED: STREAMING IS KILLING MUSIC

“Technology is changing the very nature of not just music consumption but how music is written and produced. People need to know that they’re being both manipulated by music technology and missing out on a full music experience. Alan Cross shares the subtleties of today’s music delivery systems and questions what it means for the future of music.”

THE TRAGIC DECLINE OF MUSIC LITERACY (AND QUALITY)

From intellectualtakeout.org, this article was very very good.

“Throughout grade school and high school, I was fortunate to participate in quality music programs. Our high school had a top Illinois state jazz band; I also participated in symphonic band, which gave me a greater appreciation for classical music. It wasn’t enough to just read music. You would need to sight read, meaning you are given a difficult composition to play cold, without any prior practice. Sight reading would quickly reveal how fine-tuned playing “chops” really were. In college I continued in a jazz band and also took a music theory class. The experience gave me the ability to visualize music (If you play by ear only, you will never have that same depth of understanding music construct.)”