I’ve always hated practicing scales with a passion. They are just so boring! But unfortunately for me, they are a necessary evil for woodwind playing. So it has become the part of my routine that takes the most time. Its like exercise, I hate it at the moment, but after I’m done, I feel great and I’m glad […]
I can’t tell you how important it is to have a daily routine. Three years ago, after I graduated from Eastman and started working a 9-5 desk job, I created a daily routine (not just a warm-up, although it is used as such.) to keep my playing in check. I knew I wanted clarinet to […]
This past Thursday morning marked my very first Navy advancement exam. What is that, you ask? Well, in the Navy, the main way junior enlisted personnel get promoted is through exams on their specific job. The tests for E-4 through E-6 happen twice a year, and the test to make Chief (E-7) happens once a […]
This week was crazy. We had wind ensemble concerts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! Its been a long time since I’ve had that many real performances in a row (I don’t consider our military ceremony gigs real performances). And to make it even better, we played the Mendelssohn Concertpiece on the Wednesday night concert. […]
I don’t often post twice in one day (actually, almost never!), but I’m feeling particularly saucy today. I ran across this video of Sir James Galway giving a masterclass. The particular topic of this video is practicing scales. I tried his approach a little bit before wind ensemble rehearsal (on clarinet), and I think I’m […]
As many know, the area of Virginia that I live in is crazy humid in the summer. Like, walking outside feels like swimming through hot soup. Anyways, a few weeks back I decided to practice my A clarinet. I put the instrument together like normal, including putting the upper and lower joints together. I twisted […]
This summer, part of the repertoire that we are playing in the wind ensemble concerts at the navy band is Ticheli’s Blue Shades. Most band people are probably familiar with it, and even more clarinetists know of the notorious full page solo near the end. I was browsing Youtube this morning and I found this […]
A few months ago, I decided to start on a project to consolidate all my various band audition packets into one volume of excerpts that I can practice from. After much work, I have finally finished it! I have yet to print it out, but its all set to go in PDF form! It was […]
Yesterday was my first day back at work after two weeks of vacation. It feels great to be able to take time off from practicing and clarinet (without feeling guilty), but man, its hard to go back! Luckily, I knew what my schedule was going to be like (a ceremonial band gig, and another sub-in […]
So I’m officially on my summer vacation! No clarinet, no Navy for two whole weeks. Yesssssss! It feels great to be able to take so much time off to reset. Things have been really crazy the past couple months or so, I needed this respite. Anyways, the subject of this blog is about my last […]
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet