Unit 2B: Woodwinds

  1. Flute
  2. Piccolo
  3. Pop Bottle Experiment
  4. The Clarinets
  5. Other Clarinets
  6. Double Reeds
  7. Straw Oboe
  8. Alto Saxophone
  9. Other Saxophones

Flute

Classical music examples:

How to play:

How it’s made:

Piccolo

Classical music examples:

This is the US Marine band playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” The piccolo solo comes about two and a half minutes into it. It is probably the most well known of all piccolo solos.

Pop Bottle Experiment

  1. YouTube Video
  2. Glass (or plastic – or both) bottles of different sizes with narrow openings.
  3. Adventurous attitude

The Clarinets

Classical music examples:

This is an excellent example of a musician expressing the music – his whole body gets into what he is doing.

This is Rhapsody in Blue, a piece of familiar to many because a major airline uses it as their theme song.

Modern music examples:

This is Benny Goodman, one of the bast jazz clarinetists in history. However, it is just a slide show, so you can’t actually see him playing the instrument.

How to videos:

Carrot clarinets and slide whistles!

Other Clarinets

Classical music examples:

An alto clarinet solo

A bass clarinet solo

Modern music examples:

An alto clarinet solo.

This is an amateur video, but it uses three of the instruments studied so far – cello, flute and bass clarinet. At times it is difficult to distinguish the cello sound (again, amateur production) but it can be fun to try. See if you and your child can hear all three instruments and their unique sounds separately.

Double Reeds

Classical examples:

In the above video, from left to right – oboe, English horn, oboe

This is Dvorak’s New World Symphony. A very famous piece of music.

Same solo as the previous video, but with the rest of the orchestra playing.

A bassoon solo by a twelve year old.

At the very end of this solo the camera pans out far enough that the viewer is able to watch the players fingers move.

Modern music examples:

How to:

The oboe solo (at the end of the video) is played by a high school student, not a professional. You may want to have your student compare the timbre of this piece with the timber of the previous pieces. It is a little more strident or pinched.

Straw Oboe

How to:

  1. How to:
  2. Straws – more than 1 per student
  3. Scissors with a pointy tip for making small cuts
  4. A steady hand, patience, and lots of laughter

Alto Saxophone

Classical music examples:

Because the saxophone is such a “new” instrument there is little in the way of “classical” music for the saxophone. It is most commonly associated with jazz music.

Modern music examples:

How to videos:

Finger positions on the saxophone.

How it’s made:

Other Saxophones

Tenor Saxophone solo:

Baritone Saxophone:

This video will give you a very good look at the instrument and the player’s fingers. You can see that it is much larger than an alto sax and almost folded in half in order to be playable. This is also an arrangement of a classical piece rather than a typical jazz.

Contra Bass Saxophone:

Dueling Saxophones:

This is a crazy piece. Two people, one (with curly hair) playing alto sax, the other (with straight hair) playing tenor sax, walk down the streets of New York, playing music as they go. Toward the end they “bark” back at a couple dogs. This should bring a smile to your face.
There is more saxophone music in the DVD unit Swingin’ Bach lessons.