The Clarinet Ninja Blog
Education, Inspiration, Results
Remembering Ken Peplowski: What Anat Cohen, Paquito D'Rivera, and Evan Christopher Told Me
A new Clarinet Ninja Podcast episode built from three conversations with the clarinetists who knew him best....
She Grew Up in Canada's Jazz Royalty - Then Fought to Put the Clarinet Back on the Bandstand
Virginia MacDonald on growing up with a jazz legend father, learning music by ear, and making the clarinet...
ClarinetFest 2026 Is in Korea. Here's Everything You Need to Know.
ClarinetFest is the largest gathering of clarinet players in the world. Every year, thousands of players from across the globe conve...
The Science of Clarinet Sound: What Your Mouth Is Really Doing (And Why It Changes Everything)
What if everything you were taught about "blowing" the clarinet was making you sound worse and tenser th...
What Robert Marcellus Really Sounded Like and Why Your Teeth Have More to Do With It Than You Think
There is a story Ron Odrich tells about a lesson with Daniel Bonade that most clarinet players h...
The Evils of Air Punctuation: What It Is and How to Fix It
Do Clarinet Ligatures Actually Change Your Sound? We Conducted a Blind Test to Find Out
After years of debate in the clarinet community about whether ligatures really matter, we put seven different l...
Support vs. Volume: The Most Misunderstood Concept in Clarinet Playing
Insights from my conversation with educator Dave Sapadin
If you've ever been told to "use more air" and ended up just playing ...
If you're frustrated that you haven't made the progress you set out to make with your clarinet playing, let's change that for 2026. The problem isn't you. You're not broken. You're just in the wron...
Introduction
This is my first holiday season without my mom. She passed away earlier this year, and I've been navigating what that means, especially during this time when memories feel heaviest and m...
Practice Practice vs Practice Performance: The Two Types of Practice Every Clarinetist Needs
Reading time: 12 minutes
Have you ever practiced diligently, felt confident about your abilities, and the...
Making Clarinet Practice Work: Specific Strategies from Dr. Molly Gebrian (Part 2)
Last week I shared the first part of my conversation with Dr. Molly Gebrian, violist, neuroscientist, and author of ...
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