It’s a thrill when young students are so advanced that they can distinguish between accessories that give them an edge in tone, technique and musicality. John Li, a grade 7 student at the Urban Academy who plays with the grade 12 band there, along with the West Vancouver Youth Band senior band, picked out a Backun MoBa barrel and a Backun Lumiere Bell about six months ago, out of a couple of dozen other choices, and he could tell me why!
Today he picked out a JodyJazz PowerRing that not only added richness of color, tone and resonance, but improved his already fine articulation immeasurably. We just started working on extremely difficult Langenus staccato studies and I thought a better ligature might help….and there is no better ligature than the JodyJazz PowerRing. John felt and heard it from the first note and you can see his excitement above. He has just auditioned for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Institute’s Summer Chamber Music program and the BC Provincial Honour band and we are confident he will join both. He started working on his first orchestral excerpt today.
Tony Ziqinshang, a grade 8 student at Sentinel Secondary, also auditioned for the VSO Summer Institute programs and the BC Honour Band. He also chose the PowerRing, but will pick his up next week, as he is off competing in Toronto right now.
Kevin Lee and Jayden Zhang, grade 9 students at St Georges School, chose the PowerRing when they started working on the Langenus Studies. We start work on those when students can tongue 16th note staccatos with good quality at 126-132 beats per minute. All these students jumped to 144 beats per minute instantly with improved tone, clarity and resonance. Kevin and Jayden will be auditioning for the prestigious St Georges Wind Ensemble and the BC Honour Band next year.
I’m privileged to work with these fine young musicians. There are some professionals and gifted amateurs that scoff at the differences between ligatures, as well as Cocobolo and Grenadilla clarinets, bells and barrels, frequently without having tried them. We beg to differ!
One Ring to rule them all!
