Articles, methods, and resources for wind players, improvisers, and anyone curious about where musical worlds collide.
Benji Rose
About This Space
As a multi-instrumentalist, I'm interested in where worlds collide: medieval and saxophone, folk music and composition, early instruments and contemporary practice. I explore these ideas through performance, writing, and teaching.
The basic principle of my artistic philosophy is getting away from standardisation and ideas of virtuoso and perfection. Music isn't about flawless execution. It's about finding your voice, understanding your instrument, and making something that matters to you.
As a teacher, I'm particularly interested in developing materials for early music that actually help people play, not just read about playing.
My Teaching Philosophy
Music as Living Practice, Not Museum Artefact
For centuries, improvisation was central to Western art music. Musicians like Mozart and Liszt didn't just perform, they created spontaneously, embellishing, ornamenting, and making music their own. This living tradition was lost as music moved from aristocratic courts to middle-class concert halls, as notation replaced oral transmission, and as reverence for the past replaced creative engagement with the present.
I teach to reclaim that living tradition.
Breaking Free from the Tyranny of Perfection
Modern conservatory education has become obsessed with technical perfection and "correct" interpretation. Students learn to reproduce canonical works flawlessly but rarely learn to question, experiment, or make music that reflects their own voice. This fear of mistakes (reinforced by competitions, auditions, and grading systems) kills creativity.
Music should not be about avoiding errors. It should be about expression, exploration, and taking risks. As Henry Cowell observed, the pursuit of virtuosity and perfection has created a "toxic development of our musical world, in which 'stars' count more than creativity, ratings more than real talent, numbers more than sounds."
I've outlined my philosophy in greater depth in my work Music, Creativity, and Education
Improvisation
Sound
Resonance Method
Basics for Wind Playing
The Five Fundamentals
Music Theory
After numerous requests to 'teach me to read music', I started writing an introduction to that topic, realising quickly that without going into music theory, the amount I was able to teach was severely limited. Therefore, I've put together a document intended to guide the student from absolute beginner to beyond what you might expect to learn in first or second year conservatoire.