Vinnie D'Agostino: "Having a Blast"

Recently, I had the chance to play a job with three brilliant musicians and educators: Kevin Smith on bass, Dave Frackenpohl on guitar, and for the first time, a saxophonist I’ve long admired, Vinnie D’Agostino. Like many woodwind professionals, Vinnie plays all the saxes as well as clarinet and flute. Now from an embouchure perspective, I can understand clarinet. But what is it about saxophonists and flute, Vinnie?

“Great question. I taught a seminar about the differences between sax versus flute and then sax versus clarinet. The short version is that flute fingerings are close to sax for the first two octaves. After that, on the.third octave, it’s different, but sax players are used to crazy fingerings so that seems to be ok. The embouchure is radically different. And I will say that there are a lot of sax players who don’t do the best job learning the proper embouchure, but instead squeak by with a fuzzy sound. Microphones make a great band-aid for that. 

“Clarinet is another story. The embouchure is similar but requires about double the muscle strength, in my opinion. Reed pressure is intense. The register key on clarinet sends notes up a 12th, which causes brain freeze for a sax players who is used to an octave key. Finally there are a BUNCH of extra keys on the clarinet. I never counted, but let’s call it 10 or so. I actually wrote a method book just for the pinkies! Yup it’s that big of a deal.” 

So there you have it, straight from the sax-flute-clarinet guy’s mouth.

A little background on Vinnie. He first performed as an 8-year-old and started playing professionally at 15. Throughout his youth he was convinced he would live his life as a professional musician. Based on his early successes in music as a youngster, and with the support of his parents and years of lessons, Vinnie began college majoring in music. But as he approached his 20s, he decided on a different path, as an IT professional, first in government with the Department of Defense, then almost 30 years at Coca-Cola, where he rose to Global IT Director for Global HR Technology. Today, he is again a full-time musician, involved in an increasingly wide range of projects.

But why go back to playing music for a living?

“I was a weekend warrior for a long time. But then, with my three kids grown, I was in a position where I thought it was my time. And I’m having a blast, as I guess what you’d call a freelance musician, doing lots of different things.”

Is there anything from your previous career that carries over to your music?

“I think there are some things about my life experiences that I can draw on, habits and skills that carry over. A couple of things come to mind, probably number one being preparation. Coming in prepared is a very big deal, so important in the world of music. Also, having an understanding and appreciation for being numbers driven; the art needs to be the art, but also, you want to make ends meet.”

What doesn’t translate?

“In corporate life, you make a plan, you do a certain number of things a certain way, and you have a high chance of success. In the world of music and art, you can do everything right, but if it doesn’t hit with the audience, it’s not successful.”

For more of Vinnie’s commentary, listen to our Music Life and Times podcast, Episode 16, “Vinnie D’Agostino: Out of the Corporate World and Back into Music.”