How-To

Play It Again, René! More Instructions!

April 25, 2021

If you want to learn to play the saw, it’s great to check out all the instructional resources you can find. Believe it or not, there are quite a few manuals, videos, and books that will help you learn to play the saw. The Forest Historical Society has an interesting […]

Read More

Really Effective Practicing by David Weiss

December 7, 2020

David Weiss was a great musician who played oboe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he was also a marvelous saw player. He was often at the IMSA summer saw festival in Santa Cruz, and he wrote a helpful and generous column for the Saw Player News, the newsletter for […]

Read More

Good Advice From An Expert

November 8, 2020

I have posted about our friend and IMSA president Morgan Cowin who sadly passed away this year, but his saw playing legacy lives on. Here is his handbook on how to play the musical saw. There are quite a few online saw playing resources, but most of them are videos, […]

Read More

Online Master Class by Eric Jon Johnson

April 14, 2020

One of the finest saw players I have met is Eric Jon Johnson from California. Not only is he an excellent saw player, but he is also a fine craftsman who specializes in making musical saws. I had the pleasure of visiting his workshop a couple of years ago, and […]

Read More

Buying and Playing a “Real Saw”

January 21, 2020

The late, great sawyer David Weiss had a regular advice column in the International Saw Association newsletter. These articles offer wonderful advice for players of all skill levels. Here’s an excerpt from an article from 2003. Many thanks to Rodney Blacklock for his permission to reprint this. “Many of us saw […]

Read More

How to Find a Saw Handle or “Cheat”

October 3, 2019

One of the big decisions a saw player must make is whether to use a saw handle or “cheat” on the end of the saw when playing. Some professional saws, such as the French lame sonore, are very thick steel and require a handle in order to bend the instrument, […]

Read More