Part 2. High-Med-Low Longtone Warmups (free pdfs)

Dear Flute Lovers,

Free printable Longtone Exercises in pdf!

NEW: Middle & High Register Longtone Warmups (pdf)

UPDATED: Low Longtone Warmups (pdf from previous post)

When you print these sets of pdfs out you get seventeen pages of warmups in three octaves that will last a lifetime. All professional flutists and great teachers and their students do these exact tone warmup exercises, and I've tried to include some hints, tips, tricks and widely spaced pages, so you may write in fingerings, and have room to pencil in your own teacher's tips, tricks and reminders for your tone work.

These first set of longtone exercises are also using a free flow of air. They are geared towards students who tend to try and play with too little air speed, and so are marked mezzo-forte to forte to allow the development of good air motion, open throat, free rhythm, and the development of good "ear to mouth" co-ordination.

The main lip motion, or embouchure technique that most flute students learn when they move into the middle and high registers of the flute is this one:
(click on this jpeg to enlarge it)


This embouchure skill, of moving the lips forward, in a "half-kiss" in order to leap easily up an octave leap with good quality tone is also shown by James Galway with close up camera.


Galway demonstrates octave leaping on headjoint.



Compare what you see Galway do with his lips with the lips illustrations.
Stunningly simple, right? Experiment in the the mirror and listen to the effect on your headjoint. Look in the mirror. See how it's done, then do it yourself.
The two most common errors are:
a) mistakenly rolling the headjoint inward to try and get a high or low note
b) mistakenly pulling the corners of the lips back, thinning the lips or tightening the lips to try and play higher octaves.

And having seen the embouchure move from the center of the lips forward, do you see how using the wet part of the lips allows greater freedom? Also, in the free pdfs of warmups, to you find that over-blowing harmonics with the added resistance of lower fingers, allows you release excess lip tension, to develop your upper register tone quality more quickly?

Also, interesting to note, for those who are encountering this technique for the first time, note that the drawings of lip shapes by Moyse and Lazzari are just approximations of a lip movements. Please don't think you have to make your lips look exactly like these drawings. Tension inhibits flexibility. And you eventually want to make the lip motions so small and so unnoticeable that you can flex just the center of your lips to effortlesly play with great tone in all octaves.

Moyse's drawings focus on the importance of using the wet-part of the inner lip membrane, while Lazzari is estimating the movement of the embouchure muscles that surround the lips. Both are needed at various stages in a student's embouchure development.
But everyone's lips look different and sound quality is the key feature of these techniques. A good teacher can tell by the sound quality whether you need to let go of excess tension, open your throat, release your lip corners, or whatever stage you find yourself at in these exercises.

(And go ahead and click on their names for more embouchure illustrations by Moyse and Lazzari.)

Give these Longtone Exercise pages of "Pure Tone" a try for 15-30 minutes a day, for a few months, and then send feedback. With your teacher's help, you'll undoubtedly fall in love with your own tone over and over again. And that's one of the RICHEST parts of playing the flute.

I've always wanted to make these tone practice pages available for free, so that everyone can get ahead in their tone work before tackling their other goals of "fast fingers of fluting."
Too often students play with fast fingers before they create purity of tone.
So here's your chance to put tone first.

All best,
Jen

Also help yourself to:
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More free pdfs for your flute practice:

Jen's Easy to Read Flute Fingering Chart (pdf - 2 pages)

All free fingering charts and trill charts
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Free Scale Booklets:

Part 4 - Creative scale practice - samples of variations for scales

Part 3 - Morning Scale Class (free pdf - III - Scales in Thirds)

Part 2 - Morning Scale Class (free pdf - II - Chords of all kinds)

Part 1 - Morning Scale Class (free pdf - I - Chromatics, Whole Tone, Major, Harmonic Minor Scales.)

Jazz Modes & Seventh Chords (free):
Extended Major Scales, their Modes, and all jazzy 7th chords pdf.

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Free pdf exercises with mp3 backing tracks:

Major and Minor Scale Pattern with Harp Harmonies

Expanding Intervals Warmup

"The ScaleGame" with mp3 backing track (Taffanel & Gaubert E.J. 4)

Part 1. Low Longtone Warmups (free pdfs)

Dear Flutelovers,

Download free Longtone Warmups (Low/Medium) in pdf here.
(Updated Feb. 4th new and improved version)

In my last blog-post I spoke about Longtones and the best way to practice them, helped along by several videos I made about obtaining "Pure tone".

The often overlooked point about pure tone exercises is that the very first note you play (B natural in the lower octave) should be absolutely GORGEOUS, ringing, pure and celestial; your best, most heavenly flute tone of the day.



When you get a gorgeous B natural, you then proceed to listen to and keep that tone, matching it gradually, by descending semitones, to every other note on the flute.

If your slurred pairs of semitones sound all different in tone quality, like this,



then you will benefit from closing your eyes, listening closely, sensing your embouchure position, steadying your air, and experimenting, in a relaxed way, in matching the two tones. It's a "Zen-like" experience as you continue to listen, repeat, breathe, relax, repeat, listen and improve. What you're truly doing is improving your Ear-Mouth co-ordination. :>)


And the flute embouchure is so flexible, and small changes can result in huge improvements. In truth, sometimes just "thinking a change" in the embouchure is enough to clear up a whole row of notes. Sometimes just releasing all excess tension in the face and throat and letting the air carry the tone is all that's needed. You'll discover this. It's fascinating! :>)

Most flute novices find that their slurred pairs are all different in tone quality as shown above. That's why we need to simply ask for a good flute teacher's help to assist us in figuring out what we're doing that is interrupting our quality of pure, effortless, beautiful, ringing tone down through the basic longtone/puretone exercises. An experienced flute coach who can "spot what you're doing" is the most valuable help you can have during the first few weeks of tone practice.

And once you "get it" you'll be totally amazed, engrossed, and excited by this exercise.
Trust me on that one. :>)

Here are the free TONE WARMUP pages for you to print out:

Tone Warmups - Longtones in low and middle octave.
(Updated Feb. 4th new and improved version)

It's about 161 kb, and can be three hole punched and put in a practice binder (along with other free pdfs linked below).

Please help yourself.
I was originall going to start my own flute book with this warmup, but since almost every flute player will find it easy to read and understand, it's helpful to have it in advance so you can get started.

Also see:
Breathing advice for easy breathing.

And more free pdfs (scales that are fun!) for your music stand or flute practice binder.

Best, Jen

Easy Posture & Pure Tone

Dear Flutelovers,

In trying to answer the way-too-huge number of flutey-email questions that arrived in my email over the past three months, (after the launch of the new edition of "The Art of Playing the Flute"), I've realized that it's impossible to keep up with the sheer number of them. There are thousands of flute students in the world, and I am only one teacher. :>)

My best advice to all the emailing flute students is, of course to work well with your own private flute teacher because only your flute teacher sees and hears you every week, and gets to know how you learn, and what you hear, and what your flute playing truly needs now.

So while dedicating yourself to finding your very own personalized, qualified and devoted nearby flute teacher, please help yourself to these basic videos about:

Easy Flute Posture and Longtones & Pure Tone.

Easy Posture for Flute Players:
video



Note: Sound quality best at 240p.

More articles on preventing flutey aches and pains are here.

What is Longtone Practise?

Long or (better yet) Pure Tone basics: Video




Note: Sound quality best at 240p. Sorry about the audio; got to get a better video editing compatibility, doh!

And for the love of those pure tone quality exercises see....

Longtones - What are they and how do you use them?

What's the deal with Longtones?

1. Teaching Tone: Video 1 How to play longtones - Basics for newbies

2. More on Teaching Tone. Videos 2-3.

4. Playing with Tone Colours.




ahem....

And a quick P.S. for the very curious:

To train a cat to ring a bell to have the door opened you have to:

- previously have had a cat that totally wrecked the doors/screens/weatherstripping
- or meowed horribly in a disgruntled way
and then:
- when the new kitten is old enough to go outdoors you simply ring the bell every time you're about to open the door.
Sooner or later, the cat rings the bell for you to open the door.

Best,

Jen

Flute Moves on Chin

Question: My teacher says that I move my flute on my mouth too much when I play the flute. For me, this results in losing the tone suddenly, especially in the low register.For some reason I cannot figure out how to fix this.
Can you help?

Dear Student,
There are several ways that flute students move the flute on their mouth too much, so you might want to discover what the actual problem is.

If you set a video camera to film yourself up close when you play you may instantly see exactly how the flute is moving at the lip.

Then check this list and see which seems most likely.

From the most common to the less common, some of the possibilities include:

1. The flutist rolls the flute inward as they play, especially for the very low or high register.
This can be caused by:

a) The flute is rolling inwards by itself due to the misalignment of the headjoint causing the heavier rods to be pulled inward by the downward pull of gravity (also see How to Line Up Your Headjoint for photos and explanations on how to correct this.)



b) The student unconsciously turns the flute inward with their hands, in order to create a shorter distance (shorter air-reed) in order to try and get low or high register notes to sound "better"
This is a common but flawed technique, and can be corrected by working on making the lips more mobile so that the lips flexibly travel across the blow hole, rather than rolling the blow hole inward.


(Note - Click on jpeg to enlarge; use back button to return.)
The above diagram uses a simple drinking straw experiment to demonstrate that moving closer to the splitting edge, with the lips, results in sounding the higher octaves. It is taken from pgs. 71-77 of Robert Billington's excellent flute technique dissertation about Robert Aitken's teaching, entitled "The Physical Flute", which is a Phd. paper available at: http://www.rdbflute.com/RDBDE.html)
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2. The Flute is unstable because of the right thumb not having enough friction on the body of the flute, or the left thumb being curved on the thumb key.

For the first: Right thumb unstable, reposition the thumb to have more friction contact on the body of the flute. You may wish to turn the thumb so it points up the tube (see photos of class being taught by Joanna G'Froerer here.) Or, if you have very long or very short fingers/thumbs, it's very inexpensive to try the $20 removeable Thumbport and test all kinds of positions of the right thumb, where the shank of the thumb is supported by the shelf of the Thumbport.

For the second possibility, the left thumb and its position on the thumb keys, and especially for flutists with long fingers, Alexa Still gave some advice to one of the flute groups about she allows the Left Thumb to cradle the edge of the thumbkey at the knuckle, which helps keep the flute at the correct angle for easy fingering, rather than having the thumb slide around on the smooth surface of the flute's thumb key.
It's especially difficult to steady the flute using the thumb key if the thumb is crooked (bent like a "7"). If your left thumb is straight or "J" shaped, it can keep the flute's keyboard parallel to the ceiling, by its ability to balance the edge of the thumb keys.



Like the thumbport for the right thumb,the flute's stability in the hands through using the knuckle bone on the shank of the left thumb,to tip the flute forward consistently and without unecessary tension,offers an extra point of stability for turning the flute's keys either fully upright or tilted slightly forward.
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3. The flutist is trapping the lower lip under the flute's lip-plate, and because the lower lip is moveable and loose, is unknowingly pushing their lower lip around with the lip-plate when they play.

This can be caused by:

a) The pressure of the flute's lip-plate is too high on the lower lip, which distorts the lower lip or shifts it from side to side, disturbing the tone quality

b) The pressure of the flute's lip-plate is too high on the lower lip and the flutist has added more pressure to force the lower lip to conform to a certain embouchure position. Because the hand pressure now control the contours of the lower lip, the embouchure is not flexible, and the hands and arms become more and more tense trying to control the lower lip at a distance.

c) the flutist is using too much finger pressure or hand and arm pressure when playing, perhaps due to undiagnosed pad leaks which they are overcoming by forcing the pads to close.

See James Galway's Embouchure Teaching Exercise where he places the finger then the headjoint on the chin and flexibly moves lower lip up and over the upper lip to show how "untrapped" it is.

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4. The flute's lip-plate is not making complete contact with the skin of the chin area, but is almost hanging in mid-air with only a tiny amount of friction contact with the skin.
This is caused by:

a) trying to balance the flute's lip-plate on only a 1/4 inch of skin on the chin or just below the lower lip edge, rather than placing the entire lip plate in the dip of the chin, and then forming the embouchure to suit the new placement.

b) having the headjoint lined up wrongly so that the flutist must bend their head forward in order to create the right angle to blow at, and perching their chin on the flute inconsistently.

See Jen's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjbd2P5-Kpg

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5. The flutist is either mistakenly jutting their jaw forward and backward to create octave changes, (see jaw jutting on this blog.)
or is moving the jaw up and down as they play, in such a way that the lower lip and flute's lip plate are being constantly moved around.
This causes inconsistent tone especially when changing from low to high registers.

See Jen's jaw motion video: http://jennifercluff.blogspot.com/2009/05/jaw-motion-for-flute-is-your-jaw.html

Also to see up and down motion:

In this Robert Dick teaching video, you can see that the inconsistency in tone control of the student is caused by the flute moving up and down on the chin caused by the pressure of the lip-plate being too high on the lower lip: http://vimeo.com/19124030
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6. The flutist is unconsciously moving their lips when they tongue (single or double) which causes their lip aperture to become large and then small between notes.

In the teaching video at this link:
http://www.myspace.com/video/dong/manhattan-school-of-music-faculty-linda-chesis-39-s-flute-lesson/27333025 flute teacher Linda Chesis demonstrates what it sounds like when students "nibble" or minutely move their lips open and closed while tonguing.
The correction is to play the tongued passage all-slurred at first, then sense the exact position of the lips when the all-slurred version has perfect tone, and then maintain that sense of the lip position when tonguing.


I highly recommend the exercise called "Lowering the lip-plate's pressure on the chin" by Roger Mather in Vol. 2 of "The Art of Playing the Flute."

It may also help not only to video record yourself to see for yourself what it is that's causing the flute's instability on your chin, but also to video record your teacher's observations during a lesson.
If you cannot borrow or locate a video camera, then using a mirror when practicing, and in your lessons can really help you see what you're actually doing.

Good luck, and let us know what it turned out to be.
Best, Jen

Teaching Breathing Easily

Question: Dear Jen, I've started some new intermediate flute students this term, and several of them have breathing problems. I haven't had any extraordinary breathing problems myself over the years, so I'm not sure of the best remedies that will give quick and lasting results.
Can you give me some straightforward breathing/teaching techniques?

Dear Flute Teacher,

There are a few "tricks" to breathing that I find are readily teachable, and easy for the student to instantly grasp.

1. Firstly, of course, overall body posture is all important as are the equal balance of the weight on the two feet.
There are a couple of excellent points made by Fiona Wilkinson in her book "The Physical Flute" about keeping the shoulders low, while gently lengthening between hips and shoulders, and then, again keeping shoulders low and relaxed, lengthening the distance between the shoulders and ears.
Make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart, and that your knees are flexible (not locked) and you are not arching the small of your back to start.
Then the rest of the basic posture points are summarized in this diagram.


Click on jpegs to enlarge. Use back button to return here.

2. Along with the idea of torso lengthening, there is the all important raising of the sternum by 1/2 an inch. This is a position of the chest and ribcage that spontaneously makes breathing easier, and is covered in Roger Mather's book "The Art of Playing the Flute (pdf)".
These are the instructions that work for both singers and flute players:

If you raise your sternum (the bone at the solar plexis) approximately 1/2 an inch upward, breathing suddenly becomes effortless and the tone quality becomes more resonant.
It places your stomach and rib cage in a relationship to operate smoothly and effortlessly.

3. Another quick teaching pointer about effortless breathing came from William Bennett who, in an interview, said he learned from the great singer Janet Baker.

There is a triangle of nerve endings at the back of your throat, which, if you feel the temperature of the "cool air" when you breathe in, will spontaneously lower the diaphragm.



Click on jpegs to enlarge. Use back button to return here.

This is a topic that I originally covered way back in 2005 on my breathing for flutists page: (however, the Bennett quote is no longer on his webpage, unfortunately.)

4. Fourthy, the quick and intelligent use of the Psoas muscles that join the top of the leg bones into the pelvic girdle, is all important to what flute teachers have long called "support" of the breath.

Your blowing muscles are connected by this large pair of very powerful pelvic muscles, from the bottom of the diaphragm, to the tops of your leg bones. Have a look at an anatomy diagram of the Psoas in red below.



The Psoas run diagonally from the top of each thigh-bone, buried deeply within the pelvis, (where you spend your life being unaware of them), and if you 'push down against the floor with your feet' (such as when you go from sitting to standing or vice versa) they give added "ooomph" to the breathing aparatus. (Singers are taught about this anatomy also, in choir warmups when you sing a held tone, and then go from sitting to standing, while singing. You will hear the added "ooomph" in the vocal quality.).
Consciously pressing down, very gently, with the arch of your feet, allows the flute player to exhale into the flute with a controlled air speed, and with almost no effort needed. It is especially useful for the highest register.

The bottom of the diaphragm is connected to the Psoas muscles, and without having to stiffen any other muscles, allows the flutist to exhale steadily and very easily, and make the breath last longer.

Note: The two feet are equal in their balance and the pressure applied would be very light.(Feet should not be crossed at the ankles, or leaning more on one foot or the other, or feet too close together.)

The flutist's stance of "feet shoulder-width apart" is key to the success of this, and then all you have to do is "push gently down against the floor using the arch in the center of both feet when you blow out".

To inhale, feel cool air on the triangle on the back of the throat, and then to exhale again, gently push down against the feet. Both these techniques instantly do the work for you to create the ease in the breathing apparatus.

The diaphragm's ability to sustain a constant air pressure is hugely improved (without any other muscles being used) as long as the flutist is standing with an open and balanced set of gently active Psoas muscles. After several weeks practice, these muscles can also be used while sitting. (Push down against the seat of the chair very lightly.)



Click on jpegs to enlarge. Use back button to return here.

5. Fifthly, the amount of air and the air pressure are most easily related to singing.

Singing and playing allows the flutist to use the minimal amount of air-moving muscular effort to creat a songful, musical phrase.

Singing is the closest thing to flute playing; same air, same phrasing, same naturalness.
So, as shown in Robert Dick's "Tone Development through Extended technique", it is easy to sing and play first, then to switch to only playing, and use the exact same motion of air.
The embouchure is the "nozzle" instead of the vocal cords, to increase air speed and focus on the tone.

A simple way to use singing-while-playing is during longtones where you play the original longtone the first time, sing any low mezzo-piano humming pitch while you play it the second time, and then play it plainly the third time and listen to the increased resonance and improved tone quality. I hope to demonstrate this in the future. (Let me know if you need an mp3 or a written exercise sheet.)

In summary, I find that with students of any age, that these five teaching methods above represent the fastest way to learn to control air for easy breath use for flute playing.

They avoid "paralysis by analysis" and, providing the flute student doesn't "try too hard" (ie: sing until they hurt their throat, or push their feet into the floor using too many unecessary muscles, or "overdoing" the instructions in any forceful way)
then the average student picks up on these pointers immediately and gets instant results.

Mind you, sometimes in individual flute students, breathing problems are the result of practicing in bad habits such as:

- going too long without a breath (see sample of Andersen Etude for creating better breathing during learning)
- emptying the lungs too far (which causes gasping)
- trying to speed up the air by tensing the throat, or closing it down
- mistakenly tensing the abdomen during inhale (backward breathing)
- raising the shoulders high
- trying to play with too little air speed or air pressure.

These are separate topics which I could cover in another post if there are lots of interested readers.
Let me know.
Use the comment button below. Thanks!

Best, Jen

The Art of Playing the Flute!!! The Book

Update Feb. 7th, 2012
Amazing response from so many readers! Thankyou everyone!
Still sending out Roger Mather's books with over 200 copies sold.
Can't believe how friendly everyone in the flute world is!
Such terrific feedback! Thank you again!
The Art of Playing the Flute will continue to be available through my website in
perpetuity. All best, Jen
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Dear Flute Lovers,

Here is the long awaited fantabulous flute book event of the year!
This is to announce the newest flute publication,
an ebook/pdf version of the amazing book
The Art of Playing the Flute, by Roger Mather.

(video)



This new edition is the entire three volume set of books (first published in the 1980s, and originally sold as three individual books), now combined into a single volume, and emailed to you as a pdf attachment for use at home, studio or for the practice room.

View the incredibly comprehensive Table of Contents as well as a biography of the author.

Note: Use the BACK button to return here after seeing the Table of Contents.

The Roger Mather "Art of Playing the Flute" book is so many things: it's brilliant, it's easy to use, it's the most helpful flute book I've ever found, it's concise, it's the only one of its kind, and it's priced very low so everyone can afford it ($22 Canadian dollars) and it is useful to any intermediate or advanced flutist, and of course an amazing resource for flute teachers.

Each copy arrives engraved with your own name, (if buying as a gift, please give the name of the recipient when you order) and you can view it on any ebook reader, or print it out (250 pages) and spiral bind it for your music stand, or simply hole-punch and put it in a binder.

Seriously, this is the all time BEST book for flutists to own, for working with and without their teacher (over the holidays etc.)! The book is full of experiments that really work to improve breathing,flute embouchure, tone colours, tonguing and every facet of the art of flute playing.
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ORDERING:

To order, send a paypal for $22 to jen(at) jennifercluff (dot) com or email me at the same address to check first, if you like.

Just click on this button (or any donate button on my site), use Canadian dollars, put a "message" to me on it, giving me the name of the book recipient. (You can send me an email if you can't find the "message" button).



I usually send out orders the same day.

And if you don't use Paypal but a friend or colleague does know how, just pay them, and let them pay me on your behalf. (be sure and send a message giving the name to be inscribed on the book.)

If you wish to use the phone to read a credit card number, call in a gift certificate to a flute store for me. Thanks so much!

___________________
PRINTING:

The pdf file is 2.4 megabytes, and can be saved onto your computer as an attachment and printed at your leisure. You can also take it to a copy shop to be printed (double-sided) and bound (spiral binding good for music stands).
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SAMPLE PAGES:

One of the benefits of having these workbooks as pdf files, is that you can navigate by using the left margin thumbnails.



Note: Click on samples to enlarge, then use the BACK button to return here after viewing these jpegs.

You also can jump to any point of the book with the hyperlinked table of contents:



And all internal references (such as: go back to page 93) are also hyperlinked! (you can click on them to jump to where you want to go.)

And you can read the whole book wherever you are on your laptop (view of two-page spread) or reference any page in lessons using an ipad or any kind of e-book reader:



Note: Click on samples to enlarge, then use the BACK button to return here after viewing these jpegs.

My huge thanks to both Roger Mather, for allowing me to become the "publisher" of this updated and affordable version of his workbooks (volumes I, II and III) and to Betty Bang Mather, who helped at every step of the way.

This is a thrill, and I'm almost completely speechless.
What a wonderful project. Huge thanks to everyone who helped: The Mathers, my husband, and my fellow flute professors and proofreading flute friends.
This is one of the most incredible projects I've had the chance to take part in, and I'm just in love with this book!

Lots of related and topical blog posts to follow (and more on upcoming pdf sheetmusic too.)

Best, Jen

P.S. The music for the opening of the video is one of the pieces I'm putting together as sheetmusic. Our Delphinus Trio performed an arrangement I wrote; The Lark Ascending, for Flute, Cello, Piano by Vaughan Williams. It's taken from the original 1914 violin and piano version by the composer. Soon to be coming to this blog!! Thanks for asking. :>)
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RAVE REVIEWS for The Art of Playing the Flute
_________________
Micah Layne wrote:
Dear Jen,
Thank you so much for the e-book. I have been looking forward to studying Roger Mather's teachings for some time and this format is exactly what I was looking for. I believe this resource belongs in every flutists library. In my opinion, so much of the experimental work that needs to be done by developing flute students can be found in these "pages". By allowing students to have a resource like this, we encourage people to take flute study into their own hands and discover what really works for them. I know too many people who are passively waiting for their flute teachers (if they have teachers) to give them the secrets of the flute that will solve all of their problems. The only secret I know of is that everyone has to find their own path and live it.

In this digital age, the transfer of information in electronic mediums is necessary to get the information to people who need it. The digital format and distribution of this text is exactly what is needed in today's world. Isn't it amazing that technology allows people the opportunity to hear performances of world class flutists for free? This same technology allows us to share the wonderful information that is contained in Roger Mather's flute book.

I have also been an avid reader of your flute materials and would like to thank you for your tireless enthusiasm and dedication not only to the world of flute, but to music education. By sharing knowledge, you have touched the lives of countless people across the world that you have not met. Some people aspire to be famous, but I aspire to be like those who have helped me and others in this life. You are one of those great people.
Mahalo Nui Loa, (Thank you very much - in Hawaiian)

Micah Layne
http://www.hawaiianflutist.com
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Dean Stallard wrote:

IMHO Mather's "The Art of Playing the Flute" is one of the most important pieces of literature written on how to play the flute. Basically any question ever raised on one of these forums on the technicalities of flute-playing could be answered by a reference to Mather's work-books. His thorough analysis on the differences of every aspect of poor, mediocre, good and outstanding playing, along with experiments to help apply the knowledge to each individual should make these workbooks an essential part of the library of anyone serious about the flute, not least the serious teacher.
How can you help a student find solutions if you don't understand the root of the problem? This set-up as an e-book takes the work to another dimension as the
ease of finding things makes it an excellent reference for the working teacher and not just a work-book for the serious student. That it is now available as an e-book means that it is now affordable to the serious student too!

Dean Stallard - flute teacher and performer, Oslo School of Fine Arts
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PPS. Thankyou so much Dean! Jen

The Mistral Fanfare - Lots of Excitement!

Dear Flute Lovers,
It's possible that those of you who know me well wonder why I've been so quiet for the past half year.
Well actually I've been making some exciting and joyful noises and working together with truly great musical people.
And you're about to find out all about these projects.

To wit:
Here is a new flute work that is a perfect fanfare!!!

(video):

Mistral for Flute, Cello, Piano Trio by Julia Bowkun



I wanted to present a great piece of fanfare music to introduce my new fall projects here on this blog. (and one of them is offering the sheetmusic to Mistral and other Bowkun works on this blog!)

And do plesae use the comment button if you just LOVE this composer.
The story of her compositions to follow!
(I'll send your happy composer comments on to her!)

And there's even more to come!
I'll tell you the whole story about flute authors and flute composers right here as the weeks unfold.
This musical fanfare is the beginning of even more exciting announcements yet to come!
Lots of excitement.

So stay totally tuned.
Happy days!! :>)

Best,
Jen