Jennifer Cluff

Longtone Warmups (free pdfs)

2012-01-31T11:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutelovers,

Download free Longtone Warmups in pdf here.

In my last blog-post I spoke about Longtones and the best way to practice them, helped along by several videos I made about the 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 will really want to close your eyes, listen closely, sense your embouchure position, steady your air, and experiment 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.

It's about 96 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

2012-01-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Update January 22nd 2011
Amazing response from so many readers! Thankyou everyone!
Still sending out Roger Mather's books, and close to 200 copies sold.
Can't believe how helpful everyone in the flute world is!
Especially the Mathers! Thanks again all, and I've started posting new articles on the blog again. Talk soon. 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!

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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!

2011-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

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

The Wiggley Road to Success

2011-10-07T15:11:00.001-07:00

Topics:
Recording your Practice & Outlining

Dear Flutey Readers,
I had a student who suddenly became aware of her progress, and began to worry about how her efforts so far on the first ever year of flute lessons now measured up to all the other University flutists around her.
I responded that the entire trick of it is to only compete with yourself.

I would also heartily suggest: Self-recording
Record your lessons, record your rehearsals, and defintely, record yourself at the beginning and then again, at the end of a week of practice, and actually analyse for yourself what you're doing right and what you need to improve.

For example, can you dance to the rhythm of your recorded etude or solo?
Or does your rhythm make you groove, or do you find you have to hop skip and jump and even stumble a bit as you dance to your playing?

Does that tell you something about your need to work on the meter or rhythm?

How about intonation? What do you hear when you listen back?
Why not record your etude or piece with the The Tuning CD playing the tonic drone for each section?

And even if a piece isn't quite up to speed yet, you can still record it as an outline, playing a simplified version of the piece, even at full tempo.

Here's an excerpt from my own description of Outlining:
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What is outlining?

Outlining is playing only one (or more) notes per bar of music, in order to simplify it.

This is a very useful technique when the music demands large intervals
and fast fingerings.

It still outlines the basic motion of the melody, but it simplifies it
down to a more manageable practice routine.

In this way the flutist can simplify their embouchure, their air use,
and their phrasing.

Often when a flute player is trying to practice or learn a new piece, they:

- use too much air (get out of breath after a few bars)
- use the wrong tone quality for the piece
- have flying and flapping fingers because the note reading is complex
- use far too many over-estimated embouchure changes
- get tired and start producing a tense or constricted tone quality
- make mistakes in the same places due to rebalancing the flute
wrongly during finger switches
- keep going back to the beginning over and over again, when the
problem area is NOT at the beginning.

Outlining allows simpler embouchure, great tone, comprehension of
breathing spots, allows faster tempos from the start, and allows the
finesse of the piece to be begun right away, even before learning all
the complexity of the "fast notes".

It's the musician's greatest invention.
Plus it allows the musician to understand the piece in depth since
only one facet is worked on at one time.

Outlining Example

At first, you can outline any piece by just playing only the main notes, and leaving everything else out, but in time, and rhythmically. Later fill in the missing faster notes bit by bit.
Here are a few bars of the Andante of J.S. Bach's C Major Sonata:

Click on jpeg to enlarge. Use back button to return.

The circled notes in the sample are the notes used to create the outline
for easier and more comprehensive practicing.

Later the outline can be made to include every eighth note, instead of
every quarter (2nd outline in sample above.)or every first and fourth note of four sixteenths, for example.

Or you could outline only low notes, or only highest notes.
Each outline creates a variation on the main melody; all are valid.

You can hear me outlining Chaminade's Concertino and other fun recording experiments in coversation with author/pianist James Boyk in a 2009 interview here: Outlining explained on Jen's Fluteloops radio show no. 10.
(James Boyk Interview)

And one more thing to help us all feel better when or if we get the blues ( :>), check out what a wonderful quote I just found today.
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Quote - Artistic Success
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Nobody tells this to people who are beginners.
I wish someone had told me.

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.
But there is this gap.

For the first couple of years you make stuff,
it's just not that good.

It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.

And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit.

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.

We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have.

We all go through this.

And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece.

It's only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.

And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met.

It's gonna take a while.
It's normal to take awhile.

You just gotta fight your way through.

Ira Glass
_________________________

And here is the source of the quote:
This is also oh so so true about music studies, as in any art form.

We don't want to compete with others, but wish to find the best quality of work that completely engages us in our creativity and understanding. And when we find that, we can reach out and engage with other musicians, and then the growth becomes exponential.

It was serendipitous that I found this quote through David Cutler's excellent "Saavy Musician" blog, where he had addressed a similar topic for young musicians in a blog post entitled "The Best in the World".

You just have to see that it's the more squiggly line that is the true line of success.

So hopefully my very artistic student will feel more relaxed knowing that we all go through this stage, and the answer is to create your own artistic standards for yourself.

My gosh, I remember that stage extremely well from my own stages of flutey challenge.

So, glad to share, and happy to help.
(updated Jan 22nd 2012)

Best, Jen

Jazzy Dudes - Modes & 7th chord free pdfs

2011-10-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists with a jazzy beat,

To continue on with the series of scales and arpeggios from this month's morning scale class, here is an additional free 18 page pdf (288 kb) for you to download that features full extended range major scales for flute to B3, all the scale's modes by name (dorian and mixolydian are the most used in Jazz I do believe), followed by the super jazzy seventh chords used by our first year jazz flute majors at the University in which I teach.
Please help yourself.

Extended Major Scales, their Modes, and all jazzy 7th chords pdf.

These are the basic finger patterns for jazz improvisation, and I'd like to help out by providing them to students and teachers. To easily remember the mode's names try this little trick:

I Don't Play Like My Aunt Lucy.

The first letter of each word above reminds you that Ionian is the first mode, Dorian is the second, etc. (ha ha, that Aunt Lucy played le jazz hot! :>)

________________________
And in case you missed the earlier posts on scales and arpeggio books for free, link ahoy(!) to download whole books of scales and chords in a fun and easy to use format:

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.)

Best, Jen

Flute Pedagogy Notes

2011-10-03T10:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

There is a wealth of great flute pedagogical information going up on the internet which you might like to know about.

__________________________________

Flute Nodes Diagram

Firstly, above is a diagram of flute nodes for the three octaves (shown above - click on it to enlarge), created by Joe Butkevicius, master flute technician, who was answering the question:

"Why, when you overblow the harmonic series on the flute, is the fifth interval so much more difficult?

Well, the very kind Mr. Butkevicius has provided us all with an excellent diagram and made it freely available to all. Thank you Joe B!

And now for a veritable cornucopia of flute pedagogical materials:
______________________________________________

NFA Convention Highlights and Handouts:

The National Flute Association has opened up its website to include all kinds of handouts and reports from past flute conventions. You are freely allowed to download as many handouts as you wish. (see below for links.)
These are great starting points for book lists, outlines for learning new skills as a teacher, and even include stretching exercises and teaching tips of all kinds. A huge thankyou to the NFA for making these resources free to the public!

NFA convention handouts:

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011
_______________________________

NFA Repertoire Guide

And finally, many people write to me asking for repertoire and etudes and ask "What grade is that?"

Well, unfortunately I cannot possibly recommend pieces for each person who emails me. I have to meet and hear the student flutist to make recommendations, and even then, the student may wish to try out dozens of works, before choosing, with the help of their private teacher, the best next thing to work on. So much depends on what level they are at, what type of music they need to work on, or wish to work on, and which skills they are currently learning. Graded repertoire lists are useful, but a "best of" book is even more useful.

Well, to help us all out, the NFA has created a book that lists all the top-picks for Solo repertoire and Etudes that is easy to order, and very useful for all teachers and students. So go ahead and order your own copy. I truly believe that every flute teacher and student would benefit from owning their own $15 graded guide to flute music. It's a terrific resource for finding the basic materials that teams of teachers have all agreed are some of the most enduring and valuable.

National Flute Association's Graded repertoire & flute etude guide
_____________________________

Happy October everybody, and thanks to all those who email me with such lovely things to say about my site and publications.
There is HUGE news afoot here, with a new flute publication coming out at the end of October. You're going to be thrilled (as I am!). So stay tuned!

Best to all,
Jen :>)

Piccolo Questions

2011-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Question from Student: I've been playing piccolo (my teacher's instrument) and although my teacher can make it speak in the low register, I can't get a low note out of it. What am I doing wrong? Also, I find it very difficult to play in tune when I have to play piccolo occasionally in band. How can I fix these things?

Dear Piccolo Striver

The piccolo goes in and out of tune while you're playing it for reasons such as these (any of them; it's a very sensitive little beasty):

Tuning problems with piccolo:

1. If the piccolo has gone cold while you're counting rests, it will then tend to play flat in pitch for the first minute when you come back in again.

SOLUTION: Keep piccolo warm while counting rests with your hands or placing next to body while switching to flute back and forth.

2. Changing from middle to high octave, piccolo sounds flat in high octave.

SOLUTION: Piccolo is different from flute in that flute may be really sharp when played forte in high octave and player learns to bend notes downward in angle to compensate. However there are typically many pitches in high octave on piccolo that are the *opposite* direction for tuning than on flute. You will find these
pitches listed in piccolo alternate fingering charts, with corrective fingerings. Using the alternate fingerings is a pleasure compared to the flute fingerings for the LH notes such as C2, C#3 D3 etc. as they are much more controllable for pitch, which on piccolo, is often needing to be sharper not flatter on same notes as flute.

You'll need these wonderful alternate fingering charts, and ask your teacher for the fingerings they use most for those contrary pitches too.

Piccolo - Alternate fingering charts:

Chart 1 by piccolohq

Chart 2 by Woodwind Fingerings

Symbols used in fingering charts - index of fingering symbols.

3. Changing from one octave to the next piccolo goes out of tune suddenly.

SOLUTION: It's possible that you are "over-lipping" or that your piccolo is not quite in the right place on your lower lip to start with.

Also if your lower lip is at first over-covering, then unexpectedly you change your embouchure and under-cover the piccolo's blow hole too much, and/or if each time you place it on your lip you're not quite sure exactly how much lower lip goes across the blow hole, then this can cause radical tuning weirdnesses. So you might need to experiment with placement and angle on low and middle register for a month or two,adding 20 minutes a day to the end of your flute practice, until you know for sure exactly how much blow hole to cover on picc before adding angling for high register tuning.

Also, larger flute embouchure adjustments overcompensate on pitch adjustments on piccolo, because picc has a much smaller blow hole.

So adjust your embouchure about five times LESS than you do on flute when changing octaves. Experiment extensively with making almost no adjustments, and find out what the piccolo's pitch tendencies are inherently first, before expanding your dynamic range for true fortissimos and pianissimos.

Click on jpg above to enlarge.

The difference between flute and piccolo in the size of the blow hole is one reason why it's so helpful to use The Tuning CD or tuning drones instead of elecronic tuners. Instead of watching a tuner's reading, having drones playing on repeat on your speakers allows you to listen very closely to the steady pitch of the drone, and play easily, and blend with it by ear. You'll find that keeping a steady air-stream and one single dynamic like mezzo forte will allow you to quickly discover that you need to do much much LESS adjusting than you do on flute with your lips.
Matching the drones will allow you to hear all the overtones and undertones, and make practicing WAY more pleasant. :>)

However you can use a visual tuner for mapping your piccolo for pitch.

Using the electronic tuner: Mapping the pitch of your piccolo

Here's how:
Warmup first; play longtones with great tone, play some slow, beloved melodies, get your sound warm and inviting, and your air stream steady and your embouchure poised yet relaxed, and then put on the electric tuner.

Starting in the low or middle register, and going in either direction, play whole notes chromatically at a constant dynamic; Use an open, non-tense mf dynamic, and play freely and with great tone.
(and don't play high register, please, until your foam earplugs are in your ears). :>)

Stay almost completely still with your embouchure, don't try to over-bend any notes at all, and simply discover which direction to go on which pitches (write out a chromatic scale and mark it up with arrows if you like), and then ascend and descend in whole notes, stopping and writing arrows on your scale to show which piccolo pitches are flat and sharp, if you don't attempt to correct the pitch at all.

This is when you'll begin to discover which notes are to be pitch bent in the opposite direction than on the flute. Surprising isn't it?

Once you have mapped the intonational tendencies out for yourself over several days, switch to using the Tuning CD (www.thetuningcd.com downloadable mp3s of twelve tuning drones is under $10 at amazon etc.) and do all your warmups, scales, and slow pitch work using the drones coming out of your speakers.

Also there are manuals on "How to play piccolo well" that have good warmups and fingerings, exercises, and excerpts.

Some basic piccolo method book titles are here:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/piccolo.htm

Your flute teacher likely has some of the picc books. You should actually ask your teacher FIRST before asking on the net. They'll know exactly what level you're at and what to work on first.

Low Notes Just Don't "Speak" for Me.

Finally, a quick word on why low notes don't come out for you, when they do for your teacher (so that proves the pads of the piccolo aren't leaking, which requires a repair visit to a good piccolo/flute technician.)

Ask your teacher to watch you closely when your low notes don't come out.
You may be rolling too far in, and that would squelch the low notes and also make the pitch difficult for all three octaves.

Try rolling out 2 milimeters more than you think you should, and getting a round sound on low G. Then walk down to low D chromatically, slowly.

If the sound squelches, roll out 1 mm more.

Once you have rolled out enough, you'll find you can stay rolled out for all three octaves, and never need to roll inward again; your upper lip will compensate for the angle changes needed to blow downward, and your lower lip can be used vertically to change octaves (not jaw going forward and back, but lower lip pressing directly upwards to leap up an octave.)

Rolling too far inward with the key tops of your flute or piccolo tilting backward it is a sign that you need to adjust your headjoint so that you can have your keys facing the ceiling, or a little forward (so the audience can see the keys tilting toward them.) So don't be afraid to experiment with headjoint alignment also on both your instruments, so they feel alike when you switch back and forth. This is a big hint that works for many student learning to stay "rolled out" when they play.

More helpful pointers to be found here:

Articles on piccolo warmups and other great topics.

Playing Piccolo in Tune in an Orchestra or Ensemble Article.

More piccolo links including picc repertoire and articles aplenty.

And, hey, I just tried to find a Garrison piccolo fingering chart which has moved its URL, and stumbled across this film! (We are saying the same things!)

Professor Leonard Garrison gives an intermediate level lesson in piccolo on youtube. The sheetmusic is here.

And please, do let me know if you find out the answers from your own teacher, and what it turned out to be.
I'm curious. :>)

Best, Jen

Creative Scale Practice for Flute Students

2011-09-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

If anyone needs any pointers on how to work on flute scales, here are some excerpts from the handouts that I give my students, below. They are really helpful for coming up with creative ways to work on a scale, that are never boring, and allow you the freedom to find many flexible and workable solutions.

Click on each sample below to enlarge.
These are so much more interesting than just working on the scale in the format that most scale books write them in.

How to learn scales in a fun way for novice to intermediate flutists.

Recompose the scale:

Use your creative genius to change patterns around:

Click on any jpg to enlarge.

Use The FIVE NOTE Pattern descending and ascending.

Embouchure openess for easier octave span:

All of the above methods would really help anyone working on the standard scales two octaves, or the extended scales in Moyse's "A" section of the E.J. from earlier posts.

And help yourself to a

FREE flute scale and technique book

Part 1,

Part 2,

Part 3.

500 kb pdfs.

And hear your artistry light up every other piece of music you're playing.

It's fun to think (just a tiny bit)like Bach and play the improvised scale sections backward too. Try it! :>)

Best, Jen

Part 3 of Morning Scale Class

2011-09-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute Players,

My goodness, over 900 (as of Sept. 21st!) flutists have downloaded my "simplified" version of the Moyse Exercises Journalier so far. Egad! What a thrill to know that it's something flutey folk do indeed need! So glad to help!
Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments, and supportive cheers!

Here is the third and final part of the novice-to-intermediate re-write:

Download Part 3 (pg. 22-39) of the simplified version in pdf.

Sir James Galway writes that he will begin his scale class on Monday this coming week, and so will we all! The Galway videos on scales have started to "go up" online here:

http://galwaynetwork.com/galwayscales/
You have to register (get password sent etc.) to see the first video. There's an introduction so far, with more videos to hopefully follow as his schedule permits. The intro-film takes a long while to load, so I recommend; go make your lunch and return 20 min. later, to play the video after it's fully loaded.
Best, Jen

Also, here's a very up-to-date Galway interview online, for free listening.
Apparently Sir James is planning to make teaching films from home. Excellent news!

Listen to four-part radio inteview with Sir James.

I'm sure that by the time all the novices and intermediates finish my almost 40 pages of exercises at the end of thirty days, they will be zippy, fleet-fingered, gorgeous tone-meisters, and be able to walk away from the music stand and create their own "Journaliers"!
Happy freedom to explore to all!

Best, Jen

Return to part 1 of this topic, and download Part 1 (pg 1-9)of the Moyse E.J. book simplified.

Go to Part 2 , and download Part 2 of the book. (p.10-21)

Part 2 of Morning Scale Class

2011-09-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers and Galway morning scale classmates,

Here is the free pdf of part two of the Moyse Exercises Journaliers, re-written and simplified for those flutists of a novice or early intermediate level who are following the James Galway thirty-day scale class.

I used the advanced-level Moyse book to create these more inspiring and approachable versions for flute students, and I've got at least four students of my own about to join in for the thirty day challenge.

This has been a BLAST re-writing these.

Download Part 2, of my exercises in pdf here.

You'll find pages 10 to 21.
You can hole-punch and put in a binder.

Moyse's practice plan for the real Exercises Journalier book is:

Day 1 - ABCD
Day 2 - ABCD
Day 3 - EFGH
Day 4 - ABCD etc.

I suggest some schedule such as this for novices and intermediate flutists, especially if you didn't already have fabulous two octave major and minor scales already in your smoulderingly great technique:

Day 1 - A
Day 2 - A
Day 3 - B
Day 4 - B
Day 5 - C
Day 6 - AB
Day 7 - C
Day 8 - ABC
Day 9 - D
Day 10 - ABC
Day 11 - E etc.

...or some such plan as you devise.

The idea would be that each time you return to an earlier lettered section, you can expand your range, and use the metronome to click ahead in tempo.

Part three to follow will be these major and harmonic minor scales in thirds.
I'll get to that this weekend.
Hey, I'm totally having fun!

All the best, Jen

Return to part 1 of this topic, and download first nine pages of the Moyse E.J. book simplified.

Go to Part 3 for final section of E.J. book simplifed by Jen Cluff.

James Galway's Morning Scale Class

2011-09-12T20:45:00.001-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,

This week on the Galway chat group (an email group that Sir James Galway emails to once a month or so), he announced a morning scale class that any flutist out there in internet-land may take part in.

Well I know some of my students would love to play along,but the challenge is really being aimed at more advanced flutists. The scale book chosen for the challenge is "Exercises Journaliers" by Marcel Moyse, which uses extended scales to high B3 and Low C or C# for all majors and minors.

These are high reaching scales and perhaps the world's most wonderfully interesting and modern arpeggios, but there's an easy way to "break them down" into learnable chunks.

So help yourself to the pdfs of the sheetmusic that I just created for those novice to intermediate players which translates this to a grade 5-8 RCM flute level.

Free Part 1 of scales & arpeggios from Moyse's EJ book from Jen

Go to part 2 of this blog post, to download pages 10-21.

Go to Part 3 for the third section, pg. 22-39 (major minor scales in thirds) of the E.J. book simplifed by Jen Cluff.

All you have to do is warmup well for 20 minutes, with low slow slurred tunes, and easy breathing, to get your best, most ringing tone first, and then, with the most beautiful and creative musicality, experiment with the scales. Of course, you're free to have self-chosen slow tempos and of course, heavenly, gorgeous tone, and play through some of the exercises. Add to your successes by repeating those you can do well a little faster and more richly nuanced, while always breaking down and learning a new exercise that needs to go much more slowly.

In my fluterly-teacherly way, of course I advise playing all slurred,before adding articulations. And take slow speeds, observing the most effortless finger motions by breaking the scales into little bites, and insuring fingers stay low and close to the keys, moving lightly without disrupting the flute.

You start with chromatic scales, and learn them a little higher each day.
Then go ahead, and go totally wild with Debussy-esque whole tone scales, and then, almost Star-Trek out on augmented fifth chords and such, before playing through your typical two octave major scales, and then spending a little time on walking up to high G, G#, A, Bb and at last, high B at the end.

Then take a break.

When you come back from your break; break apart new things into small "bites" and play them slowly as if they're gorgeous melodies, then start putting them into full scales and arpeggios again. But work intelligently, without fatigue; that's the whole trick of it.

ha ha. Yes, really creative, exploratory, and fun if you work up to it gradually and don't force anything.

To avoid tendonitis and tennis elbow (Ha ha, sad but true) you have to be in the same relaxed frame of mind that you are in when you're having fun.
If you've read The Inner Game of Tennis by T. Gallwey, (read the foreword and intro online.) and you'll see how fun can help everything you do.

If you need more, there are also free scale duets and Taffanel and Gaubert exercises from the T&G Daily Exercise book on this blog too. Just use the white search box at right to find more advice on scales if needed.

Happy September you with gentle fingers, relaxed arms and holistic breathing.

Best, Jen

Musician's Injuries and Self-Trigger Point Therapy

2011-08-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

A New Zealand medical doctor, Dr. Jonathan Kuttner, has put together a free website full of helpful information for musicians with RSI (repetitive strain injuries) or other injuries from practicing.

I found the videos, free articles and expert interviews extremely interesting, and am gratified to find out how many free self-treatment options there are for musicians.

For Musicians - Tips for Preventing RSI (repetitive strain injuries)

part 1 - preventing musician's injuries
part 2 - preventing musician's injuries

What is a trigger point? (video showing muscles and nerves)

Detailed steps to tending to a trigger point video.

Video on testing a trigger point in your forearm (this really worked for me as a quick tutorial.)

Does trigger point therapy have to hurt?

Trigger Point Finder: interactive anatomical map of human body's trigger points. Very cool; hugely educational.

Myofascial.org click on Symptom checker (more forearm and hand/shoulder diagrams with referred pain and trigger points highlighted where they connect.)

How to stretch your neck easily and simply (especially flutist's neck short on one side, eeek! )video.

How to relax jaw and release jaw tension video.

Also of interest to musicians:

The difference between trigger point pain and tendonitis.

Everyone's need for supplemental vitamin D3: 2000-5000 IU per day for reduction/prevention of pains.

Sign up for free pdf manual with pictures and explanations about trigger points:

I'm so so SO happy when doctors care so much they create websites to help people get the information they need to seek treatment and/or provide their own at-home treatment (after seeing their own doctor, of course!)

Happy pain-free fluting,
Best, Jen

More articles on Flute Arm and Hand Pain and what to do about your posture, practicing, and ergonomics of your instrument.

Think summer..think Denk & Robison

2011-08-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,

Two of my favourite thing: Paula Robison playing live, because she's so very interesting (!) and one of my favourite pianists, whom I discovered through his hilarious and edifying backstage-reality and "practicing thoughts" blog, Jeremy Denk.

Enjoy flute-dudes!
This is real summer time listening.

Improvisation by Richard Strauss
Jeremy Denk, piano; Paula Robison, flute.

Tambourin Chinois by Fritz Kreisler
Paula Robison, piccolo; Jeremy Denk, piano.

Also, thanks to my pal JP, who sent these links (thanks thanks!) there's an interesting Mozart G Major Concerto.

Mozart G major
Paula Robison, flute.

I'm enjoying the opportunity to read lots of books this summer, and to edit some books, and create some new flute arrangements plus work on my own book.
Sorry for the big delays for all who are waiting.
I'm also practicing, studying perfect pitch, and getting repertoire ready for fall.

How about you?

Comments welcome.

Fellow Denk lovers unite!
ha ha.

Oh, hand me a fruit smoothy, and I'll be quiet now.

ha. :>D
Best, Jen

P.S. The Denk post that started the fannage.

Denk blog interview video.

Free Breathing Masterclass with Pahud

2011-08-02T19:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute Masterclass Lovers,

I've previously mentioned the great Pahud Masterclass films
at the online company: Play with a Pro.

Well, yesterday they announced a new free film of Pahud and oboist,Schellenberger discussing " Breathing and Blowing "
A great discussion indeed! Well worth downloading and viewing.

Navigating the site of Play-with-a-Pro is a little confusing so here are the steps for those who want to figure it out more quickly than I did at first.

1. Go to www.playwithapro.com and choose BROWSE CATALOGUE to watch short previews of any film (flute, clarinet, oboe etc.)

2. Pahud's films are first in their catalogue and the free breathing video featuring Pahud and the principal oboist of the Berlin Phil, is the first one on upper left.(see my jpeg at top of this post - click to enlarge).

3. Click DOWNLOAD for mac or pc, to download the movie-playing software.

4. When software is downloaded, it will appear as a PlaywithaPro icon on your desktop. Close your browser, and now open the black desktop icon.

5. Choose BROWSE CATALOGUE from desktop icon, and find Free Breathing and Blowing Film. It is marked $0.0 in price.

6. Now here comes the strange part: Click on Pay with Credit Card on lower right. Yes, it is free, but this is the only button that starts the download, strangely enough.

7. The download of 212 mb film will start, and take about 16 minutes. (make a sandwich, brew some tea...)

8. You can view the film multiple times by clicking on it again from the desktop icon's menu(the main website only plays a preview version.)

Enjoy, discuss, comment! (comment button below)
I just loved knowing that what I've been teaching about breathing for 20 years is correct and as Schellenberger says, not often taught.
This is great information all around. Love these films!
Best, Jen

Bach for Flutists

2011-07-26T15:44:00.001-07:00

If you play flute, then you either already love J.S. Bach, or you're about to (hopefully, and very likely) discover that you love Bach. His music is enriching for slow warmups, fun and thrilling for fast and light finger technique, great for playing along with the tuning drone while improvising over a Bach riff, or for re-arranging at will, creating your own fantasies and variations. As they say in the BBC film below, this is the music that inspired Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky! And you too!

I know that what summer flute students want is to catch that J.S. inspiration and soar with it! Well, here it is; an eight part documentary from the BBC on what makes Bach great and links to go play the sheetmusic you hear!

Catch the enthusiasm, then look up the pieces with the links provided, as almost all are free sheetmusic in public domain and available as pdf sheetmusic, and so it's easy to play along with the computer speakers blasting out the best Bach you could hear!
What a fun way to hog the living room or practice space! Hours of inspiration and fun! It's the most fun thing to do when practicing this summer besides playing duets by recording one of the parts. Go try it! Great for the mind and soul!

The wonderful BBC Bach documentary is embedded here (so captivating! who knew Bach was such a rebel at 19?) and links to free J.S. Bach flute music below, as well as best recommended Bach flute works for free or worth buying.

For flutists who are intermediates, "outlining" (playing only one longtone per bar, or two, or three to outline the fundamental melodic line) works amazingly with Bach!
You'll see for yourself. Or search my blog for more "outlining" information on this blog or from my fluteloops radio show no. 10-11.

First, a quick, captivating film: I was glued to this passionate portrayal by the BBC and the musicians who took part.

Great Composers Bach BBC TV series 1997

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part7

Part 8

___________________________
Now for sheetmusic you can look for:

Best Bach Books for Flute (Jen highly recommends)

The Bach Handbook by Robert Stallman: suits novice, intermediate and advanced students with short transcriptions of Preludes, Allemandes, Bourees, Gigues, Minuets, all transposed to suit the modern flute, and beautifully edited. This is the best single buy for $10 that any flutist can make. Super fun as warmups, and a great gig book for solo flute.

Bach Sonata books by Paul Edmund Davies: These are the six flute sonatas with piano parts, flute book, and two CDs; one with the flutist performing, and one without.
Beautifully edited, good quality printing, great tempi and interpretations. Very enjoyable to use at home to perform with the backing tracks of cellist and harpsichordist.

See and hear samples of Davies Bach books: Volume 1 here.

All Three volumes at Davies website under Bach tab.

___________________________________________
Free J.S. Bach flute sheetmusic on on the net
___________________________________________
Some useful free sheetmusic for flutists!

The Cello Suites:
Bach Six Solo Cello Sonatas transcribed for violin/flute

_________________________
Bach's Six Flute sonatas
in pdf, free online:

Freescores flute collection

File4share Public Domain flute sheetmusic - See Bach on left sidebar
_________________________________
Concert Etudes by J.S. Bach (transposed) for flute
free online in pdf:

24 Concert Etudes transcribed from Bach: click on Bach when you arrive.
And click below on the blog COMMENT button below to see a list of these 24 etudes and which J.S. Bach pieces from which they originally derive.
___________________________________
J.S. Bach Orchestral flute parts: you can play along with online recordings or youtube videos. Oboe parts, voice parts, or string parts also interesting to play. Check out all the Brandenburg Concertos that have flute parts. Or play oboe parts! All are beautiful and interesting to learn.

St. Matthew's Passion
Flute 1 part free pdf.

Flute Duo Brandenburg No.4

Flute Solo Brandenburg No.2
Brandenburg no. 5 flute part

If you have to go to the homepage on the free sheetmusic site try starting here
for Brandenburg flute parts:

Whole Brandenburg no. 5:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Brandenburg_Concerto_No.5_in_D_major,_BWV_1050_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)

Or go to the link below for Brandenburg or other works.
__________________
All free Bach sheetmusic
__________________
Search all free sheetmusic by Bach by piece title

Search all free sheetmusic by Bach by BWV number

All Icking Music Archive Bach transcriptions and free pdf sheetmusic

And, just because it's so interesting after watching how much music copying Bach did every week, see Bach's actual manuscripts with their lovely curving lines (as mentioned in documentary by BBC.)

And finally; here's what Bach can do with one single melody, and what a great flutist can do with that Chaconne BWV 1004. Bouriakov plays part 1 on youtube.

Part 2 of Denis Bouriakov playing the Bach Chaconne is here.

And here's one of the several transcriptions in pdf of theChaconne for flute BWV 1004.

Enjoy all!
Best, Jen

Denis Bouriakov miracle dude

2011-07-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,
Fabulouso mosso! Mr. Bouriakov is the miracle flutist!

Khachaturian: Violin Concerto in D minor.

Denis Bouriakov, flute
Naoko Ishibashi, piano
July 2010, Tokyo Recital

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Best, Jen

Flutists can learn so much from Cellists

2011-07-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,

The best masterclass I've seen online!

Master class by Paul Tortelier - Cellist.

This twelve part series was filmed by the BBC in 1987.
Stunningly good. Incredibly convincingly musical.
We have so much we can learn in only an hour of his teaching.
I love Tortelier's quote (end of Part 3 at minute 6:50) about how a musician must be a:

Singer, Dancer (for the rhythm), Storyteller, Architect (for the form) Sculptor, Poet, Painter, Thinker, Missionary and Athlete.

Wow. Just a fabulous free musical education!
Huge thanks to J.P. for sending these links on to me.
Best, Jen

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Part Six:

Part Seven:

I also recommend for flute teachers the wonderful book called Cello by William Pleeth (Jacqueline DuPres' teacher.)
You can find it in your public library.

We have so much to learn from these wonderful wise and passionate musicians.

Handel Errata & Quantz's vertical lines

2011-06-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

1. Tempo of Presto in Handel Sonta no. 2 G minor

Dear Jen,
Sorry to bother you but I have a question relating to a specific piece. I am playing Handel's Sonata No.2 from the book "Selected Flute Solos" , page 123"Everybody's favorite series" - Amsco Publication (copyright 1958).
It is the final movement of this piece that is confusing me. The tempo marking is this: "Presto. M.M. (quarter note)=108". Does this mean I am supposed to play the movement at 108? This movement is very rhythmic, with many staccatos and accents, and 108 seems very slow (it is in common time). Again, I am sorry to bother you and thank you greatly for your time.N.

Dear N,
I don't know if you've come across a lot of misprints before, but there are plenty in sheetmusic. Perhaps the sheetmusic copyists stay up all night, drinking espresso, and then fall asleep with their pens (or quills!) still moving. Or the printshop workers in the 17th and 18th centuries, (those late night workers who used to set the tiny metal characters into the printing presses )suffered an occupational hazard, becoming progressively more squinty with atomized ink in their eyes. As a result of such hazards, sheetmusic misprints have been occuring for centuries, and seemingly appear every 200-2000 pages of sheet music or so.

One day we hope, we will catch and correct them all.
But for now we just scratch through them with pencil. :>)

Metronome markings are always highly suspect too; you'll find musicians who slavishly follow written mm's, and others who denounce them as inaccurate due to the faultiness of early metronomes. Don't get them started on Beethoven's metronome. Ha ha!
So, in general, every possible tempo that feels and sounds musical to you is worth considering when you first approach a new piece of music that you've never heard before.

And you are very clever to have spotted this misprint yourself, so serious kudos for you. 108 is definitely not "Presto", and makes a dirge from this exciting Finale movement.
So good instincts.

And since you've written to me online, I'll share that it's very interesting to consider how the internet can change the way we research tempo and where we turn when we have misprint/edition questions.

In the old days, pre-internet, you may have waited until your next flute lesson to check the tempo with your teacher, or tried to purchase a recording.
Most likely, as you're already doing, you would have had simply trusted your marvellous musical instincts, read through the score, played through (or outlined mentally) the keyboard accompaniment, and decided on the best tempo on your own, while waiting for another musician's corroboration.

Finally you would have run through the piece with your teacher at a dress rehearsal, and/or at a masterclass and perhaps discussed the various tempo ranges that would be appropriate depending upon the instrumentation and the sound in the hall you were performing in (echo-filled churches require slower tempos for clarity, for example).

But nowadays, you can easily find out a generally accepted tempo range in about twenty minutes or so, using a google search for online sound samples of the exact piece you're working on.

First thing to do, because it's a flute piece, is to check the printed flute sheetmusic "Errata" page created by Flutist John Wion: http://homepage.mac.com/johnwion/errata.html This is mostly for more advanced works.

Using the "Find on this page"( hit: Control-F or drop down the Edit menu to see "Find"), look on the Errata page for Handel, or look for "Selected Flute Solos", or look for Amsco.

I don't actually find anything on Handel Sonatas on the errata page, (probably because there are about a hundred editions and 48.2 errata per edition) so then I move on to looking for recordings to see if I can hear the full sonata and make an educated guess from the various tempi it has been recorded at.

From a google search of Handel's Flute Sonatas, and a quick look at the title and key-signature, I find that this is Sonata no. 2 in G minor, originally for alto recorder.

If looking up other Baroque Sonatas, you also can check the numbering of all pieces written by composers such as Handel, CPE or JS Bach or Vivaldi (several of whom can have re-numbered and confusing titles to their sonatas) by googling the composer's complete list of compositions to insure you have the most widely used title numbered or named correctly for your search. For example, here is Handel's list.

Next, you've got the name of the Sonata, but you want to hear recordings to guage the tempo typical for the final movement, the Presto or IV.
So you google that, plus the word "listen" or "mp3" or "sample".
See below:

Checking your tempo on the fourth movement of Handel's Sonata no. 2 in Gminor by listening to a professional performances on mp3/CD: Example:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zucker2
Scroll down to track no. 22.

Or look up and listen to:

You tube performances of the work by title:
Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEjm64n3WjE
Go to minute 5:30

Or find to listen to and play along with:

Playalong backing track and midi: Handel Sonatas are likely midi-playalongs.
Example: http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?id=540

Hear also recorder playing same sonata mvmt: Amazon CD recorder Sonata.

In conclusion, you are absolutely correct.
That 108 to the quarter note tempo marking is far too slow.
Printing errors in metronome markings are fairly common.
The tempo should be anywhere from 138 to 168 depending on the instrumentation, the venue and the player's skill level.
So good for you!
And hopefully this new method of finding the answer will help everybody looking for tempi as well as errata!
Best Jen
___________________________________________________

2. Vertical slashes in Quantz

Dear Jen,
I just purchased an edition of Quantz Sonatas that have the occasional vertical line above a note, but there's no explanation
as to what they mean. How do I find out how to interpret those vertical lines?

Dear Student,

You may find most music symbols, articulations and other markings here: Music Theory online (free):

http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory21.htm
Scroll down about 1/8th of the way at the above page, until all the articulation notation types are shown.
Do you see your vertical line listed? If not, then it is possibly a marking that has found its way to the particular printers
of the edition that you have. It could mean marcato, staccato, or it could mean simply "tongue-this-note" while all other notes should be slurred (legato).
Very often the printer of a particular version of a piece is using a faulty copy, a faulty type-setting, or is trying to create a marking that they are not sure of either.

I researched Quantz's book on markings such as these online, using the preview at googlebooks, and I've discovered that there was confusion even in the time of Quantz as to what a vertical slash above a note was supposed to mean.
So feel free to interpret it as musically and convincingly as you can, until more definitive resources become available.

Articulated (tongued) clearly would be my first guess. But making the vertical-slash marked notes stronger, shorter, or more detatched should all be good options to try.

Best, Jen

Note: The student scanned in the markings and here is the sample below.
Any additional teacher-input appreciated. Just click on COMMENTS below.

click on picture to enlarge.

Whole Tone scales & Dom-Dim Sevenths

2011-06-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

I have been playing flute for around 7 years and have my ABRSM exam,grade 8 in 4 weeks and I'm getting stressed over all the whole tone scales, dominant 7ths and diminished 7ths etc. Any tips?

Dear student flutist,
I know what that used to feel like.
Is this depiction about right? (see picture below)

I know that feeling well: Dum dum Dom Dim!!!!
click on picture to enlarge.

But if you can stack major second intervals (C goes to D, D goes to E, E goes to F#) and if you can imagine being able to stack minor thirds (C goes to Eb, G goes to Bb etc.), just as in the major and minor arpeggios you already know, then no worries mate! Your theory and flute playing are about to have a wholesome collision!

Here are my speed-learning tips and tricks:

Whole Tone Scales.You may already know this, but for whole tone, there are only TWO!

C - D - E - F# - G# - A# - C

and

C# - D# - F - G - A - B - C#

All you have to do is memorize the two scales above, and then start them on any note in the scale.
Even easier, if you're learning whole tone scales for the first time, you can easily memorize them by using clumps of white notes in the C-major scale as your starting point.

Step 1: First find the natural set of whole tones that already exist in a C major scale.

Let's start with CDE.
To continue the CDE scale in whole tones, I'd need to add F#, G#, A# to arrive back at C.

So now I'd memorize those two sets of notes, the white ones CDE, and the sharp ones, F#,G#, A#, put them together and then play one octave.

Step 2: Next, create whole tones from the second set of natural whole tones that are found in the C major scale. These are the other four white keys. They are: FGAB.

To continue from B, and to avoid the semi-tone of B-C, you would go to: C#, D#.
There are only two sharps this time, and then we're back at F and can play FGAB again! So that one is even easier to remember.

Step 3: Review at the keyboard - There are only two places in a C scale where two white keys are side-by-side, as we all know. E to F, and B to C are both semi-tone intervals, so when you create a whole tone always move from B to C# and from E to F# (!) to get whole tones.

Whole Tone Scales

See sample below and play through it.

click on picture to enlarge.
Notice the white-key plateaus after each small raft of black keys.

Step 4: To review all versions of the two whole tone scales, play through starting on each note in turn, feeling of the fingerings, proceding slowly, and listening to the tone.

Eventually, once memorized (takes a day or so for these two whole tone scales), you then play the scales on any starting on any pitch. Fun to use during tone warmup with different exotic rhythms. Very Debussy !

If you can add ten more minutes to one of your many daily pracitice sessions, return to the whole tones, gradually increasing the two scales in tempo, changing the start note, going up two octaves and back down, and eventually articulating as per your exam requirements for whole tone scales.

For Dominant and Diminished Seventh chords.

The diminished and dominant sevenths are fun to to learn and memorize if you start with the major chords you already know. Since you have already memorized your majors from previous exams, you can simply use those scales now to count up to find the dominant note of any scale. Build your dominant 7th chords on that dominant (5th) note of any scale; use a 1-3-5 triad just like any other major chord, and then with a flourish of bravery, add the 7th that was the subdominant (4th) note when you first counted.

Example: Play C-major scale and arpeggio like a brilliant flutist, then stop and soulfully longtone up the first five notes of the scale. Count up five notes by saying mentally : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Take note of the 4th* and 5th notes above the tonic. They are F and G.

Hold the dominant, G and give it great tone. Remember the F for the next step.*

This fifth note G will the root of the Dom7th chord of the major key you're in.
Build a G major triad (which would be spelled GBD, as you already know from your major arpeggios), and then add the seventh above that G. Add the F natural: GBDF. And the simplicity of it is that *the very seventh you need is actually the fourth note of your C-scale, the F, that you already counted in the step above.

Note as you count up 1-2-3-4-5 that the subdominant or 4th note will always be the top note or "flatted-seventh" that you need in a dominant seventh chord.

By counting this way you become aware of the home key of a dominant seventh.

You would play:

C E G C
then
G B D F (the dom7)
and then return to
C E G C.
Very satisfying math, and you only have to count to five!

Now to the famous Diminished Sevenths.

Thankfully, once again, there are far fewer than you think of these types of four note dim7 chords. For example: If I stack minor third intervals from all possible notes, there are only three stacks possible:

B-D-F-Ab

C-Eb-Gb-A

C#-E-G-Bb

If I were to continue to build a stack of minor-thirds on the note D right now, it would be the same as the first one above: D F Ab B.

So you actually only need to learn the three sets of four notes above, and then can simply start on any note in them and continue upward, and you have all possible diminished sevenths.

See sample method below of playing I, V7, dim7, I chords as arpeggios.
I wrote them out fancifully, but they're just the dom and dims for C-major and D-major. You can use your own rhythms and patterns to explore all major keys with an extra 10-20 minute session for 1-2 new keys per day.

click on jpg to enlarge above.

C Major and D Major are shown. Count up to the 5th note and the 4th note by playing, later just "thinking" the counting. Move on to all other keys using the majors you already know.

Also, if you need a second way to find the top note of a diminished seven chord, perhaps your brain starts to drift, and you need another brain-anchoring device, the top note of a dim7 is always a half-step above the root of the V chord in that key. (Ex: In C major, Ab is a half step above G when you counted up 1-2-3-4-5 to G). So adding reference points really helps, and it's another "jazzy sounding" way to find the new note in the chord series.

That's why I like this pattern, I, V7, VIIo7, I, because it tells me what the notes are going to be in advance and I can build the chords from well-known anchor points. Plus it makes me feel like a clever explorer rather than hopelessly reading through non-memorizable pages of chords from a method book.

After two or three weeks of playing Dom and Dim 7ths in all keys using the above arpeggio pattern, fairly swiftly you'll find that your mathematical brain will figure out the easiest way to remember these very few numbers. You'll be amazed! And as an added bonus it sounds so musical when it resolves to the home key and you review your majors at the same time.

I'm not sure of the ABRSM requirements for tempo and articulations, you'll have to send a link to the format the site says is on "Page 85", if you want more help. I can't see the page that gives the necessary rhythm or other patterns.

Abrsm woodwind requirements

Abrsm grade 8 flute scale and solo requirements.

In general when preparing for an exam:

Work on only two to four new scales or chords a day, and learn them while your mind is fresh. Mornings sessions are freshest. Review later in the day once or twice more. Take deep breaths, pause and think exploratively. Don't panic, don't rush, and learn new patterns in a musical way, feeling the sense of them, before adding any more. Keep a notebook of which ones you've learned, and review often. Proceed slowly on new chords, and focus on the quality of the sound. The math will start to sink in after about a week.

Later when you speed up and add articulations, keep that fabulous tone that you've had since the start of this practice, and let fingers be light. Play with panache and grace. Listen back to recordings of yourself, and listen for musicality, evenness of fingers, and precision in articulation.

Remember that you'll likely only be asked a few of these chords, and if you miss one, you can still pass the exam.

Everyone feels a bit freaked out at this point just a few weeks before their exams, but it all works out in the end. The fear and trepidation is your cue to take some deep slow breaths, slow your brain down to a point of learning and focus, and breath easily through the whole experience.
Without a deadline such as an exam, that we set for ourselves, funnily enough (!) :>) we never quite know what heights we can reach.
Once you know all these chords and scales, you'll be able to freely improvise for the rest of your life, and even compose flute music!
With that in mind, you'll find it's all pretty fun to figure out the patterns.
Best of luck, and hope this helps. Jen

Best Flute Trill Charts - free online

2011-05-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Here are all the online flute trill charts that I've found, in order of preference.

Free Online Flute Trill Charts

1. Mark Thomas one page fingering and trill chart

Note: This is the same fingering chart I was given back in the 1970s, but it is still the best all in one fingering and trill chart for students. Acurate, easy to read.

2. The Woodwind Fingering Guide
This is a user-compiled, online alternate fingering guide for all kinds of flutes.

For C-flute, flute trill charts by octave

3. Extract of Delaney Flute Teaching Guide; Just the fingering and trill pages

Note: The entire Delaney Teaching Guide is an interesting read, but you may only want his trill chart, above. If you want the whole book, use the link below instead.

Delaney Flute Teacher's Guide with Trill chart at end of book.

4.Armstrong colour one-page trill chart

I don't use the above chart, as colour printing can use up student's ink; but it has pizzazz, that's for sure.

5. Lindholm Trill Chart;

The legend for reading the trills is on page 9 of this pdf.

More on trills:

Best book for flute trill fingerings: Nestor Herszbaum

All students will want to own this fingering book. Trill charts super easy to read, and many many alternates, all fully tested.

Trill learning/reading:

How to read and play flute trills - pdf printable learning pages from this blog.

Bookmarkable page of all flute-piccolo best fingering charts.

As you can see, I too am seeking the world's best trill charts for flute.
Do drop me a line in the comments if you have any others that are even better.
Best, Jen

99 Solos and Studies from Australia

2011-05-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

I recently received this wonderful and useful etude book in the mail from Australia that arrived within a week!
How entirely excellent a book it is! (and I'm not related to the flute teachers who created this study book, of course.)

Usually, when you buy a book of flute etudes, you find two to three great etudes, and all the rest are uphill work, unattractive to the ear, or diabolically difficult for no apparent reason.
Well the Australian flute teachers who compiled this lovely new book of etudes have finally ended that reign of terrible (or as we say "terri-blech!") etude books !

The three flute teachers who compiled this book extracted all the most gorgeous etudes from Novice to Advanced (Canadian grade 3 to 10+/ARCT) and put them all in one book for $48.

Now you may say: "OMG - that's a whole lot of cost for one etude book, and I already have nine thousand etude books, and I hate them all except for a dozen or so Bach, Drouet, and Hughes studies that are truly helpful and beautiful to listen to."

Well, I've just finished playing twice through the whole of 99 Solos and Studies for Flute and it's the equivalent of five excellent etude books, with only all the good etudes from each of dozens and dozens of etude books! 99 Solos and Studies has great pages, eliminating page turns, great readability, intelligent pedagogy, and inspiring, progressive challenges. The new-to-me celtic tunes found in the novice grades are simply gorgeous, and the combination of familiar and beautiful etudes that have been collected togher are musically rewarding. The whole book is super-inspiring and head and shoulders above standard etude books.It's going to become my new "must have" for all students.
It's that good. Use the comment button; give your own opinions when your copy arrives.

This one book would be especially good for high schoolers, amateur adults, and of course, University music majors who would use the easier level etudes as their daily warmups, (using "outlining" and tonguing patterns to vary the melodies a la Moyse 24 Petite Melodies), or creating their own work plan for inspring summer practice sessions. For intermediate flutists it would be perfect for learning the technical challenges through melody. And knowing that all the solos and studies are presented in graded order of difficulty, the student can progress at their own pace.

And are there between-lesson flutists out there who looking for practice inspiration over the summer? Great tunes? Great workouts? Great lift in the spirts? Then...get this book. And as a gig book for solo performances? Fantastico!
You could play for two or three hours out of this book, just as solo material for any kind of gig!
Fabulouso osso-mosso.
Love it and huge thanks to the caring flute teachers who wrote it. This collection is marvellous. (And I haven't said that since Cohen's "Rampal School"!)

These creativge Australian pedagogues also have a beginner flute book and repertoire collection for beginners which I'll be checking out in the coming month. See all books here. So cool. It's about time we banished the bad rep(ertoire)! hahahaha!

Best, Jen

From the aptly named Fluteworthy book site:

99 Solos and Studies for Flute. Edited by Christine Draeger, Jocelyn Fazzone and Lamorna Nightingale
This progressive collection of solos and studies for the beginner to advanced flute player are stylistically diverse and fun to play.

From the thousands of studies and solo pieces written in the past four centuries, we have selected the 99 of the most enjoyable pieces for both teacher and student. Collated in a broadly progressive order from approximately AMEB 2nd grade to Diploma Level, the pieces cover all areas of technique; tone, articulation, dynamics, finger dexterity etc. Metronome speeds, articulation, dynamics and breaths are suggested but as the level of difficulty increases these editorial marks are phased out to encourage the advanced student to make technical and musical decisions.

STUDIES + FANTASIES + CAPRICES + ETUDES + FOLK SONGS + OPERATIC THEMES + VARIATIONS + VIRTUOSIC SOLOS
See: Table of contents.
Sample page of Kulauh etude.
All information: 99 Solos & Studies by Fluteworthy

Geoffrey Gilbert plays Debussy

2011-05-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's not often you get a chance to hear Geoffrey Gilbert play. Enjoy!

Gilbert performs Debussy on youtube.

The book by Angelita Floyd about Gilbert's teaching is fabulous for flutists thinking ahead to this summer's study too.
Best, Jen

Paula Robison plays Vivaldi & Lanier

2011-05-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,

You might just love this! Paula Robison plays vunderbarr Vivaldi!

And you can have the music to playalong with too!

Free Vivaldi "La Notte" sheetmusic in pdf.

Paula Robison, flute
Concerto in g minor "La Notte"
Concerto in G minor
Flute Concerto No. 2 in G minor
Op. 10, No. 2, RV 439
Antonio Vivaldi
[video at youtube]

Enjoy!
Best, Jen

P.S.
Also listen to this new video; gorgeous playing!

Wind Song by Sidney Lanier composed (C. 1874)
Paula Robison, solo flute

Pahud Flute Fundamentals video excellent!

2011-05-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute teachers and students,

There is a fabulous, and I mean FABULOUS(!)
EmmanuelPahud "Interview" and
"Flute Fundamentals" teaching class for download at Play with a Pro:

www.playwithapro.com

This is a new instrumental teaching site that films masterclasses at Domain Forget in Canada. The instrumentalists are astoundingly world-class.

To see previews of Pahud's teaching:
Go to playwithapro, click on the BROWSE tab to look under the artist-instrument list for Emanuel Pahud ( he is top of the list), click on his name, and then you can watch the film previews. When you click on each of the four films, the preview button will appear.

Very enticingly excellent and intelligent streaming video clips!
And superb inspiring flute tips? Yes, yes, yes indeed??

I couldn't resist; I spent $40 (using paypal--thank you all you sheetmusic purchasers!) and paid for the 90 minute "Fundamentals" film of Pahud demonstrating the most fantastic flute playing tips. Intonation, Breathing, Blowing, Tonguing, Vibrato, and more. And I added the free the 60 minute sit-down interview film (which is free for the first 500 new users, apparently) which was also totally fantastic.

I think it's a fabulous price for a trip to Quebec to hear Pahud describe what he does and how he does it, for an upclose look at his flute playing and ideas for two and a half hours! Fantastico!
So, run don't walk to watch these films. What a tremendous learning experience!

The download of the site's streaming HD media player is free and easy, and it's only 6 mb. The icon for the PlaywithaPro media player will appear on your desktop. From then on the films you've purchased stay on your hardrive indefinitely, or can be re-downloaded if lost, or backed up on another computer. You cannot save them in alternate media (DVD for example), but you can view them perpetually. And Pahud makes so many consequetively brilliant points, you'll want to view them more than four times, I think.

Note: I did have to switch from Quicktime to their alternate media player for some reason to watch the second film, the free Pahud interview. But everything else about the purchase was quick and automatic. What a world we live in!
Kudos to the brilliant Pahud! I learned so much!

Highly recommended.
FIVE STARS!

And here's Pahud making a fab Traviata recording:

Enjoy!

Best, Jen

Alto & Bass Flute Repertoire List

2011-05-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Big-bigger&biggest flute lovers,

Chris Potter has just put up a fantastic repertoire list for Alto & Bass Flute on her site for a limited time. You may wish to take a look.

Alto & Bass Selected Repertoire List

Chris Potter writes:
Alto and Bass Players,
As Chair of the NFA Low Flutes Committee, I am pleased to announce the publication of a listing of music for alto flute that the committee has chosen as outstanding pieces for the instrument. The listing is divided into eleven difficulty levels following the guidelines of the NFA Pedagogy Committee. Our list includes mixed chamber music as well as solo literature. We will be adding bass flute and contra bass flute in the future. Because the NFA is on the verge of a major website upgrade, I have been given permission to post this list on my website temporarily.
The address is http://www.altoflute.net/html/NFAAltoRepertoire.html
Have fun!
Chris Potter
Alto and Bass Flute Specialist
Chair, NFA Low Flutes Committee
Alto and Bass Flute Retreat July 28-Aug 1
http://www.altoflute.net/

Thankyou Chris! Vunderbarr!
Best, Jen

Even the roll is dicey - flute boardgame

2011-04-30T14:21:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutey readers,
I created this game to make my friends laugh. Join us!
:>D AHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Gosh, these should be flute greeting cards, don't you think?

Rules: Start at lower left. Use dice. Move forwards or backwards depending on the weather.

(click to make this game board bigger)

Happy spring everyone!
Best, Jen

Mathieu Dufour plays Poulenc

2011-04-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers,
My goodness gracious. I must share!!!

Mathieu Dufour plays Poulenc - video

What stellar playing!
Fantastico!

You may also enjoy: (sheetmusic here.)

Mozart Sonata for Violin and Piano in A, K.526

G.Connesson Le Rire de Sarai & J.S.Bach Siciliano from the E-flat Major Flute Sonata

Best, Jen

Beethoven & Your Brain

2011-04-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

Dear Flute-lovers, You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll stomp, you'll whoop and you might even pummel your fists in the air! Well that's Beethoven's Fifth for you! I just discovered this great online listening: Beethoven and Your Brain. What a terrific show! Listen to the audience cheer! Ah......Classical Music is BACK as though it never went away! It just needed some folksy groovin' neuro scientists! CBC Radio - Beethoven & Your Brain (1:16) Listen to whole show. Enjoy, Best, Jen

New Carnegie-RCM flute syllabus free online

2011-03-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Carnegie Hall educational programs for young musicians has joined together with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto to create a North America-wide exam system for musical achievement: the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program

The new Carnegie/NCM graded flute exam syllabus in free online in pdf and covers from grade 1 to 10 plus "A.R.C.T" (Associateship Diploma.)

The syllabus gives the teacher and student the titles and publishers of a large variety of quality flute sheetmusic at each grade level, so that you can easily guage the difficulty of many works from many music styles for flute teaching and for performance repertoire in contrasting styles.

Having a modern flute syllabus is terrific for flute students for choosing their own new works at their current grade level, or surveying the skills required of the grades above. An "exam syllabus" means the pieces and etudes are grouped together with required sight-reading, ear-training, scales, arpeggios, musicianship, orchestral excerpts. Pieces, excerpts, scales and etudes are all itemized for each flute grade level. Even if you are not taking the exam, you'll be curious as to how to progress through the literature, and this syllabus gives you a great survey.

And if students and teachers want to survey a flute grade by listening to sound files and play-testing the sheetmusic, the flute grades 1 through 8 are available with the "Overtone" books for flute. Selections from each grade of the syllabus are recorded and published in the Overtones flute sheetmusic series.

The flute sheetmusic in these books is fantastic! I ordered them last summer and have been working all year with them. What a great selection of student-loved repertoire! And so up to date! Check out the Overtone book descriptions and indexes at Frederick Harris Music Publishers . Follow the Flute links to Overtones - A Comprehensive Flute Series which is the full title of graded series of books for flute.

Download the Carnegie flute syllabus here.

Read the New York Times article on this new venture here.

I think this is BRILLIANT, and that every flute teacher and student would love to use this syllabus for rating the difficulty level in new repertoire.
Check it out. (And no, I'm not related to the publisher or anything, I'm just a proud Canadian!)
As pedagogerie goes, this is seriously wonderful news! It's so nice to be unified and have room for new flute composers aplenty as well. This really invigorates the flute world!

Best, Jen

James Galway & Beethoven Serenade op.25

2011-03-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

James Galway coaches Beethoven Serenade for Violin, Flute, & Viola, Feb. 27th, 2011.

This is a terrific short concert/performance film featuring Galway and two fabulous 17 yr. old string players.

Description:
Sir James Galway collaborates with two outstanding teenage string players on the Beethoven Serenade, Op. 25 during an episode of From the Top on NPR. Watch rehearsal and performance footage to see how Sir James mentors 17-year-old violist Arianna Smith and 17-year-old violinist Kenneth Renshaw.

You can also listen to the entire show online AUDIO.

Enjoy!
Best, Jen

Andersen op. 15 lessons by Paul Edmund Davies

2011-03-12T01:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,
I just love these new "works in progress" videos by Paul Edmund Davies.
He combines the teaching of the Andersen Opus 15 studies 1, 2 and 3, with exercises from his wonderful book: The 28 day Warm Up Book - For All Flautists, Eventually.

Here are the videos and I think they seriously ROCK, plus, of course, what an incredible vindication of all that I know about etudes. Enjoy!
(Note: My computer runs these videos smoothly at 480 or 360 but NOT 720; so maybe so adjust if necessary.)

Etude no. 1 opus 15

Etude no. 2 op. 15

Etude no. 3 op. 15

Please free to comment below. Best, Jen

Flute Duets Grade 3-5

2011-02-21T10:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Jen
I was wondering if you might have some nice flute duet suggestions that have music at about grade 3-5. When I look at some websites like Flute World I am overwhelmed trying to decide what might work. We have played several from Ricky Lombardo and the Voxman Selected Flute Duets - both volumes as well as: Album of Flute Duets edited by Louis Moyse and Telemann 6 Canonic Sonatas. In solo work I am working on Faure and Gluck.
I would like to try some classical from a bit more of the Romantic period but I am open to any ideas. I just think I would like some different composers from Mozart and Beethoven and Bach although I do love them.
Many thanks for your time. L.

Dear L,
Flute teachers too are always on the lookout for good duet books for this level, other than the excellent basic titles you already mentioned.

Here is the link to all the flute duet titles I've collected over the years of online searches with flute teacher's suggested titles. And I'd would love to know if readers have found any stellar titles too. (comment button below).

Here's a list of duets for two flutes to check out:

Standard Duet Titles:
Graded list of flute duets.
Just Flutes graded flute duets list.
( Note - an orange "thumbs up" symbol means "recommended repertoire". Grades are ABRSM grading, UK system.)

Celtic Duets:
Grade 3-6*: Celtic Duets - Jessica Walsh/Allen Alexander books:
See "How to make duets from these for 2 flutes with or w/o CD":

Other titles to check out at the sheetmusic stores: you'll have to actually look at these to know if they're suitable for your needs.

Classical/Romantic Duets: I don't own these books, but they are all typically good editors: Wye, McCaskill, Hunt etc.
Titles at flute world level 2:

Flute Duets (ed.McCaskill) (score form) Mel Bay Publications 2 04B21MB93932
Flute Duets (v.1) (ed.Wye) (score form) Chester Music 2 04C030055129
Flute Duets (v.2) (ed.Wye) (score form) Chester Music 2 04C030055157
Flute Duets (v.3) (ed.Wye) (score form) Chester Music 2 04C030055149
Flute Duets Old & New (bk1) (ed.Hunt) (sc) Hunt Edition 2 04H190000HE2
Flute Duets Old & New (bk2) (ed.Hunt) (sc) Hunt Edition 2 04H19000HE42
Romantic Hits(ed.Weinzierl&Wachter)(score form) Barenreiter 2 04B010008691
Two Flutes at the Opera(ed.Walker&Hunt)(sc) Pan Educational 2 04P13000PEM9

Also, I have this duet book and my adult students REALLY like it:

Wind Shir!...Jewish Flute Duets (ed.Vance) (2fl) (score form) Tootpick Publishing

FREE Flute Duets in pdf:

And for viewing online and trying out before printing:
Kummer Easy duets: grade 2-4*
Links to all free duets grade 4 to 8 that I found last year online.
Furstenau Duet grade 6+.
Mozart Duets: grade 4-6
Scarlatti Duets; grade 4-7.

Flute teachers, please feel free to use the comment button for more titles to recommend at the grade 3-5 level, or more sources for free duets. We always need lots for these grades! :>)

* above free duets use Royal Conservatory Grades for Flute.
Best, Jen

Good vs. Great musicianship

2011-02-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Difference between good and GREAT in classical music is an online article comparing two recordings of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony. This is one truly great listening experience, because the given sound samples can be paused, then you can listen to a short section on the other recording (good vs. GREAT!) and then re-start the paused recording.
A fabulous instant-listening educational experience for all musicians.
Take a listen:

http://www.wosu.org/blogs/classical/the-difference-between-good-and-great/

The lyricism and emotive power of the Chicago Symphony interpretation is immediately apparent. And check out the complexity of the characters in the woodwinds!
Just love this.

Enjoy.
Best, Jen

E is for Excellence - E is for Etudes

2011-02-06T21:42:00.001-08:00

Dear Flute-lovers,
For those looking for flute etudes in free pdfs, and for information on how to work on them to increase your excellence, please do read on.

An étude (a French word meaning study), is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill.

Here is a youtube video that is a terrific demonstration of a professional flutist performing an etude at a very high musical level.

If you've never played etudes or are looking for excellent, musically interesting etudes or studies see:

List of commonly used etude books (graded using Canadian Conservatory of Music flute grades).

Jen's favourite etudes list.

List of in-print flute etude books with some reviews and graded by UK/Abrsm (1-8)

And....now for the FREE ETUDES for downloading:

Free public domain or free pdf flute etudes (Canadian flute grades):

Grade 2 free pdf studies various composers: Book Flute Studies and Book 1.
http://creativeflute.org/c-f-library/books-flute-studies/

Grade 4:
Gariboldi "Dainty" (Mignonne) Studies:
http://www.score-on-line.com/freescores.php?collection=flute

Grade 4-6:
Gariboldi 20 Studies opus 132: Free pdfs of ten of op. 132 studies here.

Grade 3-12: Various composers Book II Flute studies to Bk. X:
http://creativeflute.org/c-f-library/books-flute-studies/

Grade 5-12:
Kohler - easy, Romantic Etudes to Virtuoso etudes: all at:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/14152364/42577d84/Public_Domain_Flute.html

Grade 6-9:
Drouet - 72 Studies:
http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=8053

Grade 7-8:
Hughes (also spelled Hugues) 24 Etudes:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/14152364/42577d84/Public_Domain_Flute.html

Grade 7-12:
Download all the Andersen etudes by opus number for free:
http://www.kb.dk/da/nb/samling/ma/digmus/jo_and.html

Anderson Etudes in order of difficulty (grades 7-12):
Op. 41
Op. 37
Op. 33
Op. 21
Op. 30
Op. 15
Op. 63
Op. 60

Grade 9-10:
J.S. Bach 24 Concert Studies:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/14152364/42577d84/Public_Domain_Flute.html

Contemporary - Misc. Flute Studies by Lindolm: (some are graded)
http://www.kuopionkonservatorio.fi/Herbert/flute1.html

----------------end list free etudes in pdf

Also of great interest for more advanced flutists see:

Recommended Advanced Etude books by Jen

Best high register Study book to buy: Filas Top Register Studies.

And here is an article of mine on how to work on a flute etude.

All the best and happy excellent etudes tiny dudes!

Jen

Do I need a new flute? Or is my old one broken?

2011-01-17T13:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,

Quite a few "I want to buy a new flute" questions came in over the winter holidays, and I thought it would be helpful if folk knew how to test their flutes to see if they need repair. Also see Flute Care for more tips on annual flute repair and why it's normal.

Sometimes your old flute is just fine, but you have forgotten that it has a maintainance schedule that's annual. This is a very common reason for flute students thinking that they need a new and better flute. But it's a normal repair-requirement that can be quickly remedied.

Firstly, simply ask your flute teacher to test your flute for you. If you don't have a teacher, for gosh sakes go for at least one proper lesson to find out what's going on with your flute.
When the flute teacher tests your flute, you will be able to see and hear for yourself what the flute's current condition truly is, and get corroboration on your own observations.

This morning I quickly created the two quick diagrams above, one of the headjoint, and one of the body, (click on them to make them bigger, then use the back button) so that online flute students and novices could see the basic functions of flute repair and maintenance. It's surprising how few flute-shoppers are informed of these little details. Should help enormously!

And once you get an idea about the mechanics of the flute, then you can re-consider the size of your bank-account, and possibly circumvent that emotionally desperate consumer-purchase feeling, and instead, get a repair on your current flute.

By all means, have your teacher test the repair, and then start to save up for a well-informed flute purchase in the future.

(See below for super-budgetary restraint advice.)

Best advice: take that money that's burning a hole in your hobby-budget, and spend it on your annual flute repair visit first.

And by all means invest in one or more flute lessons so that someone who knows how to play-test flutes can be your personal expert. You can even audio-record the sound samples of the flute or flutes being tested by the teacher.

Then later, if and when you re-sell your current flute, you will likely make any repair-money you spent on it back again, because your old flute will be worth more, and sell faster. (Of course, because NO ONE wants to buy a flute that's leaking and squeaking.)

Repairs are cost-effective in ways you can barely imagine at this point in your search for flutey-perfection. :>)

Not only is the flute worth MORE after repair, but you can't put a price on the reduced practicing frustration; it is indeed PRICELESS!

Best, Jen

From Flutenet today:

STARVING COLLEGE STUDENT WANTS NEW FLUTE
I'm looking into buying a new flute once I have more money saved up ( I'm a starving college student, of course.) Another flute major at my school suggested I find a solid metal flute, whether it's silver or gold (although silver is definitely more likely in my case).
I guess pure isn't the right way to say it. I mean non-plated metal. Are there any benefits to this? Or is there any difference between having a sterling silver flute with a plated key system?
I could post about all these extra mechanisms and stuff, but I think I'll ask later on in my shopping process.

Jen replies:
Dear starv. coll. student,

You can read all about flute shopping and all the options here:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/buying.htm

Basically, you decide your budget, and then look at reputable brand names within your price bracket with the help of your flute teacher.
Buying without the help of an expert is fraught with possible purchase errors.

There is a very large difference between the reputable flute brands,and their precision in manufacture, and the lesser-quality band flutes in the cheaper price brackets. Stay wary of those extremely cheap flutes that are sold on the internet. The plating on them flakes off,
apparently.

Plated silver keys on a solid silver body are just fine (and I enjoy their lighter weight) if well-manufactured. The only drawback would be if a very dent-causing accident required soldering. Plated keys are cosmetically damageable during large dent-related accidents.

Solid silver keys do not affect the sound or action of the flute; but do cost more, and are likely to be found on the more carefully made, more expensive flutes.

Other options (such as offset G and inline G, b-foot, etc.) are topics you can ask your teacher about or read about online. Most flute specialty companies have a glossary of terms that you can look over to learn about all the myriad options.

But try before you buy.

Too many unusual flute options when ordering, means you have already narrowed down the number of flutes you are going to try, and trying
many different brands is the key to the whole shopping process.

And it's always best to buy a flute with the help of an expert flute teacher.
You're much more likely to get a flute you can use for 5-10 years, and one that will actually do what you NEED it to do, plus the teacher might know of other "used" flutes in her studio (from other students) that may have good track records (accurate record of repair) and be
within your price bracket.

Buying a flute without having it fully play-tested by someone who can stretch it to its limits is a very dicey business.
The teacher will know immediately whether the flute is functional, flexible in tone, and responds well, or whether it needs repair prior to being properly play-tested.

Best, Jen

Also:

How to improve your flute when you have too little money to buy a good quality new one:

I just thought of a way of explaining a common flute-purchasing situation; the novice flute buyer who doesn't know which flute to get,
who's trying to work with a teeny tiny budget.

Here are the steps I would take, knowing what I know as a flute teacher who's seen this situation dozens of times, if I were to go through it
again:

Let's say the novice flutist has $400 and realizes after looking around on the net that they need $1000 to buy a decent "step up"
flute, or maybe even $2000. But $400 is all they have and they are truly motivated to improve their flute situation.

Here are some of the recommended steps:

1. Rent a flute - Rental flutes from quality music stores can be as inexpensive as $25 per month. Look for a newer Yamaha or other quality instrument,
and have it checked for pad leaks. Take it home for a month and compare it to your old flute that's been bothering you. You will learn
alot about what's wrong with your old flute. Cost: $25-$40
Still have: $350-375 in savings.

2. Get advice from a flute teacher in person - Flute lessons start at around $25 for a half hour; take both flutes (rental and your own) to a flute lesson and get some basic playing advice. If you enjoy it, sign up for some more lessons. The new teacher can help you buy a quality flute.
Cost: $25 to $100. Still have $300 or so in savings.

3. Repair your old flute - At your flute lesson(s), inquire about any quality used flutes for sale, and the name and location of the best flute technician in town (the one the flute teacher recommends highly) and take your old flute to the shop for repair.

Your old flute will sell at a higher price if it's in good condition and recently repaired.
Test it again when it returns from repair; is it as bad as you thought? Cost of repair: $80-$150+
Still have $100-150 or so in savings.

(If it is "unrepairable" due to poor grade manufacture, at least you now know this.)

4. Use old flute to help buy new one - You can always sell your own instrument after selecting the best new instrument (or previously owned flute) that you can find. And that will replenish your bank-account.

Your old flute will sell for more, because in good condition, and your flute lessons will have helped you select a good quality flute that's suited to your new and improved flute skills.

Selling your old but completely refurbished flute and earn back repair bills of over-$200 in the future. Savings would then be back up to $200 plus whatever you have left over from renting a flute and some flute lessons. You may even recoup half your costs.

Problem: You started with $400. And of course, now only have zero to a future $200, because of the cost of flute lessons and flute repair bills. But you now know exactly what was wrong with your own flute, and what it feels like to play on a better quality flute.

You can put the $200 toward a payment plan for a new flute (with parental help), and/or can continue to play your newly repaired old flute diligently until you've saved up more.

This seems like a sensible plan to me.

And it shows parents that you're seriously invested in not just owning a "new toy" but having taken on the hobby of flute playing in a serious way. That really helps when birthdays and Christmas come, and you are asking for them to help pay for lessons and/or a month-to-month rental flute.

Hope this helps,
Jen

Tone Experiments for Advanced Flutists

2011-01-16T15:05:00.001-08:00

(click to enlarge cartoon above - then use back button to return here.)

Dear Flutists,
Have you ever actually kept a record of what works for you when you're practicing to improve your flute tone?

For advanced flutists working with a teacher, this dissertation on flute tone makes excellent reading. I found it in a free pdf online, and it's truly helpful.

As the author of the dissertation notes on pages 29-31, there are conflicting instructions aplenty when you read flute "how to" texts. Every flute author seems to leave too much unsaid, and not agree with eachother on almost any of the tone instructions! No wonder there is so much confusion!

Add to that the various levels of tactile sensitivity and listening skills, of each player, and you have myriad half-described tiny feats of accuracy and precision. Then add to that the widely varying ability in students to goal-set, experiment and focus, and then finally, add the fact that flute students and teachers are not always able to be perfectly clear about what it is they are physically doing to improve the tone, and you have "the art of playing the flute" is "Practice Practice Practice".

I mean, gosh, even all the great "how to" texts completely disagree!
See sample below: (click to enlarge - use back button to return here.)

Hilariously wild in the disagreement department: to wit:

So setting ones own flute tone goals, creating ones own embouchure experiments with the help of a teacher, and taking notes, like a scientist, is the best method of self-educating.

Re-reading past note books and self-reminders can be illuminating too. So often embouchure and head-throat instructions are more "thought" then performed. A single idea can make sufficient changes. For example:
I found a book of scales up to high B the other day where a previous flutist had written "blow your throat open" and it saved the day once again. (gets rid of unconscious throat-tightening and keeps air moving quickly.)

And of course, I highly recommend flutists who want to improve their tone to consistently record their lessons and/or take notes while working with their teacher, and then, when practicing at home, take quick notes of which ideas worked and what changes were effective.
It's also incredibly helpful to record yourself and listen back.

A student the other day phoned to say: "I listened back to what I thought was a gorgeous full low register, and suddenly heard that I was too rolled in! Ack!"
(see 3rd comment below).

Well, ha ha. We are not alone.
And there is no faster method to re-creating your embouchure and air-speed successes at will, if you know what they are and have made notes to yourself!

Comments from flute teachers who are interested in this topic are truly welcome!
Best, Jen

Digitally Ubiquitous - Jen's profile in Flutist Quarterly

2010-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,

My flutey life in print! Eeek!
But I have to show you the cover too!
The cover term: Digitally Ubiquitous, ha hahahahaa!
Whooooo! That just cracks me right up! :>D

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Just use the backbutton to return here.

And where did this Cluffy profile come from?
Well, my good pen-pal-friend and fellow flutist, Jerry Pritchard published a profile on "moi" for The Flutist Quarterly Magazine. What a lovely article and what a lovely writer. Thanks so much Jerry!

If any flutey reader has any follow-up questions, fire away!
Yes, I do live on less than $5000 a year. Yes, I do indeed practice along with recordings of great symphonic literature, by changing the sound files to A-440. Yes, I do have strange things glued on my flute. (a la Moyse's and Baxtresser's flutes). And yes, we do commute by small boat to get home each evening. Yes, yes, yes it is crazily alternative, but hey.... This is your life! ha ha!

The profile is in the Fall 2010 issue. I'm hugely grateful that this particular issue is so full of brilliant articles. It's a real KEEPER!!! Huge thanks to the writers, editors, and hardworking staff at Flutist Quarterly. Made my year to be included in an issue like this! So amazingly high quality!
Best, and huge hugs all around,
Jen

Flute Auditions youtube orchestra

2010-12-10T13:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,

Because the voting is now open for the youtube orchestra, you can actually listen to the auditions, just as one day YOU might be listened to in an audition.
Go to: http://www.youtube.com/symphony

Instructions for navigating youtube orchestra channel*:
click VOTE - then click orchestral audition - select "flute" or "piccolo" from the seating plan graphic - select one of twelve videos of finalists.

Jen says: Wow! Isn't it amazing to be listening rather than being the flutist for a change? Sit back and really observe, eh?

What a great learning opportunity!
Finally we can see from the judge's point of view.

Haven't you always wanted to know what an orchestral committee see and hear when a flutist auditions?

For these youtube orchestra auditions there are a total of twelve flutists you can listen to and vote for at the youtube orchestra channel: I felt these two had very strong visual and audio presentation.
Interesting to learn from sitting in the judge's seat.
For example: Listen to the two players below and conduct along or tap the table, listening to the orchestral part in your mind. Which player feels metronomically alert?

Note of interest:
Rather than film her audition in several takes, this participant above played all the excerpts back to back; now that's raising the bar!!

And of interest also is the "lyrical improvisatory" section of the contest.
Check out this film:

Love the veritasse background of kitchen!

Enjoy and join me in learning what makes a great audition for a flutist.
Comments welcome.

And thanks to *Nina P. for the instructions on how to navigate the website.:>)

Instructions for navigating youtube orchestra channel*:
click VOTE - then click orchestral audition - select "flute" or "piccolo" from the seating plan graphic - select one of twelve videos of finalists.

Best,
Jen

Does piccolo fourth octave exist?

2010-12-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Jen,
Through my research, I didn´t find what i was looking for, so i decided to ask a professional: Is it possible to achieve the fourth octave on the piccolo????, There are some web pages that say yes, but other says no, and so, i got in a mess!!!!!, and there isn´t a clear explanation of this subject. Thankyou. G.

Dear G,
Here are two decent piccolo fingering charts online:

Piccolo fingering chart - Christie Beard

Piccolo fingering alternates - John Krell

As you can see, no fingerings are given above a C#4, and for good reason, I suspect.

I suppose that it is theoretically possible to squeak out a deadly high peep on D4 with much force and horrific tone quality, in a Sousa March, but, ha, ha.... no one really wants to.
When it's done well, (and only one piccoloist in twenty can play C4 on the piccolo well, and only after much practice, and often changing piccolos a few times until they find one that does it more easily) it's still horrible to listen to, and considered a "trick" for blast-fests.

The note C4 appears most prominently in the Shostakovich Waltz Suite No. 1 - Polka, for orchestra, doubled at the octave with the flute, and it's seldom in tune in recordings, and takes much practice to play it in tune. Here is a good recording, thought it's hard to say whether the flute drops out for the C4 octave unison: go to minute 1:08 and listen for the top note of the phrase:

One or two C#4s exist in the piccolo literature, but not enough to worry too much about.
There is an interesting article about the problems with C#4 on piccolo, and how to solve them by using a D-flat piccolo, here.
But for the modern piccoloist, the typical range is to C4 only (see orchestral instrument ranges and transpositions here.)

On the other hand, contemporary concert band composers not infrequently forget to transpose the piccolo parts, and write them "as if" they piccolo must go into the fourth octave. However this is a misprint.

The piccoloist should assume that the arranger/composer has made a mistake, and play one octave lower.

I advise to always play one octave lower above a high B3 unless you have three months of daily piccolo practice, (in addition to your regular flute practice) to work up the fingering, tuning and embouchure.
Be safe, be happy, and drop an octave.
If wanting to live dangerously, you still should always wear ear-plugs when practicing above D3.

Oh, and in hunting around, I also found an invention, the double-octave piccolo, whose time may have come. Have a read of this article:
Super-Octave Piccolo Written by Nancy Nourse

Quote:Buried in one of the many drawers of the enormous Dayton C. Miller Collection in the Library of Congress lies an anonymous nineteenth century oddity, no. 610, a tiny transverse flute. Built to sound a full octave higher than the modern piccolo (or a full two octaves above the standard, concert flute) its actual length is more than twice as long as its sounding length. Since playing such a tiny instrument as a super-octave piccolo obviously poses a fingering challenge for anyone without the most miniature hands, this anonymous maker has employed the same concept of remotely controlling mechanisms for the opening and closing of keys that is used to manipulate distant hole covers on baritone saxophones, bassoons, contrabass flutes or even simply the D# key on the eighteenth century traverso. Instead in this instance, the keys are used for facilitating a miniature layout rather than spanning unreachable distances.

Now there's an instrument that would be useful!!

Hope this helps.
Save your ears.I'm not kiddink! :>)
Jen

More on Moyse

2010-12-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,
A teacher on one of the flute discussion groups was looking for definitive recordings of Marcel Moyse's "24 Little Melodic Studies" also known as 24 Petites études mélodique (Variations on short melodies) written by Marcel Moyse in 1928.

I thought it would be handy to answer that question as well as put some other Moyse links here, in case anyone else is looking for definitive pedagogical material from the scion of 19th century French flute playing.

Here's everything useful I have found on the net thus far:

Downloadable mp3s of Moyse performances of standard repertoire

_______________________
The French School at Home - CD by Moyse Moyse plays Moyse-Andersen-etc. Etudes: to purchase go to recordings tab at:
http://www.moysesociety.org/

CD includes restored and remastered recordings of Moyse performing 22 etudes:

Moyse: 24 Small Melodic Studies (Nos. 1-4, 7-10, 15, 22)
Moyse: 25 Melodic Studies (No. 10)
Moyse: 25 Small Melodic Studies (No. 9)
Sousemann: 24 Daily Studies (No. 15, 22)
Furstenau: Bouquet of Tones (No. 9)
Andersen: Opus 15 (Nos. 3, 4a, 8, 15, 16, 18)

______________________
DVDs of Moyse teaching in 1975 in Vermont.

Also see Videos tab at http://www.moysesociety.org/ for:

DVDs of Marcel Moyse teaching flute students during a 1975 seminar.
Tapes feature various students playing diverse music, and are strictly
educational in content.

Contents of Moyse teaching films:
#1: Interview of Marcel Moyse by Blanche Moyse Interview of Marcel Moyse by Blanche Moyse, transcript included, 55 min.
#2: Mozart Concerto #1 in G Major Flutist Carol Wincenc, Lesson #1, 55 min.
#3: Mozart Concerto #1 in G Major Flutist Carol Wincenc, Lesson #2, 48 min.
#4: Reichert's Fantaisie Melancolique, Opus 1 Flutist Julia Bogorad, Lesson #1 52 min.
#5: Reichert's Fantaisie Melancolique, Opus 1 Flutist Julia Bogorad, Lesson #2, 43 min.
#6: Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies Flutist Chris Potter, 49 min.
#7: Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies & Debussy's Syrinx Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies, flutist Sara Tutland; Debussy's Syrinx, flutist Marie Herseth, 43 min.
#8: Tulou's Trio, Opus 65 & T. Boehm's Air Varie de la Molinara, Opus 4 Tulou's Trio, Opus 65, flutists: Julia Bogorad, Alex Ogle, Max Schoenfeld; T. Boehm's Air Varie de la Molinara, Opus 4, flutist Susan Hyman, 45 min.

________________________
Previous Jen Cluff Blog Moyse topics:

Moyse's Tone advice for beginners

Moyse's Embouchure instructions

Moyse's Advice to advanced flute students in masterclass: Pearls from the Master
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

________________________
Moyse Books - flute method publications by Moyse:

Publications in bold I consider indispensable:

Études et éxercises technique (1921)
Exercises Journaliers (1922)
24 Études de virtuosité d'après Czerny (1927)
Mécanisme-chromatisme pour flûte (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
École de l'articulation (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
25 Études mélodique (Var) (1928)
12 Études de grande virtuosité d'après Chopin (1928); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
20 Études d'après Kreutzer (1928)
100 Études faciles et progressives d'après Cramer (1928); 2 volumes
24 Petites études mélodique (Var) (1928)
De la Sonorité (1934)
25 études Journalier (Op-53) Soussman
Gammes et Arpèges (Scales and Arpeggios); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
Le Débutant flûtiste (1935)
24 Caprices-études : Boehm Op. 26 (1938)
Tone Development Through Interpretation
20 Exercises et études sur les Grandes Liaisons
How I stayed in Shape by Marcel Moyse

__________________

Moyse's re-modeled flute with key extensions: Photo

Moyse's entire flute: Note, plated brass in photo

Best, and do comment and add more links if you have them,
Jen Cluff

Top Teeth where Upper Lip should be

2010-11-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,
I received this email yesterday:

Dear Jen, I hope you can help me. I learned to play flute just after my amazingly oversized front teeth came in, when quite young. Somehow I ended up using my upper teeth to create an embouchure, instead of my upper lip. I pull my upper lip up and out of the way and actually form my tone using the edge of my top teeth. Now, of course, my teeth are normal sized because they have been filed down by the dentist. But I never knew about this unusual method of mine until my second year in highschool when I received some photos of me playing with the band, and for the first time I saw how my embouchure differed. How do I go about fixing this? My tone is okay, but very breathy, especially when I try to play high notes. Thanks in advance for any pointers. M.

Dear M.
You are not alone. There was a flute-playing "Miss America" contestant in the 1970s, I believe, that played on TV, using her upper teeth instead of upper lip, and was startling in that she could smile brilliantly at the audience, all through her televised flute solo. Of course you need to re-work your embouchure from the beginning again, and it may be frustrating, but it will be well worth your efforts.

The first thing to do is to find a qualified flute teacher and sign up for six months worth of weekly lessons. This is not likely something you can fix yourself,because there are several factors that are going to have change for you to get a better tone quality than you have now, and you'll need to do fundamental exercises to strengthen new muscles that surround your lips. Also you'll probably need to start placing the flute differently on your chin, adjusting your angle and lower lip shape, as well as opening the jaw hinges, and blowing downward by drawing the top lip down and over the teeth. These are too many things to "spot" yourself for while learning. A good flute coach will "spot" you and help you just like a good gymnastics, dance or swim coach can analyse physical movements much better than the athlete can themselves. So do go to the best teacher you can find.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the book The Illustrated Fluteplayer, which is a handy resource. But you will need a teacher who specializes in flute.

If you click directly on these pictures, they will get larger. Use the Back Button to return here.

The first few days of work may result in a "beginner's tone quality", but you'll have to be patient with this as your facial and mouth muscles gradually adjust and gain poise and strength for the new embouchure.

I find that I get just a little freaked out when I hear that band flutists have never even seen a flute teacher, or had the flute teacher see them. Of course if you'd gone to a year of flute lessons at any point, this could have been fixed before it came as a surprise to you. But now, since you're motivated, NOW is the time for flute lessons.

This very basic how-to video contains one helpful flutey hint, about making an "m" with your lips, and then blowing the lips apart in the center.

(click on above picture to read text, then click back button to return here.)
Give it a try and let us know if you're able to do this exercise. That will tell you how easy it is to re-design your musculature.

There is also a video with embouchure exercises here.

All the best, and hoping your new flute teacher fixes you right up. Be patient, and be motivated.
Best, Jen

How to dismiss a teacher

2010-11-29T15:34:00.001-08:00

Dear Flutists,

A question came up this week about the best way to kindly change flute teachers.

It's a tricky situation, as teachers and their students, working for years on musical development and performance projects, can grow quite close as they share many formative experiences in music together.

They can be as close as co-workers in any Arts project, and these can be emotional as well as intellectual friendships.

So, how can you change flute teachers without damaging your current flute student and teacher relationship?

I guess that the easiest way for me as a teacher, would be to hear the student say:

"I've felt the need for a new way of looking at my flute playing, and thought that it was time for me to get input from a different perspective.

Maybe lessons with a different flute teacher could offer me a new point of view, or the jumpstart I need to hear things a new way; sort of an alternative flute refresher course.

Is it alright that I start looking into taking some lessons with another teacher?
Do you need several weeks or month's notice?

I've truly and deeply appreciated everything you've done to help me; I just feel the need to change the way I hear things."

Thinking about the above:
Often the teacher knows already that you need a change, and it's great when the student speaks in respectful "I" statements.

All of us have the need for a change, or another fresh perspective.

Afterall:
Starting fresh repertoire refreshes our relationship with our instrument.

Hearing new flute styles and new ways to learn and critique shows us new ways to listen to our own playing.

And of course, going to Masterclasses with alternative flute masters refreshes our flute understanding, and lends new ideas in how to enrich our own playing.

The above are all strong reasons to refresh our point of view.

Lessons with another teacher can help clarify our goals and our practice habits.
Even the same information given in a new voice can be helpful to jog our understanding.

Those readers out there who are teachers and students with experience with this particular issue, do chime in and give your thoughts on this topic too please.

Hope this helps until more comments on this topic arrive,
Best,
Jen

Trios ahoy

2010-11-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Flutists,

There have been hosts of Christmas Carols for Flute Trio and Celtic flute trios orders. And tons of compliments! :>)
This is fabulouso!

Updated: Dec. 29th 2010.

Thankyou everyone for your orders, and for all the kind thoughts and words.
Enjoy the music!
Best, Jen

Tchaikovsky Tremelo Fingerings

2010-11-12T00:32:00.001-08:00

Dear Flutists,
Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Ibert; all three composers, although brilliant, frequently compose flute passages that take hours, and sometimes weeks and months of work.

I've given alternate fingerings for the two latter composers on previous occasions,but Pyoter, Peter, Petey-dude (!)

What's with the crazy pianistic writing for us poor but happy flute players?

Hmmmmm?

We are not violins, sir. We don't just waggle one finger at a time in the top octave, dear sir.

I once heard that James Galway said that "some of the most difficult orchestral flute bits aren't even in the excerpt books; there are some orchestral parts by Tchaikovsky that can really make you work!".

This week I was asked for a possible fingering for the fast sixteenth notes in the opening of Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, second flute part, just as I was contemplating a blog post on our dear Petrov's gnarled Nutcracker.

Well my friends, I love fingering questions more than my beloved spouse loves crossword puzzles. :>) so let me take you through my fingering puzzle-solving method, and I'll get to the Nut-gnarler later (keep it in mind though :>).

Firstly, to answer a fingering question, the context, the tempo and the orchestration are all important.
So as a first step it's important to go and have a look and listen to the passage in question to find the context, tempo and orchestration in a recording, while reading the score.

(Afterall, if it's only a Tchaikovsky "sound effect" and will be well covered by booming tuttis, dubious harmonic fingerings can be well hidden by the eventual blast-fest. )

So using online public domain libraries, I found that the score, and Flute I & II parts, are available to download in pdf.
Daydreams on a Winter Journey. Symphony no 1

And thanks to modern technology (not like the old days when you had to get an old scratched LP out of the music library)there are also some immediately hear-able performances which can be found at youtube to hear tempo and orchestration. Have a listen. Isn't it just marvellous stuff and worth all the problems?

And now here is the flute II part and below it, a listening extract of just the bars in question: (click to enlarge - backbutton to return here.)

Listen to how exposed the two flutes are (click the play button):

And check out Abbado's tempo at quarter = 132.
I say: Eeek!!! (and I don't say "eeek" lightly.)

So, having assessed the challenge thus far, I immediately came up with a reliably balanced Bb2 to D3 tremelo fingering that uses my favourite stabilizing key, the Bb side key:

Providing the tempo taken by your conductor is slower than Abbado's, the above is a great fingering!

Next, to get the tempo up to Abbado's quarter = 132, I reached for my trusty alternative fingering book by Herszbaum, and tried out all the listed fingerings from this excellent major third tremelo pages near the back of the book.

Finally, on the second day, I tested the best fingerings for pitch (using the Tuning CD), for stability at mm=132, and the checked and double checked those fingerings likely to be used by the first flutist, so that the pitch and dynamic would match for both flutists.

So, for those who've followed this adventure so far, here's the grand prize: I have come up with fingering solutions for all the Tchaik 1 tremelos for both flutes I & II.

I've put all the solutions into a printable pdf for you to put on your music stand and try out. Please help yourself:

Jen's Fingering Solutions for Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 Tremelos.

I admit that getting RH4 to the C# key is a bit of a finesse technique, but Eb key for the RH4 also works when you're playing ppp.

And do please write back with your comments, suggestions, and additional fingering solutions. I'd love to know that we all can solve Pyoter's mad adventures into contrary finger motions at high speeds! And I'd also love to know that I'll be helping out in advance, the next two flutists who are called at the last minute to play Tchaik. 1. Beautiful music!!

Enjoy!
Send feedback.
Best, Jen

Emma plays Gaubert & Mouquet

2010-11-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Yes, it's amazing. And all from memory!
(sometimes I truly am just speechless)
Ten year old Emma Resmini performing Gaubert's Fantaisie:

And Mouquet's "La Flute de Pan" first mvmt, Bergeres":

The second mvmt. of the Mouquet, Pan and the Birds:

The third mvmt. with fast double tonguing Mouquet - Third mvmt. Pan & the Nymphs:

Wowza.....

Best, Jen

Gypsy Style flute repertoire for students

2010-10-12T09:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Jen
I’m a flutist and teacher and just read your blog about the Xmas trios and thought I would ask your advice about repertoire for intermediate level HS students. Specifically, I have a couple of students who have been excited by and excelled at playing the “Hungarian Serenade” by Joncieres (in the Cavally, 24 Short concert Pieces book). They would love to play more pieces like this one, but I’m having trouble finding anything appropriate. Their interest and abilities are admittedly somewhat limited of course. Do you have some ideas?
I have found your website to be wonderful and fascinating.
Thanks so much.

Sample: Joncieres - Hungarian Serenade

Dear flute teacher,
Thanks for the sample of the Joncieres. Yes Hungarian style Serenades and other "gypsy-esque" pieces are so popular with teens between 12 and 16. I wish there were more!

Fortunately, there is a great deal of a similar style of music in the new Overtones flute series of repertoire books.

As I read through this set of eight repertoire books (with flute & piano full parts plus playalong CDs each book is only $18 to $24 each grade) I was struck by how many are in attractively exotic sounding minor keys, are nice and moody/emotional, have the kind of flash and flair and fast staccato sixteenth notes that highschool students typically love. So many students go through that "gypsy wanderer and flashy gypsy dance" stage, that I've always felt we should have more repertoire choices for them.

Of course it's tricky to know from your email exactly what difficulty level you need without hearing the students, but I'll start with suggestions for grade 4-7 so you can have an idea about the levels I'm using (a chart of flute levels is here.)

The five biggest winners for an exact match in style to the Hungarian Serenade by Joncieres are these selections from the new Overtones Flute Repertoire series: (note: I am not related to the sales of any flute books for any company in any way--I just love these graded flute solo collections! See indexes at bottom of this post.**)

Here are my flute repertoire picks for an exact match:

Grade 4 Overtones: Andersen Tanzlied opus 52, bk.2
Free Tanzlied sheetmusic.
Hear Tanzlied using the grade 4 repertoire video below from Overtones CD .

For these short videos, below, I've chosen all the similar style selections from the Grade 4 Overtones book, made fade-out clips so you can hear for yourself. (with lovely photos randomly added from the cameras of my friends and I).

I have chosen those flute pieces that are either in minor/moody modes, have fun and boppy sixteenth note passages, have a strong emotional appeal to teens, or have a folk music style themes.

Now: Continuing up the grade levels to flute grades 5 and 6:

Grade 5 Overtones book: Check out the Szervanszky Sonatina

(see grade 5 video below to hear it.)

Grade 6 Overtones: Andersen Intermezzo opus 52 no. 2
Free sheetmusic Andersen Library

(Click on the grade 5&6 video below hear a performance Andersen's Intermezzo at 1:45 minute mark.)

Grade 7 selections from Overtones:

Amirov - Six Pieces; the three movements selected here are PERFECT for students who want to sound rough, rollicking, folksy and middle-European! :>)

LISTEN: Amirov - Six Pieces excerpts

Also of interest:
Duvernoy - Morceaux op 41 excerpt

And of course, for grade six and higher I can also suggest the standard repertoire:

Grade 6-7 standard flute repertoire: gypsy-style/Hungarian/ethnic folk-theme flute music

Émile Pessard - Andalouse

Georges Hue - Serenade

Grade 8-9 flute level:

Donjon - Eight Salon Etudes - especially those like "Les Follets" which is terrific for this style of music and so very attractive to students. For unaccompanied flute solo or etude.

Morlacchi - The Swiss Shepherd (a bit dorky of theme, but folk like it!)

Sarasate - Czardas for flute & piano (too violinistic and "wrong key" for students, at least for me, but again, the ending kind of rocks the house if you manage it.) Free Czardas pdf.

Grade 9 to 10+

Doppler - Hungarian Pastorale Fantasy op. 26 (naturally!)

Andersen - Hungarian Fantasie Opus 2 (free online)

Jacob Gade - Tango Fantasy - James Galway edition.

Andersen - Fantasy Hongrois op. 59 (free online)

Note: When viewing the free Andersen pdfs, scroll down to final few pages, as the flute part is below piano score in the above pdfs.

If you want lots of this style at HIGHER grades to sift through, definitely look to Andersen library online. Andersen free sheetmusic library in Denmark. There are all opus numbers there in pdf.

More titles to check out:

Similar interest repertoire: Grade 4-9

Zgraja - The Modern Flutist Vol. 1 - 1970s folk-rock with lots of Hungarian style rhythmic flair
Garibaldi Etudes (free online)
Marais - La Basque (free online)
Berbiguier Eighteen Etudes - available in duet version with teacher's part by Altes.
Telemann - 12 Fantasias (free online)
Marais - Les Folies D'Espagne (selected variations)
Bartok - selected mvmts from Suite Paysanne Hongrois
Borne - Selections from the Ransom Wilson Edition (slightly easier) of Carmen Fantasy

For contrasting solos, here are pieces that often appeal to those same students:

Moody flute solo music - usually liked by students who like Doppleresque pieces:

Ravel - Pavane pour une infante defunte
Ravel - Piece en forme de Habanera
Gaubert - Madrigal
Faure - Sicilienne
André Reichert - Theme from Fantaisie mélancolique (OVERTONES*)
Michel Blavet - Sonata in G Minor(“La Lumagne”) - Siciliana (OVERTONES)
Foote - Trios pieces pour flute et piano op. 31 (OVERTONES)
Lefebre - Barcarolle Melancholique (OVERTONES)
Doppler - Hungarian Fantasy (an easy, short version: first 2 pages, then skip to last 2)
Faure- Morceau de Concours
Godard - Idylle from Suite de Trois Morceau
Miyagi - The Sea in Springtime - or Toward the Sea
Rhene-Baton - Passacaille
Mouquet - Bergeres from "La Flute de Pan"
Vivaldi - slow mvmts.from Piccolo Concerto in C, and other flute works.

Your students might also enjoy some playalong or "Music Minus One" sets for working on their own during holidays on music from other "gypsy" styles like Tangos & South American Choros by Celso Machado (very good!).

Grade 7-9 Music Minus One of spanish-style music are:

Music Minus one of Bossa Nova and Tangos (with playalong CD for flute and guitar) that is good for grade 6-8. This includes Liebertango by Piazzolla, Choros by Machado & other favourites: MMO3366

Also: Piazzolla Histoire du Tango and other Latin Classics for Flute (with playalong CD): MMO 3364 Note: The Sarasate pieces, and Granados are the easiest. The Piazzolla "Cafe 1930" movement is also playable at this level.

The Music Minus One books only come with the solo part and CD, so are not for use in concerts unless the accompanist buys the guitar MMO book. However there are MMO online sound samples of each of the pieces at the above links, which can be fun to preview new pieces the student might use for fun.
Also, here's a list for other likely favourite solos for flute of similar attractiveness.

For Duets in this style, of course, naturally, you'll be checking the Doppler duet repertoire once the students get to grade 9 level.

The easiest of the Doppler duets (grade 9 or so) is the Andante and Rondo op. 25

More Doppler Duos on youtube:
Doppler Hungarian Phantasy for Flute Duo op. 35 - played by two outstanding HS flutists into a mic in a gym, and they play without moving at all! Send your students to see this one!

Doppler - Duettino Hongrois Motifs op. 36

Doppler - Duettino Americain op. 37

And for grade 5-7 flute students there are some fun, sort-of boppy-folky-variation style duets here:

Galli - Divertimento for two flutes: free online
Duets in theme-variation style by Cambini-Bellini and others are free online also.

The Overtone flute repertoire books are NEW this year, by the way!

*NEW Overtones series for flute - my previous Overtones blog post.

**Full index of Overtones Series: (page samples, complete descriptions.)

Hope this helps, and other teachers, do add your fave choices below using the comment button.
Thanks!
Best, Jen

New Vivaldi Flute Concerto

2010-10-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

It's great that the new Vivaldi Flute Concerto found in Scotland can be partially glimpsed prior to its release in a series of debut flute concerts.

To listen to opening of the new Vivaldi played, click here.

Watch video (BBC) about discovery of this Concerto in Scotland.

Looks great! The Big Vivaldi fan!

Best, Jen

Free Tuning Drones for Flute

2010-10-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

I've been recommending using the Tuning CD for all flute practicing (to set up the headjoint draw, place the embouchure angle, and work on consistent air-speed etc.), for about eight years now, and of course, it is amazing for helping in all aspects of flute playing. But it may take two weeks to come in the mail when you order it, so meanwhile: there's a Jazz Sax teacher on the net who has created Didgeridoo bass drone set, that is funky and fun to practice with and guess what, they are FREE!
Tuning drones for free. Fabulouso!!

I mean, didn't you always want to play with Didgeridoo and Tibetan monk string bass? I bet you did. :>)

The text about how jazz sax players utilize these is here.

And I would most highly recommend that flutists might want to use them for:

- longtones of all kinds
- improvisation for tone and general warmup
- octave leaps (Richter, Wye, Moyse)
- chromatic scales (pause on the tonic)
- major & minor scales
- overblowing harmonics
- checking your air speed and ease of large leaps
- bending long notes as an exercise to stay flexible
- scales in 3rds, 5ths, sixths; so fun if you walk stepwise before leaping(!)
- crescendo-diminuendos on held notes
- testing tone colour extremes for pitch
- short passages of all kinds in a given key
- etudes, excerpts and exercises
- fragments of solo pieces to check pitch

I enjoy the funky rhythms that seem to change with each drone.
The pulsations tend to make you improvise and keep at it longer.
If I were practicing serious classical music, though, I would definitely use The Tuning CD, however. Local music stores are stocking the original Tuning CD, I find.
Thanks to JP for these links!

Download to burn to CD or use mp3s on your computer in practice room: Right click and choose "save target as".

Tuning Drones:

1. C-natural
2. C#
3. D-natural
4. Eb
5. E-natural
6. F-natural
7. F#
8. G-natural
9. Ab
10. A-natural
11. Bb
12. B- natural

Right click and choose "save target as".
Enjoy and do comment, especially if you have other links to other tuning drones for fun (and flutey pitch perfection.)

Jen

Top Flute Orchestral Excerpts on youtube today

2010-09-22T13:39:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

For those flutists thinking about upcoming orchestral auditions in 2011, and starting to study the orchestral excerpts for flute and piccolo now, here's a list of video-links of famous orchestral works with famous flutists playing them. This list, comments and timings has been researched and kindly sent to me by Jerrold Pritchard. Wonderful to have to hand.

And if anyone out there needs the sheetmusic see books of flute orchestral excerpts. I've listed lots of orch-ex books, printable CD sheetmusic of full flute parts there.

(Not like the old days when we just had a pile of dogeared orch-ex books as shown above, and perhaps a record with skips in it from dropping the needle.)

(Oh, er, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you were born after 1980. hahhahahaa!)

Best and enjoy these handy links below, and enjoy this NEW video of Denis Bouriakov playing J.S. Bach's St. Matthew's Passion:

YouTube links to Famous Orchestral Excerpts for Flute

Debussy’s Apres Midi d’un Faune

NKH Symphony conducted by Kimbo Ishii Eto

London Symphony in 2007 conducted by Valery Gergiev with Lorna McGhee, flute

London Symphony in 1972 Stokowski conducting (Peter Lloyd, flute?)

Maxience Larrieu, flute (Orchestra not identified)

Ensemble de l'Orquestra de Cadaqués Dir. Vasily Petrenko (Chamber ensemble version, with flutist Julia Gallego playing a wooden flute)

Brad Garner, flute with John Ritter Steele, piano

Ravel Daphnis et Chloe, Part II opening

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons, conductor. Flutist Henrik Wiese Orchestra Orchestre National de Lille, Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor.

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Gustavo Dudamel conducting

NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, Part II, Pantomime Solo:

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons, conductor. Flutist Henrik Wiese (solo at 7 :16)

NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (Solo at 1:52)

Berlin Philharmonic with Emanuel Pahud, flute

Philadelphia Orchestra with Jeffrey Khaner, flute (starts at solo)

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra - Gustavo Dudamel conductor (flute solo at: 7:26)

Orchestra del Teatro Carlo - Felice di Genova conductor, with Francesco Loi (starts at solo)

Adan Provencio playing for Walfrid Kujala in Masterclass at CSU Fresno in 2008

Brahms 4th Symphony, 4th movement

Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kleiber with Henrik Wiese, flute (solo at 2:24)

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Juri Lebedev (solo at 2:40)

Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert Von Karajan (flute solo at 2:37)

Istambul Symphony with Bulent Evcil, flute (Starts at solo)

Mendelssohn Scherzo from Midsummer Night’s Dream (Flute solo starts around 3:00 into recording with most versions)

Cleveland Symphony Orchestra - conductor: George Szell - w. Maurice Sharp, flute (Fast and clean!) (Solo at 3:30 * see sample below this box)

Chicago Symphony, James Levine Conducting.

Orchestra of the Enlightenment: (a very funny, dramatized version with period instruments)

Slower versions:
Version 1(solo at 4:35)- source undeclared

Version 2 (solo at 4:00)source undeclared Beautifully done at a moderate tempo

Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Yehudi Menuhin

Ted Anton’s unaccompanied audition recording for college auditions:

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra Conducted by Alexander Shelley

Sample mp3: Maurice Sharp plays Midsummer's by Mendelssohn

Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 3, op. 72b (flute solo starts at beginning):

Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf

Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Claudio Abbado ( Flute solo at 3:40)

Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy (narrated by David Bowie)

New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Flute Solo at 4:20)

Ochechtra Accademia delle Opera conducted by Diego Montrone ( Solo at 5:36)

Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis

Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Paul Hindemith in 1955 (very flexible tempos. Flute solo at 2:50)

Chicago Symphony 1953 Conductor;Rafael Kubelik (Beautifully done. Julius Baker? *Listen to sample below*) (flute solo at 2:30)

Rancho Bernardo (California) High School Orchestra.

Sample mp3: Julius Baker (possibly) playing Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis flute solo on mp3.

PICCOLO

Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony, 3rd Movement, piccolo solos

Chicago Symphony Conducted by Daniel Barenboim in 1997. Walfrid Kujala, piccolo (solos at 1:50)

San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas. Catherine Payne, piccolo (Solos at: 1:45, 2:30 and (Note the wonderful smile of pure joy on her face after she finishes. Brilliantly done!)

CSMA symphony orchestra. Juan Luis Martinez

PICCOLO

Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony, 4th Movement, piccolo solos

Chicago Symphony Conducted by Daniel Barenboim in 1997. Walfrid Kujala, piccolo

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev

Leningrad Philharmonic - Conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky

The State Symphony Orchestra of the USSA conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov, 1985 (A crazy, mad, fast tempo!)

PICCOLO

Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, 1st movement piccolo solos

Leonard Bernstein conducting Chicago Symphony with Walfrid Kujala, piccolo (solo at 5:46* sample below)

Unknown orchestra: Faster tempo: piccolo solo at 4:25

Sample mp3 of solo only. Shostakovitch 7 - Walfrid Kujala

Comments are entirely welcome. I'd love to get an idea of which are your personal favourites, and which inspire you back to the music stand. :>)

Any good ones that we've missed?
Let me know.
So fun to have all these video links in one place, and thanks again to Jerrold for sending them.
Best, Jen

Bamboo sound-effects for silver flute

2010-09-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,
A question came up on the internet today that I thought was interesting.
The flutist had been hired to play Miss Saigon which required a whole host of bamboo flutes in various keys. They asked if they could transpose them to the Alto flute, or if there were any other bamboo flute sound-effect options, as there was no time to procure actual bamboo flutes in strange keys. (and I might add, learn how to play them reliably and practice all the switches. Eeek, I say, Eeek. :>)

So I created the diagram below to show silver flutists how to transform their flutes into bamboo sound effect instruments for an easy switch and easy prep.
Feel free to try it, and comment as well you enjoy this easy idea.
Also scroll down to find links to various purchasable bamboo flutes for this use, see Dave Weiss's instrument page for ethnic flute dealers who build reliable instruments, and scroll down here too, to read the very helpful post of a flutist who has previously played the show and note the bamboo flutes that are sent by the company for this production(in grey box below.)
___________________
Creating a Bamboo flute out of your silver flute
Using masking tape "mutes"
_______________________
I had success in transforming my silver flute into a bamboo flute by applying a simple piece of masking tape to the embouchure hole of the flute. The original idea was a "flute mute" from Sheridon Stokes, but when placed at a predetermined angle the masking tape also produces a bamboo flute sound effect.

Short experiments at home, done with 2-3 inch pieces of masking tape, are quick to accomplish.
Just place the tape on the right side of the blow hole, slanted at various angles, unitl you find the sound you want.
You can try covering more or less of the far splitting edge if the sound becomes too muffled, and correct the angle to get the sound and pitch.
See picture below.

(click on above picture to make it larger)

When I found, by experimentation, the exact angle for good bamboo flute sound (I was matching it to a bamboo flute original soundtrack of the piece) I took a permanent fine tipped marker, and drew the placement in dotted lines on the masking tape.

I made three of these bamboo sound-effect masking-mute-tapes, and kept them stuck to a label-backing-wax-paper and kept it on my stand. They fit in the zipped side of my case cover after use.

It does take several bars of music to apply to the lip-plate, matching the drawing in ink to the underlying blow hole right edge and of course the part has to be re-written in C, but compared to buying actual bamboo flutes and learning to place the correct finger spacing would have taken 20 times longer.

The only quick-practice is learning to put on the masking tape piece during short bars rest and pushing in the headjoint as a two-step process.
It helps to use a tuner to mark the "push in" line on the headjoint tenon itself.
(marker comes off with alcohol.)

One pre-prepared extra headjoint, provided it could be sufficiently pushed in to match pitch would be another good way to do the switches easily.

Sound samples are here of this effect live when I used it:

http://www.jennifercluff.com/sounds.htm

Scroll down to SAMPLE 2 - [woodflute]
which is found half way down the page at the above link.

If I find a source for viable bamboo flutes in all keys for quick switching for shows like this, I'll add it to this blog post later.
Meanwhile, breathe easily (not wheezily). This solution really works.
Do comment. :>)

Best,
Jennifer Cluff

NOTE: Terrific information from a flutist who has played the Miss Saigon show and used bamboo flutes. Reprinted with author's permission. Thank you!

I just played this wonderful show in August. The company provided three Bansuri, but I purchased two of my own Dizi (one in G and one in C). I ended up using 2 Bansuri (keys of Ab and F) and my two Dizi. There is one cue that is not transposed and you have to decide which flute to play, with adjustments. Keep in mind that if you purchase, the designated key is with the left hand fingers closed, not the lowest note. So, if you want the lowest note to be D, then you'll want to order a G flute. The designated keys in the book are the lowest notes on the flutes.

You really cannot use just one bamboo flute. This would result in having to use awkward crossed fingerings and poor intonation. The range is also something to consider.

I'll be happy to email you a cue sheet if you would like. I can let you know which flutes I played for which numbers. The part was a blast to play, but required lots of endurance. There is a big switch at the end with lots of high piccolo, followed closely by the most exposed flute solo of the piece. There are a few real exposed bamboo solos; most in the first act. Act 2 just has one bamboo cue.

Yes, you could play alto flute, but you are not going to get all those cool slides in. You'll also lose out in the colors the bamboos provide. I thoroughly enjoyed playing the Bamboo flutes and was glad to have had the experience.

Please feel free to email me privately and I'll be glad to provide you with more information.
Here are suggested websites for flute purchases:

Bansuri: buckinghammusic.com

Dizi: chineseculture.net

Best- Yvonne C. Hansbrough

Circle of Fifths to print

2010-08-27T08:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Sue Garton very kindly sent me a link to her free circle of fifths page to print and put up in your September flute studio. Thank you Sue!

Circle of Fifths for flute teachers in pdf is here.

Also for all September teachers and students, free flute fingering charts are here also.

Best, Jen

Quantz & Galway - same advice three centuries apart

2010-08-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Group,
I love how these two essays, that of Sir James Galway (b. 1939) and J. J. Quantz (1697 - 1773), although over three centuries apart, tell us the exact same information. See below.
Best, Jen

Sir James wrote today on Galway Flute Chat:

I think a Galway follower* would have a really hard job of copying me.In fact a Galway follower has more to follow than the average flute player.
First of all they have to have a grasp of the technique on a larger scale.

They would have to be able to play with a great staccato, single tongue, double tongue, immaculate scales, a fine touch on the keyboard, a very flexible sound and then they would have to put this all together to copy the larger picture.

Supposing there was such a person who could do this. It still would not be an exact copy as there are other things to take into account. The person's background. In my case it was lower working class. Now I don't know anybody with the same background as myself who plays the flute or does anything else for that matter. Most of the people I know who study the flute have a home with hot and cold running water, a real bathroom, a refrigerator, electric light, parents how own at least one car and who are both employed. They are people who have in their early teens a gold flute or a very good flute of a standard that I did not have until I was in my second year at the Royal College of Music.

The average student these days is born with a silver spoon in their mouth compared to what I was born with. It was from these humble beginnings that I learned to respect my teacher and to do as I was instructed. I did not go around having one lesson with everyone who would listen and who would take my money for doing so. Having lessons with many teachers is interesting when seen from my point of view.

When a student fixes to have a lesson from a teacher they will generally have their attention drawn to the point the teacher himself is having the most difficulty with. When I was studying with John Francis in the RCM, I went to have a lesson with another well known flute player and I came away asking myself " What was that all about?" This well known gentleman had not improved anything I was doing before. It stopped me spending money where it did not bring about improvement.

The one thing I was born with and had beaten into was a respect for authority. I had a respect for my teacher which most students today do not possess in this free society into which we have been thrown.

Why? Because they are in a different time and place in society. Most of the students question the teaching they are subjected to. I had young students tell me that their teacher said it was better to do such and such a thing like the way they were doing the task to hand. It got to the point that when a student would tell me that their teacher told them how to do something I would just ask them to leave and continue with this teacher who was having such a success. I even wondered why they were standing in front of me in the first place.

Gradually I stopped teaching these sort of students and began to teach only in masterclass situations. I had learned that some of these students who would play for me only uses the moment spent in front of me to include my name in a long list of people with whom they had "studied."

Now when you see the CV of the average flutist they have at least a half a dozen well known pedagogues included. What did they learn from these people? How did it affect them? Mostly it brought them to a place of residence the player who plays with no character and sometimes an appalling lack of understanding as far as flute technique is concerned has come to reside.

The people who study with me at the very least can play the flute to a high degree of proficiency. They know about the embouchure, about scales, about the touch of the fingers on the keyboard, about the position of the hands on the keyboard, about the tone, the flexibility of the lips, and about what the big picture is all about. They will understand the style of playing flute music.

In my relation with Marcel Moyse I played all of the Sonorité for him and the first time I played for him was a true eye opener. He taught me how to play with a good projection and musically too. He showed me how to play his books on interpretation which also contain the exercises based on Reichert. He taught me the principle of a good staccato and how to use it in the interpretation. These lessons spent with the great man were lessons for life and I have never forgotten them. May I add here (to those who didn't know that Moyse left text and editions as well as books of exercises), Moyse has written quite a few books of original composition and thought.

At the same time I was learning with Moyse there were other teachers who had discovered all sorts of shortcuts to playing the flute. Instead of using a scale method written by someone who was professor in the Paris Conservatoire and who had taught many very good flute players, they would go for the short cut provided and recommended by players who never succeeded on moving the listener or in most cases even having a job in a good orchestra.

The ghosts of these people are still active in the flute players who studied with them. They are passing on the shortcuts and even trimming them further. It all boils down to the fact that people do not want to spend so much time in improving their flute playing. There are just too many other distractions. The Internet for one. There we have a subject for another day.

Let me finish this letter by saying that there is no shortcut to success. The only way to succeed is to take the method of a really great flute player, in my case it was Moyse, and adhere to their teaching and use their recordings as a role model. I never leave home without a copy of at least two books by Moyse and I am happy to say he made such a great impact upon me for which I a forever grateful.

Best wishes.
Sir James Galway writing from LA. USA.

* - "copy-cat" Galway fans

Now note how the exact same sentiments are made by Quantz in the 1700s!!!!

___________________________

Excerpt from the Introduction to Quantz’s
“On Playing the Flute”
_____________________________
Someone who has the talent and the inclination for music must make every effort to secure a good master. It would take too long if I were to treat of masters in every branch of music. As an example, I will only take time to discuss the type of master required for the study of the flute. It is true that this instrument has become very
common in the last thirty to forty years…

As was not the case when it first came into vogue, we no longer suffer from any lack of pieces through which a student may learn with but slight difficulty the skill necessary on the instrument to control his tongue, fingers, and embouchure.
In spite of this, there are still very few who know how to play it in accordance with its nature, and in its proper style. It seems as if the majority of flute players today have fingers and tongues, to be sure, but are deficient in brains, does it not?

It is absolutely necessary for anyone who wishes to learn the instrument adequately to have a good master, and I expressly demand it of anyone who wishes to make use of my method. But how many are there upon whom the title of master may be justly conferred?

Are not the majority, when closely observed, still students in their science?

To be sure, there are some who play the instrument well, or at least passably; many, however, lack the ability to impart to others that which they know themselves.
It is possible that somebody who plays quite well knows little of how to teach.

Someone else may teach better than he plays.

And since a student is not able to judge whether a master instructs well or poorly, he is fortunate indeed if by chance he selects the best.

The attributes of a teacher who will train good students are difficult to define in detail, but an approximate idea may be gained from the following list of defects he must avoid.
A beginner will also do well to ask the advice of persons who are impartial, yet have insight into music.

Flute masters to be wary of:
_______________________
The student must beware of a master who understands nothing of harmony and who is no more than an instrumentalist; who has not learned his science thoroughly, and according to correct principles;

-who has no clear notion of embouchure, fingering, breathing, and tonguing;
- who does not know how to play the (fastest) passage-work in the Allegro or the (ornaments and) embellishments of the Adagio distinctly and roundly;
- who does not have an agreeable and distinct execution, or a refined taste in general;
- who possesses no knowledge of the proportions of the notes needed for playing the flute with correct intonation.
- Who does not know how to observe tempo with the greatest strictness;
- Who does not know how to play a plain “Air” coherently, and to introduce the appogiaturas (and all other ornamentations) and trills at the proper places;
- Who in Adagio does not know how to add extempore graces to the plain Air as the plain Air with its harmonies requires;
- And who is unable to sustain light and shadow through the alternation of Forte and Piano as well as through the graces.
The student must avoid a master who is not in a position to explain clearly and thoroughly everything that the student finds difficult to understand, and seeks to impart everything by ear, and through imitation, as we train birds.

Avoid a master who flatters the apprentice, and overlooks all defects or who does not have the patience to show the student the same thing frequently, and have him repeat it.

Avoid the master who does not know how to choose the pieces that are suited to the current capacity of the student, and how to play each piece in its style.

Avoid the master who seeks to delay the student, or who does not prefer honour to self-interest, hardship to comfort, and unselfish service to jealousy and envy; or who in general does not have the progress of music as his goal.

Masters with these defects cannot train good students. If, however, one is found whose students not only play truly and distinctly, but are also quite sure in tempo, you have substantial reasons to expect much of him.

Great Masters for the Beginner:
___________________________
Whoever wishes to apply himself to music profitably will enjoy a considerable advantage if he falls into the hands of a good master at the very beginning.
There are some who have the harmful delusion that at the outset it is unnecessary to have a good master in order to learn the fundamental principles.

For the sake of economy they often take whoever is cheapest, and often someone who himself knows nothing at all, so that one blind man leads another.

I advise the opposite course.

The best master should be secured at the very beginning, even if he must be paid two or three times as much as others. It will cost no more in the end, and both time and effort will be saved.

More can be accomplished in a year with a good master than in ten years with a poor one.

What the student needs do:
_______________________
Although, as has been shown here, much depends on a good master who can instruct his apprentices thoroughly, still more depends upon the students themselves.
There are frequent examples of good masters who have trained poor students, and, on the contrary, of poor masters who have trained good students.

It is well known that many excellent musicians have distinguished themselves who have had no other master than their natural ability, and the opportunity to hear much that is good.

These musicians have advanced further through their own industry, diligence, and constant inquiry than many who have been instructed by several masters.

Thus a special industry and attentiveness are also required of a student.
Anyone who lacks them should be advised not to occupy himself with music, at least if he proposes to make his fortune through it.

No success can be promised to anyone who loves idleness, slothfulness, or other such futile things more than music.

Many who dedicate themselves to music deceive themselves in this regard. They shrink from the inevitable hardships.

They would like to become skillful, but they do not wish to exert the necessary effort. They imagine that music is all pleasure, that to learn it is child’s play, that neither physical nor mental powers are needed, that neither knowledge nor experience appertains to it, and that everything depends entirely upon inclination and good natural
ability.

It is true that innate ability and inclination are the primary foundations upon which solid understanding must be built. But thorough instruction, and, on the part of the student, much industry and reflection, are absolutely necessary to erect the entire structure.

If a novice has had the good fortune to find a good master at the outset, he must place all his confidence in him.

He must be tractable rather than obstinate; he must seek zealously and eagerly not only to carry out and copy what his master prescribes during the lesson, but also to repeat it frequently by himself with much diligence; and if he has not properly understood something, or has forgotten it, he must ask the master about it at the following lesson.

A novice must not allow himself to be vexed if he is frequently admonished about the same matter, but must rather take such admonitions as a sign of his own carelessness and of the zeal of his teacher, and hold that master the best who corrects him most frequently.

Hence the student may play close attention to his defects; for when he begins to recognize them, half the battle is won.
If it is necessary for the master to correct him all too often about the same matter, he may be safely assured that he will have little success in music; for there are countless things which no master will teach him, or CAN teach him, and which he must, as it were “lift” from others.

Indeed it is this licensed thievery that produces the greatest artists.

The student must not drop anything that has been the subject of much criticism before he can play it as the master demands.
He must not prescribe to the master what kind of pieces should be given to him; it is for the master to know best what can be of advantage to the student.

If, as I presuppose, he has had the good fortune to find a good master, he must seek to retain him as long as he has need of instruction.

There is nothing more injurious than for a student to betake himself for instruction to one master after another.
Different kinds of execution and different ways of playing confuse the beginner, since he must, so to speak, constantly start over again.
There are many who like to boast of having studied with many great masters, but they will seldom be found to have profited much from it.
Whoever runs from one master to another is satisfied with none, and has confidence in none; and no one wishes to accept the precepts of a person in whom he has no confidence.

Having placed the proper confidence in a good master, and allowed him sufficient time to manifest his knowledge,
the student with a genuine desire to perfect himself will discover from time to time new benefits that he had been previously unable to perceive, which will stimulate him to further inquiry.
Inquiry of this sort must also be warmly recommended to the beginning musician.

Industry alone is not enough.
He may have good natural ability, good instruction, great industry and good opportunities to hear much of what is beautiful, yet never rise above mediocrity.
He may compose a great deal, and sing and play frequently, without increasing his knowledge and skill.

For everything in music that is done without reflection and deliberation, and simply, as it were, as a pastime, is without profit.
Industry founded upon ardent love and insatiable enthusiasm for music must be united with constant and diligent inquiry, and mature reflection and examination.
In this respect a noble pride must prevent the beginner from being easily satisfied, and must inspire him to gradually perfect himself.
Anyone who only cares to devote himself to music haphazardly, as to a trade rather than an art, will remain a lifelong bungler.

Get excited about music

2010-08-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Fall is coming and with the first breath of autumn air, comes a need for new excitement for music!
So watch the bow hairs fly in this video! Flutists should be THIS thrilling. How can it be done?
All I know is that the musical excitement is very catching! And September is just around the corner.

Video

Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Joshua Bell, Henning Kraggerud, Yuri Bashmet in Shostakovich:

For pedagogical interest: Video
Yehudi Menuhin - On the cirular motions of the hands in violin playing:

Note: Menhuin's injuries to the arms, leading to these comments of his, are discussed here.

Happy days!
Best, Jen

Comment from subscriber:
Jen,

What a great and exciting performance of the Shostakovich Quintet.! Thanks for sharing it. Those players are so "into" the music, and the technique is secondary or even in third or fourth place to the expression of the music, their interaction with the other members, and the sheer joy in music making.

Alas, I fear the flute will never be able to reach that level of brilliance, excitement, intensity, sharp, clean articulation, incisive attacks, dynamic change, and blend of tone. We will just have to do what we do best which is making a light, flutey sound with a myriad of shadings of color, using vibrato and resonance to draw attention to our part, and play with as much shaping of the line with intensity and dynamics as we can muster....and yet the flute will never compete with the strings or piano in terms of bigness and richness of sound.

I really like the eccentric video of Menuhin. His idea of the circular interaction of the fingers, vibrato and bow got me thinking about how this might apply to the flute. I think there might be a similar effect going on between the flow of the air through the larynx/glottis/ vocal folds and the opening and closing and constriction of the air stream and the change in air pressure caused by the vibrato AND the resistance of the aperture that causes some "bounce back" of the air into the throat and nasal cavities, where it is again re-cycled and propelled forward by the constant pressure of the air flow. The action of the tongue in repeated articulation also can be involved in this circle of air flow, especially in double tonguing.

Anyway, thinking about this cyclic process helped me open my throat, relax the tension on the vibrato mechanism, and let the air flow with pulses that were faster, freer and had more color. Need to work on this. It sure worked for a few moments at a time; will continue to develop with work, I'm sure.
Thanks for you great posts on your blog and on the chat groups. P.

Dear P.
Thanks so much for your comments.
The circular motion is actually in all body motion, I find, and helps relieve tension. Flutist's wrists and arms are often so static that they require almost invisibly small circular rotation to undo unecessary tensions. Great natural players usually make these small circles without knowing it. However, in relaxing an overly-tense player, or a flutist with arm or wrist pain, small circular motions really are key to the release of habitual tensions. I've been into this since Abby Whiteside's book on piano player's torsos as the hub of the circular arm-wheel, and other great instrumental teachers who've used rotation as a gentle way of releasing static "holding". Indeed, thinking of the fingers as pistons that only go up and down causes mis-programming of muscle use.
Appreciate all the comments I get; especially with these great details and specifics.
Thanks for writing.
Jen

4 - Marcel Moyse - Pearls from the Master

2010-08-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is the final set of notes from Jerrold Pritchard's class at Brattleboro in 1977 with flute legend, Marcel Moyse.
Please enjoy! And huge thanks to Mr. Pritchard for his generosity and sharing.
What wonderful information and the additional notes are so valuable!
Scroll down to bottom to find links to all the notes in pdf.

On phrasing and expression:

You must find the form and shape before you can play a melody expressively. In Bach, the fundamental melody notes must sing with colour. Find the hidden chord tones and the movement of the line toward the resolution of the dissonance.

J. Pritchard writes: As you have noted Jen in previous discussions on "outlining", this is critical and so difficult to explain and work on with younger students who have no sense of the harmonies, the balance of consonance and dissonance, the different in feeling and impact of an upbeat and a downbeat, or the subtleties of type of accentuation (a legato dash with a vibrato vs. a biting, dry short staccato vs. a sudden loud booming accent vs. a bell stroke with sudden release of the air and a quick diminuendo.
The whole issue of the foreground vs. the background; the skeleton vs. the body, and the shadow vs. the substance is a very complicated business to explain. With less advanced students it often is best to just ask them to play the fundamental melody notes and the important connecting passing notes as a means of simplifying the texture and the technical problems and letting the "grund" and the "ursatz" differentiate themselves natural by building up the layers of complexity bit by bit.

Pickups and connecting notes of a phrase are like articles and prepositions.

J. Pritchard writes: This is a reference to the logical structure of most musical phrases in the common practice period of Western music from 1600-1900. What is "Classic " about Classical music is its universality, the commonality of a unifying language. The rhetoric of a music phrase or structure is something like our native tongue, which we have absorbed automatically by constant hearing and practice in listening , if not in speaking/playing it.
On a larger scale even most listeners with little or no knowledge of harmony or musical form can easily determine just by the " feeling" whether a section of a symphony or a sonata is

1) the statement of an idea/motive

2) a repetition or minor variation of an idea

3) a transition section that is moving to another key or musical idea

4) a waiting section that is prolonging the end of the section or resolving to a major cadence

5) a closing section that is propelling the section to an end.

Hearing and understanding what is going on in a developmental section is a bit trickier but most student i have had in my music appreciation/intro to music classes have fairly quickly learned to intuitive feel when a section is unstable, changing, and fragmenting musical elements that have come before or overlap, answer or echo as in a fugal section.

I suspect Moyse really meant, or should have said, here "conjunction" and "preposition" and perhaps adverb", because they usually don't exist by themselves; they are dependent on the context and the nouns and verbs which they direct attention to.

Example: An eighth note "pick up gesture is rather like saying: "And (prep) Then (adverb) We (subject) Ate (verb) The (article) Apple (noun object).

The big building blocks that convey most of the meaning of a sentence are, of course the nouns and verbs-- the subject-verb(action)-object (We-Ate-Apple) give much of the meaning of the sentence. (This is the dominant grammatical structure in the large majority of language world -wide, though in some languages the sequence of these elements doesn't have this order or consistency. )

Of course, musical language is not identical with speech, but has many of the same organizational principles--at least in the western tradition of folk music and instrumental music.

Atmosphere: feel the mood.

J. Pritchard writes: This is the most elusive concept, the most personal and most interpretive element. Learning to correctly (or logically) and/or compellingly intuit the emotional content of a phrase or piece of music is the most open to individuality--and the most essential in establishing a convincing performance, especially of romantic music with either obvious or hidden extra-musical elements.

Be still inside so emotion can come to you.

J. Prichard writes:This one of the most difficult things in "Life", not just in Music. Taking time to reflect, to breathe, to relax the body and open the mind is something we all need to do more. Trying to superimpose an artificial sentiment is equally dysfunctional in expressing yourself to another person in words or in music. It also is essential that you have found your true feelings and not just portraying what is expected socially or in the situation.

There is value in simplicity and the closeness of the familiar. “my mother is not president, but i prefer her.”

J. Pritchard writes: Again, exaggeration for effect. Also this is placing a value on playing what you know instinctually, have absorbed over time, or have enough experience with to make an accurate judgment about.

Reichert is not Mozart, but should be played melodically with expression.
J. Pritchard writes: Reichert was not as fine or profound a composer as Mozart, but his music still needs to be treated with respect and played as accurately and musically as you can. Playing Reichert's little technical studies and daily routines with attention to musicality, phrasing and expression will yield the best results in improvement of your flute playing.
Moyse really did not want you to "add" expression to the music. He believed very strongly that you, as a performer, had to find the treasure buried there on the page by the composer, to be true to the composer's intentions, to feel the music inside you based on what was written, and have the understanding and control to bring out those latent characteristics and make the musical gestures come back to life. (Rather like the concept that the figure is already within the block of marble and the sculptor must find the way to reveal it in its best form and with clarity.)

The last section of Moyse' tone study book, "De la Sonorite", contains a number of passages from the works of great composers. Some of these seem rather austere and difficult to make come to life and sing.

Moyse's method is to play each of these selections six times:

--Twice with no change in tempo, dynamics, or nuance of color or vibrato, with focus on good pitch, correct rhythms, and focus of tone. Just establishing the "bones" of the music.

--Twice with dynamics added where the composer indicates or following basic musical principles of phrasing and direction of the musical line. Giving the music flesh and muscle.

--Twice more with judicious use of vibrato and tone color change to bring out the inherent mood of the piece. Providing clothing to make it less naked.
By the end of these repetitions, you invariably have more control and a much deeper, richer understanding of the potential musicality found there in each passage. You have given your mind the opportunity and the leisure to find the kernel of music in each phrase and the luxury of knowing that any interpretive element you have used is done after consideration and with good judgment.

The style of rhythms changes from piece to piece. A dotted eighth and sixteenth in the opening of the “Marseilles” is different from that in Massenet’s “Elegie.”

J. Prichard writes:This again deals with the context and style and intent of a piece. The composer gives many clues with descriptive language they add to the music. Still, it takes a good deal of listening, playing and experiencing various style of music and the common gestures of each to make a good solid and appropriate interpretation of how to play a dotted eighth and sixteen note--and even then we may be fooled as often (as in Handel and 18th century French music) this may be played with the 16th very close to the next downbeat as "double-dotted".

Like singers and violinists, we must stress and bring out the important notes of a phrase, or pattern, or figure.

J. Prichard writes:A fairly self-evident statement, but one often overlooked by less advanced and experienced performers. It takes a good deal of knowledge of style periods, composer, forms, and the rhetoric of music to be able to do the careful analysis to determine just what is most "important" in a passage.
A story of a reading session and a conversation about Chopin with two famous composers:
Ravel demanded strict rhythmic interpretation; Arthur Rubinstein was free, but he landed on his feet smoothly. It is difficult was to decide who is right—I will ask Chopin when I get to heaven! This is very interesting to me, because Moyse usually had very clear notions of what "he" wanted to emphasize or bring out in a piece. He usually tried to get you to play just what was written and believed the composer's notation was his words on the subject.
Another amusing story he told in the class was of an "dream" he had in which he got to heaven and Debussy or Poulenc or important composer said : "Moyse, Vey you let zeez students play my music like zeez? (--incorrectly, that is.) He didn't want to have to face those kind of questions when he reached the pearly gates.

Some rules can be inferred:

1) look for the line direction
2) develop the line to the high point and
3) savor the climax.

Another focus on the rhetoric and logical organization of most music. He points us to the more
obvious clues. What has the most meaning to me is the word "savor" and the advice to enjoy the most poignant/beautiful/intense and/or most impressive or important point in the phrase. [Rather like working hard to pedal your bicycle to the top of the long, steep hill; you don't want to quickly roar down the other side without stopping to observe and enjoy the view.]

Play with a walking style. Place the feet on the beat to emphasize the natural pulse.

J. Prichard writes: Like the earlier comment on "dancing", Moyse wanted the natural and instinctual aspects of lifeto be used. We all have a regular rhythmic guide in the beating of our heart. Until the metronome was invented much music relied on the heartbeat to determine the pace of the music, or multiples or proportions a beat. If our heart beats 60-72 beats per minute when at rest, a calm mood is established in the music with this flow of the pulses. As we get more agitated the heart speeds up, and so should the music. (Of course, we have do this when the music dictates the change in speed—not from nervousness, or personal agitation and panic.)

Phrasing is movement. Life comes from the direction of the line.

J. Pritchard adds: Essentially he is saying, “Don't let the music be static and all with same in emphasis or dynamic.” Variety, change and movement is what makes Life (and Music) interesting. You have to “follow your bliss” and go where life takes you--and control it with reason (and emotion)… if you can.

Debussy said: 'Look for the expression between the notes.'

J. Prichard writes: It is how we connect two notes that gives a good deal of the stylistic information to the listener. As flutists, we need to play equal attention to the space between notes and the manner in which they are connected with sound, color, emphasis, smoothness or disjunct-ness. We often need to imitate the quality of the human voice, which is very supple and elegant in the way a singer does a wide leap with "portamento" or even a kind of glissando effect. (The Latin root of the word is "portare" or "to carry" the sound. In French it is "port de voix" from " portour". [A person at a train station who carries your bags or the person who opens a door for you to make the transition from inside to outside also is called a "porter."]

3 - Marcel Moyse - Pearls from the Master

2010-08-08T08:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,
Here are some more "Pearls from the Master", spoken by Moyse on Technique continued from part 1 of this series on Moyse's teaching in the 1970s. The quotes are from Jerrold Pritchard's trip to Brattleboro in 1977. We both have added our comments to elucidate the meanings of these quotes.

On Technique

Like a baby learning to walk, he can do better with the aid of a chair. Walk before you run. Try several times.

Jen explains: Simplify a challenging technique into tiny steps that can be performed easily. Sometimes you actually have to go right back to basics for a few minutes. Perhaps something about your breathing/posture/headposition/lip position may indeed be getting in the way of mastering a new technique.
Master the technique with several attempts at simpler and simpler small groups of notes.
It's better to layer up the skills rather than get frustrated by trying to do too many things at once. Even one or two notes is not too few. Gradually expand the new skill or technique back into the chunk/phrase/piece of music.
Don't try and do too much all at once. It's human nature, but it wastes time.

Prepare the lips and tongue for the attack.

Jen writes: If you only think to add the embouchure and tongue AFTER you've already played, it's too late. Explosive air speed can cause the lips to splay, distorting the tone.
Set the lips in a containing position in preparation for the increased airspeed and volume of air that is used in tonguing.

If you bicycle too fast, you break your neck. Miss a note you still live!

Jen explains: Don't worry about the odd missed note. You can still practice a fast run-through just to observe where things stand with your preparation. Even if you miss a note or two, you'll learn alot about the lightness of fast playing by attempting it from time to time within your practice.
Fast playing often takes a different hand sensation, finger sensation, flute balancing, and general embouchure chosen to play many notes in a row. Don't stay at slow tempi so long that you don't attempt fast tempi just to discover these changes.

Don’t sit the flute hard on the lips and teeth for too long—the lips will go on strike!

Jen writes: If you use excessive pressure, pushing the flute into the lip and teeth, your lip will eventually become numb and less active. Lighten the pressure against the chin to play flute for longer and longer without fatigue. Make a point of lightening the pressure.

Teaching is important too—not all will be virtuoso!

Jen writes: Many of the young performers in a masterclass dream of being virtuoso soloists and orchestral players. But with so few chosen, the rest will become teachers, possibly. So listen carefully when following the master's instructions. You may end up using them for teaching, rather than becoming a world-class soloist.

Not everyone is obliged to play the flute!

Jen writes: Flute playing at the highest levels is perhaps not for everyone.
It's possible that you have set your goals so high that you can't even get half-way there. Take your time and really learn the techniques.
If you think you already know them, look at them again to make sure.

Toscanini said: “We live like dogs”. [come un chien.] We are here to work on
this earth. Practice — God will help you.

J. Pritchard clarifies: This is clear exaggeration for effect on the student audience. Moyse wishes the students to realize that improvement and proficiency will not come without concerted effort and diligent practice.
Personally, I think practicing more than four hours very often leads to fatigue and bad habits, especially if there is not sufficient rest between each practice session. After all, we are using only a few muscles around the lips. The key, of course, is finding the efficient way to practice and to practice those things which build skill and take us directly on the path to success. [He also allows for inspiration and assistance from the deity.]

Dance cheerfully: there is more energy in his feet than in a flutist’s brain…sometimes.
J. Pritchard clarifies: I believe the issue here is to play with a sense of rhythm and to use your innate ability to move in time to help you find the essence of the piece and the heart and pulse of the music. Movement and dancing helps us find where the big accents beats are and to differentiate between the lightness of when the foot is in the air and the weight of your foot coming down on the beat. Sometimes you have not think too much and to let the natural flow of things guide you. [I LOVE the sly comment at the end about how not everyone has good movement or a dull brain.]

In pianissimo entrances, use the trill keys like an octave key on a saxophone to make the middle eb, e, and f response softly and quickly.

J. Pritchard adds: This is a nice trick that you obviously don't want to use too much or unnecessarily, but, if you are in a situation where you can't keep the pitch up when playing pianissimo, or your lips are tired an inflexible, just cracking open the trill key (the first key works best for me) a tiny bit will make the octave jump. You then may be able to let the trill key close again once the note has stabilized. There definitely is a change in tone color when you use the trill keys and in some situation this won't fit the music, but having a harmonic sound is better than cracking the note, being out of tune, or not having the upper note respond.

Flick the grace notes.

J. Pritchard writes: The issue here is to impart lightness and quickness by starting the grace note with the finger above the key that produces in the quick acciatura. Particularly in a spot when the grace note uses a key with a spring to bring it back down or up (AB-F; EB-D; B-C, etc, you can let the spring push your finger back up. Starting with the finger on the key of the grace note means you have to physically lift the finger with muscle action going up and down. In a quick E-F grace note before the beat, you can let the downward action of the finger rebound up with the spring doing much of the work. This technique requires very good timing and coordination of the tongue and release of the breath, but is worth the effort and imparts a kind of lightness to the figure.

Success? You can get famous playing bad notes, too!
J. Pritchard writes: Or, if you play too many wrong notes, you become "infamous" ! Actually a great performance by a virtuoso is a bit of an illusion at times, because what may be needed is an effect not a perfect note or leap.

A very young student in the class asked: “what do you think of Rampal’s playing”? After berating the impetuous youth a good while for, at his low level of proficiency,even being concerned about such matters and presuming to criticize a famous flutist, he said with an impish twinkle in his eye: “Rampal plays so fast, I don’t know if he is good or if he is bad!”

J. Pritchard adds: This remark about the speed was one of Moyse's pet peeves. He would have much preferred a student to play more slowly and beautifully with singing tone that was at a speed you could savor and enjoy. He really chides a couple of students who came with some big piece with flying finger in an attempt to impress him. I recall one very pushy individual [who it turned out was not a paying member of the class and who disappeared after the first class session) who played first in the class and started out with a very difficult pieces with many, many 32nd note passages at a rapid tempo. He got about half way through and realized that Moyse was not impressed by speed and brilliant playing –especially if not done perfectly--and was looking at him with amazement and disapproval. The fellow began to falter, to make mistakes, and even shook in lips, tone and fingers from nervousness...he finally ground to a halt. And after a moment of tense silence Moyse smiled and said: "Now we begin. “ And proceeded to work on some basic issues of tone control and development of a singing style.

A complete pdf printout of all of Moyse's pointers and their explanations is free to download here.

Continued in Part 4.

Best,
Jen

2 - Marcel Moyse - Pearls from the Master

2010-08-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

This is the second part of the Marcel Moyse exeperience, as told by Jerrold Pritchard. Here is Jerry talking about the summer in Brattleboro Vermont, with the Maestro himself. This is just fascinating!

The above 15 minute mp3 is a description of studying with Moyse. Press the play button on the little mp3 player above, here on the blog, or you can listen at this link, or download the mp3 soundfile of our conversation.

Now here are the fabulous Masterclass notes from Moyse's masterclasses on the Twenty-Four-Petite!

Printable PDF Moyse Masterclass notes on his 24 Little Melodic Etudes!

Mr. Pritchard's fabulous note-taking from the same 1977 Moyse Masterclass include all kinds of great quotes about tone, technique and flute playing expertise which will be upcoming in the next blog post. So look forward to that too.

However today's Moyse Masterclass notes are about the Twenty-four Little Melodic Studies with Variations , which, as you'll hear from the above interview, were a main focus of the summer classes for all flutists attending.

If you're not familiar with the above book, Moyse presents a simple two to three line melody that requires the flutist of every level to gradually improve their musicanship and technical expertise.

From Jerrold Pritchard's notes from the 1977 here are points that Moyse made on this very book. Download the class notes in pdf here. I've added some short musical samples in the pdf, to make it useful to survey.

Here is a jpeg sample of what you'll find in the downloadable pdf (click to make bigger):

Jen adds: In my opinion the "24 Petite" is a fundamental book for all flutists, and being able to see the films of Moyse teaching these Twenty-four Little Melodic Studies on video is simply fabulous when you're getting to know how Moyse taught the flute.

Highly recommended you see the videos of Moyse teaching at Brattleboro. (Click on VIDEOS on left side bar to view DVD purchase information.) You can also inquire at university libraries as to whether there are copies for Interlibrary Loan.

The book itself is published by Alphonse Leduc, and is widely available through all sheetmusic stores. Here is a link to this book at Fluteworld.

Please do treat yourself to these great notes when you are working in this book.

More to come.....

And you're a new reader of this blog, and you want to subscribe to see the whole series of upcoming Moyse posts, look for the subscribe button on the right side bar. (subscribing is safe to do, and only sends you a copy of each post as it goes online to whichever email address you choose).

Comments from other Moyse students very very welcome.
Stories too!

Continue to Part 3.
Best, Jen

1 - Marcel Moyse - Pearls from the Master

2010-08-04T22:39:00.001-07:00

It is my extraordinary privilege to bring you some incredibly insightful quotes and explanations from a Marcel Moyse flute class held in 1977, thanks to a reciprocal exchange between fellow flutist Jerrold Pritchard and myself. Mr. Pritchard interviewed me recently to write a profile on me (eek!) for Flutist Quarterly, and then sent me these Moyse quotes as a gift for all the incredibly complex questions he asked me during the interview process. Wowza, what a gift! Check it out.

Here's Moyse speaking on Tone.

Pearls of the Master: Words of Advice from Marcel Moyse
From notes at masterclass in Brattleboro, VT in May 1977
by Jerrold Pritchard

The famous French flutist and former Professor of Flute at the Paris Conservatory, Marcel Moyse was a masterful flute teacher and player. He could be very precise and effective in his instructions, but his energy, his enthusiasm, his devotion to perfection, and his way of describing how to approach a melody or a special phrase were what made him exceptional. At times he would seem to get the very best from a student in his master classes just by the look on his face, the sparkle in his eyes, the gesture of his hands.

In May of 1977, I was fortunate to attend one of his annual flute seminars near his home in Brattleboro, VT. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life; and today I can still hear his voice in my mind, recall the setting, the mood, the students, and Moyse’ way of getting you to play with absolute accuracy and attention to the composers intentions as well as the mood and emotion of each phrase. Although by this time late in his life he did not perform for the class much, he was able to convey his ideas and ideals very well in words.

Fortunately, I took copious notes about individual pieces that were played, and on the scores of his etudes and exercises to preserve, as best I could, how Moyse described a piece, his advice on tone, technique, phrasing and interpretation, his stories of his career as player and teacher, and the way he was able to come up with just the right image expressing something or describing what he wanted to you do. His English was still strongly accented with a musical French inflection which sometimes made it difficult to hear or apprehend what he said. At times, I was fortunate to sit next to a pupil who spoke French who could translate when Moyse used a French word or phrase I did not know. I suspect that everyone at the class came away with their own impression and version of what he said; the wording is probably not exact, but here is what I heard and captured on paper:

On Tone:
You must try all possibilities for finding the proper center and focus of the tone. Like an Ant moving a heavy object from his path: Determined and Patient.

Lips unfocused? Experiment! They must be soft like a cushion on a chair, comfortable, pleasurable.

The Flute tone escapes like a fish in the hand--Don’t have a “Fish Tone”!

Climate influences mood, style, air, and lips. Put the Sun in your tone: Red, rich, colorful.

Place the Tone—don’t put it. Place it carefully like a fine piece of crystal on a table. [The French was “Posé”.]

Don’t play loud; Play generously. Power is not in the character of the flute, only expansiveness. Like a piggish person on a train making more room for themselves, make room for each tone, comfortable and relaxed.

Scoop out the tone in the low register like mayonnaise from the bottom of the jar.

Your vowel quality must be beautiful. You would never say “I love you” with an ugly, nasal voice.

(continued on this blog in part 3 and 4 of this Moyse series)

So this will be a multi-part blog post over the next few days. Please feel free to comment, and don't hold your breath like a blow-fish (what is the French for that?!), but I'm pretty chuffed and excited myself with the upcoming parts 2 and 3 of this "Pearls from the Masters". Seriously. Pritchard's insights are fabulouso-mosso!

Meanwhile, to fill in those flute players who aren't as familiar with Moyse as those who were around in the '70s, let's get a quick overview.

Firstly, herere is an old black and white film of Moyse in action in the Paris Symphony.

Also, there are Moyse's recordings:
Have a listen to this one right now:

Online you can find a number of Moyse's performance mp3s taken from old 78 records. Now, ha ha, don't be too freaked out with the sound quality. The technology wasn't happening back then, but the soul of the Bel Canto singing style is still audible.

And of course there are also Moyse's amazingly interesting sheetmusic/explanatory books on flute playing.

Sheetmusic Books by Marcel Moyse

Études et éxercises technique (1921)
Exercises Journaliers (1922)
24 Études de virtuosité d'après Czerny (1927)
Mécanisme-chromatisme pour flûte (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
École de l'articulation (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
25 Études mélodique (Var) (1928)
12 Études de grande virtuosité d'après Chopin (1928); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
20 Études d'après Kreutzer (1928)
100 Études faciles et progressives d'après Cramer (1928); 2 volumes
24 Petites études mélodique (Var) (1928)
De la Sonorité (1934)
25 études Journalier (Op-53) Soussman
Gammes et Arpèges (Scales and Arpeggios); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
Le Débutant flûtiste (1935)
24 Caprices-études : Boehm Op. 26 (1938)
Tone Development Through Interpretation
20 Exercises et études sur les Grandes Liaisons

One of my favourites for advanced players is "How I stayed in Shape" which is full of interesting exercises.

As an avid flute student,if you were only to purchase 2 or 3 of the books by Marcel Moyse, I highly recommend for all students:

De La Sonorite

Tone Development Through Interpretation

Exercises Journaliers

In part 2 of this series of blog posts, the above book 24 Petites études mélodique will be covered as well with Moyse's hands-on class quotations. Lots of good information to follow in subsequent blog entries.

And do please join in by using the comment button below if you have masterclass notes or memories of studying with Moyse yourself.

Can't wait to get started!
See next post, and huge thanks to Mr. Pritchard for his kindness is providing us all with his own memories from 1977 and since.
Fabulous!
Best,
Jen

Big flute sheetmusic news for flute teachers

2010-07-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

(click on jpeg to enlarge or use links below.)

Dear Flute teachers and students,

If you haven't yet heard about it, here is HUGE summer-of-2010 flute publishing news: yes, I must say....RUN don't WALK to buy this set of sheetmusic if you're a teacher or a flute student. Great repertoire! Great comprehensiveness! And no, I'm not related to the company in any way. Have a quick look:

The Overtones Series for flute grades prepatory to 8 at Frederick Harris Music Publishers. Click on FLUTE when you arrive at their site, and then to the complete Overtone series.

The Overtones series includes:

9 progressive volumes of essential Flute Repertoire (Preparatory to Level 8)
2 comprehensive volumes of engaging Flute Studies (Preparatory to Level 8)
11 quality Recordings packaged with each of the Repertoire and Studies books (Preparatory to Level 8)
1 cumulative volume of Flute Technique (Preparatory to Level 8)
1 indispensable compilation of Orchestral Excerpts (Level 2-ARCT)
Royal Conservatory 2010 Flute Syllabus for Examinations

Full index of Overtones Series: (page samples, complete descriptions.)

Full piano parts are included, and all the pieces in the sheetmusic volumes are recorded with flute and piano, then piano only on a separate track for playalong.
Plus, two of my teachers, plus one of my old friends from highschool, and other of my favourite flutists are ALL performing on the CDs in this series.
They are: Dianne Aitken, Susan Hoeppner, Nora Shulman, Douglas Stewart, and Jamie Thompson. Many more details can be found here at the RCM online newsletter.

Could this be any more exciting?

Did I mention "Run don't Walk"? What a terrific set of pieces, and so well performed.
Teachers will find years of valuable repertoire pieces here for their students, and students will find each book to be full of inspiring and beautiful music in all styles from Baroque, Classical, Romantic, to Contemporary.

Breathless with excitement over this brilliant sheetmusic publishing idea, and playing through them book by book.

Jen :>)

Christmas Carols for Flute Trio

2010-07-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

Jen's Christmas Trios:
For students & teachers for that holly jolly time of year.
Very flutey writing... and they flow, almost by themselves!
Christmas Music for Flute Trio. Books 1, 2 & 3 for $25 in pdf.

Flute Trios for Christmas by Jen:

Please have a listen (live recording taken from a student-teacher trio last Christmas). Just press the little play button on the little player below and let it play as you read on.

These three volumes each create a 10 minute "set", totalling almost 30 minutes, for public performance or for holiday background music.

The three c-flute parts are equal in difficulty (novice to intermediate) and they are in concert order already. The movements are slow-fast-slow-fast, to keep the audience dancing and singing along, and there are several unusually beautiful minor carols that bewitch and cause everyone to be slightly awe-struck. Just what you want in a flute concert!
These magical trios are also sight-readable for professional concerts and quick to put together. Printed in score form, everyone can watch the other flute parts as the countermelodies weave. Dynamics and phrasing are clearly marked. All parts are equal in quality. Solos appear in each part in turn. Practice mp3s are available.

The three books contain the following Christmas Carols in concert sets.

Book I
1. The Holly & the Ivy
2. The Huron Carol
3. Sussex Carol
4. The Little Drummer Boy
5. Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Book II
6. Good King Wencesles
7. O Little Town of Bethlehem
8. Coventry Carol
9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Book III
10. Pat a Pan
11. Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming
12a. Angels we have heard on High
12b. Adeste Fideles

The above Christmas Trio books are $25 for all three together sent as pdf sheetmusic. Just send me an email to let me know what you're ordering, then send $25 using the orange/yellow donate button on any of my webpages, or click here to paypal and write a message in your paypal form: http://www.jennifercluff.com/donate.htm.

Make the Paypal payable to jen(at)jennifercluff (dot) com

And do you need practice tracks?

If you and your trio need practice mp3s let me know. It's possible for flute teachers to email to your students mp3s of these carols for preparation, just add $3 (total: $28 for sheetmusic and mp3s) and I'll send you all the trios in mp3. They are played by midi using Sibelius at A-440. They're great for prep beforehand for students; they can practice their parts in advance of rehearsal.

Have a listen to excerpts from Books II & III practice tracks; they pre-tune your trio members! :>)

The Sheetmusic:

Here are some page samples of the pdf sheetmusic. You can click on each one to enlarge it, then use back button to return here.

Send me an email at jen(at)jennifercluff (dot) com with your order, pay with paypal, and then I'll send the pdf sheetmusic for your flute trio as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Best, Jen
P.S.

Oh yes!

My favourite published flute trio is Christensen's arrangement of "Carol of the Bells" which will should be orderable at places like Fluteworld although I don't find it there right now.

A great duet and solo version of Carol of the Bells is in Howard Vance's Christmas Duet book which is super useful in lessons too, because it has so many duets that are "novice-intermediate". Vance also has other ethnic holiday books for flute duet with enchanting Jewsih melodies. Just great for lessons in deep Folk flute!

My favourite free online Christmas music trios are the Boismortier Flute Trios No. 1 and 5. Of the five trios, these two are the brightest and most festive for use as background music or concert material for teachers and students.

Kummer Trios and standard Nutcracker arrangements can also good for background or showpiece music for a holiday gig for a professional trio; we usually interspersed classical trios with the above well-loved Christmas Carols. (we had to play in a castle once for three hours worth of 40 minute sets. Imagine!) But all these are good for long sets at Christmas time! Enjoy!

Do comment, those with titles of other good quality flute trios and quartets that they highly recommend. I'm interested in the "good stuff" as well. :>)
P.P.S.
Please do give the Celtic Trios a listen too when you're planning holiday trio concerts.
Trios for C-flutes, the Celtic "Flutzalad" Suites arranged by Jen are also available (which also work well for Christmas concerts; lively and fun): Here they are to listen to and to see the parts.
Scarborough Fair, Mari's Wedding, Dream of Arren, Mirielle by Gounod, The Morris Dance, Road to Listovaria. All these jigs and folk tunes are great for festive performances.

Lesson over-lapping Trios:

Another use is forming trio groups from students who are overlapping their lessons by ten minutes. A teacher plus two students can play easy-to-read music or pre-prepare using mp3s of the trios. All these trios come with mp3s for pre-practicing. The individual flute parts then weave together beautifully on the first read for teachers/pro-players, but there is endless possibility to play them with even greater musicianship.

So, thanks everyone who's ordering these, and let's make MUSIC !

Best, Jen

Part 3 - 10 Things I wish I'd Known

2010-07-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Continued from part 2 with boxed text by Charles Noble, additional text and illustrations by Jen Cluff.

Charles Noble, Associate Principal Viola in the Oregon Symphony, has a very interesting blog about local musical life called The Noble Viola.
A few months ago he was asked by the Portland Youth Orchestra to write something for their on-line newsletter that he wanted to pass on to young musicians.
He put out a call on his blog for musicians to send in their suggestions of Things They Wished They Had Known as a Young Musicians. He consolidated, edited, and reworded them for 10 Things I wish I'd known as a Young Musican.

Part 3 - 10 Things I wish I'd known as a Young Musician.

7. Choose aspiration over competition. It’s easy to be competitive - sometimes it’s even fun - but it can go too far. It’s easy to let it go to the dark side. Resist that temptation. You want to play more notes faster than the other guy. Louder. Higher. Whatever. Instead trying to tear someone down, look at what it is that they do that you like, and try to figure out how to integrate it into your own playing. Listen to recordings of the great players or singers and try to figure out what they do that makes them unique. YouTube is a boon, because there are all sorts of videos of artists new and old, and it is very possible to learn a lot from viewing them. Good teachers take the time to point out great players that can be learned from, and often will loan a student recordings or videos, or even have their studio watch or listen to them as a group. The main point is, make your quest to be better a positive thing. There will always be someone better than you, and always someone less good, and it’s something you should always keep in mind.

Jen adds: If you research the nature of humans and animals, competition is hard-wired into our biology. You can only put it to creative use and redirect the urge to compete and win so that you foster good relations with your teachers, peers, and fellow musicians. Good relationships are 50% of the "luck" that you need to do well in the music world. The other 50% is hard work on honing your skills. So only compete against yourself, and give a sunny smile to all fellow musicians. You're much smarter this way. If you're really revved up to compete, you can do so in the privacy of your own practice space: record yourself practicing and performing and compare these recordings to professional recordings, if you really want to hone in on your skills quickly. Youtube, a free recording program called Audacity, and a mini-disc or mp3 recorder are all you need to cut and splice together your home recordings and professional recordings. This is a very intelligent way to work, and so fun to get the competitive urge and do something CREATIVE with it!

8. Diversify: learn about other art forms. When I was in high school and college I was always interested in lots of stuff other than music. I built models, took photographs, rode my bike, read tons of books. Aside from the outside activities, it’s also very valuable to learn about the other fine arts from the time periods of the music that you’re working on. When I was in undergrad at the University of Puget Sound, there was a lot of coursework outside of the music program, and writing was stressed through the entire curriculum. My final senior paper was about Schoenberg and the Blaue Reiter Almanach, which took an entire semester to research and write, and coincided with a chamber group of mine doing Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. I found that being exposed to the entirety of what Schoenberg’s great artistic school was up to at that time very helpful in trying to figure out how to present the piece. When listening to lieder, for example, you might want to read more of the poetry by the poet whose words are set by the composer. Or you might want to take in a play related to a work you’re performing, or that’s contemporaneous to the work you’re studying. Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s part of a greater artistic and social movement, and so too should you.

Jen adds: If you live a little, if you travel, if you get out of your home town and learn about the big world that's out there, you bring the life-stories and accompaning deepening of your world view back to your music making. If you dance, if you sing, if you act, if you sculpt, paint or write, you bring the depth of character and your own ability to express your stories to an audience back to your music. I once heard of a little turn-of-the-century book by a Singer named Yvette Gilbert who'd written a manual on how to convey a profound message and all human emotion through singing. Gilbert wrote a five page RANT of the most beautiful quality about how singers need to "get out there and live life; visit museums, art galleries, gather in groups along the Seine; drink coffee in cafes, listen to poetry, dance, hike, run, sleep, and fall in love with the landscapes by rivers and mountains...." ...all incredibly healthy advice.
It cracked me up (seriously up) that even in 1898 Gilbert is "tired of wan-faced singing students who only lurk in practice rooms, and coddle their voices, and never live life, as when they do finally sing, they have nothing to say!"
This is still true today.
You have to live life richly in order to convey a life's riches to an audience.
Getting involved in all the arts is one of the best ways to do this when you're at school and beyond. (Note: I'll try and dig up those Gilbert quotes. Hilarious and rich! I typed them out at the time, because the little hardcover book had to go back to interlibrary loan, and it was rare and fragile).

9. Learn the business of music. This can never begin too early. If you do wedding or occasional gigs, learn to draft a contract to cover the eventualities of things going awry. The musical portion of an event is often the last to be hired, and there is almost never time to get things staked out much in advance. In addition, learn how to write a good, attractive resume. Make sure that you know how to use online social media to your advantage: put up videos of your playing on YouTube (but only if it’s really good), set up a fan page on Facebook with photos and audio files, and set up a Twitter account related to your performing activities. The possibilities are virtually limitless, and as the generation that is the first to be fully immersed in these new media formats, you have the power to make them work for you. This is such an important arena that such formerly conservative institutions as Juilliard, Curtis and Eastman are adding curricula that address self-promotion and survival in this new media landscape.

Jen adds: I'm not much of a business person, but I've learned one thing:

David Cutler's book "The Savvy Musician" is the one book you absolutely MUST read if you're going to do anything in the music business in 2010.
Fabulous, outstanding, brilliant. The Savvy Musican Blog is great to.
Run don't walk, and get ahold of this book!

10. Love what you do - and remember to nurture that love. When you’re young and just finding your way, your relationship with music is passionate and full of zest and ardor. Over time, setbacks and the less positive side of the business (and it is, ultimately, a business built on an art form) can make one become lazy, jaded, and cynical. It’s easy to forget that you used to love the Beethoven Fifth Symphony after you’ve played it a dozen times or more. That’s why it’s so important to nurture the basic love for music and performing that you have right now. Spend time regularly investing in that initial stock of love that you have for music, and it will sustain you over the long haul.

Written by: Charles Noble, Oregon Symphony Assistant Principal viola. Charles Noble keeps his own blog rolling at: www.nobleviola.com. Check there for interesting insights into the Oregon Symphony, the orchestral world at large and the life of a professional musician.

Jen adds: Luckily, I cannot stop loving music making. So this last one is just a reminder to talk to other optimistic, kind and loving musicians if ever you feel the need to re-discover your love of music.
Loneliness in the practice room (for decades at a time----dear me.....oh doh!) is common, and all you have to do is reach out; form a chamber group, a duo, and play with friends.
Keep exploring, keep the love alive.
Music is our souls singing to eachother. Let them sing on!!

I hope you enjoyed these items and the pictures.
If so, just comment using the comment button below, and add your own stories.
I love this topic!!

Best,
Jen

Return to read Part 1 and 2 of 10 Things I wish I'd Known as a Young Musician:

part 1

part 2

Part 2 - 10 Things I wish I'd Known

2010-07-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

Continued from part 1 boxed text by Charles Noble, additional text and illustrations by Jen Cluff.

Charles Noble, Associate Principal Viola in the Oregon Symphony, has a very interesting blog about local musical life called The Noble Viola.
A few months ago he was asked by the Portland Youth Orchestra to write something for their on-line newsletter that he wanted to pass on to young musicians.
He put out a call on his blog for musicians to send in their suggestions of Things They Wished They Had Known as a Young Musicians. He consolidated, edited, and reworded them for 10 Things I wish I'd known as a Young Musican.

Part 2 - 10 Things I wish I'd known as a Young Musician.

4. Keep busy, and do a variety of things.

CN: This was a hard one for me to learn. When I joined the Oregon Symphony I was consumed by the demands of my first full-time professional job, but I also played chamber music, filled in with Third Angle New Music Ensemble, played recitals and concertos with various orchestras, and in general stayed busy and kept my workload varied. Variety is the spice of life, they say, and it’s very true in the musical world. The main advantage of variety is that each different sort of music-making that you do will reinforce the other. Playing in orchestra demands ensemble skills, which are reinforced by playing chamber music. Solo playing demands the height of preparation and rigorous performance standards, which benefit all of your other playing, and so on. In addition, do things outside of music. I cycle, read, blog, and cook regularly, and this makes my life more balanced and enjoyable. Sure, I still live for my music, but music is just a part of my life, not my entire life.

Jen adds: I too got caught up in round-the-clock-practicing and fretting when involved in both a heavy orchestral schedule with difficult repertoire, and two teaching jobs at the same time. The mind needs to rest and have other hobbies, or else it can become neurotic. Choose mental health over fretting and fatigue, that's my motto now. You only have ONE mental health so feed it with lots of fresh air, sunshine and delightful diversions within your demanding schedule.

5. Respect your elders and those who have more experience than you do.

CN: In music school there are various classes of musicians, but most often it boils down to two: those who can really play, and everyone else. This is all well and good in school, where there is often an unhealthy obsession with competition. In the real world, however, it’s not always about who plays the most accurately. That old guy in the back of the violins might not shred like you do, but he might have played under Copland or Stravinsky, and would have some great stories to tell. He also, chances are, knows pretty much every standard work that an orchestra plays, and would have a wealth of information about bowings and fingerings to share should you hit it off. Plus, it’s just a matter of manners. Be respectful to those who have gone before you. This is a relatively rare thing to encounter these days, and if you adopt these manners, you will distinguish yourself from the crowd.

Jen adds: I recall that conductor Benjamin Zanders makes a point about this this, regarding the respect we should cultivate for those more experienced than ourselves in the wide world of music. Zanders mentioned that he puts a blank piece of paper on every member of his orchestra's music stand at every rehearsal and invites feedback, comments, and points of interest and improvement. He says, who knows? I could be conducting Bach when there is a Bach specialist right in front of me sitting at the back of the violas; I'd love to get their expertise and help.

I wish all conductors and music edcuators welcomed input. Very often there is indeed an older more experienced expert in our midst, or even a very wise, perspicacious young student. They simply need to be invited and welcomed to share their experience with us. We're constantly learning if we stay open to everyone's expertise at all times.

6. Be a sponge, not a faucet.

CN: Most of the great musicians, artists, and people in the world have one thing in common: they are constantly learning from the world around them. This is especially important for a young musician. Every new concert, rehearsal, or gig is an opportunity to learn something. You might have played the Dvorák cello concerto several times, but did you ever really pay attention to that second oboe part at the beginning of the second movement? It’s cool, and wicked hard to pull off. Listen to how good wind players phrase - try to emulate that if you’re a string player or pianist. Listen to how great singers phrase - everyone should try to aspire to that kind of phrasing. As you learn more, resist the temptation to spew your advanced state of knowledge all over your colleagues. You will quickly earn a reputation as a blow-hard, and no one will every take you seriously again. Seriously.

More to come in Part 3.

Best,
Jen

Part 1 - 10 Things I wish I'd known

2010-07-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Charles Noble, Associate Principal Viola in the Oregon Symphony, has a very interesting blog about local musical life called The Noble Viola.
A few months ago he was asked by the Portland Youth Orchestra to write something for their on-line newsletter that he wanted to pass on to young musicians.
He put out a call on his blog for musicians to send in their suggestions of Things They Wished They Had Known as a Young Musicians. He consolidated, edited, and reworded them for 10 Things I wish I'd known as a Young Musican.

With Mr. Noble's permission, I'm excerpting the article below, and adding illustrations and comments from my own musical life.

Ten Things I Wish I'd Known as a Young Musician

CN: When it comes to most things in life, there isn’t much of an advantage of being older except for one thing: experience. When you live longer, you have more experiences, both good and bad. When I was in high school, and even college, there were many things that I know now that I wish I’d known back then. Here’s my top ten list of things that I wish I’d known when I was a young musician.

1. Quality Practicing is far better than mindless practicing.

(Illustrations copyright Jennifer Cluff 2010)

CN:Practicing isn’t a matter of how many hours you put in, but how many good hours you put in. It’s quality, not quantity. Practicing intelligently is something that my best teachers instilled in me, and it’s vital if you’re going to survive in the professional world. You don’t always have months to prepare your repertoire, and after school is over other demands will fill in the open spaces, and being able to be efficient in your practicing will pay for itself many times over. Trust me on this one.

Jen adds: I remember Trevor Wye commenting on the net that one of the reasons he wrote his TONE book was because as a student himself on a night before a flute masterclass he heard a fellow student playing longtones on the hotel balcony that were blasty, airy and dispairy. ;>) Could it be possible that a flutist would do longtones every day that actually taught them to play with the WORST possible tone?

Hopefully we all have heard the phrase "It's better to play a single note with beautiful tone and musical direction than to cover pages of exercises with poor tone and dubious fingers", and it is true. The longer you play music, the more true it becomes. After 30 or more years practicing, you'll know for sure that it's true. So trust us all on this one. Practice only the most beautiful notes in the world. Make every second count; make every moment full quality.

2. Balanced posture and instrument holding are very important to your development as a musician.

CN: Your body is also your instrument - learn how it works and take care of it. I cannot stress this enough. Every year I see high school aged musicians who are suffering from overuse injuries (see #1 above) that might have been avoided with some basic knowledge of how the mechanics of playing their instrument affect their physical well-being. A book of stretches is essential: daily stretching before practice and rehearsals can absolutely save your future career. I recommend the classic book Stretching by Bob Anderson. There are also such disciplines as the Feldenkrais Method or Alexander Technique that can help you become aware of your body and its motions that can be extremely helpful both before and after an injury happens.

Jen adds: I've had some very intelligent teenage students who don't really believe that injury can happen to them (especially those that play both piano and flute). Finally I came up with an explanation that seemed to get through to them. I said: "Teachers don't just make up posture and instrument holding advice to be rigourous and drill-sargent-like, you know. :>) The advice comes because we have hurt ourselves, and we want you to avoid the injuries that wasted years for us!"

3. Slag not, yest ye be slagged.

CN: Being professional is a 24 hour job. When I was in school, we used to have a phrase that described this: The Conservatory Curse. If you were talking trash about someone else’s performance, chances are they were standing right behind you - no matter where you were. What to do? Don’t talk trash about or to other musicians. You never know when or where you’ll run into them again - they might be in a position to help your career later on when you least expect it, and chances are they won’t be in a charitable mood if you’ve been rude to them. I had a teacher who was at the very pinnacle of his profession who I never, ever heard utter an unkind word about anyone, either personally or professionally. It’s a standard that I strive to attain myself, and the old saw that one catches more flies with honey than vinegar is absolutely true.

Jen adds: I had a flambuoyant theory professor once who used to get pretty excited about the lastest opera, cast, costumes, voices and interps. He'd colourfully act out the singers, and discredit the costumers for allowing molting ostrick feather boas on opening night, and quite enjoyed himself on the topic.

One day, on the way to his class, walking up to the music school, I did what I thought was a perfect imitation of him, with fellow students laughing along. I said: "And GUESS what she was WEARING??!!" and suddenly a voice came from beside me all breathless: "WHAT was she wearing?"...and, you guessed it, it was the theory professor. And I might add he didn't even know who I was talking about, because I'd only been imitating his voice on a randomly chosen sentence. I said: "Oh sorry, I was doing an imitation of YOU!"
We laughed it off, but the person who you're slagging may in fact be standing behind you, or may be in your future, so hold onto your mirth and your condemnation when with colleagues...yes indeed.
Also avoid the constant slagger who does so from a competitive and disrespecting place; they'll slag others in front of you, and then turn around and slag you in front of others. With a constant musician slagger no one is safe, including them.
Be happy; be giving; be generous; keep slagging power plays from prolificating.

More to come in next post Part 2. And huge thanks to Charles Noble for his permission to reprint here. Well done!

Best,
Jen

Fumbling Fingers?

2010-06-29T18:47:00.001-07:00

I've been a member of Flutenet since 2001 but rarely post.
I've also had this question for just about as long.
I am 51 years old, and have been self taught. I started the flute when I was 26.
My biggest bugaboo is my finger technique. This goes for every piece of music I play.
Why is it that sometimes I can play a piece with just one or two fingering mistakes then shortly thereafter screw it up royally?
It happens even on the easiest of pieces. I have tried playing pieces at half speed with a metronome, and increasing it a couple of beats each time, but I still end up not being able to play it as I approach the normal speed. I even mess up at slower speeds. I have tried scales but I mess those up too.
Words of Wisdom Welcome.

Dear 51 yr. old,

I'm trying to imagine what you're describing. It's tricky to know
what's happening to you exactly. A video would help immeasurably.
When this happens with flute students in the lesson, there are some
frequent causes.

See if any of these apply:

Problem: The fingers flop and fly, but don't follow the brain's perception of the written music.
Possibly causes:

1. Your eyesight has changed, and you can't see the music well. This is the number one cause of muddled notes. Have your eyes tested for new glasses to rule this out.

Other possible causes:

2. There is a slow connection between the written symbols for music,
and an automatic fingering on the flute. It seems as if the processing
of notation is garbled. Often this is due to trying to play music that
is too challenging too soon, playing at too high a level without prepatory exercises and scales, or trying to play hard music once a week, and not practicing on the other days.

Remedies: the student can:

a) practice short sessions throughout the day, concentrating on the
easiest exercises.
ie: go back to only one note and steady both hands, concentrating on
tone only. (3-5 minutes min.) Longtones read from the page re-connect
fingerings to symbols on page.

b) or...go back to simple finger patterns to retrain the brain. For
example: Play only two notes, played very slowly as a super-slow
trill. ie: F-G-F-G...etc. Note that this is only ONE FINGER MOVING at
a time.
For interest's sake concentrate on tone and evenness of one-finger-moves-only measured trills. There are good exercises for this in "Vade Mecum" by Walfrid Kujala, but any book of finger exercises will have two note slow trills.

c) or, take yourself back to the easiest flute books you can find and play only simplified pieces and exercises. For example, relearn those easy preparatory studies that are all in half-notes and whole notes. Play easily and simply.
Make music out of two or three notes, reversing their order and creating new fragments from note groupings. Memorize simple short note combinations away from the page. Work on tone and breathing and keep the music simple until you are more relaxed and co-ordinated.
Concentrate on line, breath, tone and simple fingerings that move
only one finger at a time.

3. Physical non-balanced stance and flute holding:

Video tape yourself, or go to a flute lesson and ask the teacher to "spot" you to see what you're doing that is excessive or causes finger-fumbling.
You could be doing something really idiosyncratic, like misaligning
the flute's headjoint, body and footjoint, raising the elbows or
shoulders very high, straining the wrists and forearms by twisting,
tightening your face and neck and/or contorting the hands and fingers
onto the flute.
See: http://www.jennifercluff.com/lineup.htm and check the posture and basic flute hold. Also see: http://www.jennifercluff.com/lineup.htm

Or:

You could inadvertently opening the thumb key or be lifting a left
hand finger ( For example: the A key opens in the left hand when
changing from D to E in the right hand when it doesn't actually need
to be lifted.)

This can be also can be caused by a non-balanced hand position where
the fingers are so uncomfortable they reposition themselves to stop
the weight of the rods from rolling the flute inward etc.
During this roll-and-grab, keyes can be opened unconsciously during
the "grab" phase.
Review 1 to 3 above and video tape yourself.

5. Strange mis-playing of notes can also be caused by pad leaks, where you have to really press down hard on, for example, the A key, in
order to make right hand notes like D and E speak clearly on your
flute. This excessive finger pressure has arisen so slowly it has gone
unnoticed, and now causes excessive tension in the hands while
playing, which causes fumbling.
Additionally the leaking pad can gap open unexpectedly during
non-related finger changes and cause you to re-grip the flute.

Have someone who plays flute well play-test your flute for leaks or
take it to repair.

6. Finally:
>>Why is it that sometimes I can play a piece with just one or two
>>fingering mistakes then shortly there after screw it up royally?<<

Are you trying to go too far, too fast?
Every day you'll want to start fresh. Start with simple one and two note warmups.
Don't rush the process.
Proceed to learning one scale a week, one or two notes at a time.
My favourite scale method is to add a note, and then return to the first note like this:
F----------(hold)
(slowly):
FGF------- (hold)
FGAGF-----
FGABbAGF------etc.

In general, if you can't yet play a short phrase of music three times correctly in a
row, and up to ten times correctly, you're not ready to play the music with dynamics, articulation and tempo increases. Take your time, slow down, and really become comfortable with fragments first, before adding any more skill sets.

A lot of flute students bash out a row of notes and then turn on the
metronome and start trying to force themselves to play it faster,
instead of making the notes beautiful in small groups of 2 to five
clusters of notes.

This is not like gym class where you force yourself to do 100 pushups by
sheer will power. Perhaps it's like trying to teach yourself to ski in your backyard, and then wondering why you're not able to tackle the professional ski hills with all the twists and turns.
With music it's a common misconception that speed is the goal, but really it is tone
and clarity that are the goals.

If this sounds likely, that you're overtaxing yourself before you're ready to layer up all the skills, then you'll want to slow your learning down until
every single note is perfect in tone, rhythm and direction before
adding another note to it. That's how the mind learns to listen on
many levels and correct mistakes before the "bashed out" version of
the piece becomes ingrained.

See my best advice on how to practice effectively.
Hope this helps and let us know what it turned out to be.

I'm betting that you need new glasses just now, and you used to be less
musically discerning when you first started playing, now are listening better, and have perhaps an overly-tense approach. :>)

A flute teacher will really help focus you on what to work on and how to do it in a balanced way to build skills more gradually.

Best,
Jen

Rave reviews for my Celtic Trios

2010-06-20T12:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Fluters,

I've been busy performing, and hence, ye olde blog posts have been few and far between, but guess what? Rave RAVE reviews on my celtic trios!

_______________
Hi Jen,

My test group is greatly enjoying your Carol & Celtic trio arrangements! The arrangements are interesting for all of the parts and sound much more difficult than you have actually written them. The retired music professor who conducts us loves the Handel Aria!

I teach and organize flute stuff in P___. Upcoming is our annual Holiday Showcase, for which our picturesque town closes the streets around the historic courthouse and 80+ businesses host a great variety of musical performances on a cold Friday night. This will be my fifteenth year of organizing three levels of Fluties, and your music will be the core of what the intermediate group will play this year.

Thanks so much for all of your work on these arrangements! I've looked at many, many flute ensemble arrangements over the years and believe that the beauty and simplicity of yours will ensure their long-term value for eclectic flute groups like ours.

Thanks! B.C.
__________________

Dear Jen,
We spent half our rehearsal yesterday on your trios - you are so right, they rock! What a talent you are, Jen. We didn't get to the Handel yet, but will next week.
So, my next question is, what else do you have? If you have a mailing list, by all means, add me to it. I adore your 'stuff'!
If you have the inclination or time, it would be helpful to our group if you could suggest some works that are 'must have'. We've spent a couple years building up a repertoire, but don't often run across works that 'rock'.

_________________
Jen,Our compliments on your Christmas flute trios which I purchased Saturday. The arrangements are beautiful with all three players getting some interesting parts to play. We performed them last night at a seniors’ centre and they were very well received. My friend is going to look at your website for some of your other trios. Happy Holidays and thank you! N.
_____________________
Jen, we love the trios I bought from you. Playing them at a restaurant next Friday night. Do you have any more for sale? We love the celtic stuff!
They are so beautiful and just the difficulty level we are looking for. Anything else you can recommend would be greatly appreciated. For future events, of course! You've got a great gift for arranging. Wish I was so talented! B.T.
____________________

Hello, Jen,
Thought I'd let you know that Fantasia has moved to our performance-ready repertoire. We plan to perform it as part of a short set of informal opening/seating music for a big concert in two weeks. Before that, though, we will include it as part of our musical program this coming week at an assisted living centre. I know that the seniors will really like Fantasia and our entire selection of Irish flute music. For now, we are staying with your suggestion of 3 c flutes.

Professional flute trio.
____________________________

Jen replies:
I'm so so happy to hear this. YAY!! :>D
Yes, I did think they rocked myself, ha ha ha!!
But readers, do please hear for yourself, if you haven't already!
And the beauty is that my celtic trios are sight-readable by intermediates and advanced player, and yet not too hard for a more novice group to work up.
Plus they do put you in a swoon of happiness. :>)

I'll add a list of great rockin' tunes for trio here (below), and then I'll put up some more of my own arrangements for sale. Thanks so much all you Celtic rockers out there!
Jen

Rockin' Trios we have also played:

Celtic Knotwork by Edward McGuire
This is a slow building soundscape like no other! FABULOUS!! We LOVED performing it. The layers of sound go across the trio as each flutist echoes the last fragment. Stunning, riveting.

Zempleni Trio by Lazlo Zempleni
This lively trio consists of three contrasting movements, and is one of the best of the flute trio literature; spunky and exotic, it is rhythmically captivating. Lazlo Zempleni is a Hungarian composer born in 1922.

Sephartic Medley by Sandra Howard
This four movement work of three traditional tunes (with the addition of the Gary Schocker piece as second mvmt.), depicts an exotic tale of travel and intrigue. We have particularly enjoyed spicing it up by adding Gary Schocker’s very interestingly titled piece as the second movement.
I Si Yona
II Three Nuns in the Desert (by Gary Schocker. Was avail. (free) at www.garyschocker.com))
III Mekhol Alaat
IV Honokdim

Casterede - Flutes en Vacances played as trio. (4th flute not necessary)

Three Little Maids from School - Sullivan Great humourous encore.

Other pieces our trio has enjoyed:
2 flutes and piano (if 3rd trio member plays piano):

The Water is Wide by Steve Tung - soothing, lovely, moving.

Soaring by Jennifer Grady - uplifting, refreshing, poetical.

Carillon from L'Arlesienne by Bizet - exciting, thrilling, like millions of bells (which is what "Carillon" means.) Arranged by Smim.

Also, for flute duo, there's my Wedding Duet book, including Pachelbel's Canon, The Flower Song from Lakme, and other great gigging tunes for wedding ceremonies check the blog post on that.

If you subscribe to this blog(at top right) you'll be the first to know when new works for trio/duo are ready to be ordered.

Thanks so much for the kind reviews.
Best,
Jen :>D YAY!

Eva-Nina Kozmus wins Eurovision with Ibert Concerto

2010-05-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

A 16 year old Slovenian flutist, Eva-Nina Kozmus won the grande prize at the Eurovision Young Musician's Contest this past week.
You can watch her perform the Ibert Concerto 3rd mvmt. as well as interviews, and whole competition here:

Ibert III played by Eva-Nina Kozmus (go to 35:00 min.)

Dedicated to Art: an interview with Eva-Nina Kozmus (English)

Eurovision Finals (whole concert - let whole film load while you do other things, then come back to allow slider to move forward to where you wish to watch).

I'm so glad that flutists can actually win these competitions, and it's so great to watch! (off-set embouchure too!)
Now we just need some more works like this that really thrill audiences!! More concerti for flute, PLEASE, you exciting composers out there!

Enjoy,
Jen