Life Lessons From Flute Lessons?

I had an interesting conversation today with an already overwhelmed college freshman during this second week of the semester. We had been discussing and practicing several specific fundamentals (tongue position, hand position, breath support, posture, etc.) during the lesson when suddenly the student exclaimed, “so many things to remember!” Very true – we discussed that not only do we have to practice these individual elements, but we also have to practice putting them all together and doing them all at once to create our best finished musical product.

The student looked perplexed for a moment and then brightened. “It’s like learning in each of my individual classes, but also learning to handle my whole schedule of classes.”

Bingo! Clever student!

Lessons and college are about more than just getting through the piles of facts and materials your teachers assign each week. It is about developing your processes and how you apply those facts and materials. It is about you learning how you learn; learning how to manage your time and develop your concentration skills so you are as productive as possible. It is about learning how to apply, combine, and transfer concepts and processes toward your larger successful self.

Wishing you all a wonderfully productive semester!

–Euterpe’s Piccolo

The Musicality of Trills

Do you give much thought to how you play trills? And by thought, I mean in addition to 1) figuring out what note you are trilling ‘to’ based on the key signature and any accidentals present, 2) figuring out exactly what fingering to use in the execution of that trill, and 3) trying to keep said fingering in motion for the correct duration of the trilled note. Those aspects seem to be merely albeit important “mechanics” of the trill. But what about the “musicality” of the trill? Can a trill in fact, be musical? Although this is by no means meant to be a definitive discussion of trills, there are a few additional aspects of every trill to which we might easily give consideration.

Considering the speed, dynamic, and intonation of a trill can help us create musicality or the “phrasing” with a trill. We do not automatically change each of these elements on every trill, however, we do want to consider what might be appropriate or tasteful within the context of the piece we are playing. It is important to remember that a trill is an ornament and ornaments are not intended to take away “from” or disguise the musical line. There can actually be such a thing as too much frosting on the cake. Rather ornaments are intended to bring a complimentary bit of attention – or elaboration – “to” a moment of melody or harmonic progression or cadence.

NFA Love – Las Vegas 2012

The National Flute Convention, the pinnacle of the flute world, started today. Not only is this the place where many talented flutists share their ideas, collaborate together, and enjoy the good time of Vegas (this year) it is a great opportunity to find out what is going on in this rather large world.

The flute community is as vast as we are. People from every wake of life are flute players and have so many experiences to share that we just simply don’t have enough time.

Although neither Euterpe’s Piccolo or I will be at the NFA Convention this year, we are going to try and cover the highlights as much as possible. Unfortunately we weren’t able to afford this years, but we are hoping to cover the years to come as we share more with you! Some companies have already made some big announcements and we will be writing about those when the convention concludes so that we have access to as much information as we can.

If you are on Twitter do a search for the #NFAflute2012 tag to get a live feed of what people are doing. There are some great presentations as well that we’d love to share if given the opportunity.

If you are at NFA and would like to share your experience here, please leave a comment and share!

Happy fluting at NFA 2012!!!

Update: We’ve attached a link to the schedule here.  I’m sure many of you already there, already have it, but it doesn’t hurt it to have one more place.

-The Flute Elf

Contributor Introduction: Enturpe’s Piccolo

As some of you may know, while I’m sure many do not, we have welcomed a new contributor to the blog. She has vast music experience and a love of sharing ideas and music. She, already, has been a major asset to our team, and is fully supportive of what we are doing now, and plan for the future.  We couldn’t ask for anyone better, and I know she has a lot to share with us, and she will be able to provide some great insight into many areas of the flute world and education.  She is also highly involved in the community, and remains active in everything she does.  She is also a very close personal friend of mine who I’ve known for years, and was the first person I knew I had to bring along for this ride!

She wrote her first blog post titled:

Summer Music Camps: Dread or Delight?

Her next post is coming soon, and we can’t wait to share it with you.  You can also find her bio on our Contributors Page, where we will keep updated contributor information for reference.

Here is her bio in her words:

“Euterpe’s Piccolo is a university instructor and performer and has been playing flute for longer than most of you have been alive. (insert joke about coming from a family of vocalists and vaudeville performers here!) With a strong performance background that includes orchestral, chamber, solo, contemporary, electronic, and pop playing, EP also has substantial experience as a stage manager for concerts and theatrical productions. Also a closet musicologist, EP has extensive experience as a researcher, writer, and editor of program notes. The valuable insight gained while working within these accidental careers as well as within the administration of a major symphony orchestra and of a music school have contributed immeasurably to EP’s understanding of the arts from all sides of the music stand.

EP’s students are encouraged to investigate many different approaches and techniques in order to discover their own identity and goals in playing the flute; not every approach works for every player thus making a caring and creative teacher imperative. Making concrete decisions about the different aspects of playing helps minimize “accidental” playing habits that may be inefficient or even become detrimental to playing. A helping of Alexander Technique and Body Mapping can help solve more than you think. In the long run, it is about the joy of making music and allowing the flute or piccolo to be the medium. To that end, EP regularly works with students of all ages and abilities, both privately and in master classes, to ignite their curiosity and to offer new ideas that will help them become a happy and fulfilled musician.

EP’s one foray into a jazz class and improvisation ended in bemused failure.”

We welcome Enturpe’s Piccolo (she may sometimes be called EP) to this project. She, with me, is also a contributing author, editor, confidant, moderator, and project manager. Her role is essential to the blog and will continue to play a large role. As the idea of a single person, it is great to share in it with someone else and work with a great person so dedicated to the idea and concept. We know she will do a lot, as she has already.

Please welcome Enturpe’s Piccolo as an author and moderator. *Applause*

-The Flute Elf

Summer Music Camp: Dread or Delight?

I loved attending summer music camps as a young musician. I was usually so excited that I couldn’t wait for free time so I could go practice and think about all of the new things we were learning. That was not always the prevailing attitude among my fellow campers. Not to worry though because there was room for all of us.

Now that I am on the other side of the name tag and teaching at these summer camps, I have noticed some similarities year to year. The most common thing I see is that initial roomful of slightly worried eyes all asking the same questions: 1) “What should I expect from camp… 2) how much am I supposed to already know… 3) am I good enough to be here?” A helpful thing to remember is that even attendees at programs and camps for accomplished adult players often have those same worried eyes and questions. Rest assured that your questions are not unusual… in fact, you might be a bit unusual if you had no questions at all!

Approaching music camp with an open mind and cheerful attitude can save you some frustration and anxiety. Assuming you have understood the camp guidelines correctly and have not accidentally signed up for a week of reed-making in the Congo, let’s answer our questions from a moment ago: The main purpose of every music teaching camp is simply to share musical and technical knowledge, in our case specifically for the flute.

STARS Sight-reading!

There are many different approaches to sight-reading, but this is perhaps the most common.  The STARS method has been around for as long as I can remember, and is an essential way to tackle the approach of new music.

S – “Sharps and Flats”:  At this point, you notice the key signature for the piece you are in, where it changes, and what notes you should be expected to play within the key signature.  As you advance, this may be a little harder to do, simply because something may be in a Major or minor key, or a model key.  Knowing the Circle of Fifth’s here, is essential for practice and proper implementation of this skill.  Knowing your scales will also help, as you are likely to encounter them here.

T – “Time Signature / Tempo Markings”:  You want to see if it is in 4/4 (simple meter) or something like 6/8 (compound meter).  This will help you determine how fast to play and how to count the piece.  Skim ahead in the music, and circle and indicate any tempo changes so they don’t surprise you (as much) when you go through them.  Take your metronome out and try and internalize the tempos before you play a note.

The process of defining your goals

Goal definition is an important part of life. We all deal with goal setting, in some form or another in our lives. Sometimes we don’t always know what they are or how to define them.  Music, although something that is usually based around leisure time, can be used in our goal settings, and if you are a musician, will be a goal in itself.

As we talked about in the practice techniques post, defining a goal, and knowing what you want to get out of your time will help you practice more efficiently. Most goals can be divided and broken down into smaller goals, and attacked one at a time.  Although writing it down may help, it isn’t always necessary.  The first step here is to be aware of what you want, so that you can make steps make it happen.

Part of defining your goals is knowing what is important to you.  You may want to make money, or you may want to share your music.  These factors will help determine your overall goal, and help you decide what you need to do to accomplish and make it happen. Most people get overwhelmed when they look at a large goal. They can’t visualize it, but by breaking it down into smaller tasks, it is more about completing the smaller tasks to compete the large task. By breaking it into smaller parts, the larger goal is still important but the smaller tasks become the process of reaching the goal.

Example:
You may want to learn a piece of music. What do you need to do to learn it?

• Learn notes
• Improve tone, or reproduce a tone you want to have
• Learn phrasing
• Learn rhythm
• Increase musicality

Clean Oil Adjust (COA) and Overhauls

If you take your flute to a repair person, EVER, you need to know and understand what these terms are, and what they mean.  A repair specialist, can make or break your flute in a time of need, they need to be someone you trust.  There are many repair people out there, and there seem to be a few, great repair people.  Instrument repair is a craft that has to be honed, and requires a lot of training, and specialization. Throw that in with different metal types, key options, head joint options and customizations, and your repair person can literally break or save your instrument.

Clean Oil Adjustments (COA) – The flute is taken apart, patina/tarnish is removed, pads are replaced (normally, up to 3 covered in repair, but this depends on the person), and mechanism is oiled, pads are seated, shimmed, and adjusted as necessary.  Most places will hand polish the flute, and this is preferred because if polished with motor armed polishing arm, it can cause damage to the flute metal, and wear it down over time.  This is especially important with plated instruments.  Plating is typically very thin, and can be worn off quite easily, even with normal wear.  A normal COA should cost around $60-150 for a student flute, and up to around $250-400 for a professional flute.  The average turn around for a COA is about a week, and can be a short as a few days. The head joint cork is normally replaced here as well, if needed.  A COA is suggested to be done every year, but it depends how much you are playing the flute, and if you feel it is still in adjustment.  If there are leaks, you should take it in and get it done.

Fundamentals of practice

If you are anything like me, which who knows, stranger things have happened, then when you practice, music is all over the room and you can’t always decide what you want to work on. Some may refer to this as music ADD.

There is so much great music out there, that you feel like you want to play it all. Unfortunately, not only is time a problem, but so is finding the music and deciding what is worth your time.

If you have taken private lessons before, someone hopefully has taught you what to focus on and how to practice. Generally speaking, lessons and learning music is focused on a few different areas:

• Tone
• Technique
• Repertoire
• Ensemble music

Dreams of 10 years ago

When playing through some of my music, Afternoon of the Faun (Debussy), I stumbled upon a dream sheet of mine from Flute World.

On the surface level, it just looks expensive, but with where I was in my flute and music at the time, I could see why I would even spend the time to make a wish list.

It was printed on 4/6/2002, almost exactly 10 years ago.

I was a junior in High School, preparing for my college auditions and highly involved in my local music community. I was playing in several bands in my High School. I was in the Advanced Band, and then was a TA for beginning band.