Blog

Posted on

Practicing: run-throughs vs. small chunks

I was never taught how to practice, but I remember the point at which my practicing became much more efficient. And this is really what we want, right? To get the most out of the limited practice time we have? Often, I find that my students only tend to run through music during their practice time, and there are inevitably technical issues in their playing that remain, causing them to stumble time after time. Run-throughs just aren’t effective as more focused practice, which requires more concentration and self-discipline. But it’s worth the extra work; the payoff with more focused practice is huge.

Consider these ideas when approaching a new work:
– Listen to a quality recording of the piece. Yes, this counts as practicing!
– Do a quick run-through of the piece to get a feel for it and where the difficult areas are.
– Work on those difficult spots slowly and with a metronome. Choose a slow enough tempo that you can play it accurately and gradually increase the tempo as it becomes more comfortable.
– Actually write the tempo of each problem area in your music (in pencil) so you remember where you are the next time you practice. You will probably have different tempos for each difficult section of the work, but that’s ok. You’ll eventually work them all up to the same tempo. Don’t forget to update the tempo in your music after you’ve made progress.
– In particularly difficult sections, it may be necessary to break your practice down into just 2 or 3 notes. This may seem too simple, but it’s a much more effective use of your practice time than simply running through the music and making little, if any, progress.
– Save run-throughs. Start doing more of these as you approach a performance to get a feel for the work in its entirety and to start building endurance. It’s also helpful to do occasionally to assess how well your practicing is going, but it’s simply not effective enough to be your sole practice strategy.

Next blog post: Specific ideas on how to break down practice more efficiently!

Posted on

Establishing a Practice Schedule

It’s really important to establish some kind of practice schedule. Many times, I have new students (college or private students) who realize they have to practice between lessons but just never seem to get around to it. Before they know it, a full semester is over and they really haven’t made any progress, which is frustrating for everyone involved.

Most of the time, I believe that the good intentions are there. And yes, music majors take lots of classes and participate in multiple ensembles and have lots to do. With careful, deliberate planning, however, it’s possible to schedule the practice time you need.

Some general ideas:

– Actually block off time in your schedule designated specifically for practicing. Avoid using it for lunch, socializing, homework, errands, sleeping, and so forth. As a musician, practicing is part of your job, so treat it with professionalism.

– Write your designated practice time in your schedule. Or enter it into your online planner. Make sure it ends up wherever you will see it until it becomes habit.

– Arrange your practice time for when you practice best. Some people love getting work done first thing in the morning, before anyone else is around to be a distraction. Others work best late at night. Maybe right before or after lunch is when you’re most alert. Figure out when your most effective practice time is and make sure you schedule around that. A reasonable amount of focused practice is better than lots of unfocused practice.

– Your practice time doesn’t have to be one large block. Maybe you have 30 free minutes between classes early in the morning. That’s perfect for your warm-up! You can then schedule another practice session for technical work and repertoire, or you can split that work into two sessions.

Next post: ideas on organizing your practice time.

Posted on

Taffanel and Gaubert practice tips

My battered copy of 17 Daily Exercises. The cover is around here somewhere...

The book “17 Daily Exercises” (or 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Mécanisme) by Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert is the flutist’s bible. Since its publication in 1923, it has become a standard method book for all flutists. Taffanel began writing this book, and it was finished by his student, Gaubert, after Taffanel’s death.

I start my students in this book at a young age with the expectation that they will use it for many years. Even if they initially move at a slow pace, they are still developing technique and will use the book throughout their musical careers.

Some practice tips:

– If you are just starting in this book, work at a very slow tempo and be sure to use a metronome.
– Establish a tempo where you are able to play through the exercise comfortably (and write that tempo down!), then work on increasing the tempo.
– If you run into any problem spots, stop! Work out those isolated areas until they’re as comfortable as the rest of the exercise.
– When the exercise is moving along fairly comfortably, start using the different articulations listed at the top of each exercise.
– Try to work through one of these exercises each week. If that’s too much for you, divide it in half and spend two weeks on each exercise.

Eventually, you will want to work your way through this entire book. However, I prefer that my students tackle exercises 1, 2, 4, and 12 before moving on to the others.

* A note about breathing: Make sure you are breathing in places that make sense. For example, in exercise 4, place a fermata on the first note of measure 5. This is halfway through this key. Then place a fermata on the first note of measure 9. This is the switch from C major to its relative minor. After pausing on these notes, take a breath, and then begin the next section, repeating the note that you held under the fermata.

With diligent practice, you should see nice results in just a few weeks.

Have T&G practice tips of your own to share? Comments welcome!

Posted on

Practicing: measuring progress

After reading Dr. Noa Kageyama’s excellent article on how much musicians should practice (“How Many Hours a Day Should You Practice?, www.bulletproofmusician.com), the question occurred to me: besides measuring quantity when it comes to practicing, how do we measure the quality of our practice? Dr. Kageyama begins to address this in his article. He makes the distinction between mindless and deliberate practicing. Obviously, we want to aim for deliberate practicing.

But, practically speaking, what does that mean?

I don’t claim to have a perfect system at this point, but here are some initial thoughts:

– Breakthrough days: These are perfect practice days. You discover that you’ve nailed that really technically difficult passage. Your etudes are flawless. Your technical warm-up is a breeze. Your tone is beautiful. Sadly, these days are few and far between. It’s easy to measure your progress on these days because you’ve mastered music that previously was a challenge.

Otherwise, if the stars and planets haven’t aligned to create the conditions for a breakthrough day:

– Metronome markings: This is a pretty simple way to measure progress, especially in technical repertoire passages, etudes, or technical studies. Being able to play something a few clicks faster than you could at the beginning of your practice session is a pretty good indication of progress.

– Being able to play longer passages in a work: Maybe you could play only small portions of a work previously. Maybe you could only make it through one movement before you felt fatigued or lost focus. Suddenly, you can make it through the entire piece successfully. This is a positive sign, especially if you are getting close to a recital date.

– Improvement in tone quality: This issue becomes more subjective. Recording yourself, an eye-opening experience, is a great way to hear what your audience is hearing. The sound from the performer’s side of the instrument can be vastly different from what the sound is by the time it reaches the audience. Maybe you’ve been working on tone and you *think* it’s clearer, more resonant, more focused, and so on. Check it with your recording device.

There are so many other aspects of our playing that are difficult, if not impossible, to measure. Tone color, phrasing, and rubato come to mind. How do we measure progress here? Is it simply enough to put in the practice time and wait for the next breakthrough day?

Comments welcome!

Posted on

Basic flute maintenance

Basic flute maintenance
(from the flutist’s perspective)

Having taught flute for fourteen years now, I’ve taught a lot of folks. I’ve decided to compile a basic maintenance checklist for flute students. I’ve found that, usually, each student has a few habits that could cause damage to their instrument. Any damage is going to adversely affect your ability to play the flute and could potentially be costly to repair.

Now let me clearly define some limits to this advice: I am not a flute technician. I do not adjust screws, switch out pads, fix leaks, or replace cork. I don’t even adjust the cork in the crown of my own flute. The flute is a complex instrument, and I’m just not comfortable (or qualified!) enough to make any kind of adjustment. I’ll pop a spring back into place but that’s the extent of it. So the following advice is for normal, every day maintenance. Have a question about something that isn’t listed below? Feel free to ask!

– When you put the flute together, make sure that you’re assembling it so that the pieces are parallel. If you try to slide the pieces together at an angle, it can bend the metal of either part. Ever seen a foot joint fall off a flute during a concert? This could be the reason why.

– Cork grease has no place in your life. Ever.

– Make sure you clean your flute out after every practice session. Moisture is bad for the instrument. If you have a metal cleaning rod, make sure it doesn’t scrape against the inside of the instrument by wrapping the entire length of the cleaning rod with a soft cloth.

– When you clean the outside of your flute, I prefer for students to use a clean cloth with no polish. Specially-treated cloths that contain a polish are available, but I find that the polish usually ends up getting all over the pads. You should be careful that you don’t rub the pads when you’re cleaning the outside of your flute because it will eventually fray or tear them.

– Concerning the cork in the crown of your flute: you might have to adjust this once or twice in your middle and high school career. This is not a normal part of your tuning process. If you find that the crown of your flute spins freely, this means that the cork has dried out and needs to be replaced.

– If you have sticky pads, it usually means that they’re dirty. To prevent this in the future, make sure you rinse your mouth before playing, and never play with gum or candy in your mouth. Some people like to take a dollar bill, slide it under the offending sticky pad, press the key down, and yank the dollar bill out. Please don’t do this for a couple of reasons. First, the dollar bill is filthy. Secondly, if you pull the dollar while the key is pressed, you run the risk of dislodging the pad. Instead, use an absorbent paper to clean the pad. Some music shops sell specially-made papers, or you can use cigarette-rolling papers. Gently (!) press the key down with the paper under the key, and then release the key and take the paper out. Avoid yanking it out while the key is pressed.

– If a key (not a pad) is sticking, or slow to return to its usual position after you’ve pressed it down, it might be that your mechanism is gunky. This doesn’t mean you’re a bad person; it just means that you probably should have the instrument cleaned. This isn’t something you can do yourself but it needs to be done every once in a while.

– Please don’t leave your flute on the music stand or in a chair. Invariably, someone will knock it over or sit on it. Every little dent can cause a difference in your sound.

– Avoid storing your cleaning cloth and other materials (like pencils) in your flute case. Your case is designed to only hold your flute. If you try to fit other things in there, they can end up damaging your flute.

Posted on

Summer Practice

For me, the summer means working on flute technique. With a substantially pared-down teaching schedule, I transfer the time I would normally spend driving, preparing lectures, and grading exams into practice time. And while I do explore repertoire during this time, I primarily focus on technique. I normally don’t have recitals scheduled until the middle of fall semester or later, so my repertoire practice is limited so I don’t wear those pieces out.

So what do I practice? I keep a lot the same from summer to summer while adding in some new. Lots of Taffanel and Gaubert. I try to play through T&G once a day. Ok, maybe five days a week. It’s a lot of work, and it’s intense. No – I don’t play every single articulation pattern every day. Those are alternated throughout the week. It’s still a good technical kick in the pants.

I’ve also started playing Moyse’s Daily Exercises for the Flute. I try to stay a little more reasonable with this one; I follow the prescribed practice schedule outlined in the front of the book. It’s still a good workout.

This summer, I’m looking at the Jean-Michel Damase 24 Etudes book. I’ve played through a few of these before, but never the entire book. I’m not exactly going in order; yesterday I looked at number 20 and finished it up this morning. This afternoon, I’m looking at number 19. So far, the two are fairly similar. There’s a lot of double-tonguing and patterns that don’t quite match up with nice, clean double-tonguing patterns. There are also the occasional chromatic run and runs that are mostly chromatic but include just enough non-chromatic pitches to cause trouble. It isn’t a huge challenge, but I’m not sight-reading them perfectly, either. If these etudes prove to be very similar to each other, I might throw in the Piazzolla tango etudes for variety.

Posted on

Flute ensemble thoughts

I recently had the opportunity to be on the committee that judged the flute choir portion of the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition. This competition includes several categories: solo flute, flute and keyboard, flute and guitar, flute and tape, flute choir, and flute plus one to three non-keyboard instruments. It also includes pedagogical works. The only requirements are that the works are published in the past year. It is primarily a competition for the actual publisher (not the composer); to that end, we consider things such as the overall layout of the score, whether page turns are placed reasonably, and the legibility of the score, as well as “music stuff,” such as the way parts are divided and balanced.

It was an interesting experience, and I’m glad I got to take part in it. It’s not every day that you see a score calling for sub-contrabass flute! It also helped me get into the flute choir frame of mind. I will be starting a flute ensemble in the fall, and I’m already searching for music that will work. (Kuhlau, anyone?) I plan to include a lot of traditional, standard ensemble literature but will supplement liberally with new sounds. It will also be a great opportunity for the students to get in some more performance practice!

 

Posted on

Beryl Rubinstein Sonata for Flute and Piano

My latest music acquisition is the Sonata for Flute and Piano by Beryl Rubinstein (1898 – 1952).  I have only a passing knowledge of this work.  I have never heard it performed live and have heard it only on Jeffery Khaner’s American music recoring.  I became interested in the work after learning that Rubinstein can be considered a composer from the American south, which is one of my research interests.  He was born in Athens, Georgia, but ended up travelling quite extensively due to opportunities afforded him by his talent as a pianist. He performed in New York City as a teenager and then studied in Germany.

His biggest legacy may be his connection to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he taught beginning in 1921.  He became director of the school in 1932.  After a short stint with the U.S. Army during World War II, he returned to Cleveland and expanded the Institute considerably.

While his connection to Athens may seem tangential at best, he did travel back to his hometown shortly before his death in 1952.  He was a contemporary of Hugh Hodgson (who was involved with establishing the music department at the University of Georgia in 1928) and gave a recital during his return visit to Athens, which included his own works for piano.  (His piano works are perhaps the most commonly-known portion of his oeuvre.)

Another Georgia connection is between Rubinstein and the famed conductor Robert Shaw.  After Rubinstein’s death, Cleveland Institute alum Hale Smith composed a work in his memory.  It was recorded by the Kulas Choir and Chamber Orchestra in 1964, under the direction of Robert Shaw.  At that time Shaw was associate conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, but a few short years later he would would take over as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; he held this position until 1988.

Rubinstein’s sonata is currently out of print.  The nice folks at the music library of the Cleveland Institute of Music are happy to make you a copy for a small fee.

Sources:

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2698

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1675

http://www.iflute.com/recordings.html

http://maestro.music.uga.edu/Academics/Doc_Hodgson_History.pdf

http://www.cim.edu/library/

 

Posted on

New Joan Tower music!

I was interested to read that Joan Tower has written a brand new flute piece.  According to an email I received from her a couple of weeks ago, the work For Marianne was written for the retiring Executive Director of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Marianne Lockwood.  It’s a five minute work, and Tower is currently in the process of editing it.  It’s written for solo flute and was premiered in Spring 2010.  The New York Times review is favorable, saying that Tower “avoids the unprepared leaps, extreme angularity, multiphonics and other Modernist touches that can make contemporary flute works sound strident.  Instead she draws on traditional techniques to fill out the texture.  Swirling figures and trilled melodies, for example, give parts of the score the illusion of an almost chordal sound.”  My attention is drawn to the phrases “swirling figures” and “trilled melodies,” which sound characteristically Tower-esque.  The piece should be available through Schirmer after February, and I’m looking forward to taking a look at it (even if it does render the Appendix of my relatively-new dissertation out-of-date!).

 

Posted on

Concert Dress (for the Audience!)

So many students ask me about proper concert etiquette.  If you’ve never been to a classical concert before, I can understand your anxiety.  Probably you’ve been to a popular music concert, so let’s start there.  What’s the appropriate dress for a popular music concert?  It depends.  You probably wouldn’t wear cowboy boots to a Green Day concert.  On the other hand, guys probably won’t wear eyeliner and a Marilyn Manson t-shirt to a George Strait concert.  These are typical concert conventions, and I think we can all accept them as generally true.  Let’s apply these same ideas to a classical music concert.

Say your professor has given you an assignment to write a paper about a classical concert, and you’ve never been to this type of concert before.  Or maybe you have, but it’s been a while.  Before you open your closet, consider a few things.  If you’re attending a concert sponsored by your college, you’re probabaly appropriately dressed right now.  Since these concerts are held on campus, they tend to be somewhat more relaxed than you might imagine.  I wouldn’t recommend wearing sweat pants, but if you’re wearing jeans, you’ll be in good company.

For a more formal concert, which might include an orchestra concert, you’ll probably need to pay a little more attention to your attire.  Even here, you’ll witness a fairly wide variety of dress.  A Sunday afternoon orchestra concert will most likely be full of people in business casual.  A few might wear jeans, but they will be in the minority.  The opening night concert of the season is the most formal night of the year; on this occasion, there will be people dressed formally, but it isn’t required.

If you decide to attend an opera production, the attire is much like that for an orchestra concert.  The opening night is the most formal in terms of dress, and there will be people in tuxedos and cocktail dresses.  However, you’re free to wear whatever you’re most comfortable in.

One more point to consider — most likely, the performers will be dressed more formally than you will be.  Even if you attend an informal concert on campus, the musicians will be wearing tuxedos, black dresses, or formal gowns.  Please don’t assume that, because they’re dressed formally, you should be too.

 

Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Tiktok