Finger Gym with Paul Edmund-Davies

Powell artist Paul Edmund-Davies has a new series of posts titled "Finger Gym" on his personal blog. As you might suspect, these posts offer exercises and suggestions to help build finger control.  In the first of the series, he presents one basic exercise in three major keys: G, Ab, and A.  He recommends continuing on with the exercise through all the keys, thinking them through rather than reading off of a page to help gain greater coordination and provide the brain with "an excellent work out!" Follow this link to view the exercise.

He advises:

Start off by practicing the exercise slowly and really concentrate on the finger or fingers that are lifting. After all, the muscles that close your hand are much stronger than those that open it! The fingers need to be positive, but also should never travel too far away from the keys……………the further they go away, the longer it takes to get back again. Not exactly ideal for the second or last movements of the Prokofiev Sonata! Once the thought/brain to finger connection feels more comfortable and positive, gradually increase the tempo.

Mr. Edmund-Davies offers additional tips on how to get the most our of these exercises, including suggestions on how long to practice as well as recommendations for rhythm and dynamics. Click here to read the full post on his page.

Studio Scale Challenge

By Morgann Davis

As teachers, most of us regularly incorporate technical studies and scales into each student’s lesson. However, I think every student reaches a point in their growth that technical exercises can feel a bit tedious and redundant. I find that students may feel less motivated to practice scales if they can’t immediately see the benefit or the changes in their technical ability.

A large number of my current students are middle school age or younger, and I found it to be a bit of a struggle to get them excited about improving their technique. I have previously used a Practice Challenge to help my students learn about efficient practice and to get them excited about dedicating time to their flute, so it seemed logical to take the same approach to scales. In my studio, a “Challenge” often implies a personal journey, rather than a contest between students. I encourage each student to challenge their expectations of themselves, as well as their perception of what they can achieve. In both challenges addressing practice and scales, most students were shocked at how much they could accomplish while actually enjoying the work.

Since I felt most of my students needed a crash course on basic scale practice and theory, I made the challenge eight weeks long. Each student received a packet outlining the expectations (this was determined by age group, and then tailored in each lesson), the circle of fifths, major scales, minor scales, and “unusual” scales like pentatonic, blues, whole tone, etc.. In the back of the packets, I included charts for major scales and minor scales. For the duration of the challenge, the students began each lesson with their scales, and we kept track on their charts which ones they “passed” and memorized. I also had a grab bag of “prizes” that students could choose from each week if they completeld their challenge assignment. These were small items like stickers, erasers, pencils or candy, but they add an extra fun element to all the hard work.

As the challenge progressed, I was amazed at the numerous benefits for the students beyond the obvious things I expected. Students who have struggled with completing weekly assignments were coming to lessons fully prepared, sometimes even having done more than they were asked. These types of students were extra motivated by having a chart to mark off each week where they could see their achievements. In addition to providing a learning platform for practice, the challenge motivated everyone to learn new notes (or, in the case of most of the older students, to polish their third register technique).

Students became curious about what their friends were achieving and took on a healthy approach to competition, feeling motivated by the knowledge that many of their peers were working ahead. One of the most surprising results of the challenge was a young student who was so shy she would barely speak to me in her first lesson. Although she has been coming out of her shell over the course of the last year, I have struggled with getting her to try new things. With the motivation of marking off her chart and a weekly “prize”, she took on a whole new approach to flute, genuinely making an effort to learn new notes and change physical elements of her playing, and losing some of her fear of trying new things.

Beyond the growth in my students, talking so much about theory in lessons was a wonderful opportunity for me to grow as a teacher. This is a topic we discuss occasionally, but I certainly learned about my teaching as I prepared lessons on theory almost weekly. I look forward to integrating this challenge on a yearly basis, adjusting the requirements as my students technical abilities continue to improve. If you feel it is appropriate, you could implement a variety of metronome and memorization requirements, scales in intervals, and even weekly tests or a final test to pass the challenge. By the time we reached the end of our eight weeks, my studio had learned 141 scales and 54 new notes. Two students memorized everything they did, including one of my youngest, first year students (who learned 9 memorized scales and 14 new notes, having only played the flute since October!).

I recognized each student at the end of the challenge with a certificate and small gift, because I believe in encouraging a strong work ethic by acknowledging their willingness to work hard at something new. This activity became much more than a tool for learning scales, but also a motivational tool, a lesson in goal setting and personal expectations, an opportunity for achievement recognition, and a way to learn about healthy competition amongst peers in a supportive environment. After taking a break from intensive scale study for two weeks following the challenge, I even have students asking me when we’ll start learning new scales again!

For more on Morgann Davis, visit her website at http://www.morgannelycedavis.com/. 

Technique vs. Expression?

by Katharine Rawdon

Katharine Rawdon

We flutists have been taught to organize our daily practice into categories such as sound, technique, studies, and repertoire. This is a great starting point, as it keeps us from concentrating too much in one area at the expense of another. The famous classic books from the French School, such as Moyse’s De la Sonorité and Tone Development Through Interpretation or the Exercices Journaliers of Taffanel and Gaubert, contain exercises for sound or technique, respectively, suggesting that these are separate issues.

But does this separation lead us to the integrated, organic performance we hope to share with our audience?  Do they experience our playing separated into categories, or is it the integration of these aspects that can either move them or leave them flat?  Perhaps we could prepare more thoroughly by being aware of the overlap, rather than the separation of these categories, aiming to integrate all elements into an expressive whole, a highly communicative musical experience that will reach the audience and touch them to the core?

My suggestion is that there is a lot to be gained from integrating your work on sound and technique to the greatest extent possible. While keeping the basic structure of the practice session, you can enlarge your awareness, bringing attention to technical issues while “practicing sound”, and inversely, bringing attention to sound and expression while “practicing technique”.

While ostensibly working on sound, and using the classic materials mentioned above or other more recent books, you can simultaneously pay attention to “technical” elements, such as the use of your body, an easy balancing of the weight of the flute, articulation, and efficient finger movements. While playing slowly and working on sound, expand your attention to include an awareness of these elements—it is much easier to attend to these issues while practicing long tones or lyrical passages, than while zipping through scales. Slow work will lead to fast scales before long! Use a large mirror to observe yourself, since what we think we are doing and what we actually are doing can often be quite different! Additionally, slow work on “sound” in patterns moving through all keys will eventually lead to greater fluency at faster speeds, better sight-reading, memorization and improvisation. A rather good return on your investment of time and practice energy!

Likewise, when practicing scales and so forth, it is essential to listen carefully to the tone quality and to play expressively, since the ultimate goal of all our work is to perform

music expressively!

According to brain research, if you learn a musical figure, let’s say a D Major scale, robotically, without any emotional meaning or expression involved, your brain will not even recognize that figure when you come across it in an expressive context such as the delightful opening gesture of the Mozart D major Concerto:

So avoid practicing scales and technical patterns mechanically, and don’t wait for your solo pieces to “turn on” the musicality!  Be creative with your “technical practicing”, inventing a variety of dynamic patterns to challenge yourself, perhaps starting with the pattern of rising crescendo—falling diminuendo, which is natural for the flute, and advancing (during the practice session and over time) to its less natural opposite, to other more complex dynamic patterns, and to playing with different colors or color changes.

Practicing in this integrated way, with musical goals first on your list of priorities, will make your practice sessions not only more productive and efficient, but far more entertaining and creative. Considering the many hours we flutists devote to practice, why not make them as fulfilling as possible? Our increased pleasure in playing and our more integrated musicality will surely pass into our performances, connecting more deeply to the musical pleasure of our audiences.

© Katharine Rawdon, 2014

Tone Development and Ear Training through Transposition

Susan Levitin

By Susan Levitin

So many students have a disconnect between learning basic technical exercises and integrating them into their playing and musicality.  I have found that using transposition for the intermediate and advanced student has multiple benefits. 

I have also used this technique in teaching beginning theory with instruments only to a group of mixed instruments. In that instance we work with "Happy Birthday" in all keys and use no music.

After the student is reasonably comfortable with all the major scales and arpeggios and understands that scales have set patterns, I choose a simple melody that has no additional accidentals to be transposed into all the keys.  We look at how it is put together, and whether it starts on the tonic or dominant or on another scale degree. 

The first transposition is just changing the key signature to 1/2 step above or below the original note.  The letter names of the notes remain the same. So we might go from C Major to C# major. 

The next transposition goes to a letter name above or below the original key.  If the original key is F, then we go to G. I use a visual approach with the transposition going either up or down to the very next line or space. A note on a line will then go to the space above or below and the note on the space will go to the line above or below. (ex. F-G)

The appropriate key signature needs to be applied.  We review the scale of the key and the tonic and dominant chords in the new key.  

After that we transpose further away from the original key using the visual context of two lines or two spaces up for transposition of a fifth above or one line and a space up for transposition to a fourth above. 

The visual reference gives the students a clear tool to use while developing their sense of pitch using cerebral knowledge as well as auditory.  

Transposition works with tone development and intonation because the student tries to make the melody sound the same in all keys.

After the initial transposition we go to more complicated melodies with additional accidentals and then analyze those patterns.

I use the "Tone Development Through Interpretation" by Moyse as the source for the transposed melodies. Many of them are in the "belle canto" style which encourages the student to play with an expressive tone.  Then I work with the advanced student using the tuner to compare pitch tendencies in the various keys.

Transposition is an additional tool to bring variety and added interest to your teaching as well as help your students to sharpen their skills.

Focus! Making the Most out of Lessons

By Morgann Davis

Morgann Davis

Every year I find myself facing this time of year with an added sense of pressure to make lessons challenging, exciting, and fun. This year I tackled part of the issue head on by scheduling a recital at the end of February and assigning everyone new solos and duets to prepare. So, now we have a timestamp in place, a concert goal to focus toward. For many of my students this year, however, this is their first real recital. Expectations and preparation is different for these students as they don’t quite know what to expect.

Another way I try to build momentum and focus following the holidays is by creating structure and routine. I tackle lessons each week in the same order, meaning students know what to expect. Tuning, warm-ups and scales, etudes/technique, solos, duets. This is a serious time-saver in 30 minute lessons. Without having to discuss or decide what happens next there is less wasted time.

Ok, so we have two great steps to follow that will provide a great foundation for focus. Problem solved, right? Not quite. The real “meat” of the solution comes next. Now that there is structure and a performance date to aim for, I do my best to use the room made by lack of other projects to focus on each students’ weaknesses. I am very careful not to point out flaws from the start. Rather, I ask questions before each exercise to help the students open their ears, and provide very specific small goals for each as well. By working on a minuscule scale we are capitalizing on the lack of colossal goals like school concerts.

An example of this would be asking a student to listen to note lengths. What do they notice about the half notes in an exercise? (Perhaps they are too short, or they are inconsistent lengths). Let the student answer, even if it takes them some time - they might not be used to listening to themselves in this way! Acknowledge their answer, especially if it was difficult for them to discern, as noticing what they hear when they play can serve as an excellent diagnostic tool for the teacher. Then, ask them how they might remedy the issue, and have them play the same excerpt again.

I also provide small over-arching goals for each student. If a student struggles with keeping their headjoint rolled out, I will address this as our main goal at the beginning of the lesson, finding fun ways to provide gentle reminders throughout the lesson. I make sure this goal is written somewhere prominent in their lesson notebook or on a post-it before they leave their lesson.

By structuring lessons in this way, with one large goal (the recital), and more smaller, minute points of focus, I find it easier to build momentum for growth in the winter months. The added benefit is that with a disciplined approach to lessons and practice coming out of the beginning of the new year, it often feels like less work to students when they have to prepare for auditions and concerts in the spring!

*For more posts by Morgann Davis, visit her personal blog at http://joyfulflutist.tumblr.com/.

Enhancing Private Lessons with Everyday Technology

By Morgann Davis

Morgann Davis

While it’s easy to view some of today’s amazing technology as a distraction, there are many ways we can easily use the devices and services that have become so commonplace to quickly improve and enhance the private lesson experience. Odds are good that you or your students own at least one of the following: smart phone, iPod, tablet (iPad, Nook, etc.), desktop computer or laptop with a camera and microphone, hand-held video camera, or a digital camera with video capabilities. The odds are also great that there are more ways to use these devices than you realize to help your students improve quickly!

Apps are perhaps the most obvious way we can utilize our smartphones, iPods and tablets. There are amazing music teaching tools available for private and classroom instruction that are very detailed, but there are also great, sometimes simple, freebies that are easy to incorporate. YouTube has a free app that easily allows you to search for videos you’d like to share with your students. Links can be emailed directly from the app, or cut and pasted directly into a text message to the student. There are also lots of excellent, free tuners and metronomes available. I particularly enjoy using insTuner with my students, as it gives them simple guidance on whether they are sharp or flat, and which way to tune their instrument. It is also gives a more stable reading of the pitch than some other free chromatic tuner apps, and will play pitches in different octaves if you want to tune to a drone. There are also great apps for learning or referencing scales, like Scales & Modes (although this one costs $1.99, it provides a wide variety of scale types). Many more apps are available beyond those listed above, including ones that help with ear training and theory (some of these are free as well!), but I find these to be particularly useful. Now, every student has access to things like a metronome or tuner, even if their parents forget to take them to the music store!

As a student, I was told to record myself more times than I can remember (and I hate to admit, more often than I actually found the time to do!). Now, there’s very little excuse for a student not to record audio or video of a portion of their practice time. Even without a smart device, anyone with a computer that has a video camera can record themselves. For example, if you have any type of apple computer, you have a camera and a program called Photo Booth. Although the quality is a bit crude, this free program that is included with the computer more that serves the purpose of providing an outside ear and eye during practice. Students are never far from their phones, so I frequently encourage mine to set their iPhones or iPods to video instead of camera and place it on the stand. If viewing themselves from this vantage point makes them feel nervous, they can face the camera toward the stand. They’ll get a decent quality audio from this to use in analyzing their playing.  My favorite way to use video in lessons, however, is to record a problem spot in a piece or exercise using my phone and then email it to the student and their parent, asking them to watch the video and make notes on what they noticed before their next lesson. I have also done this with recital performances. My students are often shocked by what they observe (both good and bad)! For those of us wishing to make higher quality recordings for ourselves or our students, there are microphones that can be attached to your smartphone from companies like TASCAM that come with apps to operate them and edit the audio you record.

There is also an amazing wealth of resources beyond YouTube that can aid with performance practice and preparation. As a young student, I had no access to music libraries or catalogues of recordings, but today’s students can hear almost any musician from the comfort of their own homes. Beyond tutorials that have been recorded by flutists such as James Galway and Emmanuel Pahud (many of which are available on YouTube), there are free “radio” resources that allow us to access countless recordings. Even iTunes provides free radio where we can listen to classical, jazz or world music. My current favorite program for listening in the context of lessons is Spotify. Unlike Pandora, which generates playlists based on the genre of music or type of artist you searched, you can search for a specific artist or piece in Spotify’s enormous data base, then create and save playlists, even in the free version! For a small monthly fee, you can access your playlists using any device that’s logged into your account. The feature I find most valuable, however, is the ability to share your playlists. Gone are the days of burning CDs for students and hoping they don’t get lost before they make it home. Instead, you can share playlists with a student (even via their parents, if you prefer) with specific recordings you want them to hear through email (once someone has an account they can also opt to follow or subscribe to your playlists). I’ve made an example playlist that I might give to a young student that displays a variety of flutists and styles so you can try it out here: Teach Flute.

Another favorite performance enhancement tool for my studio is Smart Music. For just $40/yr and the one time purchase of a microphone to go with the program, you have access to a wealth of accompaniments. Using the microphone, you can play along to a set tempo (which you can adjust to your liking), or set the program to follow you. While this is obviously no replacement for a real pianist, it has been a tremendous help preparing my students for the first rehearsal with their accompanist when the piece is too difficult for me to play along.

A fun website that my students access often is flutetunes.com. Just like the name implies, there’s lots of free sheet music on this site as well as scales, staff paper, a tuner, and a glossary of musical terms!

From a business perspective, there are a multitude of ways technology can easily and instantly upgrade your teaching experience. Social media used the right way can actually be very effective for networking with other musicians, and for staying connected to your students and their parents. I think most people have become aware that it’s best to keep your personal life and business separate, so if you go this route you may want to create a twitter handle or facebook page specifically for business purposes. I use a Facebook page for my studio (DavisFlute Studio) to post resources, information about recitals and auditions, and the dates of classes for my students. Programs like GoogleDocs or Doodle can be used to help ease scheduling events like classes and recitals. You can even allow tuition payments by credit card for a minimal fee using your smartphone and devices like Square. There are also amazing sites like Weebly where you can easily make a sharp looking website for free. I paid just $40 for a yearly subscription to Weebly Pro so that I can tailor and update my website, MorgannElyce Davis, flutist, however and whenever I like.

These ideas are truly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how technology can enhance lessons for both you and your students. The key is to have fun discovering what’s available and to carry the creativity you use in your teaching into the way you use technology! 

Flute Scale and Intonation

By Paul Edmund-Davies

I am full of admiration for people who take a scientific approach to the whole process of putting a flute together. There are very logical and valid reasons for trying to make the instrument as close to perfection as possible, and the dedication shown by the few in attempting to evolve the flute further is to be applauded.

Paul Edmund-Davies

One could now have lengthy discussions about precise measurements and distances. However, like many, I am not a scientist, and as such not qualified to make absolute comment on the merits of one flute scale over another, other than through my observations of what I personally experience as a performer. It has also to be noted that advances in flute design and making over the past four decades or so has been significant to the extent that many flute makers across the globe are now making outstandingly good instruments.

However, it should be remembered that in the end, there is no such thing as an in tune flute. What finally comes out of the instrument is the responsibility of the performer, not the instrument itself. It is up to the musician to use his or her intelligence and ears to play the instrument that they have in their hands to the best of their ability. This includes having a precise concept of pitch and the relative distances between notes. Whilst the correct positioning and size of the holes on the flute are of obvious importance, there are many more factors beyond the construction of the instrument that need to be considered in the art of playing in tune.

A key area that seems to be ignored in this discussion is individual physiology. This has a colossal impact on the character and pitch of the sound that comes out of the flute/flute player. Fact: we are all constructed differently, therefore, we will blow flutes in very varying ways. What might well work for me is not necessarily going to work for someone else. Yes, there are starting blocks to work from, but these won’t always lead to the same conclusions.

 *Note -- This post is an excerpt from "In My Opinion," a post Mr. Edmund-Davies wrote for his own blog.  To read the full article, visit http://blog.pauledmund-davies.com/?s=scale.

*Photo courtesy of http://www.priorparkcollege.com/gallery.asp?galleryID=52.

Warming Up

Rachel Harewood

By Rachel Harewood - Flute Sales Specialist, Verne Q. Powell Flutes

When warming up, it’s always best to start slow and with the basics.  Long tones and scales are the most essential part of my warm up routine because I get to practice a little bit of everything.   

I start my long tone exercise on low B or C and follow the pattern of one whole note, followed by a half note a half step up.  I try to maintain the best tone quality and intonation I can throughout.  Along with abdominal support, it helps to have a tuner in front of me because it allows me to develop my sense of pitch in general.   When I reach the top of the flute’s register, I use the same whole note—half note pattern starting on high C and make my way back down to low C or B.  To align my breathing with my playing, I make sure to play each set of notes in one breath, trying to remain as relaxed in the shoulders as possible throughout.  To extend my breath a bit more, I add more whole notes to the beginning of the pattern and, again, maintain a single breath through each set.

A former teacher of mine always used to say, “If you know your scales you can play anything”.  That could not be truer.  Whether you play your scales in eighth notes or thirty-second notes, it is vital that you know them inside and out, backward and forward, major and minor.  Since practicing scales can be tedious, I like to make my scale practice fun by using the Trevor Wye Practice Books for the Flute.   This, however, is not the only option.  There are books and methods for everyone, and anything that will get those scales under your fingers will work just fine.

Key Saturation – Familiarity Through Study

By Patricia George

Recently I attended a New Sousa Band Concert directed by flutist Keith Brion portraying the legendary conductor/composer John Philip Sousa. One of the hallmarks of these re-enactment concerts is the practice of playing a Sousa march in between each composition listed on the program. Hearing some of these marches brought back memories of my high school band days in Amarillo, Texas.

Patricia George

My next thought was “Students today rarely play Sousa marches in concert as they are too difficult for the average band. They are difficult because they are written in keys that most students have little experience playing in and they are written in compound meter (6/8). Most bands play in two or three flats and call it a day. And, there is hardly a student in the United States that truly understands compound meter (beat divisible by 3).”

Part of this problem begins with the band method books that public school students use as part of the beginning curriculum. The books are written so the teacher may instruct a mixed consort of instruments at one time in one class. However, most good teachers know what may be good for one instrument family, may not be of prime importance for another. The key choices are kept to a minimum at just two, three, or four flats. If the flutist is fortunate enough to study privately, most early tutors breeze through the keys, one page after another. There is not enough drill in one key before a student turns the page to attempt a new key. 

For students at the high school level who study privately, I offer a solution to this problem.  Rather than playing one page after another in an etude book, what about playing one exercise in the same key out of several books to achieve saturation in a key before moving on? For example, study the C major etudes in the 18 Exercises by Berbiguier and 24 Exercises, Op. 33 by Andersen, and then work only in the key of C major in scale books such as the 17 Big Daily Exercises by Taffanel & Gaubert or The Flute Scale Book by George & Louke. The object is saturation in a key before moving on to a new key.

I enjoy the books written primarily by flutists which have an exercise for each day of the week. Each of these exercises progresses through all 24 keys (12 major/12 minor). One exercise may be based on a scale, the next in intervallic skips, the next on arpeggios, etc. These books include the Daily Exercises by Maquarre, Daily Exercises by Barrere, Daily Exercises by Wummer, Daily Exercises by Reichert and Studies for Facilitating the Execution of the Upper Notes by Wood. I suggest rather than playing/teaching one exercise in all 24 keys per day, play all the C major keys in all the exercises in the book and then tomorrow or in a week/month play the ones in A minor. Drill until there is saturation in a key before moving on. 

Perhaps if our students achieved true understanding of playing in all the keys, we would hear more marches of Sousa and Fillmore on band concerts today.

Compound meter? That is for next time.

Patricia George (georgeflute@hotmail.com)
To learn more about Patricia George, click here to visit her artist profile on the Powell website.

After All The Breathing...

By Lisa Nelsen

Lisa Nelse

As a ‘Part Deux’ to the warm up on this site, I’d like to suggest that players become aware of the effectiveness of the breathing exercises they’ve been doing.  In the weeks of regularly engaging the breathing muscles every morning, players will probably notice a more clear-headed approach to their daily practice.  It still may not be enough to give a sense of control to their tone production in the extreme. Many of us are conditioned to begin with tone exercises right away, to search for those beautiful colours and magical manipulation of scales and intervals.  If you struggle, like I did, try these really simple exercises first so that you can connect the breath with your instrument like a singer would engage the vocal chords with breath.

Harmonics: Start on low D, and, without moving your lips or jaw, speed up the air to the next octave. Keep the low D fingering. Then speed up the air to slur to the fifth partial (sounding A). Again, use only the air, not lips or jaw. Then smoothly switch to the actual fingering of A in the second octave.  Repeat, and then move on the Eb, E, F etc up to C which will sound G in the 3rd octave. Do this very slowly and really scoop the slurs.

Scales:  Learn 5-note scales (by memory if possible) and play these with a metronome (or with a group or find a practice buddy for added incentive) without pulling on the corners of your mouth to control the tone. Just blow and repeat each group of scales 4 times evenly and fast.  In the group I lead we start on low D and continue up about two octaves. We also change the pattern using other combinations of simple scales...blowing to connect sound to breath, and warm up the fingers.

Note bending:  Without moving your head or turning your flute toward you or away, play a long note like C, B, Bb or A and bend the pitch half a step down, back to the note, then half a step up, and then back..slowly. Your lips and jaw should be doing all the moving, and you should be making quite breathy sounds.

Ugly sounds: Don’t be afraid of making very harsh and ugly sounds. You’re working at connecting breath with sound. Refining the sound to make colours will feel a lot easier after all you find control and manipulation of the breath.