Move those flute fingers!

Playing flute music (also known as flute literature) will be more enjoyable if you can move your fingers smoothly and quickly.  Flutists of all levels have tricky note passages at times requiring special attention so those parts will become smooth and musical. These tricky sections are described as technically hard, and when we work at technically hard passages we say we are developing our flute technique.

Signs of a technically difficult piece for you: 

1. You have to slow down to play the notes correctly, evenly, and musically.
2. You stumble a bit but keep barging through until you get to a place that’s easy for you to play.
3. You don’t like this section and would rather not play it.
4. When you play, or imagine playing, this section for someone else, you get nervous, anxious, scared.
5. You don’t like the flute piece mainly because of a certain section.
6. You want to give up.

There are flute method books that will provide daily exercises to develop your finger movement so you will be prepared for similar sections in some of the fun flute pieces you play.  You can find flute books with etudes (also known as studies) that will contain note phrases that will build your technical abilities.  You can also take a difficult section from a piece you’re trying to learn and turn that into a technical exercise.

Try this:  Work on a technically hard section of your flute piece

Find a tricky passage from a piece you’re learning.  Your goal is to make this section smooth and comfortable by studying it and playing it in different ways.  When you’re done and ready to perform, you want your listeners to think it sounds easy!

This section is going to become a stand-alone exercise for you.  You’ll play it as a separate study without playing from the beginning of the piece or going all the way to the end. 

Did you find your tricky passage? 

Here are some things you can do:

1.  Before you pick up your flute, say the names of the notes, including any sharps, flats, or naturals.

2.  Repeat the note names (as above) but try to say them (or sing them) as close as possible to the written rhythm.

3.  Now you can pick up your flute.  Play the written rhythm slowly at a tempo (speed) where you can play correctly.  If you use a metronome, write down this starting tempo. (During later practice sessions you’ll gradually increase the speed as you practice and it will be handy to know at what tempos you’ve already worked.

4.  Play the passage using different rhythms (don’t worry about the real written rhythm).  See the example in the photo.

•      Long-short pattern
•      Short-long pattern

5.  Now try playing the passage using different articulations (starting notes with your tongue “t” or slurring with air between the notes, no “t” ) See the example in the photo.

•      Tongue slur-tongue-tongue    (T-uh  T T )
•      Tongue Tongue Tongue-slur   (T  T  T-uh)
•      Tongue Tongue-slur Tongue   (T  T-uh  T )
•      Tongue –slur Tongue-slur       (T-uh  T-uh) 

6.  Next, try that passage again at the tempo you want and with the written articulations.  Not there yet?  Put it on your list for practice work tomorrow and go through the same type of technical strategies.

7. Finally, if you’d like to play through the whole piece and see how it fits, go for it!


Please remember that you will make progress over time- it won’t happen right away.  But if you keep working you’ll get there.  And you’ll feel great about it!

Flute Tone: The Sound You Make

Flute tone is also known as the sound you get when you blow into the flute. Sometimes it may seem to take a long time before you can get a clear, pure sound. But remember and be patient:  the more you try, the better you get.

As you continue on flute, you'll see that many things affect the tone:  the condition of your flute, how well you can breathe that day, how your lips are working, how dry your mouth is, even your mental energy.

To develop control of a pure, crisp flute sound throughout all of the low, medium, and high notes, we have exercises that practice just playing long tones.  Although it sounds simple (and maybe boring) we actually do more than blow air into that mouthpiece.  We think of how we're controlling the air (with abdominal muscles, facial muscles, throat...) and the way we line up our lips with the hole on the mouthpiece.  We listen to see if we're playing "in tune" (maybe comparing it with an electronic tuner).  We listen to what the sound is like:  strong, weak, airy, forced, pure, resonant...

Someone who hears us (a household member, a neighbor, your cat?) may just hear us taking a breath and playing a note for as long as we can.  But we're actually very active even though it doesn't look or sound like it!  Playing "long tones" is an important part of practicing.

Try this long tone study on your flute:  

It does help to have a teacher demonstrate, make suggestions, and guide you through a book or printed tone studies to develop your tone.

But if you don't have a teacher just yet, you can still work on getting a beautiful tone.  Here are some ideas:  

1. Start on a note that you think sounds pure and speaks easily.  Many flutists recommend starting on a B above the staff (for the middle range of the flute) or B on the third line of the staff (for the lower register of the flute).  But any note is good for a start.  
2. Take a deep breath, form your lips, and blow.  Try to hold that as long as possible.
3. While holding the sound, listen to it.  Experiment with the following:

• Changing the way you form your mouth, lips, and the hole formed between your upper and lower lips (also known as "embouchure")
• Pushing your right arm forward and backward
• Rolling the mouthpiece away from your mouth, then back again
• Placing the flute higher and lower on your lips
• Changing your body posture
• Tightening and relaxing your abdominal muscles.

When you find the best sound you can make today, breathe.  Don't go away,  you're not done yet!  

Now start on that note, then descend or ascend to a different note, making the smoothest connection between the two.  (Think about blowing between the notes and keeping that same sound quality that your made on the first note.) 

Hold that note.  Enjoy it.  Then breathe and repeat, moving from that second note to a third.

OK- that's it for now.  Remember to play for fun, then spend some serious time developing the sound you get on your flute.

Start your pursuit of the flute!

Welcome!

If you've journeyed to this page, I'm pretty sure you're interested in learning a bit about playing the flute.  Hopefully you'll find something useful that can help you maneuver your river of creativity!

I teach students of all ages and hope to provide something above and beyond my private and small group flute lessons. Because of this, especially if I'm keeping a particular student in mind, you may find that I'm writing to readers of different levels.  I hope the topics, tips, and things to try and think about will still help you.

Are you new to flute-playing?  Are you a continuing flute student?  Have you just dusted off your flute and are now trying to remember how to play the thing?  Sometimes our initiative, our energy, and our desire just isn't enough when we've got SO many other things to do. Sometimes there's no time to practice.  Sometimes we just don't feel like practicing anyway.  So here's a pep talk.

Play flute more to have more fun!

To enjoy playing the flute, you have to develop basic skills.  The more skills you develop the more pleasure you'll get out of playing the flute. 

But for many people, working on some things is, well...work. 
And not play.

So you have to trick yourself into making the time to practice.

Try these flute practice tricks:

1. Play flute every day.  You should play often to feel good about playing flute.  This practice time might be very short or long, simple or complex, but you need to attempt to play everyday.
2. If you don't play every day, don't fret.  Start now.
3. Tell yourself you will only play 5 minutes and stop if you can't go on.  Do your five minutes and push yourself to do five more.

(One step at a time.)

Now try this when you don't feel like playing the flute:  

1. Once you have your flute together choose something you enjoy playing. Check the clock or set a timer.  Play that fun thing (or fun things) for  five minutes. 
2. When that time is up, go for five more minutes.    This time, choose a small something to work on:  
• more fun things
• long tones- just play different tones as long as you can in one breath
• a small, challenging part of your fun piece- play it slowly, play it with different rhythms, play it with different articulations
3. When that time is up, check yourself.  Do you feel like you have the mental energy and mood to continue?  If so, great! Go for five more minutes. If not, there's something to do before you put your flute away:  play through your fun thing again.  Listen to yourself, make it as beautiful as you can, have fun.
4. Finally, write a brief list of things for you to practice tomorrow.  

At this point you probably completed about fifteen minutes (or more!) of flute practice.  Congratulate yourself!  If you're still not in the mood to be doing this, congratulate yourself anyway.  That practice time that you "forced" yourself to do will make it easier next time.  And more fun!

Now- do something else and see if you can squeeze in more time later today.  

Then start again tomorrow.

You can do it!