Author Archives: flutietoot

Day 36 – November 5th – Whiling away the wet weather

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I meant to call this post ‘Remember, remember…’ as tonight is Guy Fawkes night and I have some lovely memories of going to see the bonfire and fireworks from when I was little. However, today has been soggy and wet, and the local bonfire night isn’t happening until the weekend. Instead, I want to use this post to mull on a slightly different topic – how to fill my time here through the winter so that I can be the musician I want to be at the end of it.

Despite the rain, or maybe because of it, I woke up early, but then decided it was probably not the best idea to get drenched going for a run. So I started practising early (my flatmates were both awake thought!), and as a result got five hours of flute practice done by 3:30pm. I kept a hopeful lookout for some better weather, but the best was an uninspiring light drizzle. I felt itchy, in need of things to do that would keep me excited – I’ve never been one for watching lots of TV shows and so that was out as an option for the afternoon.

I ended up filling my time with a few things, some more productive than others. I baked chocolate, date and hazelnut brownies, improvising a little since we’d run out of eggs, which both great fun and warming. The result was moderately successful, it turns out that substituting greek yogurt for the eggs results in a nice gooey texture, but isn’t quite as good at binding everything together. Looks like I’ll offering everyone a fork when we eat them tomorrow!

Chocolate, date and hazelnut brownies. Look and taste good, but somewhat lacking in structural integrity!

Chocolate, date and hazelnut brownies. Look and taste good, but somewhat lacking in structural integrity!

I’ve also achieved my daily goal on Duolingo, where I’m trying to learn German, and have almost finished reading Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw in preparation for out trip to see Benjamin Britten’s opera this Friday. While baking, I listened to an episode of the radio series National Contemporary Landscapes, which I did some work on at 3MBS just before leaving Australia but haven’t yet had a chance to tune into. I listened to a CD of Robert Dick’s flute music as part of my extra work for Trevor as well, and plan on doing some reading for my project later this evening.

One of the things at the forefront of my mind with this course is that it could be the last period of being a student that I have for some time. Of course, I’d like to do a PhD eventually, but who knows what the work/study balance will be when that comes round. I want to emerge from this course not only as an expressive, technically competent flute player, but also as a savvy, skilled, opinionated and thinking musician who can hold my own and create exciting opportunities in a competitive and demanding field. I’d like to be the flautist that other musicians want to work with, not only for being a good player, but also because I’m engaged, individual and can bring other skills to the table. I’d also like to continue to combine performance with arts work in a broader sense, be that through writing, radio, concert organisation or indeed something else.

Trevor’s course is very much geared to getting an orchestral job, and while many of the musical skills are essentially the same, I know that to make the best use of my time here I need to have my own professional development projects on the go as well. I suppose my conclusion is that there is plenty to do to fill my time, rather too much in fact! I just need to pace myself, decide what is really important to me and keep my long-term goals in mind. I definitely don’t want to waste my time here watching TV shows online (as a few are), but do need to give myself down time as well, whatever form that takes.

Day 35 – November 4th – Rain, sun, thunder!

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View of last night's sunset from my bedroom window. Please excuse our washing line!

View of last night’s sunset from my bedroom window. Please excuse our washing line!

It was raining at 6:30 this morning, and I almost didn’t go for my run, preferring to turn my alarm off and go back to bed! Then half an hour later the sun came out and I managed a quick 2.5 miles before the weekly Tesco trip. I’m still fascinated by the sky here after rain and storms, particularly at sunrise and sunset. The clouds, rendered turbulent and brooding, seem to twist the light and fling it across the sky in dazzling colours and brushstrokes.

Moyse and scales are getting gradually faster. The Moyse exercises were at crotchet = 118 today, but felt relatively comfortable, so will be pushed up to 120 tomorrow. As for scales, I’m now at:

Majors = 104

Melodic minors = 88

Major and minor arpeggios = 104

Dominant and diminished 7ths = 92

Augmented and diminished arpeggios = 88 (still feeling a bit shaky though)

Whole tone scales and chromatic = 104

I can certainly feel my fingers after my three hours of exercises and scales in the mornings. Hopefully that means everything is getting stronger and quicker, but I am making sure not to cause any pain with what I’m doing.

The repertoire for this week is Sonate en Concert for flute, cello and piano by Jean-Michel Damase. To be honest, I think it’s a little bit twee, and it’s certainly not the sort of repertoire I’d choose to play myself. Not that it’s easy, some of the trills and grace notes in the allegro sections are a killer. However, I have also borrowed out the Berio Sequenza, ideally to have a read through, but I’m not sure I’ll find the time.

Modelling my lovely new scarf.

Modelling my lovely new scarf.

Despite the onset of a rather ferocious thunderstorm this evening, two things made me feel warm and snuggly in a wintry sort of way. First off, my St Mary’s College scarf arrived in the post. It’s lovely and woolly, and a nice reminder of all the friendships I made at the college (and how much I miss them). Then for dinner I made a hearty sound using up some of the superfluity of potatoes, cabbage and carrots that we have. Bring on winter!

Day 34 – November 3rd – Planning a concert

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Today’s class went a lot better than I was expecting – all my articulation woes over the past few days had me totally prepared for a shredding. However, Andersen No. 4 was generally approved of, at least it was pronounced more staccato, more even and more musical than last week. Trevor’s one comment was that my dynamics weren’t either wide enough of consistent (the piano I started off with was not the one I came back to four lines later). Fair enough, but I was personally just happy that the notes were short enough! I still feel that this study is one that I need to keep returning to, and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to play it again for Trevor near the end of my time here.

As for all the other studies, Altès was fine but No. 3 should have been faster (fair enough, I only learned it yesterday). My selection of Moyse studies met with a little more criticism, and I need to play both No. 9 and 10 again next week. No. 9, in Ab major, starts with a double-dotted theme, then goes on to two allegro variations that look simple but are an exercise in decrescendo-ing but not cutting slurs. Needless to say, I was both clipping and not decrescendo-ing enough! I also need to work on maintaining the rhythm throughout the theme. Moyse No. 10, on the other hand, is about playing loudly, crescendoing downwards and tenuto accents, and my fortes still need work.

We also received our allocations for the Christmas concert, with the repertoire mostly Trevor’s flute ensemble arrangements of jazz pieces. After dinner, we all read through them at the Old Dairy. I’ve got a smattering of piccolo and a couple of nasty little runs, but nothing too tricky. All the pieces are upbeat and crowd-pleasing with catchy tunes. I feel like I’m going to be utterly sick of them by the time Christmas comes round!

I’ve been trying to remember to write down some of Trevor’s quotes, with today’s pick being: “When you die, you either go to a flute recital or heaven”. I really do wonder sometimes whether he actually likes flutes at all!

Day 33 – November 2nd – Wet weather

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I think a proper autumn might finally have arrived. While I made it out for a rather blustery run at 6:45am and our walk also went ahead at 7:42pm, most of the time in between was very wet and windy. Ah well, I have a good stock of tea and plenty to do!

I feel like I’m getting through more in my practice sessions these days, partly because both scales and Moyse exercises are both happening a lot faster than a month ago. It also helps that I’m almost there with memorising the Reichert exercises – even if they’re not perfect, gone at least are the days of spending 15min trying to work out what on earth is going on in Bb minor.

My plan with the augmented and diminished arpeggios was somewhat successful, in that I think playing them at the beginning of my scales session helped with focus. There aren’t any good exercises for them in Complete Daily Exercises, though I remembered later in the day that there are a few in Exercises Journaliers which I’ll try. I ended up playing cascades of augmented arpeggios for a little while, which is easier ascending than descending.

The painful part of the day was most certainly studies and my articulation battles as a result. I am making progress, but slowly. Altes No. 2 is now up to speed, and the outer sections of No. 3 are fine, but there is a rather nasty B section in that one with lots of leaps. The Moyse studies I’ve been working on are like the Altes ones in miniature – No. 9 is an excellent exercise in making a slur a decrescendo but not cutting off the note. As for the dreaded Andersen No. 4, it is certainly better than last week in that I am playing shorter staccatos. However, I think my overall dynamic plan has suffered as a result, and I’m still not good at maintaining the super-short staccato for extended periods of time. My ideal for tomorrow would be being told that I can move on from the study for now, but need to return to it in a month or so when I’ve had the chance for the articulation exercises to sink in a little more.

Finally, various listening projects today have unearthed two very inspiring (though very different recordings). The first, as part of my flute CD listening, was a recording of William Bennett speaking on BBC radio about the history of the French Flute school and his experiences in Paris. It was fascinating to hear his thoughts on different players, and Fernand Dufrene’s recording of the Jolivet Concerto included in the broadcast was superb.

Then I’ve been doing a little searching for flute and bass trombone repertoire for a potential concert in Australia next year. It’s a tricky one, but I found this piece by Gyorgy Kurtag for piccolo, trombone and guitar. I always find Kurtag’s music fascinating, and have had this video on repeat while writing today’s post!

 

Day 32 – November 1st – To market, to market

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Our little excursion for the weekend was a trip to the bi-weekly Wye farmers’ market this morning, which was enjoyable but rather short, with Trevor whizzing us round all the stalls at quite a brisk pace. Nevertheless, I got some nice bread and tried a selection of gourmet chutneys which were delicious but would have been rather decadent to buy!

Otherwise, practice was once again the order of the day. I managed to play through all six pages of the Moyse finger exercises at crotchet = 116 (from memory of course) without it feeling like a total disaster. Trevor emphasised on Thursday the importance of the tempo being just at the edge of what was possible, putting the pressure on and making it hard. It certainly felt hard this morning, but there is a wonderful satisfaction having got through it all.

Melodic minor scales are continuing to improve, but my augmented and diminished arpeggios haven’t. They seem stuck at crotchet = 84, and I can’t say that I’m remembering them any better than I was this time last week. Is it because I wasn’t practising them regularly before coming here? In an attempt to improve them, I’m going to try two things tomorrow: starting my scales practice with them, and also doing a couple of exercises from the Complete Daily Exercises in my first two hours of practice. Hopefully this will kick them up a notch or two.

Then it was on to studies, and it feels like everything I’m practising at the moment is to do with articulation! I’m finding it frustrating because Trevor highlighted my articulation as another area for improvement on Monday, and I can feel that it’s not up to scratch. So I’ve been practising the beginning of the articulation section from Trevor’s Practice Book 3 – short notes produced only by the abdominal muscles – and am feeling some improvement. However, preparing all these studies rather feels like I’m trying to run before I can walk. I know the notes in Andersen No. 4 need to be shorter, but am having trouble achieving this with all the leaps! Tricky one.

Lots of lovely people brightened my day today – both by email and post. Mum sent my slightly over-large pair of super-warm mittens that I bought in Helsinki, making sure that I’m wonderfully prepared for winter, Grandma and Grandpa sent a card, and a family friend in Cambridgeshire wrote to say I can go and stay for a weekend of Christmas craft in November. It’s nice to feel so loved.