Tag Archives: articulation

Day 90 – December 29th – Back into it

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We woke this morning to a heavy frost and deeply frozen puddles. On the walk to Trevor’s, the fields and paths lay glistening before us, iced in an ever-so-slightly spiky design. Look closer, and each fallen leaf was individually decorated and embellished, frosted round the edges and along the veins. Here smoky and dark, there crystal clear, the ice warped and cracked under my feet. In some, pockets of air had slipped in under the ice to create an ethereal marbling that foretold the rapid melting to come.

Class itself, and I was starting to feel like I might be getting my aunt’s Christmas cold, which wasn’t great. Trevor was keen to talk about things that we still need to work on over the coming months, and I earned a good list: playing expressively from the beginning, playing loudly, shorter articulation, not waving my flute around and not cutting the ends of notes. Despite these things and my feeling decidedly under-prepared (or maybe because of them?) I ended up playing quite well.

Moyse 25 Melodic Studies no. 1 was too slow, but otherwise make the mark for playing expressively and with good phrasing. Or almost – it took a while for me to play one phrase with the loudest point in the right place!

I then took a bit of a gamble and sight-read no. 2 in the same book. The notes aren’t hard, it’s just a lot of staccato semiquavers, and I did a pretty good job of getting them short. The only problem was that I was unnecessarily accenting the groups of four in the process. Overall, I still need to work on maintaining an even staccato across all dynamics and the entire flute range.

Andersen no. 10 was my low point for the lesson, which I was well and truly prepared for! There are just a few too many notes to cram in a short time. When Alyssa played earlier in the class Trevor asked her to play faster and “make it sound easy”, so I knew I wasn’t going to get too far. The first three lines (relatively accidental-free) were ok, but sure enough I feel apart a bit come the next few. Trevor seemed pretty happy with how the start was sounding though, and my request to spend some more time on it for next week was taken quite well.

Altes no. 12 and 13 were both pronounced fine but too slow, which I was well aware of. No. 12 is double tonguing hell, and to be honest I was happy just to get through it at all. Like Andersen 9b, this is a study for life rather than for just a weeks practice. I also still need to watch C#s here, as they were “horribly sharp” to begin with and I should have pulled the headjoint out before being told rather than after.

As for the impending cold, I’m really hoping that my sinus headache and general grogginess will go away with an early night and keeping warm. Fingers crossed.

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 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.

Day 31 – October 31st – One month down

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I made it to the end of my first month! It at once feels like I’ve been here a long while and no time at all, and it’s still a bit strange to think of this little dairy and village as home. Now seems a good time for a bit of reflection on what has happened so far, so here goes:

– Trevor’s major criticism of my playing a month ago was that I didn’t play expressively. This has been a point of quite a lot of tension, as I was struggling to realise just how much I needed to project my musical ideas and dynamics, while Trevor was often insisting that I failed to understand the music. I had a turning point with Andersen Op. 15 Study No. 3 almost two weeks ago, and am now slowly counting up the classes I go without negative comments on that front. Hopefully it will continue that way!

– I’ve changed my posture somewhat to have a bigger space between the flute and my right arm/shoulder. This does feel more natural, and I’m not sure how the more closed posture had crept into my playing.

– Along with aiming to project musical ideas more, I have had to push my dynamic range out to a much bigger ff and a pp that is almost nothing. These extremities still need a lot of work, and I still have a tendency to go flat when playing very quietly. I am, however, now happy to play with a pp that is almost nothing, whereas earlier this year I would have sacrificed the dynamic for feeling safe with intonation.

– I’ve learned the importance of ending notes beautifully – essentially every one needs a diminuendo, they just vary in length.

– Thanks to all the hours of scales and technical exercises, I can certainly feel a different in the agility and precision of my fingers. Looking in the mirror, there is so little movement now when I play scales. It’s quite amazing what focused practice can do!

– I think that one of the big focuses of the coming month is going to be articulation, aiming for a really clear, short staccato and well-articulated beginnings to notes. This will be a lot of work, but also something I’m really keen to master.

– For the first time in my life, I feel like my body has finally become comfortable with running! I’ve got into the habit of going out about four mornings a week, and am slowly increasing the distance with an aim of five miles by Christmas. I’m really enjoying running (this still seems so strange to say), and am sure it’s doing some good for my playing as well!

I still need to keep reminding myself that I’m here for me and my flute playing, to go with the flow even if it’s not what I would choose myself. I need to take Trevor’s feedback on board, no matter how harsh (or occasionally bizarre) it seems. Yes, there are some things that he doesn’t need to know about, but he is a great teacher and I can feel the difference that this past month has made.

Today was Halloween, and while I’m not particularly into the idea of celebrating it as some sort of festival, I did contribute a yummy vegetarian chilli for dinner. I’m much more excited about bonfire night next week!

Day 27 – October 27th – Articulation

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Mixed success in class today, though no excruciating moments. I started out well, getting through the Moyse 24 Melodic Studies nos 5, 8 and the variation of no. 4 (carried over from last week) with pretty good feedback. In the variations of no. 8, I still need to work on totally equal triplets, as well as good phrase endings (not chopping) and clear re-articulation of repeated notes. Most importantly, though, I didn’t get one negative comment about expression.

Then came the trickier part in the form of Andersen no. 4, which opened up the can of worms that is articulation. The main feedback for the study itself was that notes weren’t staccato throughout, with other additional comments being made about the relative dynamics of notes and evenness, which I knew still needed work before I played it!

Articulation has never been a strong point, and this study rather highlighted my inability to maintain a short, light staccato, let alone one that allows me a good control of dynamics. It’s my own fault, I have never been a consistent practiser of articulation exercises for single tonguing, and have tended to work on it only when required. Along with re-doing the study next week (as expected!), I have been prescribed work on Trevor’s Practice Book 3 which deals with articulation. Lots of tongue-free abdominal muscle work in store for me! I need to make sure not to move anything when doing these exercises, not my lips, mouth, shoulders or flute. Challenge accepted.

My bash through Altès no. 2 was mostly fine, although there is a rather tricky high sequence in the middle that I hadn’t done enough work on. Interestingly, the class said that the articulation was better when I played it faster. In some ways I shot myself in the foot with this study, but I really had no choice. Everyone else repeated Andersen no. 3 from last week and didn’t have to do battle with no. 4, so had more time for Altès. Oh well, hopefully I’ll be able to redeem myself on that front next week.

Finally, I played the first two movements of Handel’s sonata in F major in the recorder, which Trevor approved of. So I’ve ticked that box (with very minimal practice) and can hopefully get the Baroque flute next month.