Tag Archives: Moyse studies

Day 102 – January 10th – Memory and Maquarre

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In many ways today was very uneventful. This morning was both wet and windy, and I practiced all my scales and technique to an accompaniment of wild weather sounds from outside. I was really happy with how quite a bit of it went, particularly on the memory side of things. My Reichert exercises felt easy, even when I pushed the tempo, and compared to where I was a month ago with them I’m really happy with how they’re sounding. Some of the other exercises were also feeling good, and I’ve finally got the first page of Bach’s E minor sonata (half of the first movement) from memory.

There are still things that are frustrating me though, one of them being the Maquarre exercises. Given they’re written specifically to make us play the unexpected, but it feels like I can’t get them into my fingers! I’ve finally got the C major version of exercises one from memory, but can’t then transpose it to any other key with any ease. I think these could be the next candidates for mental practice.

The Moyse 25 Melodic Studies are quite a bit harder than the 24, and all of a sudden I need to spend time learning the notes as well as working on the meaning of the study. No. 5 is particularly frustrating, as it looks like easy arpeggio figures, but some of them don’t sit under the fingers well and then I tie myself in knots. Hopefully most of them will be unraveled in time for class on Monday!

I went for a run just as the sun was setting, and though it was still ridiculously windy made it round my short 2-mile circuit in almost record time. I felt like I could have run further, but forays off into the Kentish Downs probably aren’t a good idea when it’s getting dark.

Day 101 – January 9th – Wind and whist

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Just got back from whist, and feeling rather in need of an early night after all that went on yesterday.

Today felt a little lazy, though I still managed to get four hours of practice done as well as making carrot and lentil soup, and skyping with some friends. This week I’m making an effort to spend more time on the Moyse articulation studies (Bach variations), which always get left until the last minute because there aren’t loads of notes to learn. The result is that my rhythms will be off, or right for the first bar and them fall apart. So this week they’re being practiced directly after the Moyse 25 Melodic Studies instead, and will hopefully get quite a bit more time as a result. It’s been incredibly windy all afternoon, and very much the sort of day for staying inside snuggly and warm.

Whist was good fun, and as always I enjoyed chatting with all the older villagers. Alas, this month wasn’t as good for my score; I only got 148 and so didn’t manage any prizes. Tomorrow, I hope, will be a little more productive. I’ll also get round to writing a review of last night’s concert!

Day 97 – January 5th – Quartets

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As always, class today had its ups and downs, though for once warm-up time was one of the ups! It seems that the mental practice as well as all the repetition of the various exercises is paying off, as I was able to play many of the exercises at speed without getting flustered or making too many mistakes. The two Reichert exercises felt almost easy – a wonderful sensation after spending so long getting annoyed with my inability to play them! The Boehm study wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t look at the music and got through it without loosing my place. Thought it might seem like small steps, I’m happy that the fast memory work finally seems to be getting somewhere.

Trevor had another set of devilish finger exercise for us today, this time Moyse’s Scales and Arpeggios: 480 Exercises on the Major and Minor Scales and Arpeggios of 3 and 4 tones. We read through the first three exercises, the first one in all the major keys. I have come across this book before: my teacher Sylvia gave it to me when I was about 17 and I diligently played through of the exercises according to the plan proposed on the first page. I remember them being challenging, even though I was probably doing them at a fraction of the speed that Trevor would like! One of the things that was pleasantly surprising during our read-through today, however, was how agile my pinkie finger has become. Though the sequences with low Cs, Dbs, Ds and Ebs weren’t always comfortable, I could playing them at the tempo without too many problems.

The rest of the class was ok, though tied myself in some knots with the Moyse melodic studies. I had spent so long trying to get the staccato in no. 3 nice and short that I wasn’t thinking enough about even rhythm. Then, when I played with even quavers, I wasn’t playing expressively enough. It really does all need to come together rather than one bit being good and then the other not. My long studies were generally good, with Andersen no. 10 being pronounced “quite musical and nicely phrased”, and Altes no. 15 coming across well despite the speed. No. 14 wasn’t as good – I was holding the ends of 3/4 bars when I should be cutting them, and started out too slowly. Trevor really does seem to want speed above all else in the Altes studies, which I need to keep in mind for next week’s selection. The Moyse articulation studies (Bach variations) were also a case of not everything coming together at once. I could play the rhythm in no. 5, but then was doing some funny things with phrasing as a result. When I fixed the phrasing, the rhythm wasn’t as precise. Nos. 6-8, all alternating slurring and tonguing, were quite good but all needed to be faster!

This evening we did a group dinner and then spent an hour sightreading flute quartets. Reica and Furstenau were on the menu and were a lot of fun. After all the sightreading that I’ve been practising, as well as the sheer volume of music that we have to learn for the course, the notes themselves were easy to play and I could focus on the interaction between various voices in the ensemble. It’s a pity that some of the others were tired – I would have gone on for a few more hours!

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 89 – December 28th – Trains

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I was rather hoping that today would be back into it, but of course it took me a while to get back from the Dunks’. We all had a lazy morning – I played with the cat and went for a walk down the frosty garden – and brunch, so it was past midday before I got to the station. There were still a few delays getting into London, but three trains, a bus and a lift from Wye station (thank you Sue!) later I finally made it back to my dairy.

The Dunks' garden again - this time frosty with a frozen pond.

The Dunks’ garden again – this time frosty with a frozen pond.

It’s certainly cold back in Kent, though my room isn’t as chilly as I was expecting. My Christmas jumpers are already coming in handy, and I have a feeling that the big woolly cream number that grandma passed on to me is going to become a favourite.

As for flute practice…I don’t feel terribly prepared for tomorrow’s lesson but then everyone will probably be feeling that way. I’ve ordered my copy of Moyse 25 Melodic Studies, and am ready to dive back into Trevor’s classes. I’d just prefer to have a few more hours practice first!