Tag Archives: finger exercises

Day 13 – October 13th – More expression please!

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Another full day of classes, and once again I didn’t have a great time of things.

Warm-ups in the morning went ok – I’d manged to fix some of the things that Trevor wanted such as posture (I’ve now got more space between my flute and right shoulder) and expression in the more lyrical warm-up exercises themselves. When it came to the devilish finger exercises I did quite well, and with the scales test I was better off than most. A slight glitch when Trevor got me to sightread No. 1 of Boehm’s Twelve Studies, but I think that my being selected might have been because he thought I might be able to make something of it.

The difficult bit of the lesson came once again with the presentation of Moyse and Andersen studies. I played Moyse No. 1 and 6 (at least an improvement from last week where we got sidetracked onto tone colour exercises and I didn’t play any!) and Andersen No. 2, and it was the Andersen that rather undid my confidence. I was barely allowed to play a bar before the criticism started, and it can be summed up as follows:

– No character or understanding of the musical phrase

– A and B on the first and second beats need to be weighty because they’re the tune, but not legato. Rather, a full, expressive staccato with bounce.

– Then the E pedal staccatos need to be shorter and crisper because at the moment they sound legato

– There needs to be direction towards the downbeat A of the next bar, which I need to show as weight in the music without elongating the notes.

– In general I’m still playing too softly.

– And P.S. he didn’t like my choice to put a decrescendo at the end of the second bar, he prefers maintainig a forte dynamic to convey the drive in the music.

– And P.P.S. the one time that I was allowed to play more than a couple of bars (I got through a page and a half), it was only to convey to everyone that I wasn’t maintaining the staccato consistently.

All totally valid criticisms of my playing, and I know that staccato isn’t my forte (no pun intended). The thing that has left me feeling a bit down is that it after a week and a half Trevor has labeled me as ‘good technique, no expression’, and that that is now all he hears in my playing. It seemed that he was hounding me almost for the sake of it, to make a point that he would stamp out my musical bad habits and focus on them above all else. He could see that I was trying to put all the pieces of the musical line together, but kept driving the point because I was struggling to get everything happening at once.

To cap off the day, I have been given a book called The Handbook to Higher Consciousness to ‘help you think about playing more expressively’. Not wanting to be too pessimistic, but I don’t think this is going to be my cup of tea. The one saving grace of the day was that we went for a lovely meal at a pub called the Black Horse this evening, and the apple and rhubarb crumble was wonderful!

Day 12 – October 12 – Visiting churches

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Two of the little village churches we visited today.

Two of the little village churches we visited today, I can no longer remember the names!

It’s only 9:30pm and I’m exhausted! I think three full days of practising has been a bit more tiring that I’d like to admit, and I’m quite ready for bed. Tomorrow’s lesson will be a good change of pace – less time playing and more listening to everybody else.

My work on the Reichert exercises is beginning to pay off – I got through F major to F minor of No. 2 from memory this morning. Once I get into Db major territory, though, things are still a bit hairy! I’ve also managed to increase the metronome a whole four beats per minute with the horrible Pinke Polka, which I think is driving everyone up the wall. I’m now at crotchet = 54 (playing it really well), and am wondering whether I’ll ever make it up the string of metronome markings I’ve written at the bottom of the page to crotchet = 80?

Trevor’s comments of this week have made me start to be more discerning with rhythm. After being very good and going through all my Moyse finger exercises (minor 2nd to major 3rd, it only took 40 min), I made myself go all the way back to the beginning and sort out my awfully uneven semiquavers in the first little group. Pedantic or what?

This

This church was beside a rather picturesque square with a stately home on the other side. The only problem: the square was full of parked cars!

I have also been trying to sort out playing with more expression, and have been practising both Andersen No. 1 and 2 with a full range of dynamics and lots of feel for the direction of the musical line. Maybe that’s the reason I’m so tired!

This afternoon, Trevor decided that we were going out for ‘a drive round’, which turned out to be a tour of some local churches and farm-come-teas shop. It was rather an odd excursion, and when Trevor sent the email round this morning I was annoyed; I hadn’t planned that into my day! I ended up quite enjoying the churches, and would have liked to spend a bit longer in the churchyards reading some gravestones.

 

Day 10 – October 10th – Whist

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A short one tonight, as I’ve just got back from a night out at the monthly village whist drive. I did’t expect it to go quite so long, but it’s a full evening’s worth. For two pounds entry, one gets to play 24 hands of whist, against some seriously seasoned village players, as well as supper after the 12th hand. I’m not a total newcomer to the game – my grandad taught me how to play when I was about five – and somehow managed to get enough good hands to come equal fourth. My prize: a massive rhubarb crumble scented candle! My room is going to smell wonderful.

Between whist in the evening and my run (compete with surprise downpour) in the morning, I got in a good solid five hours of practice. Four of them were spent on exercises and scales, they’re endless! I can feel all the muscles in my fingers afterwards though, so hopefully the practice is working. The final hour was mostly spent playing some of the Moyse 24 as expressively as I possibly could in preparation for Monday.

Oh, and I thought I was going to have it easy with repertoire this week, as I’ve played the Marais Folies d’Espagne before. Alas, I’ve played the unaccompanied version, which is in E minor, and we’re doing the other one in G minor. Most of the variations are the same, but my ease of playing the trills has gone out the window. Probably a good job it’s due to rain on the weekend!

Day 8 – October 8th – A week in!

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A day with nothing to do but practise, and this was even enforced by the rainy (alternating drizzly with absolutely hosing it down) weather. In the morning we still had no working heating, and I was really struggling to keep my hands warm enough to practise. As well as my almost-constant cups of tea, I was doing start jumps every 15 minutes to try and get my circulation going a bit better. However, around lunchtime Andy (our landlord) came to sort out our problem with the heating, and now we have functional radiators!

As the days progress, I’m becoming increasingly aware of the amount of music and the number of exercises that Trevor wants us to get under our fingers. Each week in class we need to present an Andersen Study, a Moyse Study (from 24 Little Melodic Studies), a repertoire piece and an orchestral excerpt. Not enormous on its own, but in addition to all the exercises that we’re expected to have from memory in the not-too-distant future, it’s quite a lot to fit into each day’s practice.

I guess in some ways the question of how to deal with it all boils down to risk minimisation. I want to memorise all the exercises, but I also don’t want to make a fool of myself playing them in class tomorrow or next week either. So just going for memory at the expense of quicker learning from the book isn’t an option. On the other hand, I also don’t want to make a fool of myself if and when Trevor does take the book away! So I need a practice plan that allow for both, and makes the best use of my time each day.

Here, for the moment, is what I’m doing:

– Trying to spend a little time on each and every exercise on the list

– Starting at a different point (aka in a different key) each day

– For the key I start with, I try to play from memory, and so spend a bit more time on it.

– If that key is moderately successful, I keep on with the memory work for a few more keys.

– Then I play a few more keys with the music (but trying not to look too much) and at a faster speed, trying to get in the finger work-out part of the day as well.

My plan means that I’m not getting through every key with every exercise, though all the keys are covered by the end of my practice, often a couple of times. Hopefully (and my fingers are still crossed) this will mean that everything gradually settles itself into my long-term memory, and that my fingers will get more agile along the way.

Now on my fifth cup of tea (herbal only though) for the day!

Day 2 – October 2nd – Orientation

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Well we’ve managed to cram quite a bit into the day and a half since arriving here, Trevor certainly hasn’t given us much time to find out feet!

I’m living in the ‘new dairy’ with Roya from the US and Chin Ting from Malaysia, while the other students are in the ‘old dairy’ down the road. They’re basic but homely, and in the middle of absolutely nowhere. This part of Kent is listed as an ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ (think rolling hills, fields of sheep and tiny lanes with overgrown hedgerows), and so it’s almost impossible to build anything or widen the roads. On my run this morning, I passed three houses, a church, two tractors and at least a hundred sheep! It was a lovely time of day to see the English countryside, and the sunrise splotches of pink and orange complete a rather picturesque view all the way.

Last night, we were invited for dinner by a lovely family in the village, who accompanied dinner with the promise that the next six months would be tough but worth it. We would all end up in tears at some point, that’s just the way that Trevor teaches.

This morning’s orientation session gave me a good glimpse of the coming months. We alternated some ‘light’ playing with being shown round the flute studio and all its resources. Playing consisted of a lot of warm-up exercises (both for expression and technique), which we are expected to play easily, from memory at each class. After an hour of that and my practice session this evening, I can certainly feel the muscles beginning to work!

Trevor’s studio is fascinating; full to bursting with CDs, sheet music, books and old and ethnic flutes. Quite a sight! In the course of our practice and projects we’ll get to explore and use a lot of things, and I hope I’ll have time to browse as well.

Already there’s a bit too much to write for a quick blog post. For now, though, it’s bed time, to dream of the Moyse and Andersen studies that I’ll be playing in class tomorrow!