Performance
Practice Tips
Citation: Lopez, Rachel. Practice Tips. Sep. 2012. <http://www.rachellopezflute.com/practice.html>
Article Title: Practice Tips
Author: Rachel Lopez
Instrument: Flute
Magazine or Journal Title: None
Summary:
A. How to practice
1. Includes materials outside of ensembles
2. Should develop skills more in depth to make a better player
3. Practice materials that are challenging but not too difficult, and ones you enjoy
4. Practice makes Perfect!
5. Always use tuner and metronome
B. Sample practice schedule
1. Beginners: 20-30mins a day
2. High school: 30-45mins a day
3. 1 hour or more for more advanced players
4. Avoid cramming all practice into one session
C. Long tones/ embouchure exercises
1. Start in middle and low registers and work your way up
D. Scales
1. Spend the most time on the ones you have trouble with
2. Play them in different forms/rhythms
3. Learn as many as possible
4. Utilize metronome
E. Etudes
1. Anderson and Kohler
2. They are music, not just exercises
3. Familiarize yourself with many different standard etudes
F. Sight-reading
1. Includes etudes, solos, and band/orchestra parts you've never seen before
2. Try to do this everyday
3. Makes reading music easier and sharpens your reading skills
G. Solos
1. Play through it as much as possible without stopping before your perform it
2. Play for people (family, peers, friends) to alleviate performance anxiety
3. Expose yourself to new repertoire often for future performances
4. List of common solo pieces suitable for high school/advanced players
H. Orchestra & Band parts/excerpts
1. Look over parts, listen, and prepare for rehearsals
2. Always look for more parts to learn for future reference
Article Title: Practice Tips
Author: Rachel Lopez
Instrument: Flute
Magazine or Journal Title: None
Summary:
A. How to practice
1. Includes materials outside of ensembles
2. Should develop skills more in depth to make a better player
3. Practice materials that are challenging but not too difficult, and ones you enjoy
4. Practice makes Perfect!
5. Always use tuner and metronome
B. Sample practice schedule
1. Beginners: 20-30mins a day
2. High school: 30-45mins a day
3. 1 hour or more for more advanced players
4. Avoid cramming all practice into one session
C. Long tones/ embouchure exercises
1. Start in middle and low registers and work your way up
D. Scales
1. Spend the most time on the ones you have trouble with
2. Play them in different forms/rhythms
3. Learn as many as possible
4. Utilize metronome
E. Etudes
1. Anderson and Kohler
2. They are music, not just exercises
3. Familiarize yourself with many different standard etudes
F. Sight-reading
1. Includes etudes, solos, and band/orchestra parts you've never seen before
2. Try to do this everyday
3. Makes reading music easier and sharpens your reading skills
G. Solos
1. Play through it as much as possible without stopping before your perform it
2. Play for people (family, peers, friends) to alleviate performance anxiety
3. Expose yourself to new repertoire often for future performances
4. List of common solo pieces suitable for high school/advanced players
H. Orchestra & Band parts/excerpts
1. Look over parts, listen, and prepare for rehearsals
2. Always look for more parts to learn for future reference
Keeping Your Temper--A Flutists' Guide To Intonation
Citation: Keeping Your Temper--A Flutists' Guide To Intonation. The Flutists' Handbook: A Pedagogy Anthology, The National Flute Association, 1998, <http://www.fenwicksmith.com/miscellany_temper.html>.
Article Title: Keeping Your Temper--A Flutists' Guide To Intonation
Author: The National Flute Association
Instrument: Flute
Magazine or Journal Title: The Flutists' Handbook: A Pedagogy Anthology
Summary:
A. Ease of the flute
1. Beginners can play pretty will in tune
2. May not develop such good ears thanks to the ease of its' intonation
B. Equal temperament
1. Pianos and tuning machines
2. Only octave and tri-tone are truly in tune
C. Just temperament
1. Important to competent musicianship
D. The Flute
1. In "C" with D as the lowest possible note below the staff
2. Semitone between middle C# and D is the "break", also found between the 2nd and 3rd octaves
3. Tuning intervals over the break is problematic
E. Variable 1: Tuning the Flute, not the player
1. Flute makers aim for equal temperament
2. Important to have a good knowledge of intonation of the scale for your flute
3. Most of 3rd octave is usually sharp, especially C#s
4. Lower octave tends to be flat
5. Occasionally check with a tuner to match pitch
a. Set to A=440 in a comfortably tempered room
b. Fiddle around and settle on first octave A, make sure it is in tune
c. Tune center of the note that comes out
d. Possibly spend a week on this exercise to get final results
6. Notate findings and adjust flute accordingly
7. Different foot and head joints cause small but significant changes in tuning
8. Know the tendencies of certain notes
D. Variable 2: Headjoint adjustment
1. Alters the scale tendencies of the flute
2. Pull-out: All become flatter, vise versa
3. The closer the tone hole is to the bottom of the flute, the smaller the change
4. The closer it is to the headjoint, the larger the change
5. Description of why this happens: precise and practical
6. Careful with notes of the left hand: C#, C and B and notes that span the break
E. Variable 3: Temperature
1. The whole flute should be the same temperature, but we blow in one end and not the other, making it warmer
2. Blow warm air through the whole instrument before playing it.
F. Variable 4: Dynamics
1. Loud=sharp
2. Soft=flat
3. Dynamic changes should have a simultaneous correction of pitch
G. Variable 5. Angle of approach
1. Approaching notes from below tend to be too flat, and vise versa
2. Stronger tendency in legato interval then articulated one
3. Must critically listen for the slightest change in pitch
4. Extra movements from the head, hands, or throat cause unwanted effects
Article Title: Keeping Your Temper--A Flutists' Guide To Intonation
Author: The National Flute Association
Instrument: Flute
Magazine or Journal Title: The Flutists' Handbook: A Pedagogy Anthology
Summary:
A. Ease of the flute
1. Beginners can play pretty will in tune
2. May not develop such good ears thanks to the ease of its' intonation
B. Equal temperament
1. Pianos and tuning machines
2. Only octave and tri-tone are truly in tune
C. Just temperament
1. Important to competent musicianship
D. The Flute
1. In "C" with D as the lowest possible note below the staff
2. Semitone between middle C# and D is the "break", also found between the 2nd and 3rd octaves
3. Tuning intervals over the break is problematic
E. Variable 1: Tuning the Flute, not the player
1. Flute makers aim for equal temperament
2. Important to have a good knowledge of intonation of the scale for your flute
3. Most of 3rd octave is usually sharp, especially C#s
4. Lower octave tends to be flat
5. Occasionally check with a tuner to match pitch
a. Set to A=440 in a comfortably tempered room
b. Fiddle around and settle on first octave A, make sure it is in tune
c. Tune center of the note that comes out
d. Possibly spend a week on this exercise to get final results
6. Notate findings and adjust flute accordingly
7. Different foot and head joints cause small but significant changes in tuning
8. Know the tendencies of certain notes
D. Variable 2: Headjoint adjustment
1. Alters the scale tendencies of the flute
2. Pull-out: All become flatter, vise versa
3. The closer the tone hole is to the bottom of the flute, the smaller the change
4. The closer it is to the headjoint, the larger the change
5. Description of why this happens: precise and practical
6. Careful with notes of the left hand: C#, C and B and notes that span the break
E. Variable 3: Temperature
1. The whole flute should be the same temperature, but we blow in one end and not the other, making it warmer
2. Blow warm air through the whole instrument before playing it.
F. Variable 4: Dynamics
1. Loud=sharp
2. Soft=flat
3. Dynamic changes should have a simultaneous correction of pitch
G. Variable 5. Angle of approach
1. Approaching notes from below tend to be too flat, and vise versa
2. Stronger tendency in legato interval then articulated one
3. Must critically listen for the slightest change in pitch
4. Extra movements from the head, hands, or throat cause unwanted effects