A CONSEQUENCE OF SEQUENCES – BOOK ONE
BREATHING and PHRASING 1
‘Warming up’ ideally should be both a mental and physical process of nurturing to get us into practice mode. In the end, we have to communicate our emotions through the flute and the music we play, so it makes sense to fully engage from the word go.
The way in which we are required to use air is such an important part of this process, so a long slow melody, can be an excellent way of setting off in a practice session.
With this sequence, the focus is on Breathing and Phrasing, providing us with a chance to work on a slow melodic line, again with the complexities and various intensities involved in creating shapes in a phrase.
The similarities between the singing voice and the flute, as togeneration of sound, are well noted.
However, in very much the same way that the vowel sound for the singer is the soul of both the word and indeed the voice, flute players must also realise that in a Breathing and Phrasing exercise, we need to carefully consider how we create, control and shape sound, beyond the initial articulation of the phrase.
‘T’ as an attack is hard and aggressive (almost explosive). Equally, the sound after the initial attack, due to irregularities of air control, can be very dead and immediately drops off. As an opening articulation ‘T’ is hardly ideal for a slow moving melody, where we are attempting to sculpt our sound and provide continuous shape to the music ahead.
‘DAH’ is more sympathetic as an articulation and with a long vowel sound following, notes and slow moving melodies will be easier to mould.
When working on these slow melodies, try different vowel sounds (‘DAH’, ‘DUH’, ‘DOO’, ‘DEE’) after the attack and find those that you feel best suits both your personality and the character of the melody.
Vowel sounds work better if the throat is open and relaxed.
This can be achieved by placing a hand at the bottom of the neck, just above the collar bone. Open your mouth and pretend that you are very unintelligent (this is quite a similar sensation to singing a low note, although there should be no vocal sound as this brings about a restriction).
Keeping the throat in this position, now play the melody, commencing with a gentle articulation.
With the release of tension in the throat (often incorrectly used in partnership with the tongue to propel air into, rather than through the flute), irrespective of dynamics, ensure that you are providing sufficient air speed to give quality to the sound after the initial articulation.
Each note should be thought about, well in advance of the note sounding. In other words, know where you are going, before you get there.
The music in Breathing and Phrasing 1 is simple, but please don't be lured into a false sense of security. Playing a melody so that it touches the innermost part of the heart, is among the most challenging of tasks we all face as instrumentalists/musicians. It is infinitely more challenging to consummately communicate a simple melodic line.
If you can make breathing a mental as well as physical part of your practice, the sound quality of each phrase should be enhanced. Personally, I would draw air in slowly, for the duration of a whole bar before setting off in this sequence (and all of the other sequences in these two books).
I would also make sure that there is a small ‘pause’ between ending the breath, setting the appropriate embouchure and starting the sequence. In this way, we should be able to have everything in place, or lined up, prior to starting the musical journey.
BREATHING and PHRASING 2
This is another exercise that I would happily use to warm up with.
I have never been a ‘fan’ of the (Moyse) semitone (half step) exercise, which starts in the middle octave of the flute and makes its way gradually to the bottom of the instrument. For sure, on its own, it is a reasonable enough exercise, but I have to confess that I find it difficult to be over musically motivated by just two notes! I know there are people who love this exercise and I am very, very happy for them, but I feel it is important to work on phrasing as well as sound, so I prefer an exercise that takes me on a longer journey.
On some days, we can be very limited with the amount of time that we have to spend on practicing. By combining, phrasing, sonority and breathing in an opening exercise, I am then able to free up more time for other flute related activities. I am also mentally and emotionally engaged with such an exercise, which will in turn put me in a good shape of body and mind for the other flute tasks of the day ahead.
We all know that in a basic way, a phrase should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but how exactly do we travel to these points? What do we need to do to make the journey interesting?
I find myselfconstantly questioning certain forms of musical instructions.
For example, a crescendo means ‘to get louder’ and likewise a diminuendo ‘to get quieter’, but is a phrase really as simple as this? Surely not!
Increasingly I am interested in the various ‘intensities’ of sound in conjunction with a phrase. We might well get louder in a crescendo, but surely, we also need the sound itself to become more meaningful.There should be a sense of a journey in sound.
Equally, in a diminuendo, whilst becoming quieter, we also need to maintain the intensity of our sound, both for interest (keeping the sound alive) and to avoid gradually getting flatter.
A phrase has a beginning, a middle and an end, but on such a journey, there should be some gentle hills and valleys of intensityto consider along the way.
It is necessary to release intensity in order to gently allow it to grow again.
This is something that is more easily expressed in conversation and a class situation (with examples!) than in print, but I very much hope that with this sequence you might be able to explore this concept.
As with all of these sequences, please do try playing the very low examples up one octave.
We need to be able to control a slow melody in the top octave as well as the other two octaves!
BREATHING and PHRASING 3
Even though ‘warming up’ requires intense concentration, it can be a good idea to start the day in a comparatively simple way. Too many complications from the off, might be disruptive.
In this sequence, which really is a gentle scale exercise masquerading as a melody, I have intentionally limited the size of intervals. The widest one is that of a major third, which after orange juice, coffee and toast is perfectly acceptable! Anything more so soon in the day, might cause indigestion!
In this example, movement mainly takes place in beats one and four, in the shape of two quavers (eighth notes). In general, we tend to focus on the first of each group of two notes, at the expense of the second note. Invariably, this leads to the second note being weaker and fractionally shorter. It is almost ‘bypassed’ and in terms of the quality of the phrase becomes inconsequential.
As the second note in the group is actually closer to the next main beat of the bar, it would make more sense to provide it with increased nourishment.In this way, the phrase becomes more organic, helped along by a clear sense of direction.
Take care as notes get higher in the diminuendi, to hold the pitch. Even in ‘MP’ or ‘P’ dynamics, this will require a more intense tightening of the support muscles, to make sure that the air stream speed is fast enough to keep pitch accurate.
FINGERS 1
‘Training’ fingers for ultimate flute operation is a very necessary part of our routine of practice. It should be a constant or daily activity. Just because we have managed to play something technically demanding once, doesn’t automatically mean that it will always be there. In order to maintain our skills and attempt to enhance them further, we have to regularly and diligently work on our finger technique. As with any muscular activity, laziness will lead to a slow but steady drop-off in performance.
This is true when working on scales and in particular, scales in thirds, which by definition, contain increased and often more awkward finger activity. The leap between playing our ‘normal’ scales and our scales in thirds is nothing short of enormous. Straight scales are comparatively simple, with mostly a finger lifting up or down to get to the next note. With scales in thirds, it is frequently an operation involving, at the very least, two fingers to trigger the next note, so already a massive 100% moreactivity than the easier versions!
It isn’t just the fingers that need to be trained. The more fingers are lifted, or put down to operate the keys of the flute, the greater the disturbance of the air in the tube of the instrument. If we think of the flute as a system of organ pipes all in one, a long tube will produce a lower note than a short one. In our straight up and down scales, the internal disturbance of this tube is comparatively small. However, with scales in thirds and bigger leaps involved, air is effectively ‘yo-yoing’ up and down the tube, making it significantly more difficult to control, in particular when ‘legato’ is indicated. This problem becomes most evident in the third or top octave of the flute, when the more basic and simple fingerings of the lower two octaves, fly out of the window!
Perhaps the greatest problem attached to learning scales in thirds is that from the word ‘go’, we are fed them as incredibly long strings of notes, that start at the bottom of the instrument, rise to the top and then fall back again to the bottom. For our fingers, which in the first instance were never intended to be used to operate flutes, this is beyond ‘marathon’ expectations. Blind panic ensues and no matter how much slow practice is applied, the sheer enormity of the task will always act as a negative on our progress. If we add to this the natural human response of frustration, rapidly moving on to anger in the face of defeat, a grey mist of failure will steadily thicken, destroying any chance of success.
In order for us to eventually string everything togetherand be able to happily and accurately play our scalesin thirds, they first of all need to be broken down into much shorter and therefore, more manageable segments.
This is what I have put together in the three finger exercises in this book.
In this first exercise, the easier part is apparent in the first two beats, which represent a standard rising scale. The second half of the bar descends with scales in thirds. Just two beats and always in the same direction, give us a very manageable sized unit to work with. In bar five, this switches to rising scales in thirds in the first and third beats.
In order to save a few trees, I haven’t written out in full the examples which fly up into the highest areas of the top octave. The following keys in this sequence should be worked on, one octave up from those marked in the music: C Major, D Minor, E flat Major, C Minor, D flat Major, E flat Minor, C sharp Minor, D Major and E Minor.
FINGERS 2
In this sequence the order is reversed and for the first three beats we find ourselves moving off in scales in thirds, the more complicated part of the exercise.
Unlike the previous sequence, there is no gentle warm up to the task. We are thrown in at the deep end!
To move off from the first note successfully, there must be more attention to preparation than in Sequence 1, where the first two beats of the exercise are comparatively simple.
To compensate for the complexities of the greater change taking place within the tube of the flute from the sounding of the first note, air pressure will need to be more energetic. Good preparation and systematic deep breathing is crucial.
It is important to plan your intake of air before setting off on the journey. Apart from anything else, any air has to travel a long way to trigger the first note, a low C. In order to achieve both quality and volume of sound in this register, we need to blow air ‘through’ the flute, rather than ‘into’ it.It won’t be sufficiently good enough to deliver air to the blowing hole of the flute with the hope that the flute will do the rest for us. We have to actively engage with the process of triggering these low notes and provide enough air to bring life to both the musical line (in particular a sustained legato) and the rapid changes that are taking place within the body of the flute. In these circumstances, I actively think of ‘chasing’ air through the flute, both mentally and physically arriving at the next note, well in advance of it actually ‘speaking’.
Once again, play this as slowly as you wish to start with and to mirror the slurring of the phrases, make sure that you operate ‘legato’ fingers. Diligently following the dynamics is also advisable. Major keys should have a more positive and open approach than their minor partners.
Once familiar with the patterns, try to play the sequence from memory from start to finish and also put those starting on very low notes up the octave, so that you have a chance to explore those more complicated cross-fingerings in the third (top) octave of the flute.
FINGERS 3
Fingers 3 is the final exercise concentrating on scales in thirds. All the above information for Fingers 1 and 2 continues to apply. By definition though, as there are no simple scales involved in this sequence, a high state of active air energy will need to be constantly on tap.
Once you have played all three of the associated exercises (Fingers 1, 2 and 3) you should have a very good working knowledge of these often awkward exercise patterns and should find playing scales in thirds, through all three octaves of the flute, that much more interesting, less challenging and indeed straightforward. Now that good muscle memory has been established in the fingers, it will be easier to focus on sound and shape.
As before, articulation should be gentle and precise (remaining constant, rather than becoming heavier or more aggressive in crescendo), with the tongue simply breaking the air column, rather than ‘stopping’ it.
Once familiar with the patterns, try to play each sequence from memory and also put those starting on very low notes, up the octave, so that you have a chance to explore the more complicated and demanding fingerings in the third (top) octave of the flute.
Fingers cannot (and will not!) be bullied into moving quickly. They need to be gently encouraged and as such will simply lock up if made to move too fast, too soon. Practice these finger sequences slowly at first and once the connection between thought and finger movement is well established, then the time to gradually increase tempo has arrived.
Final note on finger technique. Whilst prayer might be very useful and appropriate in many situations, it will sadly have no benefit at all on our finger technique, unless combined with dedicated, disciplined and regular (as in daily) practice.
ARTICULATION 1
The art of articulation on the flute, really warrants an entire book in itself. In the early stages of learning, language will play a significant (and not necessarily beneficial) part in the way a note is started. After all, if we ricochet the tongue off the roof of the mouth to create a hard consonant when speaking, why shouldn’t we adopt the same principles when tonguing notes on the flute? This is a reasonable enough suggestion. However, due to the complexities involved in interpreting music from many centuries and numerous countries, a horribly flawed one!
Quite simply, if we are to service the very different technical demands made by composers, we effectively need to learn a new language and retrain the tongue to operate in a more appropriate and sympathetic manner.
This isa single tongue exercise, designed to develop agility and speed over a period of time.
With this sequence, the tongue should be both free and gentle. The notes should be as closely connected as possible (therefore this is a ‘legato’ tonguing exercise). In other words, we simply need to momentarily break the air stream, rather than stop it altogether, which occurs if the tongue is too heavy.
I would recommend a long sounding DAH as the form of articulation, with the tongue always close to the point of contact and the throat relaxed and open (somewhere between a mild yawn and the position required to sing a low note). Just to ‘feel’ your way around, you might also like to try LAH. In the long run, this won’t be particularly useful, but the more we can analyse exactly what is going on in the dark area inside the mouth, and the various movements and positions of the tongue, the more we will be able to understand what we need to do. This will then allow us to produce an appropriate articulation for the music we are playing. The type of articulation may well vary from one century to another and from one style to another. A portfolio of slightly different ways of tonguing can only be a good thing when interpreting music written by different composers!