Repair, Restore, Renew for 2013

As yet another Nor'easter bears down on the Mid-Atlantic, and I have some time to think of what the new year will bring, I have decided to raise my own flute playing bar for 2013.

The holiday season is wonderful for all those free-lance jobs that bring in welcome income at a time when finances are difficult to balance. It certainly is wonderful to reconnect with musicians one may not have seen for quite some time.

But it comes at a cost for personal flute technique.

For all the flexibility needed to play your best with many different ensembles and players, taking various parts, and blending with all levels of musicians, it can be difficult to maintain one's own technical approach, let alone scale!

I have designed a set of exercises I plan to do to repair and restore my own personal flute aesthetic and technique.

1.  What are your musical values?  What is a good musical credo for you and your style of playing? Write it down.  Change it, of course, because as you actually write these things down, your thoughts will become more focused and clear to you.

2.  List the adjectives of the most perfect flute sound for you.  Be as precise as possible.  Avoid words such as nice, or pretty.  Remembering that the flute is an heroic instrument can make those descriptive words flow!

3.  Begin doing daily breathing exercises.  Power Lung is ideal.  Also swimming: I always sound better when I am in good swimming shape.

4.  Long Tones!!  A must for all serious players.  A good long tone exercise should involve intervals, intonation studies, and move from low-to-high.

5.  More Long Tones!  I like to choose a melody that really speaks to me, and transpose it into all 12 Keys.

6.  Intervals.  Scales in 3rds, 4ths, and more.

7.  Harmonics.  Make sure you gently manipulate the air stream to create the next partial.  No over-blowing allowed! The skill is in the raising and lowering of the air stream.  If you want more of a challenge, diminuendo as you ascend, and crescendo as you descend.

8.  Taffanel-Gaubert No. 4.  Enough said!

On January 2, Flute Pro Shop is offering a Restorative Long Tone Hour at 7:00 PM East.  Please join us!  We will start at the top of this list and go as far as we can in one hour.  Our first Long Tone exercise will be Tonic-Dominants, and the second will be the theme from the 2nd movement of the Rodrigo Concerto.  We will take the interval exercises from the Marcel Moyse Daily Exercises book.  Harmonics will go from middle C to C1 and back down again.  Please send an email to info@fluteproshop.com if you need info regarding these exercises.

Renewing ones commitment to musical excellence is a great New Year activity.  Raising the flute bar is fun and inspirational!!

Please share with us the techniques you use to repair and restore your flute technique.  All ideas are welcome!

Where do YOU Practice??

On Sunday evening, I played a wonderful concert for woodwind quintet, harp and SATB choir at Grace United Methodist Church in Wilmington, DE.  We'll attach a sound clip soon, because the arrangements are absolutely stunning.  All of them were done by the church's extraordinary organist and choir director, Neil Harmond.  And I must also say that the instrumentalists were of the highest caliber.  It was a real joy.

What, you may be wondering, does this have to do with practicing?

As the choir warmed up in the sanctuary, I needed a place to warm myself up.  The only space available was a closet.  The contents of this closet were fascinating.  "Silk Flowers Only" greeted me when I walked in.  (There must be a story behind this one.) Boxes of used wither coats, a carpet steamer, picture hanging rods, a step ladder, shelves of vases, large candles, used candles, lecturns, music stands....I had the better part of 45 minutes of long tones to take a through inventory.

As I left the closet, the Pastor said, "I'll bet you've never practiced in a closet before!"

I replied, "Well, actually..."

I have practiced and performed in some very strange places, and her comment provided me with the topic for this blog.

I have practiced in:
Countless closets
A Stratford-upon-Avon phone booth.
Locker rooms
The filter pump room for a swimming pool
A restaurant kitchen
Any number of bathrooms at places like a radio station, retirement community, and a train station.
In the car.  I was not driving.
A garage
On any number of porches.

One time, Anne Sullivan, harpist, and I played a wedding on an ultimate Frisbee field.  It was misting rain, so we had to set up under the tailgate of an SUV.

Another time a presenter wanted me to play Debussy's Syrinx from the back of the darkened hall.  The only problem was that the hall was under construction, and I had to walk through the construction mess to get back there, ducking through a hole in a brick wall.  Now, I always scout out any route I am asked to take with my flute in my hand.

Many years ago, I was asked to play for the funeral for a public figure.  What was not disclosed was that I was to stand at the head of the open casket and play as the mourners passed by to pay their last respects.  It was a cold, dark, rainy day, and the door of the tiny chapel was open the entire two hours.  I was chilled to the bone.  My memory says I played the Syrinx the entire time, but that doesn't seem reasonable...

Here is a photo of where I practice these days, at Flute Pro Shop.  This room overlooks a parking lot.  Who knew the drama that plays out in a parking lot??  Apparently not I.  Everything from fistfights, lovers' trysts, car crashes, near-misses, rude gestures, cars backing into the dumpsters-everyday there is another event worthy of discussion.  FPS is located 50 yards from one of the most busy fire halls in Delaware, with several blasts from the siren each day.  Let me tell you, fire fighters speeding through the parking lot is very entertaining when one is doing long tones!

Mozart's Proverbs

As we prepare for the "Flutists Happy Birthday to Mozart," I went back to Maynard Solomon's biography of Mozart to find some fun facts to fuel our imaginations.

Chapter 22, "The Zoroastran Riddles" gives a glimpse of Mozart's love of word play, and how this play was a large part of his relationship with his father, Leopold.

On February 19, 1786, at a masquerade ball during the Viennese carnival, a masquerader dressed in the Oriental robes of a philosopher handed out copies of proverbs and riddles entitled "Excerpts from the Fragments of Zoroaster."  Of course, the masquerader was Mozart himself, and the riddles and proverbs were his own.

None of these copies exist today, but Leopold refers to them in letters to family members.    In 1786, the relationship between father and son was very strained.  These fragments, or proverbs, made Leopold very proud, so much so that he had them published in the Saltzburg Oberdeutsch Staats Zeitung, which is why these few survive today.

Here are some of my favorites for your edification!

1.  Say much-speak evil; but in the end it goes without saying that all eyes and ears will be upon you.

4.  I prefer open vice to ambiguous virtue; at least I know where I stand.

10.  It won't do for everyone to be modest; only great men can be so.

11.  If you are poor but clever, arm yourself with patience: work.  If you don't grow rich, you will at least remain a clever man.-If you are an ass but rich, then use your perogatives: be lazy.  If you don't become poor, you will at least remain an ass.

12.  The most reliable and tender way to please a lady is to speak evil of her rivals.  How many men are not women in this respect?

Finally: Music must never hurt the ear.

As musicians, we often hear proverbs in our lessons.  One of my favorite from Trudy Kane is:"The short note always goes to the long note."  I use this all the time when I teach-it can get a line moving just by thinking about it.  Or, from Murray Panitz: "In matters of pitch there is no right or wrong; only flexible or inflexible."

I have a few of my own that I keep threatening to put in a collection. "He who hesitates is late."  Or: "Technique is the handmaiden of the musical imperative."

Do you have proverbs you have heard or that you use when teaching?  Let us know!  Make a comment on this blog.  the best proverb(s) will receive the Barenreiter edition of the Mozart D Major Concerto.

The rules: must be related to music and the flute.  Have fun!