What is the number one thing you can do to practice better? The one technique or strategy you can use to correct mistakes or even out bumpy passages? It is something really simple, as are most suggestions I try to bring to you. If you don’t already do this, you should try it. It isContinue reading “The Number One Thing You Can do to Practice Better”
Category Archives: Practicing the Flute
Perfection or Progress, Which Should We Strive For?
Musicians spend endless hours practicing, but what are we practicing for? In the constant drive to be better, faster, more musical, more in tune, more accurate, more correct, is perfection or progress what we should be striving for? Of course I believe in rigorous technique practice. I do the usual scales, arpeggios, and all mannerContinue reading “Perfection or Progress, Which Should We Strive For?”
Practicing Scales on Autopilot?
Are you practicing scales on autopilot? Perhaps you turn on the metronome and then tear through them as fast as you can to get them over with for the day. There’s nothing interesting about practicing scales after all, is there? If this is what you think, you are short-changing yourself. Practicing scales or anything elseContinue reading “Practicing Scales on Autopilot?”
Practice What You Don’t Know First
Practice what you don’t know first and most. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? It is all too easy to start our practice with what is most familiar and comfortable. But that does not help us conquer what is difficult and uncomfortable. Especially when we have limited practice time and are overwhelmed by what we feel weContinue reading “Practice What You Don’t Know First”
More on Improving Intonation With Drone Practice
Believe it or not, I am not the only musician who believes that practicing with drone pitches is a great way to develop good intonation skills. Professional saxophonist and Alexander Technique teacher Bill Plake does, too. If you’ve read more than a couple of posts on Practicing Flutist, my views on why you should practiceContinue reading “More on Improving Intonation With Drone Practice”
Intonation Practice Exercise with a Drone 1
If you’ve never done intonation exercises with a drone, here is a good way to get started. First you need a drone generator. This is any device that will play and hold a steady pitch, the drone. Many tuners and tuner apps will sound pitches, electric pianos will sound a pitch as long as aContinue reading “Intonation Practice Exercise with a Drone 1”
Intonation in Action Exercise
In my mission to help people improve their intonation, I’ve had to come up with exercises that people can do in their own practice. Once I’ve convinced players that notes need to be adjusted according to their context in the music, regardless of what any tuner’s meter says, it helps to have exercises to backContinue reading “Intonation in Action Exercise”
Try Gary Schocker’s trick of using a wine cork to improve flute tone
I’ve been concentrating on improving my tone lately, and came across these videos from Gary Schocker. He demonstrates how he used a wine cork to develop and improve his sound. It sounds totally off-the-wall, but it makes good sense! And since Schocker does have a glorious sound and amazing air management, this technique must beContinue reading “Try Gary Schocker’s trick of using a wine cork to improve flute tone”
More about Difference Tones and the Flute, and about Wil Offermans at NFA
I was doing some research on difference tones, looking for more ways to use them in the flute choir and in my intonation studies, and Googled “difference tone duets.” I got one(!) exact result which led me to this webpage, www.forthecontemporaryflutist.com/etude/etude-03.html. It is from a website by one of my favorite flutists and teachers, WilContinue reading “More about Difference Tones and the Flute, and about Wil Offermans at NFA”
Amazing Harmonic and Multiphonic Exercises
I’m doing it again, pointing you away from here to what someone else has done. Of course, when someone else has done something fantastic, there is no reason to keep it to yourself. I’ve followed Helen Bledsoe’s comments on Flute List with interest, but I had no idea that she had put together such fantasticContinue reading “Amazing Harmonic and Multiphonic Exercises”
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