Sarah Nichols: I had not thought of this until I saw the first column. Because I spend most of my days teaching and coaching students from a wide spectrum, my main focus is helping them attain their goals, including auditions, recitals, and competitions. There is little time remaining in the day to explore repertoire in my personal library. I must act on this. Here are five very different sets of goals of how I could use an extra hour a day:

Part I – Repertoire
    I wish to finally learn the following repertoire, some of which has been sitting in my library for too many years:
    Cristóbal Halffter: Debla (I first heard this brilliantly performed by the late Tallon Perkes)
    André Jolivet: Cinq Incantations (My inspiration is a superb performance by Ransom Wilson in NYC)
    Ernst von Dohnányi: Passacaglia
    Jennifer Higdon: rapid♦fire
    Michael Colquhon: Charanga
    Robert Beaser: Variations for Flute and Piano
    Everything by Harvey Sollberger, Robert Dick, and Ian Clarke
    All of the works in the NFA’s 20th Anniversary Anthology of American Music 
    All of the works in Eight Visions: A New Anthology for Flute and Piano (A CD performed by Marya Martin)

Part II – Early Instruments
    I would purchase a Martin Wenner classical flute. Then I would practice and perform exclusively on it, my recorders, and my current Baroque flutes for a year. No modern flutes allowed. This is stretching the rules a bit, since it would take more than one hour per day to practice each of the flutes.

Part III – Piano Practice
    I would really hone my piano chops so I could perform sonatas by Hindemith, Piston, Martinu, Muczynski, and Liebermann with my friends. This might take longer than a year. 

Part IV – Scholarly Research
    I would spend an hour each day researching flute and chamber music on the Petrucci Music Library (.) Then I would print our everything I do not currently have and compare editions, errata, etc. with works I already own. My most recent discovery is the entire contents in a piccolo player’s folder from the original Sousa Band. The possibilities are endless.
 
Part V – Traveling Contra
    I would adopt, care, feed, and practice a contrabass. I would also give it a cool name. I would perform from a new vantage point in flute choirs with friends and colleagues in all 50 states.
There is so much to do that I had better get practicing now. 

Elizabeth Anderson: If I had an extra hour to practice every day for three months, I might use the time for sightreading practice. Who knows what wonderful material I might find to play. When my hands have healed enough to allow me to play in church again, who knows what classical music I might find to play there! 

Betty Stone: I do have an extra hour today, since it is a school holiday. I have started on the Poulenc Sextet for winds and piano. I am inspired by this wonderful recording by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra Wind Quintet with pianist Ralf Gathóni: 

The post Letters to the Editor appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Popping the Crown
    Taking the crown and cork assembly out of the flute is scary to many flutists.  It need not be because there is nothing you can break if you follow these simple steps. To wash the headjoint out, remove the cork assembly. The first step in removing the cork assembly is to loosen the crown a few turns. This means turning the crown to the left a few times. Holding the headjoint at the tenon end, gently place the crown end on a pot holder or something soft and cushy that will protect the crown and table surface and then push down. This is called popping the crown. The cork assembly is now ready to be pushed through the headjoint towards the tenon end using a special ejection tool. You can make one of these yourself or a flute repairman will make one for you. This is the safest way to remove the cork assembly. 

Popping the cork with the insertion tool.

Insertion tool

Inspect for Damage
    Once the cork assembly is out, inspect the cork checking to see if it is dried out or pulling away from the plate. If it is damaged, then take the flute to a repair person for replacement. Also look at the plate that the cork is glued to for scratches, pock marks etc. These are caused by the end of the cleaning rod hitting the plate when drying the moisture from the headjoint. If it is highly pocked, then replace the stem assembly. This is not a high-priced item, and a new one may improve the sound and intonation. If there is any residue on the plate, clean it with a damp cloth. The stem assembly should certainly be switched out during an overhaul, but it may be switched out when having a COA (clean, oil, and adjust). 

Wash the Headjoint
    Next wash the headjoint in a mixture of Dawn dishwashing liquid (the kind you would use for washing dishes by hand) and warm water. I have a plastic cleaning rod that I place a silk scarf around to clean the inside. I use a plastic cleaning rod because it is not damaged when it gets wet. Be careful to not scratch the inside of the headjoint with the cleaning rod if you are using a metal one. While washing the headjoint (both inside and out), do not grasp the embouchure plate as this may loosen the solder or bend the lip plate. Rinse with warm water paying special attention to the inside of the riser or chimney. Dry the inside with a clean silk cloth and the outside with a smooth tea towel.

Back Together
    Replace the cork assembly by dropping it into the tenon end of the headjoint. If it is fitted well, the plated end will be visible at the halfway point of the embouchure hole. A well-fitted cork will be tapered to fit the taper of the crown end of the headjoint. If it is cylindrically shaped, you may want to find a different flute repairman. A cork that is too tight and not tapered will be flat in pitch and have a dull sound. If your flute seems flat and dull in tone, replacing the cork assembly with one that is well-fitted may improve the sound of the flute. Use the cleaning rod to gently move the cork assembly towards the crown end of the headjoint. When the line on the cleaning rod is in the center of the embouchure hole, you are ready to screw the crown into place. 
    Next, I play the headjoint in. While this may be based on an old wives’ tale, I do find that the headjoint responds better after playing the headjoint in when I assemble the entire flute. To do this, I place my thumb and index fingers at the crown and tenon ends (under the headjoint) taking care to keep my fingerprints off the headjoint. Touch the headjoint as little as possible. Then I play slurred half-note octaves up and down many times with a forceful vibrato. I do this for about ten or so minutes.      It is a great workout for the embouchure too. I want to get the metal in the headjoint vibrating as much as possible. Joseph Mariano, the legendary Eastman School of Music flute professor, cautioned me, “Don’t let anyone who doesn’t know how to blow play your flute.” I thought this was an unusual statement but have followed his advice. The results are so good when playing the headjoint in that as soon as you hear a negative difference in the sound in a few days, you may want to repeat the process starting with washing the headjoint out. When I first started this, I did it every few days, but now I can go about a week or so before the headjoint loses its ring. Even if this is a fictitious process, there is benefit to be had from playing slurred octaves on the headjoint. Try it before you pass judgment. 
    When playing on the headjoint, I follow Theobald Boehm’s advice to keep the embouchure hole level when blowing. This means that the embouchure muscles must be developed; however, the results are worth the extra practice because the high harmonics or upper partials are stronger in the tone, and the intonation is improved. When playing octaves on the headjoint, the octaves will not be in tune because of the parabolic shape of the headjoint closer to the tenon. However, this shape improves intonation when the flute is assembled. 
    A violin professor told me he can tell how a new student will play just by observing how he takes the violin and bow out of the case. I think this may be true for flutists also. Young students often put the flute together very quickly without carefully aligning the headjoint to the body’s tenon box. The goal is to keep the tenon end of the headjoint round. If you try to assemble the instrument without the two parts being carefully aligned the tenon will no longer be round. Take special care in putting the flute together as this will improve the overall ring of the instrument. 
    When playing with the flute assembled, keep your fingers off the headjoint and especially off the lip plate. I am not in favor of cleaning the fingerprints off the body and footjoint with alcohol as it is too easy to make a mistake and spoil a pad. The body and footjoint of my flute have some tarnish which I do not remove because to do it correctly and safely, all of the keys must be removed, and the flute secured before cleaning. A slightly tarnished flute is one that has been played and loved. 
    You may be fearful about taking the headjoint cork out of the flute, but you should not be. There is not anything that you can break if you take your time and have the proper tool. Playing on a clean headjoint is a treat.

The post Taking Care of the Headjoint appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Embouchure Hole
    There are some things to think about before playing. It is important to understand that many things that work very well on modern flute do not work well on the Baroque flute. It should be thought of as a completely new instrument, but one that a modern flutist has a head start with. The goal should not be to make it behave like a modern flute.
    Before playing a note, take a look at the embouchure hole of the flute. Compare it to a modern flute, and it should be immediately apparent that the Baroque flute has a much smaller embouchure hole, and it is shaped differently. Earlier Baroque flutes have a very small and round embouchure hole, while later ones often have a more oval-shaped hole. When playing modern flutes with a large embou-chure hole, flutists cover quite a bit of the embouchure hole with the lower lip. This is is not the case with the smaller hole on the Baroque flute. The smaller the hole, the more uncovered it needs to be. When I pick up the flute, I try to feel the very edge of the hole touching my lip. If you cover the hole too much, it lowers the pitch of the flute and makes the sound weaker. The Baroque flute is not a loud instrument, but you want to get out of it what it is built to give.

Embouchure holes on Baroque and modern flutes

Intonation
    Another important step is to get a tuner and set it for the proper pitch of the flute. In most cases that will be A=415, or a half step below modern pitch. Start with a lower octave G, and  try to play a medium volume G, checking it with the tuner. The first time you try the instrument you are likely to be either too sharp or too flat. If you are too flat, you are either covering too much of the hole or are blowing downwards too much. If you are sharp you are blowing too much across the hole and maybe too hard. Finding a good G is important before you try other notes. 
    When you feel good about G try the second octave G and make sure it is in tune with the lower G and has a nice, clean sound. Beginning students often come to me and complain that their instrument is way too sharp or way too flat. If you have a decent Baroque flute that is very unlikely. I can virtually always demonstrate that the flute can be well in tune. It is the approach to the embouchure or the amount of air  that is causing the problem. 
    Before going any further, it is important to work out how to play at the proper pitch level. The instrument will not be able to produce a good sound or play in tune, if it is being played too sharp or flat. Your first impression might be “this flute must not really be at A=415.” If it is a flute from a good maker, it is you and not the flute that is at the wrong pitch.

Note Qualities
    Different notes on the Baroque flute have different qualities from one another. This is one of the things that makes the instrument so expressive. Baroque composers understood this, and good flute music uses the tone of the note as well as the pitch to make the music more beautiful. G is a good clear note as are all the notes in a G major scale. The flute is in D major not C, and that is important to understand. I remember when I was first trying the Baroque flute and thought I would look for some easy sonatas to sightread. C and B-flat major are poor choices while D and G major are by far the simplest keys. If you close all six holes you can play a low D. Lift up the fingers one at a time and easily play a D major scale for two octaves. The third octave D is fingered as it is on a modern flute. 

The D# Key
    One important detail that new players need to fix securely into their brains is the use of the D# key which is not quite the same as on a modern flute. On a modern flute that key is part of holding the instrument. On a Baroque flute it is a little more complicated as it can sometimes help to hold the instrument. However, there are particular notes where players cannot use the key, and others where they must use the key. Two of these appear right away in the D major scale. E cannot be played on a Baroque flute using the key. This is extremely important, and it is harder than you might expect to learn. If you use the key, it makes E too sharp and the note too bright. The next note F# must have the key pressed as it is rather flat and needs the key to help bring up the pitch. You will see right away that even with the key pressed, the F# is going to be flatter than you are used to. Just accept that for now.

Traverso with D# key

Temperament
    The Baroque flute is not in equal temperament like a modern flute. In the Baroque period, different types of temperaments and tunings were used, but the idea on the flute was to generally be playing pure intervals. So, if a flutist played an F#, it should sound pure to a D below it. This is not the case in equal temperament where the F# would be higher than pure. In modern playing people often play the F# even higher if it is a leading tone. None of that is relevant in Baroque music so accepting that F# is somewhat lower than you expect is fine. As you learn all the notes on the instrument, you will see that many notes require adjustment from the player – both to be in tune and to make the best sound. Remember that each note on the instrument has a distinct personality, especially those not in the D major scale.

Tricky Notes
    Because the Baroque flute does not have a hole (and key) for each pitch as the Boehm flute does, it makes some more complicated fingerings necessary and requires various compromises regarding tuning. A good example of that is F natural. It is fingered 123 4-6 (no key). Remember that F# is 123 4-K. The pitch of those two notes is interrelated in that in order to get a workable F, which is naturally very sharp, you have to have a low F#. A good Baroque flute balances these fingerings so they both can be played well in tune with some effort. On cheap 19th-century flutes (which might look like a Baroque flute but are not) players often find that they have given up on the Fn completely and have an easy-to-play F#. Just for fun, try going back and forth between Fn and F#. You should find that without adjusting the difference is about a ¼ tone. Obviously, that will not do, and the secret is in how you play the notes. For the F# players should raise and use faster air, while for the Fn, they should use slower air, and blow more downward or rolling in. 
    A good exercise to get the hang of this is to play, slowly D – F# – D – Fn – D – F# and so on. Try to get the F to sound like an F, and the F# to sound like an F#. You may hear about alternate fingerings for notes like F#. For now, learn to use the correct basic fingerings rather than alternate ones. They might seem easier, but they are not producing the proper tone and relationship to adjacent notes.
    The sound of the Fn is going to be softer than the F# and have a completely different quality. This is a good thing because each note should be beautiful in its own way. When players first encounter these covered-sounding, softer notes, they often try to blow harder. That does not work. I often think of trying to make a slightly bigger and definitely slower airstream to help find the resonance of those notes. At first this will feel like a big challenge, but as you gain in flexibility, you will find it easier and easier.
    This brings up one of the most important things about playing the Baroque flute well. It is up the player to create the correct pitch and a beautiful sound. It is not possible to just use the right fingering and expect that the flute will be perfectly in tune. This is part of the instrument, and we know from historical documents that they took tuning extremely seriously in the Baroque. I remind students to imagine in their mind the note they want to hear and then play it. You cannot play the note, hear what is wrong, and then fix it. Learning to do this is of huge benefit to playing on any flute.
    The G# in the lower octave (12-456) is another difficul note. Play the note G in tune and with a good clear sound. Now try the G#. This is probably the most different-sounding pair of notes on the flute. The G# has to be played gently, but if the embouchure and airspeed are adjusted well, it can be heard well and have a very beautiful quality. Play G – G# – G – G# and try to learn what you have to do to go back and forth between these notes. Next, play E – G# – E – B – E. You should find that somewhat easier than getting the half step to sound good. In proper tuning, sharps are low, and flats are high (relative to equal temperament.) This is fundamentally important to remember, so in the case of G# make an effort to keep it low enough.      It is easier in the second octave.

Fingers and Balance
    Another thing that is often a surprise to modern flutists is that on a Baroque flute, players have to keep their fingers further from the holes. Even on an open-hole modern flute, there is the key between the finger and hole. On a Baroque flute this is not the case as the finger directly closes the hole. If the fingers are too close, it affects the sound and tuning of other notes. It is good to be in the habit of controlling the finger technique just as much as on a modern flute, but maybe use a half inch distance as a guide. Consistent finger position is important on both instruments.
    Many players are surprised at first that the instrument seems so big and at how much they have to stretch their fingers. On a modern flute the fingers are very close together and are closing the holes only with the help of keys positioned in other places along the instrument. After the initial surprise, most people acclimate to the larger size quickly. I do not think I have ever had a student who really could not reach the holes without injuring themselves. 
    On the right hand the fingers can be fairly flat, always moving from the knuckle. Do not try to play on the fingertips. The left hand is more complicated since the flute rests on the first finger joint. You still should not play on the finger tips, and the motion is from the knuckle. It is possible to play without the left thumb having much of a role at all. There is no thumb key (until we get to later keyed flutes), and it is good to check whether you can safely remove the thumb without feeling like the flute is going to fall. 
    Many people find the right-hand stretch to be the most difficult. I recommend trying to keep the fingers directly over the holes as much as possible as it is much simpler to drop a finger directly on the hole, than to have to move it sideways and put it down. You may find, especially at first, that it is useful to let the spacing of the fingers relax a bit when not being used,  but try to keep the first finger over its hole so that the relative position is maintained. 

Copy of a four-part flute after Naust by Boaz Berney

What to Practice
    The temptation is to get out favorite Baroque pieces and try them right away, but it is better to leave Bach in the drawer at first. Focus instead on getting familiar with the details of playing each note. Play slowly for now and really try to get the notes in tune with a clear sound. Next, play some easy arpeggios and scales – G and D to start. You can venture into the third octave when you get confident with the first two. The fingerings are a bit more complicated up higher, and high E in particular often feels strange and backwards from a modern flute. The C in both octaves takes a while to get used to because it does not relate to the modern flute. While the fingerings may seem difficult at first, most people find that they learn them quite easily with practice. After all, there are only have six finger holes and one key to deal with. (You can find a good fingering chart here: www.Baroqueflute.
com/models/Grenser.pdf
    One exercise I recommend to students is blowing slow, controlled, harmonics, both up and down. It produces some strange pitches along the way but will greatly help in building the embouchure in a way that makes the instrument easier to play. The goal is to be able to control when the note goes up or comes down without any articulation. This is also a great way to warm up quickly. Playing long tones and working on tone, dynamic, and tone control is extremely important.

Vibrato
    An issue that comes up right away is vibrato. It is extremely important, especially at first, not to use any vibrato. It clouds the tuning and sound in a way that will not help you get the best from the instrument. There is virtually no evidence of breath vibrato for tone production being used in the Baroque period. There were other techniques they used to make individual notes expressive. It is too much to go into the details here, but I often tell students that when they find themselves wanting to add vibrato on a note, they should instead make a shape on that individual note. Long notes virtually always should have a shape. Hint, pay attention to the harmony under the note.

Tonguing
    Flutists in the 18th century had a different outlook than is usually used today. The preference was for smooth tonguing unless indicated otherwise by some notation (a dot), or by convention (skipping notes). Stepwise 16th notes would generally be smooth but tongued. TaKa and its variations were not a part of the normal tonguing practice until the 19th century, and other very smooth double tonguing syllables were often used. See Quantz for his lengthy discussion about di’dl. Many flutists who get used to these Baroque articulation practices find the techniques they gain to be very helpful in their modern playing.

Tuning Software
    Tuning software is your friend in learning to play the Baroque flute – especially to get off on a good start. As mentioned earlier, making sure you are really playing the flute at the correct pitch is critically important. Tuning software will help with this. In most cases, the tuning software allows you to select a temperament or tuning other than equal – which is important. Trying to play in equal temperament is unnatural on Baroque flute and will make your work more difficult. If your software has it, select 6th Coma Meantone (#). 
    The software I recommend if you have an Apple device is RTTAtuner, which is almost free. It keeps track of the tuning of whatever you play so you can see your tuning in context rather than a note at a time. This is extremely valuable. Other popular apps include Cleartune and PitchLab. Tuning on the Baroque flute is about the relationship of one pitch to another, and these software programs will help you understand that idea. Be sure not to rely on the tuner, however, as it is important to build good tuning into your ear and technique.

Listening
    Having a good model in your ear for the sound of the Baroque flute is very important – even before you play your first notes. There are many fine Baroque flutists to listen to and I would recommend the recordings (easily available on YouTube) from Bart Kuijken, Anna Besson, Alexis Kossenko, Jan de Winne, Marten Root, Chris Krueger, Sandy Miller, and Marc Hantai. I am leaving out many fine players, but these flutists are a good place to begin. To hear the sound of many different flutes, go to my sites  and 
    Once you have gotten started, it is always a good idea to find an expert teacher. There are also quite a few workshops on Baroque flute that will help you. 
Remember that you create the sound and pitch on the Baroque flute. With attention to the basic ideas from the beginning, you will be able to bring out the beauty and musical qualities of the instrument.

The post Off to a Good Start appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

How did your childhood, growing up in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, shape your path as a musician? 
    When I was seven, my parents purchased 300 acres of canyon land in Eastern Washington. We set about hewing and milling by hand the trees necessary to build what eventually became a 4,500 square foot log home. We spent our first summer living in tents as my parents completed the kitchen and one bedroom, eventually moving into those two rooms just as the weather turned cold.
    These stories always start with “it was one of the coldest winters on record.” This one really was. I have vivid memories of my brothers and me huddling around an antique Franklin wood stove that was our only source of heat. We were fascinated by the physics of the stove’s metal turning red, then blue from our attempts to stoke the fire to hotter temperatures and keep the rooms habitable. I think my brothers and I still have scorch marks on our backsides from sitting too close to the stove as we huddled around it during cold nights.
    That first winter was spent with only a piece of plastic for windows on the two rooms we inhabited, and my father, a novelist, and my mother, a violist, spent a lot of time figuring out how to continue building what felt more like a philosophy of living than a house. The house took many years to complete, and, to be honest, still has some things being completed.
    The early years, which constituted most of my childhood prior to leaving for college, were particularly hard. Winter nights would get so cold that my brother’s goldfish once froze in its water, mouth agape. My father got frostbite on most of his fingers and toes after working for hours to thaw burst water pipes. Forest fires were a constant threat as well, and I can think of at least two summers we deployed with neighbors, digging fire breaks as flames and smoke threatened our homes and livestock. And then there was the firewood. There was so much of it to cut, split, and stack to survive the next winter in a home that for many years had no other heat source.

Childhood home in Washington

    In spite of the hardships of that winter, and the many subsequent years, my parents provided an incredibly vibrant and meaningful upbringing for my brothers and me. Anyone who has farmed or ranched in the high desert has stories of birth, death, acute cold, and drought. There was no way to avoid it. In spite of this, our home always felt like a bit of a sanctuary for writers and visual artists throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ken Kesey, Raymond Carver, Carolyn Kizer, and Barry Lopez, to name a few, visited, many of them repeatedly. There were frequent, heady discussions around the fire, discussing art, religion, and politics. There was also the incredible food, usually cooked by my mother, completing the arc. Over time I became more and more aware of the way these experiences shaped my attitudes toward music, its nuance, color, and quite honestly how to love within the world. Artists congregated at my parents’ home for a variety of reasons, but among them was that this was an intellectual, artistic sanctuary surrounded intimately, and at times hostilely, by the natural world. 

How has living in so many places across the United States influenced your playing? 
    I am a bit sensitive to drawing artistic parallels between nature’s beauty and music. Too often, these parallels feel a bit false to me. Each person’s interactions with nature, artistry, and the world are unique. I tend to think not of how the regions I have lived inform my playing, but rather how the people and stories that go with those areas affect me. It is possible that being the son of a writer makes me operate more in stories than in geography. Of course, geography often makes the story, or at least deeply informs whatever narrative emerges. 
    Beyond broad geographical narratives influencing flute playing, on a more modest scale, it is difficult to undervalue the pleasure that being outside brings. In particular, I run outside almost every day. I think it is my way of coping with no longer living in the Pacific Northwest. I am fortunate to have my backyard open into a 350-acre park in central Illinois. Going on a run and seeing the wonders of seasonal color change, viewing up close a monarch butterfly migration, or a rare spotting of a blue bunting, remain such a meaningful reminder of the cyclical aspects of art, nature, and life. I think this is where the transference from geography to musical color and phrasing occur, for me. 

With that kind of upbringing, what compelled you to pick up a flute? 
    My mother knew all of the best teachers in town and gave me a choice between flute, percussion, and trumpet. Seeing that the prettiest girl in the school played flute, it became clear my path to her heart would be through music. She quit the instrument two years later. 
    I have to admit, I used my first flute for many things, including as baseball bat, ping pong paddle, and a blow-gun for spit wads. The spit wad blow-gun flute is particularly useful, I might add, against second flutists. It is also exceptional in its ability to reach the nether regions of the orchestra.

Do you feel any meaning in or attachment to the actual metal instrument? 
    I suppose you are referring to the fact that I frequently take baseball bat swings in studio class and enjoy drawing the flute as though it is an arrow from a quiver. Honestly, most of the time I still feel like a kid who likes to pretend he is more than just a flutist. I can’t help myself when it comes to, umm, creating multi-dimensional uses for the flute.
    As far as some kind of mystical relationship between the metal and human spirit, that is a bit more tenuous. Having said that, my first flute teacher willed her instrument to me when she passed away some 25 years ago. I feel an incredible spiritual attachment to that flute, and only stopped using it as my primary instrument a few years ago. I am never letting it go. Instruments are irreplaceable, especially when you are playing one whose voice made such a difference for you through a beloved teacher. 

Who was that first flute teacher?
    I have been so fortunate to have unbelievably wonderful teachers throughout my life – Bonnie Boyd during my graduate work at Eastman, Wally Kujala during my undergraduate years at Northwestern, and Frances Risdon, from age 10 through high school graduation.
    Frances was the principal flute in the Spokane Symphony for many years prior to her death in 1991 and was known to many throughout the Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho musical community as Saint Frances. To me, she was a second mother. Throughout my high school years, I remember two- and sometimes three-hour lessons punctuated by lunch and lots of conversation about the flute, flutists, and life. 
    At the time, I was distantly aware of how unusual it was to have such long lessons, but it was only in later years as I began my own teaching that I came to appreciate the full magnitude of her work. What I remember most vividly is the huge, dark and beautiful sound she played with, and that she was always yelling at me for ill-preparation, flat tapers, fluffy articulations, and imprecise rhythm.

When did you know you wanted to pursue music professionally? 
    This is something that developed in stages. I first knew I wanted to major in music during my junior year of high school. I was sitting in the All-Northwest Orchestra (a 200-member orchestra culled from the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Montana), and we were playing Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. That is obviously spectacular repertoire, but it was also the sheer volume and richness of sound created by the huge string section that provided such an extraordinary experience. To this day, I am not sure I have ever been so moved while performing. I went to Northwestern intent upon pursuing a double degree in American Literature and spent about three years of my undergraduate study taking both music and literature classes. From that point, the decision to go into music became somewhat inertia-driven, I am a little embarrassed to say. Throughout my undergraduate years, I had a fair amount of success with various music-related festivals and auditions, and the decision to go into music grew out of that, at least in part. 
    It was my time at Eastman, though, that really brought my career’s future into focus. I realized that to be happy in music, I had to perform chamber music, solo repertoire, and orchestral music. It had to be all three, or it would not be enough. In spite of that recognition, something still felt like it was missing. It was at this time I became aware of this little seed that was only sprouting but which eventually became an overwhelming life’s calling – and that was the need to make a difference in the world as a teacher of the arts working with people. I can only hope I have. What I do know is that it has been an incredible amount of fun. I spend a lot of time laughing in lessons. I am so grateful for the opportunity to do what I do and for the students who have come into my life. 

Playing with Aletheia Duo partner Ann Yeung in China.

What was it like studying with Wally Kujala and then, subsequently, with Bonita Boyd? 
    Bonnie Boyd and Wally Kujala have dramatically different teaching styles. In spite of this, both are graduates of the Eastman School of Music, and both were students of Joseph Mariano. It is a testament to their teaching that they call Mariano a primary influence but emerged with their own distinct styles. I also recall both of them saying, individually to me, that they thought their styles worked well together for students. Indeed, there were many people during my nine years of college at Northwestern and Eastman that graduated from one program and entered the other and seemed to flourish with the combination of Bonnie’s and Wally’s talents. 
    Wally is so structured in his pedagogy, writing notes from our lessons on cards in incredibly small, but impeccably neat handwriting. I always wondered what was on those cards, but the writing was so blasted small I never got a look. He told me last summer that he still has all of the cards. Given how many terrific students he has had over the years, I would bet there is some pretty interesting reading in there. 
    Among the amazing things about Wally is that if you surveyed a random group of his students and asked what he emphasized in lessons, everyone would respond differently. He is truly a teacher who has certain guiding musical principles but always taught the individual. Our lessons were all business. If I was ever a little less prepared for a lesson, I would carefully cull a set of topics to discuss as part of a larger effort to stall the lesson a bit. Wally always sniffed this out instantly, and we would be playing within ten minutes. 
    We played a lot of orchestral excerpts at Northwestern, which explains, in part, Wally’s incredible success at placing students in orchestras. His years in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made him an invaluable resource, simply for the orchestral practices behind the notes on the page. When that knowledge was combined with his extraordinary attention to rhythm, pitch, and fundamentals of style, his students really sounded great on flute and piccolo excerpts. 
    Bonnie was also remarkable for teaching us as individuals, never, insofar as I could tell, adhering to a system outside of a set of chords that she loved us to work from (and they were hard), regular practice of etudes, and preparation of solos and excerpts. Bonnie was the perfect teacher for me at that time. Wally had given me fantastic preparation on how to play excerpts as well as the principles of excellent flute playing. Bonnie unlocked the next door and showed me what was possible artistically. It was that critical step she provided that guides me to this day. Flute players have to constantly question our approach to a score, what it says, and what we want to say with it. 
    Bonnie also has an incredible ability to deal with playing problems in a musical way. She is incapable of tying a student up in knots, so holistic is her instruction. It is also significant to me that over the years I have had several of her students audition for me at Illinois, and I am just so impressed by their level of artistry. As a quick side note, I should also mention that I long considered Bonnie something of a parental figure and thought that we had a special relationship. It was over the course of many years, post-Eastman, that I came to realize she has this kind of relationship with virtually all of her students. Truly, she is a gift. 
    I worry that discussing the merits of one teacher somehow undervalues an element of what the other does. Nothing could be further from the truth. I count both as the best teachers a person could ask for and am so grateful to call both friends; and, whether they know it, they are still my mentors. Even to this day, I wake every morning driven by the knowledge that I must tackle that day’s teaching with commitment and passion. I cannot fail my own students. To do so would be to violate a sacred commitment introduced by these two spectacular pedagogues. 

University of Illinois Flute Studio, 2016

What do you consider to be your most pivotal moments in your flute education?
    The birth, individually, of my two sons. I was a very reluctant parent, and had to be persuaded to become a father by my spouse, Sue. It turns out Sue was right. Children are something else. I do not think a concert has passed since my first son was born, that at some point I have not been aware of the connection between parenthood, my love for my children, and what I am trying to communicate onstage. I have to admit this conversation is a little hard for me, as I am on the verge of losing my youngest son to college.  

Do you bring this same full-life approach to your own students? 
    I focus on the whole person. To do that, teaching becomes a question of understanding layers. Teachers have to keep track of many things simultaneously including the learning style of an individual student, what the score is telling us, and what a student’s posture says both in terms of problematic tensions as well as life struggles. Then there are what I like to refer to as the absolutes in music – rhythm, correct notes, clean runs, and intonation. If those are not attended to, ultimately the student’s professional success runs the risk of being frustrated. Finally, as anyone who works with me knows, I focus on sound. This is the audible manifestation of who we are as artists. It is the reason music exists, communicating the ineffable, and through means we will likely never know, transforming the spirit. 
    If a person’s sound is incomplete, all other elements of music making suffer. My father once told me he viewed a great lecture as having a central theme, and all of the other ideas swirl around that theme. I suppose a lesson with me is kind of like that. At the heart of every lesson, whether explicitly stated or not, lies the question of sound and its role in the music. All of the other elements swirl around that core. Sometimes we take significant excursions into rhythm, change an element of posture, and so on, but sound is always at the center.
    Having said all this, I do not teach because I love just the flute, or music. I teach because I value the possibilities music instruction has in significantly shaping a person’s life, irrespective of the career eventually pursued. I treasure teaching, and I absolutely love working with my fabulous students.

You love to talk about color while teaching, yet you are partially colorblind. 
    I did not know I was partially colorblind until I asked my infant son to “roll the black ball” across the floor to me. He responded, “Dad, it’s blue.” Of course, I thought he was being insolent. Or worse yet, perhaps he was colorblind! Although we frequently talk about color in music, this is a far more complex topic than primary colors, or even some of the non-primaries that I have trouble distinguishing between. 
    The term color in flute playing is a convenient, helpful catch-all word that is just a step toward artistic phrasing. Color in music is linked to personal experience informed by, among other things, painting, food, nature, literature, and on and on. 
    On a purely physical level, it was not until I switched to my current flute that I began to realize some of what was additionally possible with color. This flute is so gratifying for its pitch and color flexibility. Consequently, nuance and color have become a part of my vocabulary in such a way that ten years or so ago I would have never thought possible. 
    Every player has to find his or her own path on this, but the relationship between body, instrument and score are critical to this process of discovery. Beyond that, for me and my students, it is about complex vowel shapes in the mouth, and where and how we direct our air that allows us to explore metaphor, artistic narrative, and what the score says in pursuit of more colorful, meaningful artistry.

What is your favorite flute performance you have ever given?
    Perfection is an illusion, never realized but still sought. For me, performing is about enjoying the moment for what it is and constantly striving to improve. Though it may sound a little apocalyptic and tortured, I don’t have a favorite performance. I am always looking forward. It is what drives me.

What projects are you working on? 
    The Aletheia Duo is in the middle of a second recording of music for flute and harp by composers of the Americas. I am also starting to get things together for a recording of concertos by North American composers. These are both big projects, and I keep getting slowed down by day-to-day teaching, performing, and parenting. 

What is the best advice you can give to aspiring musicians and artists?
    Being an aspiring artist requires tremendous patience, singularity of focus, and the ability to step away from one’s work to see the world. My harpist colleague Ann Yeung likes to tell her students “Learn well, land well, live well.” I have always thought that seemed like pretty good advice, but I would also add “love well” to that. Practice hard, live fully, love honestly, and remain positive and professional in all facets of your career.   

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Keeble is a past president of the National Flute Association, the flutist of the Prairie Winds and the Aletheia Duo, and principal flute of the Sinfonia da Camera. During the summer, he teaches at Aria International, Madeline Island Chamber Music, the Unbridled Flutist, and the University of Illinois Pre-College Flute Seminar. He attended Northwestern University as an undergraduate where he studied with Walfrid Kujala and subsequently received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music with Bonita Boyd. His solo and chamber recordings are available on Albany Records.

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Favorite Warm-Up

    Harmonics overblown at the octave plus a 5th, and double octave are my favorite way to make sure my sound is resonating clearly and also has vertical color and projection. Begin with a low B, and overblow it to a top of the staff F#. Make sure the harmonic F# has depth of harmonic color, and does not have an overtone hiss to it. Once you achieve a rich, round sound, switch from the harmonic F# fingering to the real fingering. Move on to a low C, overblown to a top of the staff G, and repeat this. 
    Continue going up chromatically until you reach the first B above the staff, and switch your harmonic fingering to the double octave. In other words, finger a low B, and overblow it two octaves to the B above the staff. Continue going up chromatically with double octave harmonics until you reach, roughly, high F or F# (going beyond that range will only create tension and diminish some of what you’ve achieved with this exercise). 
    This exercise is also really useful for ensuring your vibrato fully resonates inside your sound’s core. To work on this, perform the warm-up discussed above, but now introduce vibrato. Your vibrato should oscillate down, into the sound’s lower harmonic (e.g. if you are fingering a low B, overblown to an F#, you should hear the low B as part of the bottom of the vibrato’s oscillation). The upper part of the vibrato’s oscillation should push ever so slightly against the top of the sound’s core, creating a round, harmonically rich core that has well-integrated spin.

Advice for College Auditions
1. Make a wonderful first impression. Research suggests that people make assessments within the first 45 seconds and then spend the rest of the audition backing up that judgment.

2. Have ready answers to the most likely topics or questions an auditioner might ask. More significant questions can be, “Why are you interested in this school?” “What makes you want to be a performer?” A question I dislike, but my students frequently report hearing is, “What other programs are you applying to,” and “Are we your top choice?”

3. Have questions to ask as well. Assess the program you are applying for just as you are being assessed – does the auditioner show evidence of real care for the program and the students? Will the teacher be there for a while? Is the program stable? How many lessons do you get per semester, and are they with the principal teacher?

4. When you have returned home, email and ask for the email addresses of a few enrolled students to get a sense of the climate of the studio and program. In that email, be sure to thank the auditioner for his or her time.

5. Don’t overly emphasize finances in the audition itself – focus on people (faculty and students) and music. That can be handled later.

6. If the auditioner contacts you, be sure to respond in a timely and professional manner. To that end, be sure to check your email daily before, during, and after the audition season.

7. Research the audition setting before going. Will you be playing for more than one person? Will it be in a recital space, classroom, or an office? Who will you be playing for? All of these questions will help you mentally prepare for the audition.

8. If a prescreening recording is required, plan every element of the recording process well in advance. This includes reserving a room with a good recording acoustic; making sure the piano is tuned within a day of the recording; and having a good and reliable recording device. Be sure to perform your repertoire before recording it.

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