I was very proud of my dad. He was a darned fine clarinetist, a pro since the age of 14, who played under the batons of such diverse but equally demanding leaders as Jimmy Dorsey, Fritz Reiner and even Merle Evans – the latter two being the directors of the Chicago Symphony and the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus Band, respectively. My dad was so good that one of the great ivory ticklers of the century, Artur Rubenstein, once halted proceedings mid-rehearsal to announce to Fritz and company that my father rendered “the most beautiful tone” he had “ever heard from a clarinet.” 
    Like many lads, I emulated my hero and prevailed upon Dad to teach me music. Naturally, the clarinet was my first choice of instrument. However, it was vetoed on the grounds that the intrusive mouthpiece would compromise the anatomical craftsmanship of Dr. Earl Shepard, my orthodontist. Instead, Dad bought me a flute; an instrument upon which he doubled and posed no particular danger to my wire-bound dental assembly. I admit to being somewhat miffed since I viewed the flute as “girly” and played only by such creatures as the mousy, stringy-haired lass named Nancy across the street. My disappointment was assuaged a bit, however, when I was actually presented with the shiny, new Artley (chosen because my dad actually knew Don Artley). For that matter, my view of Nancy brightened considerably in later years.
    My father undertook his tutorial task seriously, grounding me thoroughly in arcane music theory while warning me against undue expectations of virtuosity and briefing me frankly on the considerable rigors of a professional musician’s life. While he didn’t discourage me openly from a tootling career, he made it clear that he’d prefer I pursue almost any other line of work when I came of age.
    Under Dad’s kind but uncompromisingly exacting mentorship over the next few years, I became a pretty good flutist, but far from the gifted specimen that he was. He cast a long shadow. I did okay in competitions – usually placing third or fourth – but could never approach the airy brightness and facile fingering of the unsmiling, snooty young women who, inevitably, took the top honors. I got discouraged.
    The final blow came after I joined a local chamber music group and fell under the spell of a gorgeous and quite accomplished young cellist in the ensemble named Rose. After several weeks of sitting near her, watching the fluid flow of her bow arm and the phrase-accentuating tossing of her auburn tresses, I screwed up my courage and asked her timidly for a date. She was the first female I had ever approached with such a stomach churning request.
    The foray was disastrous. Rose refused without even bothering to invent a lame excuse for denying my wish. I was crushed but, knowing of her artistic perfectionism, I chose to blame my lack of musical rather than social skills for the declination. Now viewing the flute as a happiness-crippling adversary, I thrust it aside for several decades. Though I vaguely considered unearthing it from time to time, family, career and other more dynamic pursuits kept me from assembling its three bits again. Eventually, I gave the flute away to a niece.
    Not long ago, however, an evening of tapping toes to the joyful noise from a fiddle, tin whistle and bodhran trio in an Irish-themed pub got me to thinking fondly of making music again. Impetuously, and perhaps influenced a bit by beer, I logged onto eBay that very night and bid successfully on a sight-unseen old Artley Wilkins Model. (Apparently, a sentimental attachment to the brand lingered).
    While I waited anxiously for the United States Postal Service to lay my new acquisition upon my stoop, I set about inspiring myself by listening to some masters of the instrument. I had been out of the flute loop for so long that I thought James Galway was still the latest and greatest young artist among us (even though I’d shaken hands with the greybeard master after a concert in York, Pennsylvania a couple of years before). I was aware that Jean-Pierre Rampal and Julius Baker had long since departed for the great stage in the sky, but I had never even heard of Emmanuel Pahud. For that matter, looking over a roster of contemporary virtuosos left me with the same blank feeling I have when I review a Today’s Birthdays list of popular entertainers in the morning paper. 
    At any rate, with the aid of You Tube, I rapidly became familiar with, and in awe of, such transverse luminaries as Pahud, of course, plus Nina Perlove and Rhonda Larson. I also discovered the intriguing beatbox artist, Greg Patillo.
    Duly inspired, I ordered a method book. Once again, I referenced the distant past. What I obtained was an insanely expensive copy of the Altes Method, Vol. 1. This thing, like most of the instructional manuals I remembered from my youth (other than the blue Rubank Elementary school band book my father disdained) was a 19th century relic. Not fun. Ernest Wagner’s Foundation to Flute Playing was a step forward chronologically but still wasn’t terrifically attractive to someone like me who had graduated to the “music doesn’t have to be a slavish chore” school of thought. I then got a copy of William Kincaid’s mid-20th century tome, The Art and Practice of Modern Flute Technique. It was distinctly more enjoyable and is the book that got me started again although I later moved on to other resources as well.  
    Once my flute arrived – okay, once it arrived again after a needed overhaul – I set about retraining. I figured the most challenging task would be reforming and fine tuning my embouchure. I was wrong. That would come later. First, I had to work on the literal foundation of playing. Although I am in pretty fine shape for an oldster, I found standing and holding the instrument in proper form rather wearying after about a half hour. That seemed ridiculous given the fact that the flute is among the most lightweight of all orchestral instruments, but there I was with aching upper arms and a mildly stiff neck. I concluded that part of my discomfort was being precipitated by a lack of oxygen. My upper body muscles weren’t being properly nourished, I figured because I was forgetting to breathe. I got so wrapped up in trying to remember proper fingerings – especially the opening of that pesky D# key – and producing something resembling a decent tone and tonguing with some semblance of synchronization, that I was inhaling inconsistently and with shallow breaths. Once I spent a week or so concentrating on reacquainting myself with my diaphragm, my aches largely disappeared. (Of course, that could also have been due to the coincidental toning of my muscles). 
    My embouchure was still a limp mess. In fact, it is still iffy at times on upper middle register notes (like B and C, for some reason). So, I next began a curriculum of critical self-analysis and lip-pursing experimentation to correct the cracking and fluffing that were the hallmarks of my musical efforts. I still don’t have the unerring accuracy of tone production that I would like and the whole idea of introducing subtle coloring into my playing is laughable at this stage, but I’m working on it.
    I am not beating myself over the head about a failure to achieve perfection these days. In fact, though I have yet to even approach my level of teenage playing, I am having a ball. Flute playing is an enjoyable hobby now, not a quest. I regard my flutes – I have four of them today – as collectible toys. My Artley has been joined by a gorgeous Jack-Moore-era Armstrong Heritage, a surprisingly vintage Haynes-like 1940s coin silver Selmer and, most lately, an 1880s simple system or “Irish” blackwood flute. I plan to employ the wooden flute in the study of liberally ornamented Celtic music (the inspiration for my return to music), facilitated in part by Matt Molloy recordings and a terrifically entertaining text for any flutist, Grey Larsen’s The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle, a volume I discovered online.
    And that brings me to a final “then and now” observation. The whole world of flutes, flute study and flute playing is much sunnier now than it was 40 years ago. Flutes themselves have improved dramatically. As has been stated many times by many people, a top-shelf student or intermediate flute of today can be the equal of a pro model of yesteryear. While the premium and most prestigious hand-built models are still well beyond the reach of most of us, a really good instrument that easily meets the needs and desires of adult amateurs can be within our grasp. Additionally, resources for learning are prolific and joyfully available now. Through online videos, I have learned phrasing and breathing techniques from Emmanuel Pahud, and embouchure control from James Galway. I have viewed masterclasses by some of the most formidable artists around the globe and been inspired by many others, pro and amateur; none of whom I could have heard let alone seen just a few years ago.  
     There are still moments and even entire evenings of struggle and frustration as I strive to re-learn my old craft, but with a new, relaxed outlook, a nothing to lose attitude, and all the toys and tools for learning and entertainment available currently, I am, all in all, having a blast. It’s great to be back.
                   Thanks, Dad. 

The post Back in the Flute Loop appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

The Atlanta Flute Club
    Warren Little, former principal flutist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra started the first Atlanta Flute Club in 1976. The first iteration of the Atlanta Flute Club lasted only until 1978, but during that time guest artists from the New York Philha-rmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra came to Atlanta. Concerts were given by local members and Julius Baker came down to give a masterclass.
    Approximately twenty years later, Amy Porter, who at that time was assistant principal flute with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Program Chair for the 1999 NFA Convention in Atlanta, reactivated flute club with several founding members in preparation for hosting the convention. The club has remained active since 1998, organizing programs for their members, who include amateurs, professionals, and students of all ages.
    The first Atlanta Flute Fair was held on March 28, 1998, at Kennesaw State University, and officers were elected at the flute fair. The Flute Fair featured a masterclass with Amy Porter, a flute choir reading session conducted by Kathy Farmer, and exhibits. The fair concluded with a gala recital given by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Flutists. Each ASO flutist played a solo piece and the grand finale was the entire section playing two quartets.
    Beginning with the second flute fair, student members of the club submitted recordings to be accepted into two Honors Flute Choirs and performed an afternoon concert at the fair. In 2001, a Young Artist Competition was added. In addition to the annual flute fair, the Atlanta Flute Club has sponsored events including an All-State Workshop and Reading Session, members’ recitals, and a Pedagogy Round-Table Discussion Group.
    The Atlanta Flute Club’s website contains information about membership, upcoming activities, newsletters, and other resources. The newsletters are archived on the website back to 2004, providing historical background for the club and are rich with photos from events.

The Chicago Flute Club
    Interestingly, before the Chicago Flute Club was founded, a different and unrelated Chicago Flute Society was in existence in Chicago. The Chicago Flute Society was essentially an amateur flute choir that enjoyed a successful and long existence before disbanding. In 1988, however, several flutists were working together in the pit orchestra for The Nutcracker at Chicago’s Arie Crown Theater and talked about creating a place to discuss the flute and flute pedagogy outside of work. Sarah Cifani was the club’s first president.
    The Chicago Flute Club has a stated mission as “a community of flutists in the greater Chicago area that fosters the highest artistic potential of all its members through teaching, listening, and performing.” Since its beginning, the Chicago Flute Club has brought many flute-related events of interest to its membership and the general public. The first event of club was a recital and lecture by Walfrid Kujala on October 1, 1989, and the club has been busy ever since.
    Masterclasses and recitals with internationally recognized artists are part of the club’s typical programming. The club hosts annual competitions with monetary awards for students and adults and member showcases. From 1998 to 2007, the club hosted annual flute fairs that were one-day events. Beginning with the 2007 fair, the event was changed to a biennial two-day festival, with a Friday evening awards banquet. They also have workshops and demonstrations, including Teachers’ Exchanges.
    The club has commissioned new works, including Martin Amlin’s Sonata No. 2 for Flute and Piano in 2004 and Lita Grier’s Echoes Over Time for flute quartet in 2009. They are currently planning two commissions, one for flute and piano and one for flute choir, for their twenty-fifth anniversary.
    The 2012-2013 season of the Chicago Flute Club is already full of exciting events and more are likely to be added. Member Showcases will be held on January 27 and May 19, and both include a flute choir reading by the attendees. The finals for the Walfrid Kujala International Piccolo Artist Competition will be held on March 14, and a World Concert of flute and guitar music will be presented on April 14 by the Caliendo Duo, sponsored in part by Muramatsu America. To stay informed on events with the Chicago Flute Club, visit and find them on Facebook.

Greater Portland Flute Society
    The Greater Portland Flute Society was founded in 1979 and has remained active ever since. They are a non-profit organization with a stated mission “to provide a time and place for flutists to meet, exchange ideas, gain performance experience, play in ensembles and generally promote and enhance flute playing in the Greater Portland Area.” Led by a 30-member volunteer board of directors, the society hosts  acclaimed artists for recitals and masterclasses, maintains a music library with free use for their members, publishes a newsletter four to six times per year, hosts an annual flute fair, and supports aspiring flutists through scholarship programs, flute choirs, instrument loan programs, and volunteering in the schools.
    The Greater Portland Flute Society serves its flute community in several unusual ways. To provide flutists an opportunity to play the larger flutes, it owns a bass and an alto flute that are available for loan to members for a small daily charge. Each April the society hosts a Flute Fair that attracts up to 400 flutists from the region. Participants attend sessions, masterclasses, and flute choir reading sessions. During the 2011 Flute Fair, Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, assistant principal flute with the Oregon Symphony, organized a performance of Charles Koechlin’s Chants de Nectaire with professional flutists from the Portland area. Finally, the information-packed Greater Portland Flute Society website, , features a calendar, flute teacher list, flutes for sale, lending library, list of recommended accompanists, recent newsletters, links to pictures of events, recommended flute-related links, membership information, and information on upcoming events. 

The San Diego Flute Guild
    Like with the Atlanta Flute Club, the San Diego Flute Guild was created to host a NFA convention. With just six members in 1987, the San Diego Flute Guild hosted the 1988 NFA convention. It has grown since then to include over 300 students, adults, and professional flutists. Led by a board of directors of approximately fifteen people, it is a volunteer organization dedicated to supporting and encouraging the growth and development of flutists of all ages and levels of ability. The Guild provide opportunities for education, performance, social interaction, and the advancement of pedagogy to their membership and to the San Diego flute and music community at large. One of its missions is to increase outreach to coordinate with other music clubs and associations in the United States and abroad.
    It hosts many events and activities throughout the year, but the largest is the Spring Flute Festival. The festival includes grade-level festival competitions, Young Artist competitions, The Artist Gold competition (open to all ages), as well as a guest artist who adjudicates the Artist Gold Competition and offers a masterclass and a concert performance.
    A five-day summer flute camp is open to flutists of all ages. Flute camp activities include warm-ups, ensembles, sightreading, special guest presenters, and workshops. San Diego Flute Guild teachers are invited to teach classes or volunteer in other ways to help the flute camp run smoothly.
    Besides the spring festival and summer camp, the flute guild hosts a holiday flute choir concert, a duet and ensemble competition, a chamber music festival for ensembles containing at least one flutist, and a fall members’ recital. Dates for each event are posted on the website. The guild also has a scholarship program with awards available for flute study, instruments, or other aspects of music education.
    The San Diego Flute Guild’s website , includes a teacher directory, accompanist list, and pdf files of newsletters back to 2006.

The Texas Flute Society
    The Texas Flute Society began as the Texas Flute Club in 1974 as an effort to bring flutists and flute lovers of all ages in the North Texas community together. Approximately twenty people attended the first meeting of the club, and at the end of its first year, a small string orchestra was hired to accompany area flutists at an inaugural concert. In the first several years the club initiated meetings on flute-related topics and their well-known annual Flute Festival. In 1983, the club changed its name to the Texas Flute Society.
    The current mission of the Texas Flute Society is to further the activities and education of flutists in North Central Texas; to sponsor concerts, workshops, clinics, masterclasses, and festivals at which members and guest artists can perform and disseminate information; and to direct efforts toward cultural and educational values in and for the general community, striving for activities with a public interest wider than that of members and contributors. In 1979 the Texas Flute Club served as the hosts for the NFA annual convention at the Hotel Adolphus in Dallas.
    Perhaps their most important event is the annual flute festival. Under the leadership of Myrna Brown, the third president of the Texas Flute Club, the first festival was held in November 1977, the fourth year of the club’s existence, and attracted 100 attendees. Albert Tipton was the guest artist, and the focus of that first festival was the Baroque period. Currently, the festival attracts over 1,500 flutists.
    In addition to the annual festival, now held each May, the Texas Flute Society sponsors a fall and a spring event. They include panels, performances, and masterclasses by renowned artists and teachers. Two competitions are sponsored by the Texas Flute Society, both of which occur in conjunction with the festival. The prestigious Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition is open to all flutists with no age limit. In addition to cash prizes, the winner is invited to appear as a guest artist at the next Texas Flute Festival. The Donna Marie Haire Young Artist Competition is open to all high school flutists, grades 9 through 12, or equivalent, who are between the ages of 14 and 19 during that academic year. The winners of the competition receive cash prizes to further their flute studies.
    The Texas Flute Society’s website, , includes links to the club’s history, membership information, a detailed list of officers, a directory of teachers, archived newsletters, events listings, and links that might interest members. Throughout the society’s existence, the leadership has endeavored to keep the original goals of the club in mind: to provide a place for flutists of all ages and abilities to perform and learn more about the instrument, and to provide first-class performances for all music lovers.
   
    Flute clubs continue to provide opportunities for masterclasses, flute festivals, performance, competition, scholarship, and the creation of new works for flute. Look in your area to see if a flute club already exists and get involved. If one is not available, gather some hard-working flutists and start one of your own.

Special thanks to Phyllis Avidan Louke (Greater Portland Flute Society), Meg Griffith (Texas Flute Society), Tammy Yonce (Atlanta Flute Club), Teresa Muir (Chicago Flute Club), and Cindy Anne Broz (San Diego Flute Club), who graciously shared information on the flute clubs covered in this article.

The post The Development of Flute Clubs in America, Part 2 appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Ann Marie Yasinitsky
    My approach to solving technical passages employs changing the rhythms, varying the articulations, and shifting the beamings of the notes. These practice methods are so amazing that I tell my students I will give them their money back if they do not work. I have never had to refund anyone.
    To illustrate this method, look at the following excerpt from Chant de Linos by Andre Jolivet at two bars before letter L. Chant de Linos is a powerful tour de force and contains several passages with well-known finger twisters.

Linger and Go
    Play the passage lingering on the first note of the triplets. Repeat, lingering on the second note and then finally on the third note of the triplet.

4,3,2,1
    This passage is slurred so practice it all tongued. (Conversely if a passage is tongued, change it to all slurred.) First tongue each note four times, double tongued. Repeat tonguing each note three times, then two times, and finally once. This repetitive tonguing has slowed the passage note-wise, and programs the notes and fingerings into your memory. An added bonus is that you will have practiced double and triple tonguing as well.
    Next, practice the passage with different articulation patterns of slurring and tonguing. (Slur 2, tongue 2; Tongue 2, slur 2; Slur 3, tongue 1; tongue 1, slur 3 etc.)

Beamings
    Since this passage is beamed or grouped in threes, change the beaming to group the notes by fours. Play the first four notes adding a pause after the four notes (chunking). Repeat chunking by fours throughout the passage. Then beam and chunk the passage by fives, sixes, etc. I find that by changing the note groupings, I hear the passage in new ways. It is an interesting and enlightening exercise. It also solidifies the pitches in your ear as well.
    After even one practice session, the execution of this difficult passage will be much improved. If practiced this way every day for a week, you will master the passage.

    Ann Marie Yasinitsky is Clinical Associate Professor of Flute and Coordinator of Woodwinds at Washington State University. She has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician throughout the U.S. and Europe and has released numerous acclaimed CDs on various labels including The Musical Heritage Society and Vienna Modern Masters. Yasinitsky was the recipient of a Solo recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and received a “Special Commendation” award in the Vienna Modern Master’s International Performers Recording Competition.

* * * *

Annette Farrington
    This year I am fortunate enough to be playing in a really fine community orchestra, the Penfield  Symphony Orchestra. Upon receiving the folder of music for the first concert I found it contained none other than Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. I only had a few weeks to improve the weakest area of my playing – high, fast tonguing. The following excerpt is one that required some careful practice techniques.

    Before working on the excerpt, I began with a good warm-up containing harmonics starting on a fundamental note slurring to the octave, then to the fifth. Since this excerpt is mostly scale patterns, I also played five-note scales, slurred, in the third octave to set the lips and fingers for high note work.
    At this point, I turned my attention to the excerpt itself, continuing to slur everything. Beginning in measure 8 of Variation A, at a slow tempo I played each measure separately with rests in between them (chunking), then I added the first note of the next measure to that group, then, finally, playing all the way through to determine the best places to mark the breath. Slurring allowed me to work on tone and concentrate on the amount and speed of air needed for this passage.
    At this point, I could no longer avoid the articulation, so I played in chunks again using a breath attack (ha) on each note, followed by a forward tongue stroke (T), then a back tongue stroke (K). My goal was to keep the tone the same as it was while slurring, so occasionally I would return to slurring groups as a reminder for proper air direction. Finally, I played the chunks at a faster pace with double tonguing increasing the tempo on the metronome each time through. After this, I would take a break and come back at a later time to try the excerpt in its entirety again making a note of what still needed work for the next day’s practice session.
    I dedicated about 15 minutes on this each day until the performance, and judging by the smiles on the conductor’s face at the end of the piece, all that work must have paid off. I am now looking forward to our less stressful holiday program!

    Annette B. Farrington teaches flute at Nazareth College in Pittsford, New York, and has a private studio in Brighton, New York. She frequently performs in the Rochester area  and plays with the Penfield Symphony Orchestra, the Perinton Concert Band, the Wilmot Wind Quintet, Cordancia, and the Flower City Society Orchestra. Farrington has been a board member of the Rochester Flute Association serving as President, Newsletter Editor, and Corporate Membership Director.

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Cristina Ballatori
    From learning the first scales and arpeggios to refining Taffanel & Gaubert, Reichert, and Moyse exercises, flutists devote many hours working to improve technique. Despite these diligent efforts, all of us encounter difficult or awkward technical passages that drive us to throw up our hands in frustration (and occasionally run through the halls of the practice building screaming). Three of my favorite strategies for tackling these types of passages include transposing the passages at sight, chunking, and a technique I refer to as Read It, Hear It, Feel It, Sing It, and Play It.

Transpose: Make It Harder for Yourself?
    Transposing difficult passages up or down by a half step, whole step, or other interval, at sight, is one of the most useful techniques that I have incorporated into my own practice and work with students. If you are not accustomed to transposing, the process of thinking through the transposition of each note in the passage while playing, without transcribing it first, can be very challenging. This technique, like others such as varying rhythms and playing a passage backwards, works well because it allows you to approach the passage from a fresh perspective. This helps you work around and through ingrained blocks while improving facility. After spending time transposing on the spot, a return to the original passage will seem much easier in comparison and problems have often been resolved. The following example from the first movement of Robert Muczynski’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, Op. 14, illustrates this concept.

Transpose Up ½ Step

Transpose Down ½ Step

One Note at a Time, One Measure at a Time, One Phrase at a Time
    A second technique that is very effective for learning and practicing technical passages is chunking, also known in my studio as the One Note at a Time exercise. Deliberate, focused attention while practicing is especially important in the mastery of difficult technical passages. Too often, flutists blister through technical passages without hearing or thinking about what they are doing; the result is poor accuracy and sloppy technique. This practice method forces you to focus your attention on each note of the passage, taking the time to hear the pitches in your mind’s ear before producing a tone, and imagining the feel of the note in your body before moving the fingers. Experiment with this technique using the previous example.

1. Set your metronome to a comfortable tempo and subdivide in sixteenths, eighths, or quarters.
2. Play downbeat 1 + 2nd note only, followed by a rest.

3. Play downbeat 1 + 2nd, 3rd notes only, followed by a rest
4. Play downbeat 1 + 2nd, 3rd and 4th notes only, followed by a rest
5. Play downbeat 1 + 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and downbeat 2
6. Continue adding one note at a time until you have finished the measure and then add next measure in same way, repeating steps 1-6.
    Once you have worked through the exercise adding one note at a time, expand your focus and continue to work adding one measure at a time and one phrase at a time until the passage feels secure.

Read It, Hear It, Feel It, Sing It, and Play It
    My absolute favorite technique for learning new music and conquering the most stubborn technical passages is a process that I refer to as Read It, Hear It, Feel It, Sing It, and Play It. Most technical difficulties on the flute are resolved when approached with deliberate effort and critical ears. The process outlined below requires you to do a great deal of sensory work away from the instrument, engaging the brain and ears in a way that repetitive drilling does not.

1. Read through the pitch names in the passage out loud, without pausing or stopping, as if you are reading out loud from a book. When you read through the passage, be sure to say the exact note names as you read them out loud. For example, if you see the pitch “Eb” say “E Flat” out loud when you read this pitch. As you read through the passage out loud, you may find sections that you are unable to read without stumbling. These sections often coincide with points where you encounter difficulty when performing the passage on the instrument. This step provides the opportunity to carefully process what is actually written on the page, helping you to learn the passage accurately the first time while identifying potential problem areas in the passage before you learn them incorrectly on your instrument.

2. Read the pitch names in the passage out loud, without pausing or stopping, while you imagine fingering the notes on the flute and performing them with your most beautiful tone.

3. Read the note names in the passage out loud, without pausing or stopping, while physically fingering the notes on your instrument.

4. Read the note names in the passage out loud while you alternate saying the note names at a piano or forte dynamic and phrasing as if you are having a conversation.

5. Hear the pitches in your mind’s ear as you imagine how it feels to play the notes on the flute.

6. Hear the pitches in your mind’s ear as you physically finger the notes on the instrument.

7. Repeat each of the above steps (1-6) in rhythm with the metronome set at a tempo where you can accomplish each of the steps with accuracy and ease, gradually increasing the speed as you become more confident in your performance of each step.

8. Sing the passage while fingering the notes on your instrument, in rhythm with the metronome.

9. Play the passage on your instrument in rhythm with the metronome.
    There are many effective strategies for improving your practice of technical practice. Those outlined above are a few that have worked extraordinarily well for me and my students.

    Cristina Ballatori serves as Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Texas at Brownsville. Her teachers include Alexa Still, Peter Lloyd, Katherine Kemler, Judith Lapple, and Diane Smith.

* * * *

Cindy Anne Broz
    Sometimes one stubborn glitch can throw a whole passage off. Once you identify that glitch, you can telescope in and fix that one spot, which might be only 1 or 2 notes. The first step is to identify the problem. If you become accustomed to a passage being problematic, then anticipatory anxiety can build up, distracting your focus through the preceding passages, perhaps even lingering after you have mastered the passage. The second step is to fix the glitch, often resolving the flow of the entire passage. Learn to listen carefully to identify glitches. Sometimes it is quite helpful to have another musician listen, as they might hear a problem that you (playing something highly technical) cannot identify.

Play Fast Passages Like a Ballade
    To understand a passage’s melodic contour or horizontal line and express its musicality in a fast piece such as Flash! by Daniel Dorff, play it like a ballade to express the shape and develop phrasing nuances such as subtle dynamic contours or articulation contrasts. When you play a passage slowly, you develop better musical understanding and muscle memory. This ultimately allows you to easily increase the speed of the piece. You also develop phrasing memory through which the little nuances developed at the slow ballade tempo will remain present at the faster concert tempo. This means that you retain musicality rather than merely succeeding at the passagework. Playing a fast technical passage with lyrical expression is the extra dividend of practicing in this manner.

Five Penny
    We tend to visualize intervals grouped as the beats or beams fall, sometimes obscuring where the challenging connections are. The 4×4 grouping in bar 143 in the following example leads us to think about the 1st note leading to the 2nd, and the 3rd to the 4th; however, mentally grouping by ascending pairs: C – Db, Ab – Bb, F – Ab, Db – F, etc., may provide a more facile option. Put five pennies on the left side of your stand, and play a difficult passage using different rhythms and articulations. Repeat each variant five times. Each time you play the practice phrase successfully, move a penny from the left side of the stand to the right. If you make a mistake in a particular variant, all the pennies go back to the left side of the stand. This was taught to me by Julius Baker who stated, “There is a speed at which you can play this section accurately. Find that speed, and work it out.”

    Cindy Anne Broz is an active flutist, piccoloist, and pedagogue based in Southern California. For further information visit: www.cindyannebroz.com

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Pam Youngblood
    The following passage is measures 89 through 91 of the first movement of the Lowell Liebermann Flute Concerto. The tempo is half note =72. This passage is challenging for several reasons because of the high range of the notes, the quick tempo, the fast tonguing, and the heavy accents.

Chunking
    To learn the notes, play four notes followed by a rest or pause (Chunking).

Rhythms
    Practice the passage in the following two rhythms to develop fluency of technique.



A Chunk Plus One
    Practice the four-note chunk adding one more note as a landing note. When starting again after the rest, the previous final note becomes your new first note. This technique facilitates smooth navigation from one group to the next.

    Pam Youngblood is professor and department chair at Texas Woman’s University, principal flutist with the Wichita Falls Symphony, founder and conductor of the Brookhaven and TWU flute choirs, and NFA Professional Flute Choir Coordinator. She has recorded two CDs Wind Song: New American Music for flute and piano and Sparkle and Wit: International Treasures for flute and piano on the Azica label.

Conclusion
    As you explore these techniques in your own practice, remember that almost every flutist has the same problem in the same place in the same music. However, the flutist who finds a creative solution to solve this problem will be the one who has a successful concert or audition outcome.

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     The dynamics seem to follow the natural rise and fall of the melody and get louder as the melody goes up, much as a vocalist would naturally inflect the line. Do not exaggerate the crescendo/diminuendo markings as it distorts this natural flow.
     Movement 4, The Brisk Young Sailor, makes quite a case for practicing Bb major arpeggio patterns on a daily basis. The tempo is indeed quite brisk (about q = 104). The pattern in the second and third measures seems to be the most awkward. Practice it in small sections and do not linger over the first two notes (wide intervals in the pattern). It is helpful to practice the third and fourth notes, and sixth and first notes in pairs since they are also non-tertian patterns.

     The thirds are more natural arpeggio patterns and are likely more familiar in muscle memory.
     The fifth movement, Lord Melbourne, contains another piccolo solo that features 21⁄24 time. Keep the eighth note pulse constant and watch the conductor carefully during the sixteenth-note passages that are marked fast as you will take a slight accelerando here.

     The final movement, The Lost Lady Found, is a dance that is conducted and felt in one.

     The theme is presented at the beginning of the movement in a rather rustic and separated style. At rehearsal 50, the piccolo solo presents the same simple melody in a legato style. Gently tongue the repeated quarter-notes that occur so to hear the lilt of this melody (the articulation will happen on beat 2). Note that the dynamic is piano at 50. At 66, when the orchestration changes, the dynamic moves up to mp.
     Grainger dedicated the work to “the old folksingers who sang so sweetly to me.” He also wrote a two piano/four hand version of the suite.              

Percy Grainger
1882-1961   

     Percy Grainger was born in Australia. At age 13 he moved to Frankfurt to attend the Hoch Conservatory. He later went to London where he performed as a pianist and composer.

   Grainger had been nothing less than a smashing success ever since the start of his European pianistic career in 1901, and tours to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Norway, and Denmark, together with his steady emergence as a composer, had made him an outstanding young musical personality. (Frederick Fennell)

     Grainger left England in 1914 for the United States to avoid the war raging in Europe. He had become interested in preserving and recording English folk songs in the preceding years.

   Grainger did most of his folk song collecting in rural England during the summer months…. These folk song journeys began in the summer of 1905 with Grainger seeking out his sources by walking on foot from town to town, music pad in hand. He would hastily write down in his own kind of musical shorthand what he had heard, spending his evenings at the local inn transcribing the day’s discoveries. Skillful though he became at this, it bothered him that he could not immediately chart the subtleties of inflection that fascinated him so much in the highly personal interpretation of each singer…
   On his next visit to North Lincolnshire in 1906, he fulfilled his desire to be 100% faithful to those he called “Kings and Queens of Song” by taking along one of Thomas Edison’s new cylinder-disc phonographs.

    Excerpts from “Percy Aldridge Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy, An Interpretive Analysis” by Frederick Fennell, The Instrumentalist, May 1980.

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