Use a Mirror
    While looking in a mirror, change your facial expression from happy to sad. Focus on the movement of the facial muscles. The ideal approach to piccolo playing is to express happiness with all the muscles above the mouth and sadness with the mouth and jaw muscles. It is helpful to spend time examining the movement of the facial muscles as you switch from happy to sad. Remember when you are playing in an orchestra, things will happen that interfere with your ability to keep the happy/sad face. Perhaps the conductor is stern, the notes are unfamiliar, the lighting is poor, or the tempo is not comfortable. No matter what the distraction, learn to control your face.

Happy Throat Exercise
    Place the right finger tips on your neck directly above the sternum. As you change from happy to sad, feel the movement of the muscles of the throat. Then while playing piccolo, apply the new positioning of the neck muscles to your advantage. You will hear a positive effect on the piccolo sound, and intonation will improve.

Embouchure
    Good air support is an important part of controlling the sound when playing flute or piccolo. However, forming the embouchure is even more important for piccolo players. Contrary to what happens when playing the flute, in order to play the piccolo with a nice sound, the aperture must be smaller. Flutists who have practiced intelligently to develop a flute embouchure find their way more easily on the piccolo because they have already developed an awareness of the muscles of the embouchure. I believe the upper lip plays an even bigger role in piccolo playing than in flute playing.
    A good exercise is to position your right thumb on the red portion of upper lip at the place of your aperture. With the thumb in place, try to push the thumb down and out of the way with your upper lip. Do not release the tension in your thumb. This exercise will help you learn to use your upper lip effectively.

Vibrato
    A majority of professional piccolo players unfortunately adapt their flute vibrato habits to the piccolo. The best piccolo players develop a specific vibrato for piccolo use. Generally a piccolo vibrato is a little faster and narrower than a flute vibrato. Care has to be taken to maintain control of the vibrato. Imagine what would happen to a cellist if he played with a violin vibrato speed all the time. The best way to develop a good piccolo vibrato is to play melodies of all different types and styles of music. Transpose these melodies up the scale to assess the variety of colors that happen in different parts of the range. Listen to recordings of artists and imitate their vibrato habits.

Articulation
    Tonguing on the piccolo is different than tonguing on the flute. On the piccolo the tip of the tongue is placed higher toward the red part of the gum just above the teeth. When I ask students to do this, I notice they have a tendency to relax the upper lip. A good thing to remember: tongue up, upper lip down. Explore other tongue placements also, but do not lose control of the upper lip.

Soft Attacks
    When playing piccolo, you will start more notes with the breath attack (without using your tongue) than when playing flute. To find a nice soft color, use a “P” (with the lips and no tongue) attack to start the note followed with a “FFF” sound to find the air stream. Use vibrato to sweeten the sound. Practice this attack on each chromatic note from C5 to C6. This articulation is perfect for soft beginnings such as the Ravel Bolero, Stravinsky Firebird and the second movement of the Vivaldi piccolo concerto.

Fingers
    The first step to a good finger technique is to adapt your fingers to the smaller instrument. With the instrument held in front of you, practice alternating from D5 to E6 keeping the movement of the ring finger and pinkie very small. Check to see if there is any movement of the headjoint while doing this. If there is, use your left index finger to stabilize the piccolo. The better your control of the right ring and pinkie fingers, the more relaxed your left index finger can become.

Image
    Return to the mirror to check your progress on all these technical aspects of piccolo playing. Practicing flute repertoire on the piccolo is an excellent way to discover how much progress you have made in developing piccolo skills. Don’t forget to have fun playing this little gem of an instrument every day.            

The post On Playing Piccolo appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Three Choices of Tempo
    If playing in three at a fast tempo, the conductor will conduct in a beat pattern of one, taking a complete measure in one gesture. This conducting pattern will often offer a hint of where beats two and three are. The accent or inflection is on the first beat. If the tempo is quite slow, then the conductor will subdivide the beats 1+, 2+, 3+. In this tempo, the first beat is strong, the second less strong, and the third is weak. However, if the tempo is moderate all three beats will be conducted.

The Long Notes 
    One of the first problems students encounter in playing in three is the long notes. In 3/4 the long note (one that fills a measure) is the dotted half-note. Often students will play the long note through three and then linger another beat where the fourth beat would be in 4/4 meter because they are unused to the asymmetrical nature of the measure. Counting aloud while a student plays or making up words (Here we go; Step, tip, toe) may solve this problem.

Teaching the Waltz
    In the Baroque, the meters of four beats ( 4/2 , c=common time, 12/4 , 12/8 , and  12/16) and two beats (C, 2/1, 2/4, 2/8, 2/16, 6/4, 6/8) were commonly used; however, meters of three offered fewer options (3/1, 3/2, 3/4, 3/8). This may be because music of the Baroque was primarily used for dancing and since we have two feet, the meters in two or four beats were simply easier to dance to than meters in three. Of course over time, all of the early Baroque dances became stylized and were intended more for listening rather than dancing so writing in three became more common. Compositions of the Baroque period that were written in three included lullabies, plaints, graves, courantes, passacaglias, chaconnes, sarabands, and minuets among others.
    Teaching students how to waltz is a challenge in itself because to do this correctly the patterning of the feet is left, right, left and then right, left, right. This alternation is confusing to many and will have to be drilled until they can visualize this alternation. Unlike many dances (or moves in marching band, where the feet move alternately left, right), learning to alternate the leading foot can be a challenge. While waltzing, I first have students say, “Right, left, right. Left, right, left” a few times to be sure they have the idea before moving their feet. Then once they have the idea, have them say: “Step, tip, toe.” The helps the student learn to inflect the beats properly for 3/4, where the first beat is strong, the next less strong, and the three is weak.

Scanning Poetry
    When many of us were in grade school, we studied poetry. This may or may not be in the curriculum for students today. We scanned the poem and looked for meter, stanza, and rhyme scheme. When scanning for meter, we read aloud listening for which syllables were stressed and which were unstressed. There was a short hand (a line for a long or stressed syllable and a u for a short or unstressed syllable) to indicate what we had found. These patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables were in rhythmic patterns called meters with names such as anapest, dactyl, iambic, and trochee. These same words are implied in music too.
    In the music of the 1200s the need for some kind of way of notating rhythms became apparent. Composers of the period notated and classified rhythms and patterns into what they called modes. There were six rhythmic modes which were each referred to by number. These modes were based on the values of long and short similar to those in poetry. Mode 1 (half note followed by a quarter) was a long and a short which is the poetic equivalent to the trochaic. Mode 2 (quarter followed by a half note) was a short and a long which is the poetic iambic and so forth.
    While many dances employ a half note followed by a quarter note or the opposite in many measures, composers began to fill in other notes over this skeleton. If students learn to recognize this organizational technique, then their reading and performance will be more fluid. Note the placement of the brackets to indicate whether the half-note/quarter or a quarter-note/half is implied. Of course, there is no right or wrong way to bracket notes. Each person may see the patterning in a different way, but the important rule to follow is to have a way.

Joachim Andersen, Op. 21, No. 1

    In Jacques Castédède’s Douze Etudes pour Flute, No. VI, he uses the same technique. Notice that the arpeggio on beats 2 and 3 are spelled the same.

Castédède Douze Etudes, No. VI

Note-Grouping
    At the top of my copy of Joachim Andersen’s 30 Instructive Studies for Flute, Op. 30, No. 2 in A minor, William Kincaid wrote the following note-grouping marks for examples when there were six eighth-notes per measure in 34 time. He said that version A was the most common, and I was to also use it in the technical patterns in the 17 Big Daily Exercises by Taffanel & Gaubert No. 6, 11, and 13. He said I would find a use for version B in playing Baroque music, and version 3 would be used when the tempo was quite brisk. Over the years I have found that there are several other possibilities that work well in both early and contemporary music. My suggestion is that for each passage you encounter, try one of the grouping patterns and figure out which produces the best results for you. There is no single answer.

Practicing in Three
    For advanced players, practicing scales in three can help them develop their technique. When playing scales in three, the accented note is different from playing scales by four or eight notes. Learning to accept this accenting will even the fingers so the technique is equally strong whether in two or in three.

    Playing well in three is a skill that must be understood and practiced, but the good news is that some of the most wonderful music written is in three. 

* * *

Elements of Time: Tempo and Meter

Tempo (Speed)
    Tempo (Italian for time, plural tempi) instructions were first indicated in the early Baroque period (1600-1750). Since the preeminent composers of the day were Italian, they used their native language to convey the speed of the composition. Common terms were: grave, lento, largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, vivace, and presto. Composers from other locations followed suit continuing the use of the Italian language.
    However, during the Classic and Romantic periods, other words were added to the tempo to indicate the mood of the composition. These words might include meno (less), piu (more), and poco (a little) for example.
    With the rise of Nationalism in the late 19th century, composers began to write tempo instructions in their native tongues. This is why we see tempo markings in many languages including Russian, German, French, and English. On concert programs, tempo markings are often used to identify a movement in a multi-movement piece or may be the title for a standalone one-movement composition.
    In the early 1800s the metro-nome was invented and many composers also specified their tempo instructions with the marking M.M = 60. The M.M. stood for Maelzel’s Metronome; however, we now know that Maelzel patented the work of another inventor and named the invention after himself.
    In the 1980s the quartz metronome replaced the original spring, windup metronomes offering a more accurate indication of the tempo. With a quartz metronome musicians could increase the tempo in increments of one beat per minute (BPM) from 40 to 250 or more. This was a marked improvement over older windup metronomes that moved up from 40 BPM by in increments of two, three, four, and six. 

Meter (Grouping of Pulses)
    If you tap along with a metronome and then begin accenting every other beat, your mind has grouped the ticks by twos. A similar grouping occurs if you accent by threes or fours. In everyday life this is apparent when listening to a grandfather pendulum-type clock. We hear tick-tock rather than tick-tick.
    To illustrate the meter of a composition a time signature comprised of two numbers is printed at the beginning of the piece. The top number indicates how many beats there will be in a measure, and the bottom number represents what type of note (half, quarter, eighth, or sixteenth) receives one beat. Barlines are placed to mark off the piece into measures. Each measure will contain the number of beats indicated in the top number of the time signature.
    Meter may be simple or compound. If the beat is divisible by 2, then it is called simple meter. Those that are divisible by three are called compound meters.

The post Teaching Pieces in Three appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    I first saw the Oril William Palmer flute in Music Delight, a local music store in Brooklyn, New York, and was taken by its eccentric design. The flute was in poor playing condition, but had a nice sound on the only three notes old, moldering flutes usually play: C#, C and B. After acquiring it, I began to investigate its origins. I sent photos to flute dealers and collectors all over the world, and no one had ever heard of this maker. The interior of the case had a blue, fine shag-like fuzzy material, with Palmer’s Delux Sioux Falls, South Dakota, written on a white satin sash across the inside of the lid. It was obviously made in the twentieth century, and the people at Conn placed it between 1930 to 1950, based upon the case interior. After more research I located Palmer’s grandson Kevin Palmer, a tenor saxophonist and woodwind repairman in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he agreed to restore the flute.
    Kevin Palmer shared, “O.W. Palmer (1898-1974) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While convalescing from rheumatic fever at age 10, a doctor prescribed playing a wind instrument to help with his recovery. An older sister got him a fife, and sometime later he was given a 5-key piccolo. Between the ages of 12 and 14, he learned to play the violin and performed in vaudeville pit orchestras on violin and piccolo. During WW I Palmer played piccolo with John Phillip Sousa, where he received the life-long nickname of “Pic” Palmer. By 1920, he left the army and played in pit orchestras for vaudeville and silent movies. Then he joined the Barnum and Bailey Circus playing piccolo where he met his future wife, horse stunt-rider Mina Jensen. Palmer learned C melody and tenor saxophone and joined the 5 Fat Dutchmen polka band. In 1926, out of necessity to repair his and his colleagues’ instruments, he started the Midland Sax Shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Palmer formed his own band, Pic’s Pied Peppers, which gigged from 1936 to 1940, and whose band members included Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren. As with many bands in the late 1920s and 1930s, they played popular and dance music at some of the well-known speak-easies in the surrounding areas, such as the ABC Club, and the Wall Lake Pavilion. In the late 1930s and early 1940s Palmer was number one on the union players list and performed with Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and other bands at the Arkota Ballroom (still operational today) and the Melody Hall in downtown Sioux Falls. In the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s he played with the Lawrence Welk orchestra, but did not follow Welk to California for his television show. Palmer was the first flute with the Sioux Falls municipal band for 41 years.”
    The motivation for Palmer’s flute making came from his dissatisfaction with the scale and intonation of the modern flute, particularly the third octave, and its harmonic overtones in general. To enhance the tone, scale, and projection, Palmer built his flutes with larger tone holes than conventional Boehm flutes of the time. He constructed his flutes with a longer headjoint and a shorter body compared to today’s flutes. The tube and tone holes were made in silver, with the tone holes uniform in size. The keys were made of an alloy, perhaps German silver or aluminum and copper.
    The flutes, pitched at A=440, were handmade with soldered tone holes and German style keys (closed hole). The entire mechanism is pinless, and there is an adjustable split E. The C# tone hole is very tall, almost 1/3 of an inch and looks like a chimney. The ribs for the posts do not span the length of the body tube, but are quite short, curved to the contour of the flute tube, and soldered perpendicularly to the tube wherever a post is needed.
    The thumb key has a large, three-quarter moon-shaped touch, and the thumb Bb touch is a smaller, full moon-shaped touch attached to a string that pulls down the Bb key on the main line. The string is similar to that which is used on the rotary valves of French horns. The G# key is very large and constructed with a double-lever mechanism so that it opens on the audience side of the flute, the same direction as the other keys open. The footjoint rollers are made of bakelite, and the D# key and rollers are angled for easier activation. It is worth noting that some of the radical design features found on the Palmer flute are being used on flutes produced today.
    This flute has a traditional cut headjoint, with a medium amount of resistance. It has a surprisingly penetrating sound, with a feel and resonance very much like that of a wooden flute. It has a quick and accurate response for fast tonguing passages. The intonation is uncannily excellent in all three registers. The split E has a fuller, more natural sound on the high E than many flutes with the same feature.
    Ergonomically, despite its larger size and unconventional key work, the flute is very comfortable in the hands. I love the shapes of the thumb and G#  key. The mechanism has set screws for all leak adjustments, but because it is pinless, it does not adjust quite the same way as a conventional flute with set screws. If Palmer had made more flutes and had been able to create awareness of his instruments and market them, one can only speculate about his success. It is fascinating to see the work of a relatively unknown American flute maker, and to restore what was a viable alternative to the instruments of the time.     

The post Restoring the Palmer Delux Flute appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    Helen Blackburn, flute professor at West Texas A&M, provides simple and clear instructions about how to produce whistle tones.
•    Drop the jaw (stretch the chin away from the nose – far!)
•    Roll out – FAR!
•    No pressure with the left hand.
•    Release upper lip away from teeth. Use your “beak” to aim the air.
•    Feel the air travel on the inside wet part of your aperture.
•    If you hear air, you are blowing too hard.
•    If you are having a hard time finding the whistle tone, try fingering the 3rd octave note, but play as if you are playing a note 3 octaves lower – ppppp – just fogging up the embouchure plate.
•    It may also help to try to whistle and/or sing the note you are aiming for.
•    Have patience. This is the zen part – if you are trying the right way, you are getting the full benefits.
•    You will improve every day. The harder you work, the fewer results you will see. Let go and surrender.
•    Stop if you get frustrated.

    Blackburn mentions whistling or singing the note. This helps because the tongue is placed in a good position for producing whistle tones, and the loudness of whistle tones increases with a correct tongue placement. You can also experiment with vowels to further assist in the shape of the mouth and throat. Wil Offermans, flutist and composer, suggests vowels like “ee/cheese” and “i/ship” for higher whistle tones that use a relatively small mouth cavity and vowels like “aw/awful” and “ah/father” for lower whistle tones that use a wider mouth cavity. 
    John Krell writes in Kincaidiana that William Kincaid had his students play whistle tones as long tones, sustaining them for up to ten seconds or more. I took this idea and combined it with the first exercise in Marcel Moyse’s De La Sonorite. Play the following exercise all in whistle tones, holding the first note under the fermata for one full breath. Play these without tongue at first, adding a light tongue when comfortable.

    Another good beginning exercise is Peter-Lukas Graf’s “Ding Dong” exercise, originally found in his book Check-up, and adapted by Helen Blackburn. I expanded the idea of using familiar melodies as whistle tone exercises. This exercise is to be played all in whistle tones.

    One could also practice alternating playing a whistle tone and then a normally blown note. Sustain a whistle tone (pianissimo) and then play the normally blown note with the same embouchure and angle of air (using regular fingerings for both) and increase the air pressure. Robert Dick, American flutist and composer, explains the goal is to reduce the amount of lip motion between the whisper tone and regularly blown notes, to a minimum. He adds, “A good way to think of the difference between the whisper tones and normally blown notes is that in the normally played high notes, the air plays a role in supporting the lip opening, while in the whisper tones, the same opening must be made and held open by the lips without any help from the air stream.”
    I developed the following exercise to explore this idea. Play the first note as a whistle tone, pianissimo, the second as a regular tone, fortissimo, using regular fingerings for both. Play without tongue, breathe as needed.

    To challenge yourself even more, you could practice very low whistle tones as Helen Bledsoe suggests. She writes, “Work on controlling a slow air stream by practicing very low whistle tones. Your embouchure has to be very steady because there is little air behind it to support it. (Patience: It took me a long time to get to Low C!) It may help to think about having a “tall embouchure” (very open in the middle). It may also help to think of having a cushion of air behind your lips (i.e., your lips are not too flat against your teeth) and to relax your jaw.”
    To sum up, as part of a daily warmup diet, practicing whistle tones gives flutists the opportunity to slow down the process of tone production and explore the “minute levels of variation” that Nyfenger wrote about. In addition to an improved understanding of what the embouchure is doing, there is an increased sense of relaxation and wonderful lessons in patience. I highly encourage everyone to use whistle tones in their practice and in teaching.          

Resources
“H.B.’s Super-Duper Zen Yoga Warm Up,” by Helen Blackburn. http://www.
depts.ttu.edu/music/flutestudio/downloads/
ResourceLinks/H.B.%27sSuper-DuperZen
YogaWarmUp.pdf
“Some Basics of Extended Techniques” by Helen Blesdoe. http://www.helenbledsoe.
com/ETWorkshop.pdf
Tone Development through Extended Techniques by Robert Dick
Music and the Flute by Thomas Nyfenger
For the Contemporary Flutist by Wil Offermans
Kincaidiana by John Krell
Music and the Flute by Thomas Nyfenger

Laura Lentz is a flutist and studio teacher based in Rochester, New York.

The post Whistle Tone Warmup appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    In the competitive world of college entrance auditions, a growing number of schools are accepting video auditions. Videos offer some distinct advantages over audio CDs; viewers can observe the applicant’s posture, hand position, and embouchure, and with videos you cannot edit out mistakes with the same ease as audio files. This offers a truer picture of the applicant’s abilities.
    In spite of these advantages, it is always better to play a live audition if possible. The audition committee will be able to interact with you, and live playing better conveys your sound and expressiveness. However, there are many valid reasons to submit a video audition: it may be required as a pre-audition screening, there may be scheduling problems, or you may simply live too far away from the school.

Preparation
    Prepare your materials as thoroughly as you would for a live audition. Even though a video means that you can record a number of takes and choose the best one, recording can create almost as much pressure as a live performance. The audition committee will assume that you have recorded a number of takes to achieve the best performance, and may expect an even higher level of performance than in a live audition, where there is only one chance to play your best.
    Check deadlines and audition requirements and make sure the video is received by the due date. Audition committees will meet shortly after that date, and must have time to watch the videos beforehand. If particular repertoire is required for the live audition, make sure that to include it on the video.

Equipment
    The most important element of the video is sound quality. While colleges don’t expect you to hire a professional videographer, a video should convey tone and dynamics accurately. Many home video recorders don’t handle flute tone well, especially when used in small, low-ceilinged rooms. Make practice videos with the equipment, preferably in a large room. Experiment with the different microphone settings available on the recorder, such as a Zoom microphone or noise reduction. If the recorder has a setting that equalizes dynamics, sometimes called “automatic gain control,” turn it off, so the committee can hear the full dynamic range. These videos will allow you to practice the recording process and assess how well the camera records flute tone. If the sound on the video does not represent your tone accurately, borrow, rent, or buy better equipment. Video cameras offering an external microphone input will allow you to use a better quality microphone than the one built into the camera. However these cameras tend to be more expensive. Your school may own good video equipment, or a community TV station might have a professionally equipped studio where you could record your video. Do not record audition videos with basic equipment, such as a cell phone.

Format
    A video audition is no good if the audition committee cannot play it. Edit the videos in a computer file format that will play well on a variety of players, not just your own computer or Smartphone. Videos recorded in QuickTime often do not play well on PCs; videos recorded in Windows Media Video may not work on Macs. Use a program that makes movies, not data encoded DVDs. For the Mac platform, the recommended program is iMovie, which is available at the iTunes Store. For PCs, use Movie Maker, which is a free download from Microsoft’s website. Movies made with these programs will play on a wide variety of players.

Recording Space
    In choosing the room you will record in, consider the acoustics, background noise, and how the room will look on camera. Look for a large room with a high ceiling. This could be a band room, an auditorium, a large classroom, or a house of worship. Consider the amount of background noise bleeding into your room – the microphone often hears things the ears simply ignore. The audition committee will not expect the absolute quiet of a commercial recording session, but sounds from others practicing, traffic, airplanes, or loud ventilation systems should be avoided. Make sure the visual background is neutral: a tangle of chairs or music stands, or religious imagery, will detract from the professional image you want to project. A clock on the wall behind you tells the committee exactly how much time you spent recording – and that is information you want to keep to yourself. A highly personal space, such as a dorm or bedroom, is not appropriate.

Recording Session
    Dress appropriately and wear something similar to what you would select for a live audition. Show the committee that you are respectful and serious about this audition. It does not have to be formal concert wear, but avoid extremely casual clothes, such as jeans, t-shirts, or shorts.
    Record as many takes as necessary. Make sure that there is plenty of time to record. When you try to cram a recording session into a short space of time, it makes you feel pressured and nervous. Use a tripod or put the camera on a level surface so the picture is stable. Start by recording and playing back a few test takes to check the sound and picture quality.
    The audition committee prefers to see the entire body in the picture, so that they can assess posture and playing position. Make sure that your embouchure, hands, and arms are visible in the picture and not hidden by the music stand.
    Record as many takes as you feel necessary for each piece. Each selection should be recorded in one complete take, without editing. It may be helpful to start by recording the most difficult pieces first while you are fresh. While it is possible to record yourself, it may be easier and more efficient to have someone else run the camera and provide feedback. Since this is not a blind audition, it is acceptable to talk on the video to introduce pieces. Make sure you pronounce piece titles and composers’ names correctly.

Preparing the Final DVD
    Watch all of the takes and choose the best recording of each piece. If you have recorded yourself, trim off the beginnings and ends that show you walking towards the camera, or any other unnecessary frames. Do not attempt to edit out mistakes. Save the files in the highest quality possible.
    Make each copy from the original, not from a compressed file; every time you compress a file it loses quality. For example, a file that has been compressed for video streaming will not be high enough quality for a DVD.
   Rename each file with the title of the piece, so the committee can tell at a glance what piece each track contains. Also, if you do not rename the tracks, the numerical file names the camera assigns will tell everyone exactly how many takes you recorded.
    Burn the final choices to a DVD-R (as opposed to a DVD+R). Make labels for both the DVD and the case with your name, instrument, program you are auditioning for, pieces, and the format it was recorded in. Finally, play the DVD all the way through on a variety of equipment. The committee may play the DVD on a DVD player, Mac, or PC. If a DVD only plays well on one type of equipment, the committee may not get a clear idea of your playing. Mail the DVD in plenty of time to reach its destination by the deadline.           

The post Tips for Preparing Video Auditions appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Sonata in D Major, No. 4 (1728)
    Any one of these twelve sonatas would be instructive, but I have somewhat arbitrarily chosen the D Major Sonata because it includes some particularly interesting features.

Triplets vs. Dotted Eight and Sixteenth
    Note that in the ornamented line, four of the first six bars contain triplets, which brings us to a rhythmic dilemma. If the continuo part has a dotted figure, but the flute player chooses the ornamental triplets, does the 32nd note come with or after the 3rd part of the triplet? Quantz occasionally writes contradicting advice, but on this subject he unequivocally states that the short note should be played after the triplet (p. 68, English edition) because, as he points out, if it coincides with the triplet the meter essentially becomes a compound meter of  68, 128 or, in this case, 2416. So while adding triplets might seem to dull the edgy effect of a dotted rhythm, having the juxtaposition of triplets with dotted notes actually creates its own kind of rhythmic tension, and the practice of double dotting the longer notes gives greater clarity to the resulting complex rhythm. (See example below.)

Neighbor and Passing Tones
    Now look at Telemann’s ornamentation of the first measure. On the first beat, rather than playing two Ds, he adds an E upper neighbor tone. Beat two illustrates two principles of ornamentation: going to another pitch in the chord (D to F#) and then filling this interval with a passing tone (E).
 
Outlining a Chord
Measure three shows a more extensive use of the principle of going to other pitches in the chord, in this case outlining the complete chord of E minor on beats one and two, F# minor on beats three and four. (Notice also the lower neighbors D# on beat two and E on beat four.) Bar five beat three is similar to bar one in that it uses a combination of going to a chord tone, this time via a leap, then filling in with a passing tone; bar six begins with this same ornament. These few bars show three fundamentals of ornamentation: neighbor tones, passing tones, and chord outlines. The correct use of each underscores the importance of knowing the harmony. For example, you cannot use the correct passing tone unless you know the key, and you certainly cannot go to another chord tone unless you know what the chord is. Likewise look at the ornament on beat three of bar five. This ornament is repeated in bar 6 on the first beat with a D#.

Three Steps and a Leap
The four-note combination of three steps and the leap of a 3rd is also used extensively in bar 26, though this time the leap is between the last two notes of the figure instead of the first two. Notice the extensive use of this figure in the second movement (mm. 5, 7, 13, 14, etc.).

Momentum
    In addition to making the melodic line more interesting, ornamentation can change the momentum of a passage, which happens in measures six and seven.

    Notice the change in measure six; beat three becomes a syncopated rhythm, beat four is now triplets. At the end of bar seven, Telemann begins the use of wide leaps which are continued with the major sevenths in measure eight. The momentum is continued with the addition of thirty-second notes in measures nine through eleven.

Another Variant
    A final variation on that stepwise/3rd idea is the figure found in measures 14 and 15, which is the combination of a lower neighbor and the leap of a third. This is a figure one finds frequently (written out) in fast movements of Baroque as well as Classical works.

Putting Ornamentation into Practice
    Have students play through and study these and other examples found in the slow movements of the Telemann Methodical Sonatas. Then they can examine pages 140 and 141 of  Quantz’s On Playing the Flute for more extravagant ornaments.

Telemann and Handel
    Many young flutists’ first encounter with Baroque music is through one of the Handel sonatas. The ornamentation in the Methodical Sonatas can suggest ways to ornament Handel’s sonatas. There are many parallels between the two German composers. They were contemporaries who both were influenced by the Italian style. Since Handel spent several years in Italy, one could make the case for using more florid embellishments in the slow movements of his sonatas; however, using this more elaborate type of ornamentation requires in-depth knowledge of Baroque style, which means studying all of Quantz as well as other Baroque treatises. But be careful, for as Quantz warns, “so many incorrect and awkward ideas appear that it would be better in many cases to play the melody as the composer has set it rather than to spoil it repeatedly with such wretched variations (p. 136).”
    It is never too early to start learning the fundamentals of ornamentation, and Telemann’s Methodical Sonatas plus a well-informed teacher will greatly enrich a student’s study of both the Telemann and the Handel Sonatas.           

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    Yoobin Son joined the New York Philharmonic as second flute in November 2012, having served as the principal flute of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra since 2010 and acting principal flute of the New Haven Symphony during the 2008-2009 season.

    Born in Seoul, Korea, Yoobin Son moved to the United States when she was 14 years old. She graduated from the Juilliard Pre-College Division (Bradley Garner, flute professor), earned a BM from The Curtis Institute (Jeffrey Khaner, flute professor), MM from the Yale School of Music (Ransom Wilson, flute professor), and PS and Artist Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music (Robert Langevin, flute professor).

What was your New York Philharmonic audition like?
    I still can’t believe how I got through it. The whole process consisted of three rounds over 10 days: a preliminary, semi-final, and final round. The preliminary round was different from other prelims that I had taken because the judges listened to each candidate for about 15 minutes, which is quite a long time for a preliminary round. The semi-final round was particularly difficult as I had to stay in the hall from noon until 7:30 p.m. First we drew numbers and then I had to wait until it was my time to play the 20-minute solo round. Then I had to wait again to find out if I had been chosen to play the ensemble round with principal flutist Robert Langevin. (Tip for audition-takers: always bring granola bars, bananas, chocolates or whatever you eat when you are nervous and hungry because you never know how long the day is going to be. If I had not had two granola bars with me that day, I might not now be the second flutist in the New York Phil.) In the ensemble round, I played duo excerpts with Langevin, and I remember enjoying blending my sound to his on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall.
    The final round was one week later. The waiting and anticipation for that day was really difficult. Since I knew I was technically ready with the audition repertoire, I tried to not over practice. Instead I tried to keep in the best physical condition possible: lots of vitamins, good food and enough sleep.
    The final round was also on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall; however, the screen had been removed so I could now see who was listening to me. The audience included the music director, conductor Alan Gilbert, and audition committee members from the woodwind section. I enjoyed playing the final round focusing on performing as if I were giving a recital. I played the second and third movements of the Mozart Concerto in G, K.313, the Enesco Cantabile and Presto, and the slow movement of the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerto for the first part of the final round. After that the committee asked me to play a few more excerpts and then there was another ensemble round with Langevin. We played pretty much everything that was on the audition list plus sightreading a few famous duo excerpts.

What is a typical schedule for a week?
    We have eight services per week which usually consists of four rehearsals and four performances. Since Monday is a free day, we begin the week on Tuesday with a morning rehearsal and have hold over concerts (a program from the previous week) on most Tuesdays. On Wednesday we have a rehearsal in the morning and another in the afternoon. On Thursday there is a morning rehearsal and an evening concert. Then we have concerts on Friday and Saturday. 
    It is a busy schedule with lots of music to cover. The New York Philharmonic is known for being the busiest orchestra in the world based on the number of public concerts it gives each year. It is quite amazing how limited rehearsal time we have, considering the length of music we perform. Everyone is ready to go from the first rehearsal. I still am amazed by the dedication of my colleagues. Robert Langevin is the principal flute, Sandra Church is the associate principal flute, and Mindy Kaufman plays solo piccolo and flute. They have been welcoming and supportive from the very beginning.

Even though you have only been in the orchestra for a short while, do you have any favorite moments?
    I had a great time during our European tour last May. We performed in Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. It was a great opportunity to get to know colleagues more personally. When we are in New York, everyone is busy with their lives so it is hard to make time to get together outside of work. A tour is always a nice bonding period. I am really looking forward to the Asia tour in February 2014. Since the tour starts in Korea, I will get to see my family and friends.
    Another favorite moment was this season’s opening week concerts. The program included Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso, which features lots of triple tonguing in the flutes. I worked on it the whole summer. Even though I was nervous during the performances, I think it went well.

What led you to your interest in music and the flute in particular?
    When I was young, my mom started taking flute lessons because she heard that playing the flute promoted good health. When I heard the beautiful sound of the flute, I was drawn into the instrument and began taking over her lessons. Although neither of my parents are musicians, my paternal grandfather is a famous 1960s Korean pop songwriter. I grew up listening to his guitar playing when he was composing music. He has always been an enthusiastic supporter of my musical education and career. He is now 93 years old and in very good health. This past September he was able to attend my concert in Korea where I performed the Mozart Concerto in G at the Seoul Arts Center. I heard from my parents that he got very emotional and cried after hearing my performance.

What do you remember of your early flute studies in Korea and Florida.
    As I recall, I studied out of the Trevor Wye series of books. When I was 10, after a year of lessons from a neighborhood teacher, I went to study with Ui-kyung Park. She assigned the etudes of Andersen, Quantz; the scales from the 17 Big Daily Exercises by Taffanel & Gaubert; and Marcel Moyse’s Enseignement Complet de la Flute (31 volumes in the Leduc edition). I am so glad that I had her as a teacher when I was young. She had an organized system for me right from my beginner days and she made sure I learned everything correctly from the beginning.
    When I was in the sixth grade, I attended a Julius Baker masterclass in Jeju Island in Korea. I was ecstatic to have a chance to play for him. Best of all, he liked my playing. I remember him as a very kind and generous person who reminded me of my grandfather. He wanted me to come to America to study with him, but my parents thought I was too young. However, that incident planted the idea of studying music abroad.
    I attended the Yewon School (an arts middle school in Seoul). It was very exciting to meet so many friends who had the same interests as me. I had the most fun days of my life at Yewon, sharing dreams with friends and motivating each other. However, there are limitations in the Korean educational system as music students there only learn a few pieces a year, which were requirements for competitions. Moreover, it is a very competitive system, which I think is not the right way to grow as a musician. So my parents and my teacher, Ui-kyung Park, got me to think seriously about going abroad to study and expand my view.
    In 1999 I moved to Tampa, Florida to live with my aunt’s family. My parents thought that moving there would be a smooth transition to get used to the language and culture. It proved to be a good decision. I had fun with my cousins who were similar in age to me. Since there were few Koreans around, I learned English fairly quickly.
    I began studying with Catherine Landmeyer, who is a former principal flutist of The Florida Orchestra. She was a wonderful teacher and person and helped me a lot despite the language barrier. She encouraged me to enter the Florida Orchestra’s Young Artist competition, and I won the grand prize. It gave me a chance to perform the Mozart Concerto in G Major with the Florida Orchestra the next year. The band teacher in Tampa loved my playing and invited me to play a solo on the band concert so I had some nice performing opportunities.
    After spending a year in Florida, I moved to New Jersey to be surrounded by more cultural and musical events. I attended the Juilliard School’s pre-college division and studied with Bradley Garner. He was caring and supportive, and with his guidance, I was able to focus on developing myself as a flutist. I won several competitions during those years; first prize in the NFA’s High School Soloist competition, Conductor’s prize in New Jersey Symphony’s Young Artist auditions, and 1st prize in the William Paterson University’s concerto competition. 

When you studied at the Curtis Institute, what was the curriculum like?
    Those were very challenging days. My flute professor Jeffrey Khaner wanted me to bring four different etudes and an entire piece of music (rehearsed and ready to perform with the pianist) for a lesson every week. Among those etudes there were Bozza 14 Arabesques, Paganini 24 Caprices, Bitsch 12 Etudes, Jeanjean Modern Etudes, and the Moyse, 12 Studies of Virtuosity based on Chopin. To learn all this music in one week, I had no choice but to become very diligent and disciplined with my practicing. I expanded my repertoire a lot during four years at Curtis, as you can imagine. In retrospect, I am really thankful that Mr. Khaner pushed me hard. It was just what I needed at the time. I was also fortunate to hear him play as principal flute in the Philadelphia Orchestra each week thanks to the free tickets that were offered to Curtis students. He is a total rock star. 
    I started developing a love and passion for playing in the orchestra from my Curtis years. The Curtis Symphony sounds amazing; to the point where it is hard to believe that it is a student orchestra. All the students take pride in it, and they treat orchestra performance very seriously. I was shocked at first, because it was run like a professional orchestra. We covered one piece a week, starting the week with sectionals, then two full orchestra rehearsals, and finishing with a Reading session on Saturdays, which actually meant performing in front of an audience. Otto-Werner Mueller was the conductor at the time, and he emphasized creating a unified sound and how to bring out the different characters in music. I worked with other great conductors who guest conducted, including Sir Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Roger Norrington, and Vladimir Jurowski.
    I also learned so much about orchestral ensemble playing from the Wind Class that was led by Richard Woodhams, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. We experimented in great detail with how the wind instruments work together in an orchestral setting. These details included how the woodwinds blend with each other, how various colorings are created with different instrumentation, and learning when you should play out your solo lines or be the supporting role and letting other solo lines come out.
    Wind players are required to play in woodwind quintets every year at Curtis. Those years of experience of learning to play with other wind instruments were so valuable because it is crucial to figure out how differently they work from the flute. Wind instruments all make sound in different ways (unlike string instruments), and yet we have to play together in an orchestra. The first woodwind quintet I learned was the Carl Nielsen woodwind quintet, and the last was the Jongen woodwind quintet. Needless to say, there was lots of repertoire exploration involved. I played as much chamber music as possible, both with string players and pianists. I found out that working with non-woodwind players (both students and coaches) gave me a different view of music, that allowed me to focus more on musical elements, rather than technical aspects.

What lead to your decision to study at Yale for graduate school?
    I attended Yale University’s flute professor Ransom Wilson’s master class in Tuscany, Italy in the summer of 2005 and was impressed with his teaching. He was able to isolate any student’s problem within minutes of listening, and I could see and hear an improvement on the spot. I decided that I wanted to study with him. Wilson has a fresh and interesting approach to music, which I think originates from his being a conductor, as well as a flutist.
    My first professional position as an orchestral musician happened while I was at Yale. The New Haven Symphony orchestra had a one-year position open for the principal flute. The position worked perfectly with my school schedule, because it is not a full-time orchestra. I learned both orchestral repertoire and how to work in a professional orchestral setting. (Things like being on time, being prepared, warm-up etiquettes, how to deal with personnel manager and librarians, etc.)
    Also during this time I was able to participate in the Marlboro Music Festival in the summers of 2008 and 2009. Because of my passion for chamber music, I had dreamed of going to Marlboro for years. Luckily, there was an opening for flute, and I was invited to the festival after an audition. (Auditions for wind instruments don’t happen regularly for Marlboro.) It was such an amazing experience because I had the opportunity to make music with some of the best musicians from all over the world. With some ensembles there, I got to rehearse and explore repertoire for five to six weeks, which is a rare opportunity.

Why did you decide to attend the Manhattan School of Music Orchestral Performance and Artist Diploma programs?
    I had always wanted to study with Robert Langevin, because I grew up listening to his playing with the New York Philharmonic beginning in my Juilliard pre-college days. For me, he had the ideal flute playing for an orchestra. I first was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music’s Orchestral Performance program which meant I could study with him privately. He was inspiring and helpful when I was preparing for auditions, offering practical tips that he had developed from years of experience. I auditioned for the Artist Diploma program at MSM for my second year. It is a highly selective full scholarship program that admits only one or two students per year. I could not believe it when I was chosen to do the program, especially since they usually prefer pianists or string players to flutists. This gave me another year to work with Langevin and focus on upcoming performance opportunities.

What is Ensemble ACJW?
    Ensemble ACJW is an acronym for: Academy at Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute. It was created in 2007 by Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall and Joseph W. Polisi, the president of The Juilliard School. Ensemble ACJW is comprised of a select group of young professional musicians who are fellows in a two-year program that supports them in building careers as top-notch performers and as innovative concert programmers and educators. I was a fellow in the program from 2010–2012. Since I was the only flutist in the ensemble, I had the opportunity to play a wide-range of repertoire. This program offered me the chance to perform and work with students in the New York public school system too.

What advice would you give to someone who has career aspirations similar to yours? 
    You really have to love music. It is the luckiest thing to do what you love for a living, but it is a difficult, competitive field. There simply are not that many positions available for the vast number of flutists out there. The audition process itself can tire you out, but try to be hopeful and keep believing in yourself. You need to be patient and disciplined. I also think you should love being on stage. I really enjoy the connection with the audience when I perform.

How do you prepare for the music you perform each week?
    I usually check out the music from the orchestra library about four weeks before the performance week. Sometimes I check it out even earlier, depending on the repertoire. I plan the weeks accordingly, and I usually end up practicing upcoming programs two to three weeks prior to the concert.
    I play chromatic scale long tones religiously every day, and I vary the dynamics each time (f-p or p-f). Long tones are a great method to relax and warm up your embouchure. My sound definitely opens up and gets richer after I do this practicing. I also practice the Taffanel-Gaubert scale exercises in different articulations and double/tripled tongued.    

* * *

Blending in an Orchestra

• Do not use too much vibrato, or use none at all when playing with instruments that do not use vibrato, such as clarinets and brass. It can distort the pitch and will get in the way of blending.

• When playing chords, figure out what your role is in the chord and adjust accordingly. Unless you are the root of a chord, play less. If you are playing in the higher register, play lighter. It is always best to build a chord with healthy and stable lower notes and less in the higher range. 

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