How do you align the piccolo headjoint with the body?
    I align the center of the embouchure hole with the center of the keys. I do the same on the flute. I believe this is a personal decision as the alignment of the headjoint depends on the comfort of the hand position and freedom of the embouchure hole.

How do you care for your wood piccolos?
    I try to have my piccolos worked on twice a year, if possible. The CSO schedule is very busy, so I try to have two piccolos in good shape at all times.

What alternate fingerings do you use on a regular basis?
    I do not use that many alternate fingerings. I use a sharp high C# fingering and take my right hand pinky off for the high F# in the slow solo in Shostakovich Symphony No. 6.
Left hand – Middle finger and Ring finger
Right hand – Middle finger, Ring Finger and pinky
No thumb.

How do you warmup on the flute and piccolo?
    I practice long tones with my tuner on both flute and piccolo as I often play both instruments in the orchestra. What I have to play determines which instrument gets priority. My favorite piccolo book is The Piccolo Study Book by Patricia Morris. This is a book of etudes that Morris has compiled for effective practicing. I have just started using Nicola Mazzanti’s The Mazzanti Method, Daily Exercises for Piccolo in my practicing and teaching and am enjoying it too.

Do you have any tuning tricks when playing in orchestra?
    I practice quite a bit with my tuner. I work on basic long tones with the tuner and then also practice playing with a drone on the tuner. With a steady pitch being held by the tuner, I practice intervals as well as just one note at a time. When tuning with the orchestra, I first tune my A with my woodwind colleagues. Then when the oboist gives the third A for the strings, I tune quietly again. Most of the music I play is either with the high woodwinds or with the higher violins. Sometimes the piccolo part is independent from the other woodwinds, and I play alone with the strings.

What are your thoughts about playing with vibrato?
    I believe that both the flute and the piccolo are primarily melodic instruments, and it is natural to use vibrato. Whatever instrument you are playing, the vibrato should fit inside of the tone of the dynamic being played. Generally, the listener should hear the tone of the sound and not necessarily notice the vibrato.

Do you primarily single or double tongue?
    Since I started playing piccolo full time, I do find that I single tongue more often and faster than before. I tend to use single tonguing more than other articulation choices when playing the piccolo. I do practice single, double, and triple tonguing both on the piccolo and the flute.

What at the top five or ten orchestral excerpts for piccolo?
    There are so many choices. Some of my favorites are Bartok Concerto for Orchestra (movement 3), Stravinsky Firebird, and Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…(well all of them), and anything by Ravel. This is harder question than I thought. I really love playing the piccolo and although some piccolo solos are more challenging than others, I enjoy every one of them. If anyone out there really wants to be a piccolo player in a major orchestra, start by learning every excerpt in Jack Wellbaum’s Orchestral Excerpts for Piccolo with piano accompaniment. When you feel in control of those excerpts, turn to Piccolo Practice Book by Trevor Wye and Patricia Norris and learn it cover to cover.

Any advice for the novice?  
  I believe that anyone can enjoy playing the piccolo. The piccolo is just a tiny flute, and you should be able to sing through it like the flute. If you can keep that in mind, just start enjoying it as much as you enjoy your flute. Just remember to keep the tuner close by.

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Select the Artist and the Music
    Select a recording of a flutist whose playing you admire. Choose a composition that is melodic in nature such as the theme section of one of the many virtuoso Romantic themes with variations, the Gluck Minuet and Spirit Dance, or a salon piece by Bizet, Donjon, Faure, or other composer. A homophonic piece with both a simple melodic line and accompaniment is less distracting when listening for certain elements of the performance. Listen with the full flute and piano score. If the score is in public domain (as it will be in most cases of works published before 1923), check for a free download.
 
Passive vs. Active Listening
    Passive listening is what people do most of the day. For example, when someone walks into a room and turns on the television while doing something else, the chatter of the program becomes background noise to the other activities. Similarly, people often hear but do not focus on the radio in the car or music playing in stores. 
    Active listening is accomplished when you listen with concentration. You tune into the music. This is a skill which can be developed. To be successful with this project, select a location where you can listen undisturbed and turn up the volume without disturbing any one.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
    To illustrate how to undertake this process, take a look at Andantino from Gabriel Fauré Fantaisie for flute and piano, Op. 79 (1898). In 1893 Paul Taffanel, to whom the Fantaisie was dedicated, became flute professor at the Paris Conservatory. Fauré was the Paris Conservatory director at the time, and he and other French composers sought to improve the quality of the pedagogical repertoire. Fantaisie is a result of this goal.
    Fantaisie is one of the first French flute pieces young flutists learn. It is a beautiful work that delights both performer and listener time and time again. On YouTube there are numerous recordings. Some are excellent, while others are wanting in flute performance basics. As your listening skills improve, you may find that you learn as much from the weaker performances as from the stronger ones.
    The following process will improve listening skills and help students understand phrasing and flute fundamental concepts. This creates a sound foundation of knowledge that they can apply to other works in the repertoire.

Step 1: Tempo and Meter
    The Fantaisie is written in E minor, and the tempo marking for the opening is andantino (q. = 50). According to the Harvard Dictionary “Andantino is the diminutive of andante, used mainly to characterize a short piece of andante tempo or character. If used as a tempo mark, it means a slight modification of andante.” The problem lies with the words slight modification. It could be interpreted to mean either a faster or slower tempo. Most musicians today interpret andantino as being a quicker tempo than andante. The marking of dotted quarter = 50 implies that the section should be played in two rather than in six with the first beat being the strongest and the second beat weaker.
    Listen to the work concentrating on the chordal accompaniment. Notice whether the pianist follows the strength of the beat rule with the first beat being stronger and the second beat weaker. Is the accompaniment metronomically steady or is there some use of rubato? Listen again focusing on the flutist and ask the same questions. Do the performers play in 2 or in 6 throughout or are there places in 6? If you hear fluctuations, does it enhance or distract from the performance?

Step 2: Dynamics
    First, take a look at the piano score and compare it to what you hear. Since this section of the piece is written in compound meter (each beat is divisible by three), decide whether the pianist plays the second part of each beat softer than the down beat. Is the third part of the beat in the piano part truly a silence as written? In the pedaling instructions the word simile at the end of the third bar indicates that the pianist should continue the same pedaling until bar 19. There the pedal varies and then resumes the initial instruction at bar 26 through the end of the section. The piano writing should be a steadying influence in this section of the Fantaisie, so a pianist who follows Fauré’s instructions carefully creates a strong skeleton onto which a flutist can add expressive playing.
    The next step is to examine the dynamics in the flute part. The flute begins piano followed by the word dolce, or sweetly. (I have never seen the word dolce used with any dynamic other than piano.) On a separate piece of paper, write down all the dynamics in the flute part: p, f, mp, mf, f, p, f, mf, f, p. Use these dynamic clues to find the high or climax points in the music. Listen to the recording again paying special attention to this dynamic landscape.
When playing similar phrases (measures 15/16 and 17/18), vary the starting dynamic of each phrase for interest. In this case, play the first phrase of the two less or softer than the second since the overall contour is lower. This is marked less/2. If there were three similar phrases, it would be marked less/3.

Step 3: Shape of the Notes, DDT and Vibrato
    The DDT rule (decay to the dot or tie) is useful to apply to the notes of longer value such as dotted half-notes, dotted quarter-notes, and longer note values with a tie. This rule also follows the instruction to play the strongest part of the note at the beginning of the note. Following this rule shapes the longer notes like a triangle. To remind students of this concept, mark longer dotted notes with a triangle or the abbreviation DDT.
    Vibrato should start at the beginning of the note. Since the opening note is marked p dolce, the vibrato should be narrower than the flutist’s generic vibrato and a bit faster. To achieve the optimum cycle, practice six vibrato cycles = 50. All three of my teachers (Joseph Mariano, William Kincaid, and Julius Baker) suggested using six vibrato cycles per dotted quarter in compound meter as a starting point.
    So often flutists begin this opening with no vibrato on beat one, and then by beat two there is a slight crescendo as the vibrato cycles start. If Fauré had wanted a vibrato crescendo on the first entrance of the flute, he would have written it that way.
    The beginning of each of the longer notes should be clean and the attack not so strong as to make a rise in the pitch of the note. Likewise the end of the longer notes is equally important. If you decay to the dot or tie, you will quite naturally make a taper. Be sure to keep the tongue in position until the note is completed, or you run the risk of changing the tone color at a place where you least intend. Avoid glottal stops at the end of notes. Before a breath, end the taper of the note a little early (shorten the note value) so you can breathe quietly and re-enter gracefully. Unless the music is marked otherwise, enter more softly after a breath.
    Listen to the work again and notice these details. Check whether the flutist applies the DDT rule, starts the vibrato cycles at the beginning of the notes, and creates tapers that are well-shaped and of the correct duration for musical breathing. 

Step 4: Performance Marks
    In the Andantino, the following performing marks are used: slur, single tongue, dots under a slur, and tenuto. The dots under a slur are played legato, but with a small articulatory silence between each note. Mariano was fond of double-tonguing passages like this to insure a good musical line. The tenuto notes are held or sustained, but with a bit of separation. The use of the tenuto markings in bar 26 highlights the main theme of the Andantino. An articulatory silence works well every time the articulation changes. The entire Andantino should not sound like all the notes on the page are played under one big slur.
    Listen to the Andantino again checking the accuracy of the performer’s articulation marks. Each of the tongued notes under the slur should be treated exactly the same.

Step 5: Contour
    Lay a thin sheet of typing paper over the flute part. Trace the note heads of each phrase as if connecting the dots in a children’s puzzle book. Examine the shape of each phrase. There are five common shapes for melodic contour. The first is the mountain shape. When playing a mountain-shaped phrase, start softly and make a slight crescendo or increase the energy of the notes to the top note of the shape and then diminuendo or decrease the energy back to the last note of the phrase.
    For a valley-shaped phrase, start softly and make a slight crescendo or increase the energy of the notes to the lowest note and then diminuendo or decrease the energy back to the last note of the phrase. For contours that are coming down or going up, you might start softer and increase the dynamic and energy to the final note or do the opposite.
    The performance choices for a turn-shaped contour relate to tempo. If the tempo is slow, then you can inflect as suggested for the valley and mountain shapes. If the tempo is fast, there may not be enough time to do much at all.
    A general rule to follow is to let the notes get louder as the notes rise and softer as the notes go lower. Musicians usually follow this rule but on occasion sometimes not. Since Fauré was primarily a composer of songs and piano music, following the contour of the music is generally suitable for his style of writing. A good idea is to start by playing the contour and then if you chose, try the opposite.
    Listen again for how the performer treats the contour. Do you agree or disagree with the choices?

Step 6: Coming and Going
    Since the shape of the first notes decays or gets softer from the first beat, this is called coming away from one or the first beat. Notice that measures two and three follow the convention that notes of shorter value lead to notes of longer value. These notes should lead to the next long note or go towards the next note of longer value.
    Label the music with an arrow to signify coming away from beat one or leading to the beat. (See the table below for an example of how to mark this.)
    When playing the Andantino, many flutists move the end of their flutes aimlessly in the shape of a figure eight or in an up and down motion with each beat. While movement is excellent and prevents injury, random movement can destroy the musical line. Use movement that enhances the musical line of the phrase.
    Stand with the left foot in front and the right foot in back with the toes pointing to 12:00 and 2:30/3:00 on a clock. Practice shifting your weight from the right back foot to the left front foot and then from the left front foot to the right back foot. When doing this, you will either be moving forward or moving back. Each of these movements is called a gesture. Playing a group of notes or a measure on one gesture smooths the melodic line. This type of movement prevents the flutist from unintentionally accenting unimportant notes through aimless movement.
    Moving forward or going to a specific measure can be indicated in the music with an arrow pointing to the right. Moving back or coming away is shown with an arrow in the music pointing to the left. Practice these gestures with the chart below. For example, the first row indicates that measure two should come away from the beat. This suggests that you could play measure 2 while moving backwards from the left front foot to the back right foot. In measures 3 and 4 move from the back foot to the front foot.  Continue to practice this intelligent movement for each line of the chart, placing a rest between each gesture. In practice the movement will be quite large, but on stage the movement of the gesture is miniscule.
    In addition to listening to the music, find a video performance and focus on whether the performers use body gestures to improve the musical line. When coming away from a note, everything gets softer. When going to a note, there is a slight crescendo at the written dynamic level.

Step 7: Repeated Notes
    In measures 8 and 11 there are two repeated notes. Repeated notes are separated and have dynamic design. In this case, since the repeated note is on beat two, play the second note softer than the first. Listen to the recording to see how the flutist handles the repeated notes. Playing them exactly the same is not the most expressive approach.

Step 8: Homogeneity through the Range
    The two sequential passages (measures 19-22 and 22-25) are written for the lowest notes on the flute. The timbre or color of these notes should match the rest of the notes in the piece. Too often flutists strive to blast these two phrases with volume and edge. Work for a homogeneous sound throughout the range. Notice that Fauré marks these measures dolce and expressivo. Measures 19-22 would be played softer than its sequential partner at measure 22-25 because it begins on a lower pitch.

Step 9: Color Vibrato
    Add color vibrato (a cycle of slightly faster vibratos) on the first note of a slur and any notes with an accidental. Mark color vibrato with a small wiggly line. Check all C#s with the tuner and explore alternate fingerings so the note does not sound sharp or hollow. Listen again, paying attention to notes that can use color vibrato and for the pitch of all the C#s.

Step 10: Playing Expressive Trills
    For the trills in measures 33, 34, 35, the flutist should play a nano-second of the note before beginning the trill to establish the pitch. The terminations at the end of the trill should be softer than then trilled note and lead into the next tied note. Listen for the execution of the trills by various performers. When trilling, remember the movement comes from the third knuckle back from the nail. If the keys of the flute are level, you can trill faster because gravity will help you put your fingers down.

Step 11: Hold the Audience
    When performing, be still at the end of the movement and see how quiet it becomes in the hall. When you cannot stand the tension any more, release the audience and turn the page to begin the next part. Watch videos of flutists (and other musicians) to see how they hold and release the audience.

Step 12: Record Yourself
    After listening to multiple recordings many times and examining the music and evaluating the performances, you should have developed some opinions about the interpretation of the Fauré Andantino. (Certainly everyone should not play a piece exactly the same way.) Record yourself playing the Fauré and apply these steps to evaluate your own musical choices. Make a list of things you want to improve. Focus on one aspect per week in your practice, performances and teaching. At the end of twelve weeks, record yourself again and evaluate your progress. This 12-week process should be repeated over and over again throughout your life. The better listening skills you cultivate, the better you will perform and teach.   

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What is Practicing?
    Practicing is essentially repetition – you repeat things over and over. There is a goal in this activity. Through repetition you achieve something that might be called a groove in the brain or a habit. This thought brings us to the first rule of practicing. Don’t practice mistakes and don’t practice bad playing. If you practice mistakes you’re learning them just as you would learn the correct way of playing. These mistakes become ground in and that’s awful. (I think we’ve all had the experience of coming back to a piece after many years and realizing we learned it incorrectly.)
    What are the benefits of practice? This is the topic I love because these benefits are so good, so important and meaningful they last a lifetime. First of all through practice we achieve a oneness with the instrument and the music. When we go to a concert of a great musician, we don’t hear a person on stage manipulating a machine. We hear a person singing through the instrument. This oneness is achieved by spending a lot of time playing the flute.
    Let’s imagine the time you spend with your flute as talking to it. You will soon realize that you have talked to the flute more than you have talked with your spouse or children, your mother or your father, your best friend or your sweetheart. That flute is your best friend, and the time you spend with it is bonding. That’s what we’re after as flutists and musicians.
    Secondly, practice affords growth and improvement – the bread and butter of practicing. We go through this cycle very often. Something is impossible, we can’t play it. We tackle it and pretty soon we’ve improved. We’re past the impossible stage, now we’re at the terribly difficult stage. That’s progress. Now we keep working and it’s not terribly difficult anymore, it’s very difficult. Pretty soon, we don’t even think of that passage, and we’re learning new ones.
    All of this improvement and growth and expression through the instrument happens through the cycle of practice.     

Samuel Baron
(1925-1997)

    Flutist, conductor, and teacher, Samuel Baron was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music studying flute with Georges Barrère, Edgar Schenkman and Arthur Lora. After graduation he returned to study conducting. He founded the New York Brass Ensemble (as the conductor) and the New York Woodwind Quintet. With the NY Woodwind Quintet he recorded extensively and played the premiers of Samuel Barber’s Summer Music and works by William Bergsma, Ezra Laderman, Wallingford Riegger, and Gunther Schuller. He also performed with the American Chamber Orchestra, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, New York City Opera Orchestra and for one season was the principal flutist of the Minneapolis Symphony. In 1965, he joined the Bach Aria Group becoming director in 1980. During his career he taught at SUNY: Stony Brook, the Juilliard School, Yale, and Mannes College of Music.

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    When I meet with students, they often ask, “How do I memorize and perform by heart on stage?” Many of my non-musician friends ask the same. I think they find it interesting that I perform mostly without music. So, what is so special about memorizing? Is it important? Are there shortcuts to memorization?
    In South Korea, where I spent my childhood, it was more common to perform everything without a score. I did not even realize that there was an option of performing with a score on a music stand. It never felt like a burden to memorize a piece, however, because we usually spent months on one movement before a concert. Memory always came very naturally and without much effort when I practiced one piece for so long. It would have been stranger if I could not have memorized the music. 
    At the elementary school I went to in Daejon, South Korea, every student was encouraged to learn an instrument. After playing one overture together for 20 minutes each day all semester, the entire orchestra was able to perform without a score. When parents came to this concert and asked in awe how we could play the whole work from memory, my classmates and I did not understand how unusual this was.
    The challenges of memorization began to emerge as I progressed towards a more professional level of performance. My teachers at the Curtis Institute of Music, Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner, required me to learn and memorize a new piece each week and perform it with a pianist. Learning any piece well in a week was already a big task, but it was an even bigger challenge to memorize everything in seven short days. I found some pieces were easier to memorize than others.
    Up to that point in my studies, my only memorization strategy was to play a piece over and over again. In those early years, I chose this primitive and slow method because it was the only way I knew. As I got busier with more concerts, I knew that I would not have enough time to continue in this way. I realized that I had to come up with a plan. Here are a few tips that I use.

1. Make sure your fingers know all the notes on the page.
I first learn all of the notes correctly so that I do not memorize any wrong notes subconsciously. I prepare the piece to performance standards because the music should come first, and performing without music is, after all, optional.

2. Know the structure.
You will be surprised to find out how much easier it is to play by heart when you are aware of the structure. Compare the piece to a forest. I first try to see the entire forest. Then I figure out where the forest begins and ends and which kinds of trees are located where. I imagine that I am looking at an overview of the location with a 3D computer map. As I zoom in and get closer to each tree, I observe the other creatures and landmarks around it. I scan vertically (which is studying a score vertically to see the instrumentation and the harmonies) and horizontally (which is to know where the phrases are leading and details I must pay attention to). This creates a GPS map of the work in my head, and it becomes difficult to get lost while performing.

3. Sing along in your head.
Sometimes I really do not have enough practice time. (I have never met a musician who tells me that he or she has enough time to practice!) Don’t despair. There are other ways to practice. Jeffrey Khaner once told me that musicians should think about their pieces at all times, even when they are not physically playing. He is absolutely right. At various times during the day, I find it useful to sing the piece in my head. When I cannot remember how to sing any farther, I consult the score to find out what is happening in the music at that point.

4. Use your photographic memory.
You might be thinking, “but I don’t have a photographic memory.” I believe that everyone has a photographic memory to a certain degree. Just as people can remember and differentiate each other’s faces, they can learn to mentally photograph a score. It helps me to be able to mentally visualize where I am at any given moment in the score. It is worth taking the time to take a closer look at the visual appearance of the score.

5. Do run-throughs with the flute.
The more run-throughs you do, the more secure you will feel. Performing is a complicated activity. There are many different issues to think about spontaneously, and sometimes an unexpected accident can happen in a split second. To prevent this kind of unwanted, unpleasant, and unnecessary experience, play the piece through many times at home. I find that sometimes my fingers can fail, but I have my road map in my head. Sometimes my road map gets vague, but I can picture the score in my head and find out where I am. When I cannot find it in my head, my fingers will go automatically to the correct places, and so on. Things happen on stage. However, if you have enough layers of protection, that you have run through many times, you are quite safe.

6. It is your heart that counts.
How much do I love this piece? How much do I love playing the flute? Show how much you care. Do not be one of those flute-playing robots who can play all the correct notes without expressing any thoughts or emotions. Love the piece you are playing; have the never-ending curiosity to bring the piece alive; give your whole heart; and immerse yourself fully in the piece. The rest will come naturally.

7. Let it go and enjoy.
In the end, you have to free the piece and let it fly on its own. Remember that it is not about you, and certainly not about how well you can memorize. Performers are only a bridge between the composer and the audience. Put in your best effort up until the time of the concert so that you can enjoy the time on stage to the fullest. Focus on the message from the piece and then play your heart out.

    These are a few of the techniques that work for me. Explore other ways to discover what works best for you. There is, however, one thing I would like to emphasize. Sometimes when I hear students performing, all I can feel is that they are thinking only about what note comes next. The next note is important, but it is more important to play so the audience hears and feels the music.
    If you are not entirely confident about stepping onto the stage without a music stand, then it is far better to bring the score and be comfortable. No one wants to see a performer who appears worried and scared on stage. Both performers and audiences seek something that touches the soul. They should be able to purely enjoy the music at ease.
    In lab orchestra for the conducting students at Curtis, the professor, Otto-Werner Mueller, told a student that if he could not write down on staff paper every detail of a page in a score, he should not attempt to conduct without music in a concert or even conduct it at all. This is extreme, but he had a good point. Whether you decide to play by memory or not, prepare until the last minute as if you will because this type of preparation requires a deeper understanding of the music, and your playing will improve.   

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    Helen Blackburn regularly travels 350 miles between Canyon and Dallas, Texas. She is the flute professor at West Texas A&M and the principal flutist with the Dallas Opera. She is known for her lively and inspired teaching and performing.

How do you manage such a demanding schedule?
    When I accepted the position at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) in Canyon, a small town just south of Amarillo, I knew I wanted to feel settled there. I bought a house there rather than live in an apartment surrounded by students. My husband, percussionist Drew Lang, and one of our dogs live in Dallas, while I reside in Canyon with our other two dogs. It was important to have dogs with me in Canyon as a sort of anchor and also to provide some balance in my life. They force me to take long walks and not just live at the music school. I usually fly back and forth unless I am going to be in Dallas for an extended period, in which case I drive so the dogs can travel with me.
    Commuting can be complicated. This year I have 23 flute majors at WTAMU plus several private students in both locations. When the opera season revs up and I add rehearsals, performances, and travel to my calendar, it becomes a real puzzle. My schedule is often drastically different from one week to the next. For example, if I have no opera services, I will be in Canyon all week teaching all day each day; but when we are rehearsing and performing two operas in repertory, I may fly back and forth between Dallas and Canyon two or three times a week.
    During these weeks, I modify my schedule and teach small group lessons and also bring in a guest teacher for private lessons. I select guest teachers with diverse backgrounds who can share real-life experiences and give practical advice to my university students. This fall our guest teachers included an orchestral flutist who has a large private studio, a band director who plays flute, an orchestral flutist who is also a music therapist, and an elementary music teacher who is an excellent flutist. My students get the benefit of new teaching perspectives, but still have the consistency of weekly lessons with me.
    I do not have a regimented personal practice schedule as it is just impossible. I manage to stay in good playing shape by warming up with my students and demonstrating or modeling during lessons. I have always learned music quickly and am efficient in my practice. I do a lot of mental practice on the airplane or when I walk with my dogs, but I go into practice overdrive mode if I have a recital or a tough piece looming on the horizon. Fortunately, I usually have so many performances on my calendar that I never fall too far off the practice wagon.

How do you prepare middle and high school flutists for collegiate study?
    My primary goal is to instill in each student – no matter the age – an enduring love of music, along with strong fundamentals and problem solving methods. I find it impossible to teach music if the student is in disrepair. Ask any student who has had even one lesson with me, and they will say we start at the very beginning and go from there. To that end, I emphasize good posture and playing position, hand position, breathing, flexible embouchure, characteristic tone and vibrato, double and triple tonguing, a secure grasp of rhythm and subdivision, and fundamentals of technique plus as much standard repertoire as possible. When a student has no underlying bad habits, we can focus on the art and joy of making music. For those considering majoring in music, I add as much technique work as they can handle which might include the Taffanel et Gaubert 17 Big Daily Exercises and Walfrid Kujala’s Vade Mecum, orchestral excerpts, and more repertoire.

What is your core curriculum for a performance or music education major for the BM program?
    My first objective is to rid students of bad habits they may have when they enter college and help them grow as much as possible in the four or five years they are in school. Of course I focus on fundamentals and standard repertoire, but I also put an emphasis on flute pedagogy. To paraphrase a dear friend, I don’t want my students to infect the next generation with the bad habits they may have had when they were younger.

What are your warmup and maintenance practice techniques?
    When I was younger and had time to spare, I had an extensive warm-up routine that took two to three hours daily. Sally Turk, my brilliant teacher, laughed and told me there was no way I could maintain that routine in life in the real world. I eventually distilled my favorite, most efficient, and most effective exercises into what I call my Super Duper Zen Yoga Warmups (see example below). The first five of these exercises take approximately seven minutes from start to finish and are the core of my playing and teaching. I start every day with them and find I can maintain embouchure strength, flexibility, and suppleness in this short time. Then I might rip through major and minor scales and arpeggios with different articulation patterns or favorite exercises from Taffanel et Gaubert or another technique book. That has to do it on most days. I am absolutely mad about technical studies and own almost every method book ever published. When I have more time, I love to rotate through them all.

What makes a beautiful tone?
    I do not think there is one beautiful tone that should be applied to all music, but there is a characteristic tone for each instrument. This is something I refer to as First Chair of the Universe tone. This is the sound you would want to use if you were auditioning for First Chair of the Universe on just one note. When describing this tone, I would say it has core, depth, color, a balance of low and high partials, freedom, complexity, and zing. Having said that, it is important to be able to change sound, color, and dynamics to match the piece rather than imposing one sound on all pieces. This is why embouchure flexibility is important, but most important is having an explicit idea of the sound you are intending to produce. If you do not hear it inside your head before you play, what comes out your instrument could be anything.

Do you have any tips about articulation?
    The tongue can and should be trained for speed and endurance just as an athlete trains for a marathon. However, the real purpose of articulation is to enunciate and clarify the musical line. I find many students ignore the printed articulation or do not tongue firmly enough for it to be heard. I think of articulation in many different ways depending on the piece. It can help to think of the bow stroke of a fine string player, the key stroke of a great pianist, the enunciation of a singer, or even the movement of a dancer.

What advice do you offer for flutists auditioning for a competition or college entrance?
    A solo or concerto competition and a college entrance audition are two very different creatures. I did not enter a lot of competitions when I was young, and I do not encourage students to enter formal competitions until they have rid themselves of all bad habits and have solid fundamentals. Otherwise it seems that they reinforce bad habits while working toward the external goal of the competition. When I did enter competitions, I enjoyed working toward a goal and learning about myself from the experience. (I learned I’m a terrible procrastinator especially when it comes to memorizing pieces.) I feel fortunate that Sally Turk, my undergraduate teacher, put emphasis on becoming a better musician rather than on winning competitions.
    Regarding college auditions, some teachers look for a near-finished, highly polished student while others consider the teachability of the flutist, attitude, personality and potential. Students should focus on fundamentals such as tone, rhythm, and technique, and choose repertoire that shows their strengths and allow them to be expressive rather than trying to impress with flashy, too difficult pieces. I encourage students to have at least one trial lesson with a teacher to see if they are a good fit for one another. There is no such thing as one perfect teacher for every student.

Do you encourage students to double major?
    WTAMU offers degrees in music education, performance, music therapy, and business. Most of the students major in music education, with only a small number of students in the other concentrations. I am honest with my students about the difficulty of a career in performance and strongly encourage performance majors to consider a double major in music education or music business to give them more options.

As a flutist who plays both opera and symphonic literature, do the skills for each differ much?
    Opera musicians have to play much more softly and be more sensitive to the conductor than when playing in a symphony orchestra. However, the skills required are essentially the same whether playing in an opera, symphony orchestra, solo, or chamber music setting. Good musicians are aware of their role in the musical context of the moment. It is necessary to play more soloistically when you have a prominent line and to blend into the texture when your voice is secondary. This means that you should have great flexibility with tone, color, vibrato, dynamics and articulation. One of my pet peeves is a flutist who plays everything with one sound, one vibrato, and one dynamic.

As a graduate of West Texas, what is it like to teach in the place where you studied?
    It is a little surreal, but also completely natural to be teaching at WT after a 30-year hiatus from the Texas panhandle. When I graduated in 1982 and headed to Chicago for grad school, I thought I would never go back to Texas. Looking back on the progression of my life, however, I feel that every experience has led me back to WTAMU. I love the people of the panhandle and have a real bond with the students who are drawn to WTAMU. I share a common background with many of my students and almost feel as if I am repaying a karmic debt to help them achieve everything they dream of in their musical pursuits.

What sparked your interest in the flute?
    I grew up in Dalhart, Texas (population 5,000) which is in the far northwest corner of the Texas panhandle. My mother was a veterinarian and my dad was a cowboy. Our family listened to country-western music (Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette), rode horses every day, and participated in rodeos all summer. I was a barrel racer, carried our flag in the grand entry, and sometimes sang the national anthem.
    The local band director was a charismatic man named Jack King. Everybody wanted to be in band. When it came time to choose an instrument in 5th grade, I ended up with the flute because it was the only instrument left in the want ads in the newspaper. I still remember the musty smell when I first opened the case and also remember thinking, “I guess I’m not going to be an English teacher after all. I’m going to play the flute!” Of course, I had no idea what that meant.
    Since Dalhart was so far from civilization, I was unable to take private lessons. However, Nancy Chisum, a wonderful pianist who played for every event in Dalhart, practically adopted me. Every day for six years, I rode the school bus to her home. I sat next to her on the piano bench as she learned her accompaniment parts. She taught me bass clef and how to transpose. Nancy arranged for us to perform someplace almost every week. We played at every church in town, for the Rotary and Lions Clubs, the old folks home, and once we had finished that circuit, we did it again. By the time I got to college, I had had tons of performing experiences. 
    Though my parents had no musical background, they did everything possible to support me. They sent me to band camp every summer. My mother launched a search for a flute teacher and arranged for me to have random lessons when we traveled. When I was in the 10th grade, my mother drove me 105 miles each way to study with Brad Garner, who was a sophomore music major at West Texas State University. Though lessons were a bit sporadic because of the distance, Garner inspired me, got rid of bad habits, and gave me a good technical foundation.
    In college I studied with Sally Turk at West Texas and then went to Northwestern with Walfrid Kujala for my master’s degree. I was lucky to have studied with this trio of teachers in the order that I did. Garner taught me how to play the flute correctly. Turk showed me how to play with relaxation and play on a high musical level with great detail and nuance. With Kujala I learned to be analytical and even more detail-oriented. It was a perfect triumvirate of three very different, but highly complementary teachers.

Why is it important for students to attend summer music festivals?
    I did not attend a summer festival until several years after graduate school when I sent in a recording for the piccolo fellowship at Aspen and got the spot. I played in Aspen for four summers, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was surrounded by amazing musicians and had to learn music really quickly because we gave a full orchestra concert every week. (We played almost every huge piccolo piece my first summer: Shostakovich 6, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Scheherazade, Beethoven 9, Daphnis, etc.) So much fun!

What type of repertoire do you program for your flute and marimba duo with your husband Drew Lang?
    We do not have much time these days for exploring new repertoire because we both seem to always have a million projects on our plates, but our two favorite pieces are Gareth Farr’s Kembang Suling and Drew’s transcription of Robert Beaser’s Mountain Songs which were originally for flute and guitar. We have commissioned a few pieces, including Rhapsodia by Bradley Bodine. We will adapt anything that interests us including works by Bach, Jake Heggie’s Soliloquy, Ian Clarke’s Hypnosis, Irish reels, and jazz charts.

What were your other teaching experiences before coming to West Texas?
    I have definitely had myriad experiences and paid my dues, though I never applied for a teaching job in my life except for my current position at WT. Immediately after graduate school I was recruited by friends to move to Midland, Texas where I taught 96 students each week and played third flute and piccolo in the Midland/Odessa Symphony. After two years in Midland, I was offered a job teaching part-time at McMurry College in Abilene. This soon became a full-time position in which I taught all applied woodwinds, sophomore theory, elementary music education, woodwind methods, played clarinet in band, played baritone saxophone in the jazz band, and was coerced into being a flag girl in marching band. I also taught approximately 50 private students on the side in order to pay my bills. I also met my husband at McMurry.
    After three years at McMurry I accepted a part-time position at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, where I was strictly the flute professor (aside from a brief stint as color guard coordinator and one semester of teaching a music appreciation class) and built the studio up to a full-time position. I still taught about 40 private students in addition to my university load.
    I never really did many orchestral auditions for several reasons: it was so expensive to audition; I loathed practicing excerpts for years on end; and I did not like the emotional fall out. However, while at SFA I took an audition for principal flute of the Dallas Opera to serve as an example to my students. I thought if I prepared well, played all the excerpts for my students (so they knew I was ready), and then auditioned and did not get the job, they would get an idea of how competitive it is in the orchestral world. I had no emotional investment in winning this audition and really could not take the job if I won because I had a full-time job at SFA three hours away. Life is strange though, because I won the audition and then had to figure out how to make it work. For two years I led a hectic life driving back and forth the 180 miles between Dallas and Nacogdoches before resigning my position at SFA.
    Next I taught at Texas Christian University for 12 years as an adjunct professor and concurrently part-time at the University of North Texas for six years. I am now in my fourth year at WTAMU in a full-time position. The obvious benefits of having a full-time position are being in charge of the direction of the flute studio and a better salary and benefits. The drawback is meetings! Fortunately, the director of the School of Music at WTAMU is wonderful, and full faculty meetings are few and far between.

If you weren’t playing and teaching, what would you be doing?
    Many times through my early career I questioned if I was really doing the right thing with my life. I think this is fairly common among musicians because we work really hard and spend a lot of time practicing alone with little recognition or financial reward. In my twenties I considered following my siblings’ paths (geophysicist and attorney) or just finding a career that was not in music. I always came back to the realization that I was doing exactly what I was put on this planet to do: teach and perform.
    I would be incomplete if I only did one without the other, but I have learned that I do need to take breaks from both in order to stay fresh. There was a period of many years that I taught every single day of the year including Christmas and Thanksgiving. I finally learned that I need to allow time to replenish my soul. I honestly cannot imagine myself doing anything other than what I’m doing. Well, maybe I could be a professional dog walker.  

    Helen Blackburn is the Yvonne Franklin Endowed Chair Artist Teacher of Flute at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) in Canyon, Texas. She is also principal flute of the Dallas Opera Orchestra, a core member of the modern chamber music ensemble Voices of Change, principal flute of the Breckenridge Music Festival and founder/director of The Big Fat Flute Shindig at WTAMU. She has been a prize winner of the Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition, the Fort Collins Young Artist Competition, and the Aspen Wind Concerto Competition. Blackburn previously served on the faculties of Texas Christian University, University of North Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University and McMurry University. She is a graduate of West Texas State University (BM – Sally Turk) and Northwestern University (MM – Walfrid Kujala).

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