Each fall band, orchestra, and flute choir directors look for flutists to play piccolo in their ensembles. Students also may ask their private teachers about trying the instrument. With instruction any flutist should be able to play piccolo comfortably, but some flutists are better suited to playing piccolo on a regular basis than others.

The Role of the Piccolo
    The piccolo has a unique and important role to play in any band or orchestra. Like other auxiliary instruments (English horn, contrabassoon, Eb and bass clarinets), the piccolo operates as an extension of the range of its parent instrument, and as a hyper-distillation of that instrument’s particular color. In the best cases, this miniature-flute is just that – a tiny instrument with an exceptionally agile, vocal quality that brings the flute’s expressivity, virtuosity, and coloristic variety to the extreme upper ranges of the ensemble. However, the dark side of this little flute is well-known. More often than not, listeners experience the piccolo as a weaponized woodwind, violently shrieking out the top line in ensemble passages, and the poor piccolo player is held hostage to the treacherous intonation of both the instrument and the harmonic series, coldly multiplying upwards into oblivion.

Piccolo Personality
    It takes a particular kind of person to embrace the challenges, potential pitfalls, and great rewards of playing an instrument like the piccolo. Although some methods of teaching start very young flute students on the piccolo (especially in South America), most flutists in the United States begin playing the flute in middle school and are not exposed to the piccolo until they have been playing for a few years.
    A good candidate for piccolo is a student who has developed strong fundamentals on the flute, particularly with tonal control, technique, and intonation. A flutist with a clean, efficient sound (even one on the smaller side) does well with the piccolo because such a sound usually generates from a controlled, firm embouchure. Embouchure control is of paramount importance in managing the airstream and allowing a flute player to transition to piccolo without just blowing harder to get the notes out.
    A good candidate for the piccolo chair embraces the soloistic nature of the instrument, but also has a cooperative nature. The piccolo is part of the flute section, and often doubles flute material. It is also the only instrument in the ensemble with the ability to play in the very top octave. It is a great thrill to be at the center of the action, riding the high moments of the band or orchestra, and this can be an excellent selling point for students considering piccolo. However, there are also plenty of moments when the piccolo player should compromise and blend to create beautiful colors that are more than the sum of their parts. An ideal piccolo player is someone who is both very independent and a good-natured collaborator.

Airstream and Embouchure
    Piccolo playing requires a great deal of support, but actually uses less air than the flute. The airstream is narrower, and the speed required to access the high register comes from channeling that air through the controlled, small aperture of the lips. Students learn to form a flute embouchure by imagining they are spitting a piece of rice or tissue off of the center of their lips (say “puh”). A good piccolo embouchure also relies on allowing the airstream to exit from a tiny, focused hole between the lips, and then sustaining that level of tone in the muscles surrounding the aperture.
    Firmness in the embouchure differs greatly from tension, and a flutist with an extremely tight embouchure may have trouble with buzzing on piccolo. Buzzing occurs when a narrow, fast airstream is forced through a too tight embouchure, and the lips cannot contain the airstream so they vibrate together. This phenomenon occurs mostly in the highest ranges of the instrument and can be eliminated by the counterintuitive solution of relaxing and blowing less. An excellent way to practice relaxing into the high register is to play slow, even, five-note scales (tonic to dominant) from the top of the staff, moving up by half-step, making sure to keep the airstream free but supported, and not shying away from the high notes.

Transposition
    Since the piccolo sounds an octave higher than written, it is useful to encourage students to practice piccolo parts on flute in the octave that they sound whenever possible. For example, if there is a piccolo solo in the top range of the staff that can be played an octave higher on the flute, playing the excerpt on flute first can help relate the aural result, as well as the necessary support and embouchure control, to the same passage on the piccolo.
    This is particularly helpful in the sometimes overlooked middle register of the piccolo, which can be unstable in comparison to the same written notes on the flute. Imagining that you are playing a high E on the flute, while playing the middle E on the piccolo can help center the tone and provide a reference for the necessary support in that register.

Technique, Vibrato, and Intonation
    Besides embouchure control, potential piccolo players should have control of their technique and intonation. Being half the size of the flute, everything on the piccolo is miniaturized. Technique should be closer, cleaner, and more economical. A student’s natural hand position should be comfortable enough on the flute to allow them to bring the whole apparatus closer to their face without increasing tension in the arms and left hand (for some smaller-bodied flutists, the hand position on piccolo can even be more comfortable than the flute, but this does not preclude larger students from comfortably making the transition). 
    The vibrato too should be smaller. Flutists with a light, internal, spinning vibrato will adapt much more easily to the piccolo than those with a thicker, slower, fuller vibrato. Again, students should relate the piccolo vibrato to the appropriate vibrato in the same register on the flute, and consider that vibrato exists within the sound. Since the airstream and tonal resonance on the piccolo is smaller than on the flute, a much narrower vibrato should be used in order to fit inside the sound.
    Perhaps most crucially, a flutist who aspires to the piccolo chair should have a good grasp of intonation on the flute, and the ability to make subtle changes to correct the pitch. The piccolo is often out of tune as a function of its place atop the whole harmonic series; the frequency of A=440 is actually 880 or 1760 once you get to the octave of the piccolo, so any discrepancies in intonation are quickly magnified. A piccolo player often makes small adjustments to correct the pitch. It is highly advisable that piccolo players make a pitch tendency chart for their instrument with a tuner. A student should note which pitches have different tendencies from the flute. In tricky intonation tangles, it can be extremely helpful to have a concept of what the problem might be and to remember how much adjustment that note typically requires. A flutist who already has a natural ear for intonation will be able to make these corrections subtly and without over-analyzing the situation.

Metal, Resin, or Wood?
    The type of piccolo someone is first exposed to will have a great effect on whether they enjoy playing the instrument and want to go further with it. There are two basic types of piccolos:  cylindrical bore metal piccolos and conical bore wooden piccolos. Metal piccolos are great for beginners and for use in marching band because they are the least expensive ($200-$1000), most indestructible, and look most like the flute. However, they are also the shrillest and have inconsistent intonation. Conical bore wooden piccolos (made of Grenadilla or Cocus wood, like oboes and clarinets) are the standard in the professional world because they have a more consistent, flute-like tone throughout the range of the instrument, blend better with the other winds, and usually have better intonation. However, they are much more difficult to care for and are much more expensive ($2000-$8000). 
    A wooden piccolo should never be taken outside or used for marching band because it is prone to cracking. An excellent compromise is a plastic or wood composite model. These are durable, have a pleasant sound, are less expensive ($800-$1200), and provide a good bridge to a better instrument later on.
    When I won my first job on piccolo, David Carroll, of the New York Philharmonic, told me he thought any great wind section was defined by its piccolo player. I found this very surprising, coming from a bassoonist, who was married to a world-famous principal flutist (my teacher, Jeanne Baxtresser). His point was that the piccolo is almost always audible, so a piccolo player adds something wonderful to the complexity and completeness of an ensemble’s sound. While every instrument adds its own crucial voice, the right person on piccolo will lend any band or orchestra a new polish and, quite literally, take the ensemble to a new high.

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    A few summers ago, I was having lunch with one of the guest conductors at the music festival where I teach each summer. I asked how the morning rehearsal had gone, and he replied, “I wish these students brought more to the table.” I agreed.
    A year or so later I started a masterclass with the question, “What does it mean when a conductor says he wishes players brought more to the table.” There was silence in the class. Finally one student ventured, “Does he mean the right notes in the correct rhythm at the written dynamic?” Of course on the most basic level that is correct, but there is so much more to being a great orchestral player. Teachers should consider just what topics should be on the table and how we can help students and young professionals bring more to rehearsals and performances.

Know the Music
    Whenever parts are available in the music library, flutists should pick them up and study the music before the first rehearsal. If individual parts are unavailable, then study from a full score. Much of the Baroque, Classic, and Romantic literature as well as contemporary pieces written before 1923 are available at www.imslp.org. Sometimes there are recordings uploaded along with the scores. There are also usually good free or inexpensive recordings available on the internet. Listening while following along with the score is the most efficient way to get an overview of the composition. The composer and the name of the composition should be researched either on the web or in a symphonic music text. A good ensemble player will know something of the historical background of a piece including if it was written for a special event or particular performer.  
    The genre of the composition and title offer clues to choosing the correct performance strategies. Typical orchestral genres include overtures, marches, suites, symphonies, programmatic works, and concertos. The style period in which a work was written will signal what performance practices a performer should employ. Be aware of early music research that has been done in the past 35 or so years and play in a style appropriate for the period. Theoretical topics such as form, key, melodic and harmonic structure, orchestration scoring, dynamic usage, and rhythmic patterns are also important ingredients to examine while constructing an interpretation.

Know the Instrument
    A great orchestral performer will know the instrument well. The first topic to explore is intonation. The best way to do this is to make a pitch tendency . Start by listing all the notes on the flute from B4 through D7 on a sheet of paper. Then have a fellow flutist mark the pitch tendency of each note as you play, using a tuner. The player should not be able to see the tuner. Repeat this process several times to get a good sample of the tendencies. Then offer to do the same for your friend.
    If you find that you are generally sharp or flat all the time, check the cork placement in the headjoint. The line on the cleaning rod should be in the center of the embouchure hole. If this line is in the proper place, then check how much the headjoint is pulled from the body. Generally most headjoints should be pulled about ¼ inch; however, to calibrate this distance specifically for your instrument, pull the headjoint so that low C and an overblown C an octave above are in tune. Repeat on low D and D#. Finally play a C6 from a low C fingering and if all are in tune, the headjoint is pulled enough. Each flute is slightly different so the exact distance may vary from one flute to the next. The room temperature will affect pitch so be sure that it is in the 72-76 degree range when you make a chart. A room that is too cold will make a flute play flat, and a room that is too warm will make the flute play sharp.
    If all the notes that are fingered with the left thumb off the key are flat (C5, C#5, C6, C#6, C7, C#7, G#6), the flute is rolling back toward you when you remove the thumb from the key. Learning to remove the thumb and keep the flute steady requires it to be balanced well in the left hand. Many flutists have found that thinking of uplifting the flute just above the left knuckle solves the rolling issue. A flute rolls back because there is heavier key work on the back side of the flute, and the flutist is using the left thumb to balance the instrument.
    Dynamic levels also affect pitch. Generally notes played p and pp have a tendency to be flat and f and ff sharp. Practice with a tuner to rectify this issue. The same pitch tendencies are true when making diminuendos and  crescendos. Along with knowing pitch tendencies, a skilled orchestral player will know the pitch tendencies of other instruments in at least the woodwind section. Playing in tune with the woodwind section is always a group compromise for the greater good.
    Which tone color to use when and where in an orchestral composition is a lifelong challenge. The more you experiment, the more solutions you will find. The first step though is developing a homogeneous sound throughout the range. This is the baseline from which you will deviate.  Music of the Baroque and Classic periods is best served with less core or center to the sound while music of the Romantic era will have more core. To experiment with this concept, overblow a low C to the second partial. Keep the embouchure in this position while playing Baroque and Classic literature. Overblow at the third partial (G5) for a generic sound (use this for scales and most etudes), and for the Romantic era sound, set the embouchure between the overblown third and fourth partial. The basic idea here is to have the air stream hit the wall are varying angles. This may be achieved by moving either the top or bottom lip, changing the tongue position, dropping the jaw, and varying the speed of the air. The best players use tone color to their advantage for musical interest and also for blending well with other instruments. 
    A great player has a wide dynamic range, while novice players play everything mf. Know whether you have the melody or prominent part or the accompaniment and place dynamics appropriately.

Rehearsals
    Arrive in plenty of time before a rehearsal starts. The old adage of early is on time and on time is late is a good one to heed. The person who sets the stage may know little or nothing about playing the flute and will set the chairs too close together and in a straight line. If you are on the end of a straight line of woodwind chairs, when you look up, you will be looking out into the audience rather than at the conductor. A slight curve at the end of the row will help you see the conductor. Move the chair. It takes more room to play flute than most realize (including flute players), so spread out as much as possible to play comfortably. All flutists in a section should have their own music stands. To ensure good projection, the music stands should have space between them so each flutist’s tone can be directed to the audience. Since the flute is played to the side, turning chairs 45 degrees to the right will facilitate a good playing position. 
    Always have a pencil. When a conductor stops to give a direction, mark instructions in the part. Novice players are sure they will remember, but experienced musicians know that a penciled reminder helps them play their best. If you make a note mistake, mark the accidental. This will keep you from making the same mistake twice. The accidental or cautionary reminder should be placed before the note, not above the note. Trudy Kane said that when she was playing principal flute in the Met, she always put the conductor’s name after the instruction as she often played the same opera with multiple conductors. Circle all beats and measures where no one plays. This will save the embarrassment of looking around wondering what happens next.
    Do not talk during rehearsals unless it is to communicate a specific instruction within the flute or woodwind section. Do not ask irrelevant questions in the rehearsal. Stay focused and save socializing for rehearsal breaks.
    Watch the conductor. The better you know your music, the more often you will feel comfortable looking up. Make it a habit to look up every measure or two. Look up especially at the beginning of the piece, at section changes, at the ending, in ritards and accelerandos, at entrances, fermatas etc. When the conductor stops, ask yourself why. If you know the correct answer, you are tuned in to the rehearsal.
    Count, count, count. The master teacher Nadia Boulanger said, “To live you have to count. One who counts best lives best.” So true. There is nothing worse that can happen as a performer than not knowing where you are. Count as a section. During a long rest of many measures, someone in the section should slightly lift his hand and gesture at each rehearsal marking (Circle M etc.).
    At the end of a rehearsal take the music. At the end of a concert leave the music on the stand unless advised otherwise. Respect the music and keep it safe. Many of the scores you will play through the years will be rental copies. If a rental part is lost, the fee for replacement is quite large.

Musical Items
    Tune quickly with the tone you are going to use in the first entrance in the music. This is not the time to play other melodies, rhythms etc. Keep it simple. Remember the A in the first octave on the flute is generally flat, so tune accordingly.
    Before rehearsal and during breaks do not play the solo parts of another musician’s music. When a person sitting next to you is playing a solo, do not look at his music. 
    Make your ears sensitive to the shape of the notes you are playing. Football shaped notes are a no-no. Many flutists play footballs with their vibrato too. This happens when the tone begins with no vibrato and a nano-bit later the vibrato is turned on full force. Learn to keep vibrato constant. A good person to watch to help you make musical vibrato choices is the concertmaster since the flute doubles the first violins so much of the time. 
    Pick-up notes should be lifted into a strong beat. Generally pick-up notes are played softer than the note they lead into. Ties are never played. Many conductors will ask you to mark an X through the tied note, meaning you should breathe on the tie so you won’t be late on the next notes.
    Whole notes are rarely played at the same dynamic throughout the measure. Usually the first beat is played at the indicated dynamic, and then the player backs off so that instruments with moving parts can be heard in the texture. Playing long notes in this style shows you have good musical manners. 
    As a one-line playing instrument flutists are more comfortable thinking horizontally. The best players listen vertically too. This will help you figure out where a pitch fits into a chord and what the flute’s dynamic should be in relationship to the other players.
    Try not to chip the beginning of a note. Chipped notes happen, but if you think about placing the attack well, it will happen less often. A good rule to remember is: the tongue releases the air.
    Sections who breathe together will attack together. Someone in the section should give a small motion to cue in the rest of the section. Depending on the passage this usually falls to the principal player, but not always.

In Conclusion
    For many years I kept a small notebook in my flute bag. When a conductor made a remark about the music that I did not know or I thought was clever, I wrote the comment down. Pretty soon I had about 100 rules of phrasing or thoughts to consider when performing. Rereading these comments from time to time continues to make me a better musician. I encourage teachers and students to do the same, and endeavor over time to learn how to bring more to the table.

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    I remember the anticipation of a new school year. My parents were both teachers so the entire family prepared for the September start. When I was a child, it meant new school clothes and shoes, purchasing school supplies, and the excitement of stacks of clean notebook paper. Something about that paper made me want to fill it up; perhaps, even then, there was a glimmer of a writer in me. I remember how the school smelled on that first day – all clean with a hint of sweeping compound. My father was a high school biology teacher, and I will never forget his harrumph at my excitement over my first day in high school. He said, “You can always tell a freshman, but you can’t tell ‘em much!” That was my Dad – always the realist.
    Later, when I was teaching at DePaul University, I would end the school year in May completely drained. Teaching is a giving profession, after all; the knowledge is always going out to your students, and sometimes very little comes back. By August, however, the creative juices began to flow again, and I was ready to start the cycle again, eager to help young flutists along their paths toward excellence.

Some Words of Advice
    Those of you starting your college careers must not waste a precious moment. Go prepared. Yes, I know, you don’t have an assignment yet from your flute teacher, but you can arrive at that first lesson with your scales prepared, an etude, solo piece, and an orchestral excerpt ready to play. If the teacher has other ideas, you have not wasted your time. If they say, “What did you bring to your lesson today?” you will have an answer. Please arrive on time; in fact, arrive early, and find something other than threadbare jeans to wear. Show this teacher that you are serious about your craft. Whoever said “First impressions are the most lasting” hit the nail on the head. How you present yourself will speak volumes about you in the first five minutes. Because this is in many cases a four-year relationship, it would benefit you to make a good impression.
    Designate a notebook only for flute lessons – a flute journal of sorts. You can take notes during the lesson, write down assignments, and then make observations in it during practice sessions. After you leave the lesson, take a few moments to set some goals for the following week. Then address those goals in your practicing throughout the week. If questions arise, write them down. If you have an a-ha moment, write it down. This flute journal can become an organizational tool and a history of your flute progress all at the same time.
    Some students going to college are leaving home for the first time. This can be a serious, although exciting, transition to make. Embrace it, make new friends, dive in to the academic environment, and check in with home via Skype, phone, or email once a week. Your parents will appreciate knowing that you are thriving.
    Don’t look for your teacher to become a surrogate parent as that is not their job. They are neither your friend nor your counselor. Their purpose is to motivate and instruct you so that you can become the best flutist possible. That may mean that they have to come down hard on you from time to time. After all, if you only hear how wonderful you are, you are not learning anything. Right? So accept criticism graciously, and try to make the changes they suggest. I went from being a big fish in a small pond in high school to a college where I was a small fish in a big pond. It was a huge transition for me, but it made me a better musician. You can do it too.
    After I graduated from college, I moved to Chicago and took some lessons from the legendary Arnold Jacobs. I remember vividly walking under the L tracks on Wabash after the first lesson and thinking what I had just heard was pretty heretical. (I was an Indiana University graduate and thought I had arrived.) What Jacobs told me went against much of what I had learned in school. So I had this little conversation with myself that basically said, “You have just spent a ton of money for advice from this man, so you better give it an honest try. Give it a week or two, and then decide whether to make these changes.” Thank God I followed my own advice; his suggestions made all the difference in my lung capacity and ability to play long solos, such as Debussy’s Faun, in one breath.
    So off you go; make the break and embrace the new. You will never have this kind of freedom again to explore new avenues, learn new concepts, practice for hours on end, and grow into the mature musician you want to be. Have fun, and work hard. Remember, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

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    The Chicago Flute Club celebrates its 25th anniversary this year with nearly 400 members including professional performers and teachers, music industry representatives, students, and amateur flutists. The club began in the winter of 1988-89 when flutists Sarah Cifani, Kay Ragsdale, and Mary Stolper performed together in the pit orchestra of The Nutcracker Ballet at Chicago’s Arie Crown Theater.
    Although there had previously been a successful Chicago Flute Society run by Janet Bergman, which functioned mainly as a flute choir, it eventually dissolved. Some of the members of the Chicago Flute Society went on to become the Lakeside Flutes, which is still an active flute choir in the Chicago area.  However, Cifani, Ragsdale, and Stolper wanted to form a new club where they could discuss flute events, teaching methods, playing techniques, and other ideas with one another.  
    They decided to include fellow professionals Kaye Clements and Carlyn Lloyd in their initial planning session. After many months of planning, the five founders laid the groundwork for the new club. With the help of pro bono lawyers provided through the Illinois Arts Council, the newly formed Chicago Flute Club officially gained status as an Illinois not for profit organization twenty-five years ago on September 12, 1989. Sarah Cifani served as the first president.
    After much discussion the bylaws were written, and the club began publishing a quarterly newsletter, agreeing on the name Pipeline. (Various other titles had been discussed, including Transverse Trivia, Transverse Times, Whistletone Tableau, and Tweeters Tabloid.)  In the early days of the Pipeline, the newsletter was manually typewritten, cut and pasted together, and printed on a home printer. Eventually founder Carlyn Lloyd digitized Pipeline on her 1MB Mac Classic computer and had it printed professionally.  She remembers, “There were no camera phones or Facebook in those days, so we didn’t take pictures at our meetings.  All we had was a typewriter, telephone books, mailing labels, and everyone’s list of all their friends’ names. There was no email.” With the advent of the internet, the Chicago Flute Club created its website, www.chicagofluteclub.org, in 1999.  
    An artist friend designed a logo and stationery for the club. Meetings were moved from DePaul University to Mary Stolper’s house and then on to Sherwood Conservatory. Dues were collected, bank accounts opened, budgets created, and a mission statement written.  It was decided that the mission of the club would be “to foster the highest artistic potential of all its members through teaching, listening and performing. We provide a forum for activities of interest to flutists of all ages and abilities. Our activities are designed to promote, encourage, and nurture appreciation of flute music and technique, as well as provide an opportunity for social interaction among flutists.”

First Programs
    The first program, attended by 44 members and guests, was held on October 1, 1989. Walfrid Kujala, beloved Northwestern University flute professor and longtime principal piccoloist for the Chicago Symphony, presented a recital and lecture. Kujala performed Geraedt Sonatina, Foote Troise Pieces, Musgrave Piccolo Play, and Barrère Nocturne.  In 1990 Victoria Jicha, Flute Talk Editor Emeritus, chaired the club’s first informative teacher’s exchange panel. That spring Donald Peck, principal flute of the Chicago Symphony, presented the second recital. When given his payment for performing, Peck immediately tore up the check and donated the performance fee back to the club.  A grateful board granted him an honorary lifetime membership.
    Other early events included a recital by Lyon Leifer on the Indian bansuri flute, a workshop on specific medical problems associated with flute playing, and a workshop on flute repair. Recitals and masterclasses were performed by Jean Berkenstock, Carol Wincenc, Walfrid Kujala, Richard Graef, Judith Bentley, Steve Kujala, and Michel Debost. In the following years flutists Jeanne Baxtresser, Emmanuel Pahud, William Bennett, Denis Bouriakov, Bonita Boyd, Leone Buyse, Michel Debost, Robert Dick, Mathieu Dufour, James Galway, Marco Granados, Jennifer Gunn,  Rhonda Larson, Susan Milan, Nicole Mitchell, Greg Pattillo, Paula Robison, Trevor Wye, Matthias Ziegler, Jimmy Walker, Ali Ryerson, Claire Chase, Jasmine Choi, and Lorna McGhee presented recitals.

Competitions
    The first annual student competition was held in 1992. Students performed Faure’s Morceau de Concours and a composition of the student’s choice. This competition has grown to include three age divisions and more than 90 students. Competition winners are awarded monetary prizes and an invitation to perform in a Chicago Flute Club sponsored recital.
    An adult competition was added in 2003 plus a series of three rotating competitions: orchestral excerpts, chamber music, and solo artist. Today the Chicago Flute Club alternates the Solo Artist Competition with the Kujala International Piccolo Competition. The most recent Solo Artist winner was Won Lee, and the most recent Kujala International Piccolo Competition winner was Mariacelli Navarro Salerno.

Chicago Flute Fair
    The first Flute Fair was held in 1998 at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory with Paula Robison as the guest artist. The goal was to have an event that was “fun, with a traditional fair/carnival atmosphere.” There were performances by flute choirs, a recital, masterclasses, and 10 exhibitors. The CFC board decorated and sold chocolate pretzel piccolos and chocolate bars with gold, embossed CFC logos. 
    In 2007 the Chicago Flute Fair was expanded to a two-day event that began with a banquet to honor Lifetime Achievement Award honorees. Through the years lifetime achievement awards have been presented to Walfrid Kujala, Donald Peck, Bickford Brannen, Michel Debost, Jeanne Baxtresser, Mary Louise Poor, and Jim Keefe. The 2007 guest artist was Emmanuel Pahud with classes presented by Nancy Toff, Mary Stolper, Patricia George and others. In recent years, recitals have been performed by William Bennett, Denis Bouriakov, Matthias Ziegler, Marco Granados, Jim Walker, Claire Chase, and Ali Ryerson. The club is currently planning the November 13-15, 2015 Chicago Flute Fair which will be held at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport.

Commissioning
    One of the original objectives of the club founders was to commission new works for flute. In 2002 Martin Amlin was offered the first commission. His Sonata No. 2 for Flute and Piano was premiered by Mary Stolper, flute and Martin Amlin, piano. Five years later Lita Grier wrote Echoes Over Time for flute quartet as the second commissioned work. To commemorate the CFC’s 25th anniversary Ian Clarke wrote Spells for flute choir, and Shulamit Ran wrote Birds of Paradise. All four commissioned works were performed at the 2014 NFA convention. Spells and Birds of Paradise were world premieres.

The Future
    In an effort to give back to the community, the Chicago Flute Club recently established a community concert series, Flutes about Town. This program presents concerts by members of the club at hospitals, senior centers, and children’s homes. There are also annual membership recitals for members to share performances with each other and their guests.
    The Chicago Flute Club looks forward to many more years of concerts, festivals, classes, lectures, competitions, and commissions to spread the love of all things flute related. Club members look back fondly at their history while anticipating and planning for growth and future events.

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    "Maybe you think you are using a lot of vibrato, but frankly I don’t hear it."
    My teacher made this comment after I had been resisting his suggestion to use more vibrato in general. Not only was I unsure how to do it, but using more vibrato sounded exaggerated to me when I played. “Let’s do an experiment,” he continued. “I brought in the recorder today. You play the piece the way you are used to playing it first, and then try it with more vibrato, and we will listen to it and compare.”
    Rather reluctantly I tried. “This is just a stylistic disagreement, it will pass,” I thought, but hearing the playback, I was surprised to learn he was absolutely correct. What I had heard for several years as a lovely vibrato in my sound was actually non-existent on the recorder.
    I felt a bit embarrassed by my resistance to his previous suggestions, but that was just part of it. There were many things on the recording I was not aware of, and that I did not really like. I said to him, “I did not know I sounded so different to others. I will definitely use more vibrato in the future!”
    My teacher, Robert Willoughby, was particularly perceptive, and in my case, particularly patient. He had thought about it and come to the conclusion that I was young, arrogant, and resistant to change, but more interestingly, also just ignorant. He surmised that I was too used to hearing the sound of my own playing from my perspective and was not aware how I sounded to others.

Practice Habits
    With long hours of practice come ingrained habits of preparation, and listening. Over time, we assume that some methods will result in the fastest improvement, and that we sound a certain way. In cases of the particularly arrogant, such as my 18-year-old self, sometimes these assumptions can harden into absolute belief. These beliefs can be harmful to progress unless some degree of objectivity can be attained and habits are questioned regularly.
    Differences in perception can also cause confusion. You may think you understand what a teacher is recommending, but things can get lost in translation. Your version of what the instructor is teaching may be, in practice, quite different than his. With the teacher’s permission, it can be helpful to record lessons. Usually things do improve with repetition and patience over a long time, but it can be hard to determine for ourselves whether we are wasting time and effort, and whether the process is really working. Teachers may not frequently go into detail about practice methods, focusing on results and time spent practicing instead of examining the preparation process with students.
    For much of the time students are left to their own devices, with a trial and error approach. If they understand the information from lessons, this can actually be the best way. What is discovered by one’s own method is often learned most effectively. According to John Krell, author of Kincaidiana, the great flutist and teacher William Kincaid did not go into elaborate detail about embouchure and sound; instead he inspired students to search for their own tone. Other teachers are more formulaic and assume that their own methods will work best for students.
    The work must be done, the notes must be learned, and a good technique is a prerequisite for artistry, but bad habits can become standard practice if care is not taken to listen attentively while playing. If a student has a teacher who demands much material every week, a numbness can set in, and some areas can become neglected regularly. Kincaid’s approach places the burden of responsibility ultimately on the student’s shoulders. Teachers cannot be babysitters. At the end of the day musicians must learn the way they sound and work with it. Take responsibility and become as familiar as possible with your habits and assumptions, and decide if they are truly what you want.
 
Sound Deception
    Flutists get used to their sound, which is based upon embouchure, physical traits, and position. It is common to work with long tones to achieve better clarity and resonance. At the end of a session, the results may be marginally acceptable, but problems have basically gone unchallenged. Many times students feel they should move on to other material and assume that if the tone feels the same as usual, all is well and their duty is done for the day. Students often do not hear or notice how they truly sound. (Teachers can demonstrate this by placing their hands in front of students’ ears to provide a better sense of the sound. This can be very revealing, and not necessarily pleasant.)
    The practice space also affects how clearly flutists can hear their tone when practicing. Steven Finley, President of Haynes Flute Company, once told me that the esteemed teacher Britten Johnson suggested he practice in his apartment’s clothing closet for a month after Steven complained that his tone sounded airy. Apparently it helped. Like Mr. Finley, at some point we must face the music, drop the self-deception, and be willing to question everything in order to get to the next level.

Raising Awareness
    The artistic journey could be summarized as a voyage toward discovering one’s own truth. It is truly difficult to become aware of what you are actually doing with the music. The truth can hurt so we avoid discovering it. It is often easier to just turn on the auto-pilot when practicing. I once heard James Galway refer to this as wasting time. “Do not waste your life, it is too precious!” he said. Eventually it all comes back to us. Our ignorance is definitely not bliss for the audience. Sometimes students grow so used to their mistakes that they are unaware of them and repeat them for years.
    In reality it is quite impossible to hear what you sound like to others. Everyone will have their own interpretation of a sound, but a recording makes it possible to more approximately understand what others hear. Like the hands in front of the ears exercise or discovering at the end of a meeting that your fly is open, it can be a rude awakening to hear what you sound like to others. Everyone has experienced this upon hearing a playback of their voice. 
    When reviewing a recital recording, it can seem as if the sound files were mixed up. Surely someone has pressed the wrong button. Poor intonation, rushed rhythms, and vibrato that cannot be heard in the top notes, all seemed fine when heard as you played. Maybe it would not be such a shock if flutists recorded themselves on a daily basis. 

Tools
    Ironically, it has never been more convenient to hear oneself play. From phones with audio and video capability to metronomes that spit out compound rhythms, Music Minus One, lessons from remote locations, and orchestral training programs, flutists of the past could scarcely imagine the tools at our disposal today. In Krell’s Kincaidiana no mention is made of a home recording device for practice, because recording in those days was so cumbersome, inaccurate and unavailable. 

Making the Leap
    Professional players often use a recorder regularly as part of their preparation, but many advanced students still seem in the dark about the details of their own sound and the process of using a practice recorder. The pros have made a leap somewhere and confronted the challenges and barriers to using a recording device regularly and effectively.

Procrastination
    Perhaps students feel that with time constraints, learning notes and practicing scales should have primary importance. It is easy to decide to work on sound and phrasing later when there are so many notes to learn. Work then proceeds without regard for the tone. This is particularly harmful, as they can get accustomed to hearing a poorly supported and unfocused tone. Also, technique is closely related to tone production. The notes must be learned, but a recorder confirms that you have stayed on course with good sound and proper phrase grouping.

The Dreaded Microphone
    Do not place the microphone too close to the flute. Because of the nature of the instrument there will always be some extra playing noise as the air column vibrates over the blowing edge. While it is good to try to minimize this effect, enhancing the noise with a microphone can lead to closing, producing a smaller tone. With the microphone too close, distortion at loud dynamics is also a problem. Putting the microphone too far away can mask the reality of tone, giving an overly positive impression. Place the microphone a moderate distance away to get a balanced sound picture. Remember that the practice space is important; again, modify acoustics for balance: not too dead, but not too resonant.

Confusion
    Listening to a playback sends too many messages to process all at once, and there is the emotional element also. The most important part of listening to yourself is organization. Be objective and concentrate on improving one aspect at a time. For example, play a phrase of the piece, first working on tonal focus. Are all the notes resonating? Then study the rhythm. This is especially important when practicing orchestral excerpts. After mastering the rhythm, move on to other areas such as vibrato and intonation, addressing each separately.

Lack of Guidance and Example
    If you have never listened to a playback with a teacher, take some to a lesson for feedback. It could be that you are hearing and doing things a bit differently. Learn how your teacher uses recordings as a tool for progress, and then develop your own approach.

Time Pressure
    One reason students avoid taping themselves is that it seems like recording and critiquing playback in small segments will take forever. This is actually not true. A good one-hour session with a recorder can erase years of self-deception. The amount of time taken to hear, acknowledge, and correct a single rhythmic error after hearing it on the recorder pales when compared to years of making the same mistake and not realizing it.

Fear
    Recording yourself and listening to playback is hard on the self-esteem. Only after time and careful work will you begin to like what you hear on the recorder. As in all areas of life, it is necessary to balance positive and negative critique of yourself and others. If you hear something that you like, be quick to acknowledge it and reinforce it. Decide why you like it. Then move to a distinct area you want to improve. Do not try to tackle too many problems at once and take your time. Take frequent breaks to keep your ears fresh and stay positive.

Listening Habits
    Learn to listen specifically. General impressions are relatively useless, since the focus should be on refinement and modification of existing traits and details. It sounds better overall is not an adequate response to hearing playback. Again, isolate separate aspects and make some progress before moving to the next area. Try to retain the corrections you have made as you focus on other aspects of playing.

Listening Perspective
    Listen to other players, both on flute and other instruments, and many different kinds of music. This is like developing vocabulary in speech. There may be a characteristic heard in a great flutist of the past or in a teacher’s playing that might enrich your sound. Knowledge of the repertoire through listening increases your choices when deciding how you want to sound or shape the music. Imitate the players you admire. It is fun to record yourself while trying to copy another player.

Energy Distribution
    Work on fundamentals first. Use a recorder to determine if the tone is really coming out clearly, if vibrato is really under control, or if the rhythm is correct. Once the correct version is in your ear, reinforce it through repetition and continued listening. Try to get some things to happen more effortlessly, so energy is then freed for intonation, precise control of dynamics, beginning and ending notes, timbral color, and more highly developed accuracy.

    Although the recorder is a prickly companion to become acquainted with, it is your most truthful friend if used wisely. It helps musicians develop very specific goals and strong preferences. You will know exactly what characteristics you want to hear in a tone, and this results in stronger individuality and more authoritative performances. Recording yourself is the fastest and most direct route to self-awareness in your playing.

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    Zara Lawler examines unusual musical possibilities by combining the flute with theater, dance, and other instruments to create surprising, creative performances. She is known for her solo interdisciplinary program The Flute on its Feet, her duo with marimba player Paul J. Fadoul (Lawler + Fadoul), as well as her events for many moving flutists, including a 2012 production of Salvatore Sciarrino’s music for 100 migrating flutists at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

Why did you start combining flute playing with theatrical staging?
    I have always loved a spectacle. In school orchestras, playing for ballet or opera was always my favorite thing because it felt like we were part of something bigger. I also love connections. I love seeing how an idea in music can get translated into an idea in dance, or how a theatrical event can create a sense of drama in music. I did gymnastics and dance when I was young and enjoyed harnessing the energy in the body and using that to propel a dance phrase or a gymnastic combination. As a young flutist, I felt the same way about playing the flute, as it used the energy of the breath to propel a phrase. Eventually I wanted to be able to do both at the same time.

What was involved in the Sciarrino performance at the Guggenheim?
    It was a pretty amazing event. The Guggenheim wanted to host the US premiere of Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino’s Il Cerchio Tagliato Dei Suoni, and they asked me to direct it. The piece is for four soloists (Claire Chase and Eric Lamb, both of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Jayn Rosenfeld, and Kelli Kathman) with 100 migrating flutists or migranti. The title of the piece means Cutting the Circle of Sounds, and Sciarrino asks that the soloists be arranged in a circle around the audience. The music the four soloists play is written to sound as though it is spiraling around the audience, creating a circle of sound. The migranti play while walking a diagonal path through the audience, cutting the circle. The famous rotunda of the Guggenheim was the perfect location. I recruited the migranti, taught them their parts, and staged the entire piece.

Where did you find the 100 flutists?
    I used my contacts in the flute community, and the New York Flute Club helped spread the word as well. There were several teachers in town who were happy to have their students included. I think the Guggenheim has a magical quality that really captured people’s imaginations and made them want to participate.
    The piece is written so that the flute parts can be played by even young beginners. In fact, since many of the sound effects are supposed to be breathy and very quiet, beginners may even have an advantage over flutists who have spent years developing a big, full sound. This meant that the performance was open to participation by any flutist, and we had some who were as young as seven or eight years old and at least one adult beginner who had only been playing for a year. At the same time, more sophisticated flutists had the satisfaction of participating in the US premiere of a major work by a living composer at a spectacular location. We had many great players, including Carol Wincenc, Wendy Stern, Elizabeth Buck, and Magda Schwerzmann, in addition to the four soloists.

What was your first experience combining dance or theater with music?
    After I left school I was interested in this idea but did not know any dancers. I put up a sign at performance space in New York City that said “Flutist Available for your Project,” and included my phone number. It felt very bold. A choreographer named Ellen Young called me to work together on a project. I played three solo pieces which she choreographed for her company. On the same program, I played the Varèse Density 21.5 with a simple choreography that Ellen created for me; I walked as I played. It was mild compared to some of the work I have done since then, but it was a thrilling challenge at the time.

How did that evolve into the work you are doing today?
    There were many years and many stages in between. The most notable of those formative experiences is the time I spent with the ensemble Tales & Scales. We performed everything from memory so we could move and act as we played, combining music and story. This was completely different from the usual experience of a musician who stands to the side accompanying a dancer. We created a new work every year with a creative team that included a playwright, composer, stage director, and the members of Tales & Scales. We always tried to raise the bar and challenge ourselves. Those years taught me many of the skills I now use and also opened my mind to the breadth of possibilities in combining performing arts.

Do you still perform any of that repertoire?
    No, I left Tales & Scales in 2008. However I still perform with other former members of the group including Neil Parsons who has choreographed several pieces for me, Paul Fadoul (marimba), my partner in the Lawler + Fadoul Duo, and Christopher Grymes (clarinet) who plays on our CD. Gary Race, stage director for Lawler + Fadoul’s educational programs and consultant for several Flute on its Feet pieces, is also someone I know from Tales & Scales.

How do these experiences affect your more traditional performances?
    I think it has given me a real appreciation for the primacy of the airstream. When you are bending over backward, the only way you can continue to make a good flute sound is to have a really strong airstream. I also think it has helped me to loosen up about little details that flutists tend to be uptight about. I use fake fingerings all the time, for example, to make things like intonation work in the context of a movement sequence or to be able to play a passage one-handed. When I was a student, I used to feel guilty about that kind of thing. I thought it meant I was not a real flutist if I used fake fingerings. Now, because I am thinking of a bigger picture, I can let go of that feeling and just do what works.

Do you ever feel that adding extra elements takes away from the music?
    No, I think it only heightens the experience. Music is a visual medium as well as an aural one. Even at a traditional concert, audiences watch as much as listen. The performers’ body language, the clothes they wear, the lighting, and so on, all have an impact on the experience. I think ignoring, or worse, denying the visual aspect of music hurts the music more than emphasizing it in a beautiful and artful way ever could.

What advice would you offer to those who want to add other elements to their performances?
    The main thing is that if you have an idea, just try it. Don’t be scared. Trying something experimental does not commit you to a lifetime of wacky performances, but it may open up new avenues of communication. See the Basic Principles of Interdisciplinary Practice below.  Choreographer Neil Parsons and I use this list when we do workshops for The Flute on its Feet.

What is The Flute on its Feet?
    This is my solo interdisciplinary recital program.  It is solo flute music that is performed in combination with movement and words. The repertoire changes over time as my collaborators and I create new works. Currently, it includes composer Edie Hill’s This Floating World, which is a set of five pieces inspired by Japanese haiku. I have created a version of them where the text is woven into the music, and the whole thing is staged to trace a woman’s journey from anger, isolation, and near-despair to hope, connection, and the prospect of new adventure. There are two dance works on the program that were choreographed by Neil Parsons who performs them with me: Fantasies, using several of Telemann’s solo pieces, and Lowell Liebermann’s Eight Pieces. You can see video of some of the Telemann and Liebermann on my website, zaralawler.com. I also use the title The Flute on its Feet for my workshops for flutists, as a tag line for my company, and as my twitter handle.

What are the challenges of combining music with the other arts?
    There are really several levels of challenge. The first is artistic: what do I want to say with a particular piece and how can I best say it? Then there is the physical challenge of moving while playing. I am particularly interested in being able to move with abandon while I play. Sometimes I feel that having the flute in my hands or at my lips necessitates a certain reserve in my physical movements because on some level I am always protecting the instrument. I am experimenting with ways to be freer in my movement.
    The other level is more entrepreneurial, such as finding presenters to book the work and donors to fund the creation of new works, as well as keeping track of the business side of things and making ends meet. Having spent most of my professional career with two institutions (Tales & Scales and the Hong Kong Philharmonic), I do find being on my own is a whole new ball game. It can be extremely difficult to do both the artistic and the business sides. It is hard to practice when I feel that I have a laundry list of business emails to write.

What is it like acting as the conductor for the theatre production A Female Philoctetes?
    It was such an interesting project. My friend Ralph Farris, composer and violist of ETHEL, wrote the music for a modern staging of Sophocles’ Trojan War story, Philoctetes. I was the only instrumentalist, but led the chorus from the flute. It was a real workout, not just as a flutist, but dramatically as well, since I had to pace the music with the drama. Some of the music was written out and planned very carefully, and some was improvised during performance based on melodic fragments provided by Ralph.

What’s next for The Flute on its Feet?
    I have a couple of new projects in the beginning phases of development. One is a set of etudes for interdisciplinary flutists that will feature exercises to teach some basic skills of integrating moving, speaking, and playing. The idea is to keep the etudes simple, so that players do not have to learn all of the performing skills at the same time. For example, one etude will feature walking with the beat, the next will include walking the rhythm, and a third will have the flutist walk a rhythm that is in counterpoint to the one played. There will be exercises for alternating between speaking and playing, and some dedicated to moving specific parts of the body. I am hoping to come up with things that are simple enough to be learned easily, but beautiful enough to be suitable for performance. I am also working on staging a set of folksongs using not only the tunes but the text as well, and also including some opportunities for audience involvement. As part of the folksong project, Neil Parsons and I are collaborating on a choreography for Caen Thomason-Redus’ Amazing Grace Variations.

What led to the Lawler + Fadoul new CD Prelude Cocktail?
    Marimbist Paul Fadoul and I have been playing together for many years and wanted to record a CD. We decided to arrange some of the piano preludes of Bach, Shostakovich, Chopin, Debussy, and Gershwin, and then commission new preludes from Katherine Hoover and Roshanne Etezady. It seemed like a big mix of things, hence the name Prelude Cocktail.
    The Prelude Cocktail project will continue for a while longer. This year we are publishing at least some of our arrangements, so that other musicians can play them. This is part of our mission to increase the good quality repertoire for flute and marimba (and alto flute and piccolo and vibraphone, etc.). We are also collaborating with a mixologist here in New York to create a cocktail menu to go with the program. That is a real crossing of disciplines, and it has been very interesting to hear her thoughts on our music and how she is translating it into a drinks menu.
    Lawler + Fadoul’s next program is one we are really excited about. It is going to be a neo-vaudeville extravaganza. It will be a staged concert of music that is uniquely North American, but presents music that rarely makes its way to the concert stage such as advertising jingles, TV theme songs, ringtones, video game music, hold music, and more. It will be an experiment to feature music that is normally ignored and create something that draws attention to and puts a twist on repertoire that was never intended to be anything other than a marketing device. Each piece will be fully choreographed or staged as acts in a variety show and will range from madcap and silly to beautiful and meaningful.

 
E Pluribus Flutum was an event for many moving flutists created by Zara Lawler for the closing concert of the 2011 NFA Convention, shown below in a preview performance in Central Park. (photo by Dave Ackerman)

* * *

   In 2014, Lawler was flutist and conductor for Aquila Theatre’s production of A Female Philoctetes, with music by Ralph Farris. Her duo with marimbist Paul J. Fadoul (Lawler + Fadoul) creates and commissions new works, and they released their critically acclaimed debut CD Prelude Cocktail in 2013. In addition to performing, Lawler teaches privately in New York City, and is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music Precollege. Lawler has a Master of Music from Juilliard where she studied with Carol Wincenc and Sam Baron. Her other teachers include Judith Mendenhall and Susan Rotholz.
    She comments, “I always think of myself as having a Moyse lineage. My main teachers, Wincenc, Mendenhall, and Rotholz, were all Moyse students. The focus on airstream, expressivity, a methodical approach to skill building, and developing a strong enough technique to feel freely musical in performance are all part of the Moyse legacy.”

  
Lawler’s Basic Principles of Interdisciplinary Performance Practice

1. There is no need to be an expert to try it. You do not need years of ballet training to move creatively, nor do you need elocution lessons to speak well. If you want to experiment with moving or speaking, just give it a try.
2. Start with a spark of inspiration, and then add depth later. Just as musical interpretation deepens as you learn a piece, extra ideas will develop the more you work with them.
3. Try it before you deny it. If you approach this kind of project with an attitude of exploration and experimentation, you may be surprised at what you can do.
4. Follow the Robert Dick Rule: Don’t do anything that hurts you or the instrument.
5. When in doubt, practice with a stick instead of your flute. I use my high school flute as a middle-rung stage between practicing with a stick and using my gold flute.
6. Get an outside eye before the first performance. If possible, get feedback from a non-musician, perhaps a friend with a background in dance or theater, or someone who is a savvy audience member.
7. Know that everything can appear meaningful to an audience. Musicians assume, incorrectly, that audience members ignore certain parts of the performance, such as walking on stage or adjusting music stands. They will watch your every move, so think about every moment on stage.
8. Get in touch with the composer, if possible. While they say that asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission, it would be a shame to choreograph something beautifully and then not be able to use it because the composer is opposed to the project.
9. Even if a performance does not include interdisciplinary elements, the exploration process may yield benefits. Opening yourself up to more creativity is always good.
10. Give the audience a chance to just hear you play. In a performance with lots of elements, remember that not everything has to happen all at once all the time.

Memorization Tips
I often perform from memory. There is no big secret to memorization, it just takes lots of time and careful, thoughtful work. The following are some basic guidelines that can help.
• The vast majority of the work time should be spent on memorizing very small chunks of music. Working in small chunks is important in regular practice, but it is crucial in memorization.
• Chunks should be small enough that you can successfully memorize them in one or two short practice segments (10 minutes max). Second, they should be musically logical, not necessarily a full phrase, but satisfying to work with during a short practice segment. If these two priorities are in conflict, it is more important that a chunk be small than that it be musically logical.
• If it is difficult to stick to a small chunk, use sticky notes to cover up the rest of the music. This little trick is surprisingly effective at focusing the mind.
• Use mental practice, and later rehearsal, to string small chunks together.

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