G Major Arpeggio Flute

[Antenor Ketkaew]

QuestionMy previous 'less-than-perfectionist' flute teachers have left me with an incredible amount of work to do - technical finger-work - it is baffling me. My sound has always been pretty good and very versitile. Do you have any tips with the finger-work? And any teachers, please take note - I'm gona be pretty tough on my students from now on as it will be far easier for them in the

future.

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Jen replies:

I know exactly what you're talking about.

You may want to read this fascinating report of Suzanne Lord's about the teaching of "technical facility" by Peter Lloyd.

I also have answered this question for myself, my students, and lots of folks on the net who've hit the same workload. The thing is to make it FUN!!!

For example: Once you've learned a scale, memorized it, played it for tone, made it perfectly even at faster and faster tempi, then you just have to break into an improvisational *passion* and play freely for a few minutes (or until the passion morphs :>), so that you've really incorporated all the levels of finger and lip dexterity, while making MUSIC.

It's a short recipe that takes a lifetime.

Trevor Wye has also written a series of books that will "walk you through" all possible flute scales for exams. Start with "Practice Books for the Flute (vol. 1 through 5 all one volume)" in the OMNIBUS edition. It's about $40 but it's fabulous.

Walfrid Kujala has a great book (with facilitating fingerings, which can make your finger work TRULY smooth) called "The Flutist's Vade Mecum", which I think is really worth owning.

There's also 17 Daily Exercises by Taffenal & Gaubert, the stock material that all conservatory students have used since the 1900s :>) and most teacher's fave book for older students who need to find speed and accuracy in their hands after freeing their bodies into better balanced positions:

Fiona Wilkinson's "The Physical Flute". I prefer the latter.

All books are given a thumbnail sketch of uses and how to order on my Fave Repertoire page.

Ask your private flute teacher to coach and help with strategies for your practicing of tone, technique, intonation, articulation, etc. etc.---and to help focus your attention on which exercises to learn first, and how to develop your own creative listening to your technique.

As a teacher, I also have found that it's more fun in lessons to play technical exercises in harmony (I just make up the harmony--usually playing in third, sixes or holding drones while the student plays the prepared material. My new book will be all about these patterns, but meanwhile, just see if your teacher is willing to perform in thirds with you, or use a tape recorder to play in harmony with yourself, too. Very fun.)

- 2 Octave Chromatic scales for tone (Paula Robison's Orange Juice Warmup)

- Chromatic scales done for evenness (metronome)

- Major scales done for tone (lower octave, then higher octave, then finally two octave plus expressive arpeggio---all slurred, dynamics, pauses added as required to keep tone pure etc.)

- Major scales done for evenness 9in triplets, groups of four, using metronome, chunking into one-inch chunks, using metronome to create new rhythmic groupings, add pauses, and change accents etc.)

- Major scale swoops, cadenzas, improv. and dynamics/expression....all the creative things you can think of......

- Major Arpeggios wih stabilizing fingerings as needed.

- Arpeggios major/minor

- Etudes in major and minor keys

- Harmonic minor scales done for tone

- Harmonic minor scales done for evenness then memorized, then scale swoops, cadenzas, improv. and dynamics/expression

- Scales in thirds, all slurred, then add articulations.

- Dominant Seventh chords, all slurred then add articulations.

- Arpeggios in various forms (closed form, open, intervallic patterns)

- Scales & - Arpeggios done in articulations

- Trills with and without terminations and anticipations

- Intervals, all slurred, gradually getting wider and wider. [4ths, 5ths, 6ths etc.]

You'll find quite a bit of information on the books I use, and the manner in which I teach technique and technical praciticing in the articles section of my website (see novice levels as well as intermediate levels, to get the whole picture).

Go to the following list of articles and look for novice and intermediate articles on scales, technique, arpeggios, tone development, high register etc:

I wouldn't worry too much or be TOO hard on *your* flute students. I think it's important that you teach only what you already know (or at least have a clear idea of.)

You can burn a child out if you teach them technique in a punitive way. I know that I've subconsciously made a face when I've spoken in the past to students about their flute exam scales, and I've just propagated my own teenaged-year negative attitude and ambivalence. So I realize that I had to grow in my own way, develop a creative way to approach scales, and make it into something I could believe in. :>) See creative scales here.

I avoided pure technique for a reason---when I was a teen; I thought it sounded boring and un-musical. And I meet tons of flutists every year who agree. That's why I'm always re-writing scales and arpeggios for artistic reasons.

A flute teacher needs to convey the creativity and freedom and LIBERATION that clean, fast technique gives you. There should always be a musical prize for all those cumunlative hours of chunking scales, longtoning tricky arpeggios, experimenting with airspeeds in overblown harmonics, and all the other bits that go into making a great "technique".

It is indeed, NOT all fingers! :>)

Alot of it is embouchure poise, fast airspeed and flute stability in the hands.

The trick for any intelligent young flutist who needs technique is to start at the simple end (chromatic scales, major/minor scales and arpegg), incorperate it into your daily practice, gradually expand outwards, and be sure and let yourself develop musically EVERY second of your practice.

Always break away and improvise, and add passion and spark to what you're doing.

Always vary the "voice" you're singing in.

Always vary the emotion you're depicting.

No one wants to hear a machine in micro-increments like a Swiss watch unless the piece that's being performed is supposed to be mechanical sounding. :>)

If you're learning scales, and it sounds wooden and boring, then burst into improvisation and create your own compositions in mid-air with the pattern you're working on.

Slow down, enliven, enrichen.

That's what it's really all about.

Hope this helps, and ask more questions as you get farther ahead in

your practice.

Jen At-43-can-finally-have-fun-with-scales

:>)

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P.S. The most FUN reason to learn scales that I've used recently, in order to take a break every 15-20 minutes, is to play J.S. Bach 24 Concert Studies, Cello Suites, and excerpts from Bach Oratorios.

Welcome to Flute Q and A Number 50 where you are going to learn how to master your scales on the flute if you're an intermediate flutist. So this video is a series of four videos. There's already one up on YouTube about how to master your scales as a beginner, and pretty soon we'll have one as well about how to master your scales as an advanced player and also how expert flute players master their scales.

So this question, which was one of the inspirations for actually doing this series of four videos, comes from Roisin and Roisin says, I'm playing scales every day, but I don't really know how to progress beyond the few that I know. So this is an awesome question Roisin, and we're going to answer this as how to master your scales as an intermediate player.

Now, before we go on, if you're an intermediate flute player, what is your favourite scale to play? So if you're watching this on YouTube, type in below in the comments what your favourite scale is. So for example, F major scale, or maybe it's an arpeggio, maybe it's a scale in thirds, maybe it's a fancy scale that you just learned. Maybe it's a blue scale, which is you know, slightly jazzy.

So type in what your favourite scale is and in the meantime I'll introduce myself. My name is Jane Cavanagh. I'm a flute teacher and I teach flute players all around the world in my Flute Academy. How to get faster progress on the flute by learning proper technique. So proper technique is the little tweaks of flute techniques. So the way you play means that you accelerate how fast you progress. I mean that's kind of a tautology there. Accelerate how fast you progress. You progress a lot faster and it feels a lot easier to play because you're using the right techniques.

So let's get onto these scales. So four steps, it's going to be as an intermediate player, if you think of these four steps, it makes it quite easy to get it. Get the concept in your head about how to progress beyond a few scales that you know.

Firstly, always learn your scales with no music. Always play your scales with no music. So when I say learn them with no music, by all means, look at music if you need to check the key signature, if you need to check how the actual scale goes, if you're playing an arpeggio and you've never played an arpeggio. By all means, look at music to figure out how it goes, then put it aside and learn the scale or the arpeggio or whatever you're doing with no music.

Playing scales should not be a music reading exercise. We should not be using that part of our brain. It should be a body exercise, a playing exercise, not a reading exercise. If you take the reading out, you gotta be a whole lot better at your scales.

Okay, so the four steps. Step number one, increase the number of sharps or flats in the scale. So for example, if you already know F major that has B flat in it, then how about learning B flat major that has B flat and E flat in it. Once you've mastered that, how about you go onto three flats? So B flat, E-flat, A flat, that's E-flat major and of course do the sharps as well.

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