Leonard Garrison Flute Practicing 1

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PRACTICE RELIGIOUSLY OR PARISH, PART 1 by Leonard L. Garrison

Many flutists have written about practicing (see reading list below). The following notespresent a summary of their views and some suggestions for working out technical problems.I. What is practicing? As Samuel Baron points out,

Practicing is essentially repetition--you repeat things over and over. There is a goalin this activity. Through repetition you achieve something that might be called agroove in the brain or a habit.[Practicing as a Way of Life, 18]

II. Why practice? Sam Baron, again:First of all through practice we achieve a oneness with the instrument and withmusic. When we go to a concert of a great musician we dont hear a person onstage manipulating a machine. We hear a person singing through the instrument . .. Secondly, practice affords growth and improvement.[Ibid., 18-19.]

Be patient. Dont expect immediate improvement. As Geoffrey Gilbert says, Remember,youre not practicing for next week, youre practicing for next year. [Floyd, The GilbertLegacy, 123.] Trevor Wye points out that things might appear to get worse at first becauseyour perception of problems is improving.[Wye, Proper Flute Playing, 7.]

III. How much should I practice? This depends on your goals. Some practice every day ismore effective than occasional bouts of practice. To maintain your present level of ability, ahalf hour is the minimum. To improve, devote more time. If you are set on becoming aprofessional flutist, clear your schedule of other obligations and devote as much time aspossible. Ours is an extremely competitive field, and most competitors devote three to fourhours a day to the flute, some as many as ten! However, practicing beyond the point ofmental or physical fatigue is counterproductive. Also, several short practice sessions each

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mental or physical fatigue is counterproductive. Also, several short practice sessions eachday are more productive than one mammoth practice-athon.For college students, the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire offers a good rule of thumb(and all other fingers). They require each student to practice a daily amount equal to thenumber of credits of applied study. Students receiving one credit (a half-hour lesson eachweek) practice for one hour each day, those receiving two credits, two hours, etc.

IV. Effective practice. As important as the time spent is the efficient use of that time.Trevor Wyes rules speak to this:

A. Whatever time you have to practise, make it really effective.If you dont know why you are practising an exercise, then stop. You should have anobjective, apart from doing it because its there.

B. If you hesitate frequently while practising then cut down on the hesitations. Try tomaintain a continuous stream of sound.

C. Practise at the same time each day, if possible.D. Avoid practising difficult technical exercises or tone exercises continuously for more than

forty minutes; play a different exercise and go back to the first exercise later in theday.[Ibid., 11.]

Focus your attention on the most difficult things. Bracket passages you cant play and spendmore time on them.Samuel Barons first rule of practicing is, Dont practice mistakes and dont practice badplaying. [Baron, "Practicing as a Way of Life," 6.] Or as Julius Baker says, If you nevermake a mistake [in practicing], youll never make a mistake [in performance]. [Nyfenger,Music and the Flute, 27.] This means practice slowly! Mary Karen Clardy suggests, At theend of a practice session, practice technical pieces at half tempo. [Clardy, FluteFundamentals, 34.] This solidifies muscle memory in preparation for your next encounter withthe piece.

V. Tools [Krell, Kincaidiana, 77.]A. Music standone that adjusts to a comfortable height and angle.B. Straight, armless chairsit while practicing orchestral, band, and chamber music, stand

for warm-ups and solos.C. Pencildont be afraid to mark the music that you just bought for $37.95.D. Metronomesee below for practice techniques.


D. Metronomesee below for practice techniques.E. Tuner.F. Recording equipment (a small digital recorder, a laptop, a cassette recorder, etc.)

musicians must play and listen simultaneously, but it is useful to separate thesefunctions. Recordings reveal imperfections in tone, rhythm, dynamics, and intonationthat one doesn't notice while playing. Also, a recording shows the difference betweenhow you sound out there and right here. Computer software (I use Amadeus Pro) isespecially helpful because you can playback at a slower speed. This enables you tolisten for evenness of fingering, articulation, vibrato, or trills.

G. Mirrorwatch your fingers, embouchure, and posture.H. Notebookkeep a log of your practicing. Outline what you intend to cover before each

practice session. As brilliant solutions come to you, write them down.I. Reference books:

1. James Pellerite, A Modern Guide to Fingerings for the Flute, 2d ed. (Bloomington, IN:Zalo, 1972).2. Theodore Baker, Schirmer Pronouncing Pocket Manual of Musical Terms, 5th ed. (NewYork: Schirmer, 1995)--look up terms as you encounter them; do you hammer away at alusingando?3. Italian, French, and German dictionaries.

VI. A practice routine: Many flutists prescribe practice routines. The most common is:1. Tone2. Scales and other technical exercises3. Etudes4. Repertoire, i.e., solos, chamber music, and orchestral excerpts

The amount of time allotted to each of these elements varies with the school of playing.Some regard the first three as warm-ups and devote most of their time to the music.Others, notably the British school, reverse this proportion of work, spending only one fourthor one third of the time on music. [Floyd, The Gilbert Legacy, 126-131; Galway, "Thoughts onPlaying the Flute," 12-14; Wye, Proper Flute Playing, 11.]Michel Debost offers a unique approach to organizing ones practice time. Because warmingup is sometimes impossible in real life, his first step is to play through the etudes,orchestral excerpts, and repertoire without any warm-up or preparation. He then devotestime to the basics (both scales and tone studies), followed by a mending of the errors fromthe initial play-through.[Debost, "Warming Up to Cool Down," 4.]A sensible approach borrows from all these ideas. Follow the general outline of Tone-


A sensible approach borrows from all these ideas. Follow the general outline of Tone-Technique-Etudes-Repertoire but vary the proportion spent on each area depending on whatneeds the most work. To avoid boredom or frustration, keep your routine flexible. Doingthings in the same way every day is like eating the same dish for dinner every evening. Foretudes and repertoire, first challenge yourself to perform, straight through la Debost, andthen go back and fix what went wrong. Your private performance is most revealing whenpresented to a tape recorder, which tells you what needs improvement.

VII. Perfect the phrase. Write your breaths in the music. Then use the breaths as practiceunits. Practice from the beginning until the first breath. Then practice from the first breath tothe second breath, and so on. If you stumble, do not begin merely at the note where thestumbling occurred. The problem is getting into this note. Thus, start at the beginning of thephrase. Make sure you can play each phrase in its entirety without breaking down. If you cando this, you can play the entire piece flawlessly.

VIII. Working out specific technical problems. Lets assume youve identified the hardpassages in an etude or a solo, and youve worked them slowly. How do you get to Mach 2?A. Divide and conquer: We are like air traffic controllers at OHare. How do we keep track ofall of the elements of music-making (finger technique, articulations, breathing, dynamics,intonation, rhythm, tempo, tone, emotional content of the music) and keep them fromcrashing into each other?Land the planes one at a time.The following tricky passage from the Allegretto movement of Godards Suite, Op. 116requires coordination of trills, turns, octave leaps (and subtle manipulation of embouchureand air), rhythm, a perfectly timed crescendo-diminuendo, and a ritardando:

Practice in stages. First, play only the main notes with crescendo-diminuendo:


Practice in stages. First, play only the main notes with crescendo-diminuendo:

Next, put trills on these main notes. Start and end each trill on the main note, and retain thedynamics:

Now, leave out the trills and play the main notes plus octaves. Play the higher notes a littlelighter than the lower ones:

Add the turns (not yet the trills):

Finally, play the passage as written (see first example above).If a technical passage requires tonguing, practice slurred. If there is an accelerando, practicefirst with a steady tempo. If there are dynamics, practice first with a steady mezzo forte.Simplify, starting with only the main notes and then adding others.

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Leonard Garrison Flute Practicing 1