Jennifer Cluff

Widor Suite played by James Galway

2008-08-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Fluter-dudes,

Sir James Galway on video, August 2008 performing the Widor Suite.

If you find the video doesn't play, go back to http://www.jamesgalway.com and check whether you need to join up or anything extra like that.

Enjoy the video:

http://www.thegalwaynetwork.com/widorperformance.html

Best,
Jen

Flute Scales Flute Scales Flute Scales Whoooeeee!

2008-08-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

G. writes:
I'm practicing flute scales again just to see if they will help my playing of real music. (Yes, I know scales can be called real music, but I wouldn't play them for a recital.)
Anyway, I'd like to know what tempo to strive for. How fast would a beginning music major be expected to play all the majors and minors? How fast do you play them? Do you play all of them equally fast, or do you have to slow down for some? Do you vary the articulations, memorize, play all octaves? I'm still not convinced of the value of this type of work to my general flute playing, once the basic keys are learned, but I want to give it a try.

Dear G,

A beginning music major would want to know all three forms of scale (Major, Minor-Melodic, Minor-Harmonic) by the end of their first year of University, if not earlier.
And yes, that means about 45 minutes of scale practise a day, starting with ten minutes, and working up gradually.
The scale speeds expected are usually measured in quarter notes, with the scales being played in sixteenth notes.
But if the student is truly remedial (never played scales before) then eighth notes might help make the scale easier to read, and easier to make even with the metronome.

A good first goal for a college/university flute music major be quarter note = 60 (four sixteenths per second), with the student working their way up gradually to quarter note = 112 or so over the next four years. (four sixteenths per quarter).

Scales must be listened to for Tone Quality (very important) and of course precise evenness of fingerings. They should be practised at first played all slurred and consistently checked with a metronome, with the student writing down their speed achieved in the margins of their scale book.

A good, easy to read, basic scale book with etudes and finger exercises in it would be the lightweight collection of exercises published by Mel Bay, and entitled: "Indispensible Scales, Exercises and Etudes" by Mizzy McCaskill $12. This is a flute grade 6 level book. (Royal Conservatory grades shown here.)

In many flute exam systems flute students start at a very easy level with eighth note scales. For those who don't know the scales, even quarter note scales are fine to start (all slurred of course, for tone, and breathing and pausing as necessary. No strain :>))
---------------------------------
A typical flute exam requirement for each level is given below (from Royal Conservatory flute exams):

All scales memorized:

Grade 1: (beginner) Played in eighth notes with a goal of mm=60 per quareter:Learn C Major, Bb major one octave by memory. Add their relative minors.
Learn, G, D, and F major in two octaves. and add their relative minors.

Grade 2: Add scales up to three sharps and three flats. Increase speed to quarter = 66, scales are played in eighth notes. Add articulations (*all tongued, slurred two-tongued two, and then tongued-two, slurred two.) Add arpeggios played in triplets one octave, or two octaves. Triplets are tongued and slurred similarly (two slurred-one tonuged and reverse. All tongues, all slurred. etc.)

Grade 4: Play scales up to four flats and four sharps. Play in eighth notes with quarter = 72.
Learn chromatic scales starting on any note. Add all related major and minor arpeggios to four flats. Add articulations (as suggested above, and add slurred in twos, and slur-three-tongue one and reverse it to tongue one, slur three.)

Grade 6: Play all majors, all minors, and all chromatics two octaves. Play in eighth notes, with quarter = 80 Add all arpeggios with various triplet slurrings/tonguings. Add all articulations to scales including:

- all slurred, all tongued
- slurred two, tongued two, and reversed
- one tongued, three slurred and reversed.
- one tongued, two slurred, one tongued.

Increase metronome speed to sixteenth notes, with quarter = 72......80......92 etc. Slower speeds for newer/more difficult scales, faster speeds for well-known scales.

Add whole tone scales, Dominant Sevenths, and Diminished Seventh arpeggios. These are easy to memorize if written out by the student.

Grade 10: All the above, plus add Augmented Fifth arpeggios. Play all scales in sixteenth notes with quarter = 104. Always start all-slurred and then gradually add all articulations.

----------------------
Jen continues:

My take on "should I play the hard ones slow and the easy ones fast?" is this:

Yes, while you're learning them, you will play the easy, good ones (C major) as fast as you can play while keeping tone and finger evenness, and you will gradually increase the speed of the slow ones (C# major for example) until all your scales level out at the suggested metronome markings given above.
For some people, one grade above might take a year, others may do it more quickly.

This means every flute student will find that they spend WAY more time on the tougher scales and arpeggios, gradually increasing the speed over many days per scale.
Again: Writing them out or creating a booklet of them (especially the creativity in creating complex arpeggiated chords) really helps the memorization process.

Eventually, you will have all the scales at the same slower and very even speed with gorgeous tone, and then you can move up to the next speed goal one click at a time on the metronome.
Adding new scales several weeks apart is a good way to pace yourself.

The above chart of metronome speeds and scale names is directly out of the flute exams from the Royal Conservatory Syllabus, but there are also other syllabus pdfs online from the UK that give similar road maps to scale security.
ie: FLUTE EXAMS WITH SCALE REQUIREMENTS:

http://mercury.tvu.ac.uk/lcmexams/Flutelist.pdf

http://www.abrsm.org/?page=exams/gradedMusicExams/practical/flute/flute0203_G2.html

Personal rant/in-coming:

What kills me is that I still get a fresh crop of flute "music majors" each year at the small community college where I teach whose idea of a scale is the one ocatve Bb major scale they've been playing in each band class for the past four years in highschool. (with no private lessons.)
They inevitably play a badly out of tune, bad tone, sloppily bored, all tongued Bb major scale, and each and every one plays it slowly, ploddingly and without any idea of what they're supposed to do next or that there's anything else AFTER Bb Major.
Drives me insane. Seriously. Eeek!

ie: If I had to endure Hades for some terrible crime I committed, it wouldn't be full of fire and brimstone and people playing bad violin. For me it would be a bored flute section from a band class playing over and over again, a Bb Major scale, one octave with hard splitty tongue, bad tone, and careless insouscience! ;>)

More on "Why learn your scales, and Why practice them (for gosh sakes!) in next email, see below.
Best,
Jen :>)

G. continued: I'm still not convinced of the value of this type of work to my general flute playing, once the basic keys are
learned, but I want to give it a try.

I think that the lightbulb really went off (or the FOGHORN went off; hard to say which.hahahhaha!) when James Galway said on his youtube teaching videos " know your keyboard" and "you have to keep the keyboard steady, like a piano keyboard."

When you compare the scales learned by young pianists to the scales learned by flute students, the flutes are wondering around in confused circles, don't you think?

What I've noticed over the years is that thing about flute scales is that flutists think they're a bunch of dancing crazy notes wearing angular sharp and flat outfits, and that they twist themselves into black gargoyles on the page, and never quite make it into mind let alone the fingers.

Flute students if asked, might even realize that they perceive them as half-understood horrible finger tangles and doing them even slowly make the flute feel off balance and uncomfortable to hold!

If you envision instead, scales as fluid, easy flourishes up and down a piano, you'll suddenly envision the FREEDOM that knowing them truly gives you.
-----------
Ask the student:
Can you see yourself sitting at the piano's black-and-white keyboard and playing it without looking at the keys, like the world's most gifted blind pianist? Able to change to any tune anywhere any time, doesn't matter what key it would be if it were written down?

Can you imagine improvising, or sightreading from a place where there is no combination of notes that's not perfectly familiar and fluid already?

And can you see the flute keyboard, like the piano keyboard staying level, solid, and placid while your fingers move around on it at high speeds, with no finger or hand tension whatsoever?

Well THAT'S the goal of flute scales.

---------------------

Now, regarding those lists of scales from the start of this blog post:

When the little flute professors make up the tiny flute exams with all the scale requirements, all they're doing is working backwards from the huge list of possibly useful scales that everyone should know if they're going to have artistic freedom, and then just assigning the easiest to grades 1 and 2, and then gradually adding more each year, for each higher level.
This is "little" thinking, really. It's commendable to make and keep lists, and to grade them,. but those lists don't mention too much about artistic freedom, artistic vision, and brilliant facility....
They just list the common materials. :>)

So let's talk artistic freedom now:

If we flutists were young pianists, and we were playing the piano at a basic level, we might feel limited if we only knew one or two scales really well, and the rest were somewhat hazy.

What kind of creative and flexible musician only plays by himself all the time in F Major and G Major?
If you want to play simple folktunes by ear; okay. But how many years of simple folktunes played with one finger, using only two black notes on the piano could you stand?
Right. Even a child will try out all the black notes and try and get more interesting sounds.

But flutists feel unstable when playing F#, or C# or high G#, and so avoid this, and settle for simple folktunes with very few sharps and flats.
Then they see scales as this uncomfortable mountain that has to be climbed.

I suggest; avoid that trap altogether.

Picture this instead:
Let's say that one fine day you find yourself "jamming" with some really great musicians, and they call out: "Flute take 8 bars of rocket fast solo, and I've got the capo on, so that'll be...er....F# minor, and I mean play REALLY fast!" then you're probably not going to up to the challenge unless you know all your scales equally well and have got them fast and fluid already BEFORE that amazing jam-session.

Or try this scenario, in the classical world:
The phone rings, and an orchestra needs a quick sub for the weekend, to play second flute in The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. You say yes, because this is exactly what you've always wanted to do, (How FUN!) but the defining moment for whether you'll ever get asked to play for a ballet again will glaringly arise when you discover that there's one whole dance number that is made up of flute B Major scales at quarter = 116. Yes, high speed, perfectly ringing, all sixteenth note, rocket fast scales to high B. And you have to play 14 perfect repeats of that scale, each one being ringing and delightful to the ear.

Can any of us do that in three days without having practised it for three years, gradually building up from half-note B Major scales? I'd like to see that!!!

hahahhahaa!!!

So let's pretend we're gifted young pianists, willing to try out every key on our keyboards, and learn to start slowly and experimentally enough to keep that keyboard light, balanced and steady, with fingers easy, low and curved.

All we have to do is START.
I've got to get back to my book (I'm writing the scale chapter right now, I imagine that you guessed that.) but your question really helped me clarify my thoughts, and of course this is freeer forum for blathering than my book is .
Look for all the links for your student's scales you'll ever need below.

Best,
Jen

-----------------------------------
Here's a painless way to learn scales:
------------------------------------

1. Put a drone on The Tuning CD. (www.thetuningcd.com )
D minor is a great one to start with.
Choose different drones every few days....

2. Find the matching notes on the flute and improvise over the drone. Expand in every direction.

3. Discover the various scales arising out of the overtones that appear, just like the ancients did. D Major creates a different set of overtones than D minor, D chromatic creates even more. (Note: For the sake of truly listening to ancient principles of sound, try this even if you know all your scales already.)

Very fun!
More backing tracks for scale inventiveness at links below.

================================
SCALE "How to" links for flute scale learning
=================================

Article with links: "How to learn flute scales"

Article with links:
FLUTE SCALE KIT (everything you need)

Flute scales with free background music on mp3

Easy pace flute scale backing tracks for fun practise

Intermediate flute scale backing tracks with HARP accompaniment

The "Scale Game" (No. 4 exercise from Taffanel and Gaubert book) sheetmusic and backing tracks on mp3

Happy trails of scales,

Best,
Jen :>D

Will-o'-the-wisps in a musical performance

2008-08-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

I just finished reading a great chapter in a great book on becoming a musician. The highlight for me was Chapter 12 'Feux Follets' (Will-o'the-wisps) in the fabulous book Etudes for Piano Teachers by Stewart Gordon.

You can read this chapter (without pg. 129) here:
http://tinyurl.com/4lzc4j

I adore the clarity of the writing! And the topics are very close to those I find myself asking other music teachers whenever we really sit down to exchange what works and what doesn't in teaching instrumental performance.

In Chpt. 12, Pianist Stewart Gordon is saying that although ephemeral, there seem to be three qualities that make up a fabulous performing musician:

1. Charisma onstage ~ From the moment the musician enters the stage the audience perceives almost instantaneously the the 'SENSE OF LIFE' that the musician projects. This is an instinctive appeal, perhaps based on any number of charismatic qualites. These qualities can even come to a performer later in their career, when they become more at peace. With child prodigies the innocence and radiance is often the attraction. What's interesting is the Gordon states that even if you compared the charismatic performer's recordings to those of a performer who is more technically skilled in some facet, that the audience response will still propel the career of the naturally charismatic performer further. They simply LIKE the person from the moment they see them, and want to believe in the presentation that follows.

2. Musical know-how ~ This includes the performer's keeness in the perception of musical sound, and the level of technical skill and proficiency with which they make music. Technical skill is the most measureable during training of young musicians, and one that is constantly re-measured over the years.
But also, Gordon states, that technical skill alone is "not enough to sustain a public career over the long haul". He states that although there are many multiply skilled people who could have made a career in music, of course not all of them pursue performance as a career . In talking about why they wouldn't choose to become world-class performers, Gordon says: "...we have a host of first-rate musicians who are able to perform up to standards at least equal to that of the practicing concert artst, and on occasion at standards which even surpass those of more famous colleagues." He then gives financial and family reasons why some people of this high level of musical skill decide against a touring, solo career.
(This topic of choosing music as a career is touched on in several chapters as well. It's so very interesting to read about the music student's divergent paths. More titles and input on this topic will be welcome from readers, too, if you'd like to use the comment button below; ie: Dorothy DeLay's book "Teaching Genius" etc.)

3. The third element in a superlative musical performance is the 'transcendental' or imparting of a philosophical or spirtual truth to the audience. [from pg. 128]

"If we have been lucky, we have at some time been to a performance in which the artist, with or without charisma, became unimportant, (and) in which the level of professionalism (technique, musicality, sensitivity), although totally satisfying, was beside the point: and after which we came away feeling as if we had been given--miraculously and without having deserved it---a new viewpoint with regard to the eternal, profound questions which face every individual man or woman: birth, life, love, pleasure, pain, death--and most importantly, the meaning of it all.

...Congratulations, accolades, standing ovations are quite beside the point. Those present know what has transpired; and for many, their testimony may be mute because they have no vocabulary to explain it."

".....Projection of such a sense can in no way be a quick study. The artist must have lived with the concept, struggled with it, and given it the most extraordinary dedication--and discipline.

Even so, we understand that no once achieves such communication on demand, (but only after) years of soul searching, hours of seeking technical and musical values, and the desire to communicate on this level..."

------------end quotes

Jen says:...........'ahhhhhhhh'......so well said.
It comes down to:
1. Walking onstage beaming light
2. Having your technical chops finely practised
3. Meeting your philosophical conundrums until they join your sound and soar...

:>)

I highly recommend this book as a terrific read for teachers primarily.
Many other topics are covered also. Google books has this particular book with full index, and some clickable, limited, chapters up for reading.

For me, Stewart Gordon has achieved a sublime summing up in the above chapter, which he entitles "Feux Follets".

Fabulous read. Look in your local library too.
This "Etudes for Piano Teachers" (1995) also first appeared as a series of articles in The American Music Teacher under the heading of "The New Davidites".
The articles and essays have been updated since their original publication between 1973-1982.
Gordon's music-teaching insights, however, are timeless.

Happy reading,
Jen Cluff

Galway on Moyse Sonorite

2008-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,
The Galway Weggis Masterclass videos are going up online.
Here is the first one:

Galway speaks about Moyse, De La Sonorite, and expressive playing.

You need to update to a FLASH 9 player to view the above film.

Best, Jen

Stretching & loosening exercises for the flutist

2008-08-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,
Howie Cohen posted these exercises today on one of the discussion groups, and gave me permission to reprint here, and I think they're excellent descriptions and VERY useful for all. Please try them out and send feedback (comment button below). Thanks.

From Howie Cohen:
As in all other athletic activity, the body, I feel, should first be prepared for playing the flute. The blood and body and 'oil' should be flowing, although when we play we are holding many of the bodily parts needing these oils and juices motionlessly still and they suffer for this.

So I have six, easy warm-up exercises for the neck and shoulders: two to get the juices flowing, two to start the muscles working and two to lightly stretch these muscles.

They are to be done in this order:

   1. Skiing the wrong way - With knees bent slightly, crouching a bit and with the arms behind you swing everything up as if you wanted to fly (up, minus about 10%), keeping the arms straight (don't bend the elbows). This should feel good. If not, desist immediately and consult a doctor.

   2. Criss-cross - With your feet apart lean first to the left and then to the right. When going to the left, the right arm crosses in front of the left (which is going the other way). When going to the right, it's the left arm which crosses in front. Be sure not to bend the arms at the elbow. Your head may want to cock in the direction of the movement. This is fine.

   3. A sigh of relief - While breathing in through your nose pull your shoulders up to your ears (what every flute-teacher tells you not to do, while playing). Hold there and collect your tension for a few seconds before releasing20all in an audible "Ahhh". Do this more than just once.

   4.Shake hands - With your arms extended downward, shake your arms as if they were made of rubber and make your hands wobble. You might want to include the shoulders in this rubbery feeling and even your hips (why not?).

   5. With your left elbow in your belly-button take your right elbow with your hand (your left hand, of course). Pull the arm gently from 11 o'clock to 10 o'clock keeping the right arm straight at all times, but relaxed, so that the right hand droops. Breathe into the pain (should there be any) and be kind to yourself (that means not masochistic). You may lean over to the stretching side and let gravity help in this way. Do this for three breaths and then switch arms (between 1 and 2 o'clock).

   6. Washing-machine (top-loader) - turning to the left with your weight on your left foot send your right thumb across your body (the left arm behind you). Your head then turns in the direction, too, and can see directly behind you. Swing then to the other side (on the other leg - the legs look as if your dirving a golf-ball). Remember to keep your arms straight. Do this slowly at first until you're sure how this goes and that the body wants to do this. Do this for about a minute.

   Tip #1: Breathe - in AND out (and then in, again) all throughout the exercises as if you were a real, live person.
   Tip #2: If your bones crack while doing this, sing a s
ong so that nobody hears this. Put on some appropriate music while stretching.
   Tip #3: Please enjoy using your body; it's probably the only one you've got.
   Tip #4: Do the exercises, before and after practising and in-between, too.

   These exercises take about 5 - 10 minutes.

   I also like to pretend I'm a gorilla (OK, cut the wise cracks) putting a lot of my upper body-weight on my knuckles in front of me with my thumbs pointed in. Breathing in, moving about and grunting like an ape. I call this "back to the roots" and it is wonderful for my back, even when nothing especially is bothering me.
   Tip #1: before you jump from the tree, make certain that the vine is strong enough to hold you.
   Tip #2: Leave enough bananas for the rest of us primates.
   Tip #3: Quit monkeying around and get to work.

   I hope you enjoy these exercises. Flutistically yours, Howie Cohen

I think Mr. Cohen is truly hilarious, but even more, I think these exercises are exactly the same ones that I've discovered through Yoga, Tai Chi and misc. stretch routines and years of flute teaching. Very smart stuff for a feeling like a flexy monkey. :>) Jen

How to Clean a Flute

2008-08-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Everything you need to know about cleaning a flute.
Tarnish control; links to flute cleaning videos; caring for a flute.

Questions:

I want to know how to clean my flute. I know how to clean it , but I want that my flute to be very clean can you please to answer me.

Answer:
Dear Young Flutist,
If you want a flute that's VERY clean, you must take it to a flute repair person and they will properly clean it for you (remove all the moving parts, clean each part individually, take all tarnish off, and re-oil all the moving parts before reassembling). It is normal for a flute to be oiled once a year, so the cleaning can be done at this time. The cost of a C.O.A. (clean-oil-adjust) is about $60 to $100 a year. This is part of the normal cost of maintaining a working flute.
Ask your flute teacher who they recommend to do this work.
Cleaning the flute yourself is covered in the following information:
---------------------
Cleaning a flute:
You have several choices about levels of 'clean':

1. You can wipe the flute very gently with a micro-fibre polishing cloth. These are light blue and sold in most hardware stores and music shops. They're lint-free and wick up oil and fingerprints. This is a cosmetic cleaning only, just for keeping the fingerprints and caked-on grunge to a minimum.
Over zealous (too hard) cleaning can lead to problems.
Thin gold plating on a lip-plate can be wiped off over time, so be careful.
Most importantly: Please avoid letting the cloth swipe the underside of the keys accidentally; abraded or roughed-up pad surfaces turn into pad leaks (pads are covered with a thin membrane that is easy to accidentally abrade during finger print removal. Avoid this.)

2. Wipe the headjoint with isopropyl alcohol if you want to sterilize it. The alcohol is also called "rubbing alcohol" and is very cheap at the drugstore. A small bottle is handy to have for removing adhesive from fine surfaces (price tags, scotch tape etc.) It's use on a flute's lip plate is simply to kill germs if the flute is being played by several children, or unknown former flute-testers.

3. If the flute is used, old, has tarnish, and hasn't been for a "clean, oil and adjust" yet, take it to a reputable flute repair technician. Flutes that do not go in for repair once a year can slow down the young player's development, as flutes normally develop leaks in the pads through wear and tear and general use.
Flutes also have a complex set of mechanical adjustments to keep multiple keys closing together precisely.

Playing a flute that unbeknownst to the student, happens to have a pad leaking, forces the student to gradually press harder on one or more of the keys to make the notes sound well. This in turn slows down the student's progress, and can lead to eventual hand and arm strain.

Special lubricating oil in the moving parts (applied by a qualified technician) is required once a year to keep the flute in good mechanical shape. Lack of oil causes wear in the finely machined connections in the mechanic, and can eventually lead to slop or "play" in the mechanism.

Make sure the parents understand that annual maintenance visits are part of owning a flute.

A full flute care information webpage is here:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/care.htm

Caveats:

Avoid WASHING the flute. Running water over a headjoint can eventually shrink/saturate the cork (inside headjoint) and water is very bad for the pads.

Avoid using household silver polish; it removes too much silver plating, and gums up the moving parts, as well as creates sticky noises from off-gassing onto pad surfaces.

A chemically treated flute polishing cloth (made to remove tarnish) is to be used minimally; once a year at most.

A trained flute technician (flute repair-person) will fully clean and service a flute inexpensively and correct any mechanical adjustments. Ask your private flute teacher for recommendations for a reliable technician.
Best,
Jen

An additional question came in just now:

Dear Jen, we bought an Artley flute for our grandaughter, and I have been reading over what you say about how to clean it up for her, but my question is: Are we to understand that once a flute is tarnished you're not supposed to use silver polish or TarnX, etc. to bring back a shine?

Answer: Here's the thing about tarnish; it's NORMAL to have a slight patina of brown/black or gold coloured tarnish on a flute.
There's no realistic way to stay 100% tarnish-free.
Those who try to keep their flutes looking like new usually hurt the flute's playability in one way or another (wreck the pads, polish off the plating, destroy the fine edge that you blow over by rubbing, break springs, bend rods, bend keys etc.)

Professional full time flutists usually have tarnish all over their flutes if you look closely.
I saw for myself how Jean Pierre Rampal (world-class flute player from 1950-1970s) had a flute that was almost completely pitch black, especially between the keys. Same with London Symphony Principal flutist Paul Edmund Davies; black flutes. Some people have too much acid in their skin and tarnish a flute within weeks just by touching it.
Others, like me, do not tarnish their flutes very quickly, but the flute tarnishes by itself just through oxidation and time.

Additionally: most of the darkest tarnish occurs where you cannot safely or easily reach it, between the keys.
There is no way for the flute player to clean between the keys and remove tarnish without taking it to a flute technician and have them remove all the moving parts and dip the body in silver cleaner.
And if you try to be all handy and take the keys and mechanism off yourself, you're in for a horrible surprise; you can't put it back together and have all the pads still meet all the tone holes to make it playable. This takes years of training.

If you try to use home-use silver cleaner yourself here are some of the typical results:

- the between-the-keys area will still be black because you can't reach them.

- if you try to reach the tarnished areas (with Q-tips, small brushes etc.) you will undoubtedly catch some of the needles and springs betwen the keys and possibly break or bend them (or leave fuzz and lint behind which is anathema to a cleanly working mechanic.)

- since the mechanism's enemy is fibres or fuzz, it's very bad to have any loose fibres or fuzz collecting near the mechanism (as left behind by lint cloths or Q-tips.) See videos below.

- the silver cleaning chemicals are slowly, invisibly able to eat through the flute's pad membranes, causing pad leaks which cost about $50+ per pad for replacement pads. Any chemical off-gassing onto the pad surfaces lead to necessary pad replacements, just from closing the lid on a flute that is offgassing silver polish.

- silver cleaning chemicals also can leave a sticky residue on pads, which leads to keys sticking down, and making noises as they open and close. This also leads to eventually having to replace all the pads to get rid of the "tick tack" noises.

- the silver cleaning chemicals can work their way into the inside of the moving parts and remove the metal from the inside of the tiny tubes and levers. Over time this can remove layers of metal, creating "play" in the mechanism as it wears from the inside out.
What you really want to do is protect the inside of the rods from being worn out.

So, leave it to the professionals who know what they're doing. Have the flute professionally cleaned by a reputable repair person (ask the flute teachers in town which shop is best) and then later put 3M anti-tarnish strips inside the case to absorb future sulfur gases, so that the flute does not tarnish as quickly NEXT time.
It will stay white-silver-coloured for about 3-10 months depending on how much sulfur you have in your environment.

To reduce tarnish, keep the flute in its case whenever it's not in use. But remember Tarnish is NORMAL, and professional flutists have tarnish all over their flutes until their once-per-year or twice-per-year cleaning.

Students are the only people who seem to want shiny white-silver flutes.
But to keep a flute in that condition you'd have to seal it away and never play it.
So, the student, once studying with a real flute teacher, soon gives up that notion, especially when they see what a professional flute looks like when it's played 3-8 hrs. a day, and tarnish cannot be controlled when that's going on.

Anti-tarnish 3M strips are about $6 for a ten year supply at Fluteworld.
What your grandaughter REALLY needs is a flute teacher to help her understand these things.
Find one with this help:

http://www.jennifercluff.com/finding.htm

One more pointer, if you'll allow it:

A used Artley flute, or any used older flute, MUST go to repair before the student starts to use it. This is KEY to the whole process. I'm not just trying to put money into the flute repair person's pocket.
Honestly. :>)

Here's why:
As a flute teacher, the saddest thing I see every September is a new student trying to play a flute that is malfunctioning, because no new flute player seems to know that the instrument needs to go to repair once a year at the minimum.

What happens then is we send it to repair (because it is unplayable in its current condition) and the flute student ends up not having it for 2-3 weeks, and falling behind at flute lessons and at school because the repair shops are all backed up in September, and they can't seem to find a replacement flute. What a frustrating way to start the first flute lesson: three missed lessons because flute is at the shop!

So I suggest that you jump the queue and take your student flute into the repair shop for a Clean/Oil/Adjust now (!), and don't wait until September. Especially if it's for a beginner who's never played before. They have to start on a working flute!

When the flute comes back from the repair shop it will look white, shiny, and like new for about $80 or so, which is a mandatory expense annually anyway.

You can't play on a flute that doesn't fully work properly; Despite what it looks like, it's all in how it WORKS.
Non-musicians usually go by looks (they see the silver like "jewelry" but remember a flute is created out of sound-creating silver, not a decorative silver to be looked at).

Real musicians actually judge by mechanical action and stability, not by looks.
Have a look at my flute teaching youtube videos for flute students:

How to care for your band-flute

How to assemble your flute to avoid repair problems in future.

How to clean your flute after practising and playing

How to align your headjoint to make the flute balance in your hands

You'll see in those videos what a professional flute actually looks like. (I have wooden extensions and other grips actually glued to my flute, so by comparison, your grandaughter may well think her flute looks even BETTER! :>)

Best,
Jen

Fletcher Flute Acoustics Article from 1974

2008-08-18T09:51:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

I'm amazed that I had never read Fletcher Flute Acoustics article before. So very interesting and written in 1974

Article: Some Acoustical Principles of the Flute, or "How the flute works and what professional flutists do to make it work." ( this is my own subtitle)

Download the PDF here.

It's easy to read (unlike most flute acoustic articles for our beloved Air-Heads...er..um...I mean over-oxygenated tube-blowing dudes. hahahaha! :>D)
and he includes the most interesting graphs and charts of measurements taken from professional flutists.
Fascinating.

But what's most interesting is that not much new knowledge seems to have come to light SINCE 1974 when the above article was written.
That may mean that the assumptions and suppositions given may still be somewhat correct, despite constant waggling of opinion on the flute email lists. So do help yourselves to the the key points and see where they fit into our common flutey knowledge.

Comments welcome (click the comment button below.)
Best,
Jen

Flute Business Portfolio creation

2008-08-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Flute teacher Kristi Ballif has created a PDF document that explains:
- how to write a resume for flutists
- how to create a business card
- what to include in your business portfolio
- what to include in a complete flute business package

Her advice is very good, and she has covered this topic extremely well. Please help yourself to a copy.

Creating a Business Portfolio for your Flute Career

Great for music students in University!

Best,
Jen

Now THIS is great teaching!

2008-08-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Have you seen these videos?
Fabulous teaching! Very very fabulous!

Barenboim on Beethoven
Chicago 2005 Masterclass
Beethoven Sonatas

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Grab a sandwich and a cold beverage, and camp out for an amazing hour or so. Best possible use of time. :>)
Best,
Jen

Some of my favourite things...Argerich playing Prokofiev

2008-08-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists,

Three posts in as few days; we must be getting to the end of the summer holidays. It seems that everyone is slowly trickling back home again, after various vacations, and everyone seems so much more relaxed and open-minded. Obviously long vacations are very much needed by us all.

But now, back to my favourite things:

1. I have been arranging massive numbers of suites for flute trios; this is extremely fun if not a bit trop-trop-soprano-based. I've been taking all the great-loved songs and sea chanties of my mixed up celtic past and using Sibelius software to score them into fascinating C-flute trios. My current flute group Flut Zalad is preparing for some local house concerts, to be followed up by big stage concerts. I will announce these arrangements for trio as "publishable" at some point, and make them available for purchase. If I do say so, they are toe-tappers and mezmerizers. Most are derived from the brain plus public domain. Nothing could BE more unifying to the poor old brain. Shopping for flute trios has been interesting. Some of the finds that I've unearthed on the web (that's quite an image!) are here:
McGuire's Celtic Knotwork, available from www.justflutes.com is a marvellous short work for three flutes. It's stunning to listen to the Scottish Flute Trio play it on their CD. You'll really want to hear this CD. :>)

FLUTE.NET Publications is a site that sells composed works for flute and ensembles of flutes. If you listen to the full length mp3s, you'll find yourself buying several pieces of sheetmusic. I know I did. :>)

2. Next, I have been reading one incredibly fabulous classical music blog. I've mentioned this one before here, but I'm truly reading it like a novel. FABULOUS, and hats off to Jeremy Denk's amazingly deep yet squirmish music blog. I just LOVE it. The above links back to the old blog (start there for sure) and then eventually you can catch up with the new blog here.

3. And finally; I have discovered through searching for good classical music blogs, that Deutsche Gramaphone is streaming live videos of summer concerts online until September.
This Martha Argerich Prokofiev Concerto no. 3 is stupendous.

After much applause the orchestra then plays Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Well worth a huge listen on a rainy afternoon in August. (Getting a chance to play in an orchestra such as this is a great goal for young flute students also.) And,not only is Argerich my absolute favourite in terms of intensity and Authority/Authenticity, but the viewpoint that the camera is filming from is indeed the viewpoint of the flute section. Interesting to be "sitting just exactly right there" and hearing my favourite performer play one of my favourite works.

Enjoy,
Best, summertime Jen

The Norman Lebrecht interviews on BBC3

2008-08-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutists & students,

If you are interested in following the behind the scenese business of Classical Music, you can start with the world of classical music critic Norman Lebrecht.
His interview of Sir Peter Jonas is fabulously interesting.
Available for four more days on BBC3 starting now:

Norman Lebrecht talks to music administrator Peter Jonas, who speaks about his career at the helm of some of the world's most prestigious music companies. (40 min.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00d19kh

Fabulous to learn about the music business first hand, in this case the world of great Opera Houses and how they run.

Best, and happy listening,
Jen

The Flute & the Jaw Bone

2008-08-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

An email to Sir James Galway after Weggis Masterclass week:
First a huge thank-you to yourself, Lady Jeanne and also to all the soloists, performers and fellow students who made Weggis such a special experience. The memories and friendships formed will never be forgotten. I hope to find time to write much more about this extraordinary experience for the benfit of those who didn't come, or who might consider coming in future.

Now, since beginning to work on my exercises with all the new guidance and instructions, I am approaching my study very differently from before, and becoming very focussed on intonation.

I have 3 related questions about playing the lowest notes in tune.

As I understand it, the lowest notes are constructed a little sharp, to compensate for the pervasive poor embouchure that most of us have. Since Sir James has such a good embouchure, this compensation in flute construction results in the lowest notes being a little sharp, which Sir James further corrects by drawing out the foot-joint by about 2mm. This surely means that any alternative method (further manipulation at the embouchure) is the wrong thing to do.

Now in my practice, at first I thought my flute was in tune as I played these notes, but as I focussed on how I played the lowest notes I realised that I was dropping the lower jaw slightly. This was in part my attempt to increase the cavity of the mouth, and keeping the tongue low and flat, for better tone and resonance, but perhaps it causes the pitch to drop. In that case I am getting the sharp notes back in tune but perhaps by the wrong method. If the jaw drops, the lips must follow, which doesn't seem a good idea.

1. Is this the usual mistake/problem?

2. Is it correct to say that the jaw should ONLY move forward and backward according to register and intonation (with adjustment of the upper lip to direct airflow more down into the flute)?

3. Can the jaw be dropped in special circumstances (eg searching for special tone colours)?

Have I misunderstood the whole issue? I would be grateful for clarification on this.

Very best wishes to all.
Andrew Freidin,
London UK

Andrew Freidin wrote:
I have 3 related questions about playing the lowest notes in tune.
As I understand it, the lowest notes are constructed a little sharp, to compensate for the pervasive poor embouchure that most of us have.
------------------------
Dear Andrew,

The above statement you made may be true on some of the newer flutes that have an improved scale, however it is not generally true of all flutes, especially older ones. Typically, most flute students play FLAT in pitch on the low right hand notes especially:
F1, E1, D1 and the footjoint notes. This can be even more affected by the cork position and the headjoint's draw, so those too are things to consider with student flutist's flutes. But that's another matter. (see: http://www.jennifercluff.com/tuning.htm#flat)

Normally flat low notes are the most common despite the make or brand of the flute, because most flute students slow the air speed down in order to get the low notes to speak. They slow the airspeed down too much (10 mph for example), so that they can play low without overblowing or squeaking up the octave.

For intermediate and advanced flutists, having a new scaled flute with a sharper set of low octave Right Hand (RH) notes can be a challenge at first, as they may have to pull their upper lip downard to blow at a downward angle when blowing forte on low notes to keep them well in tune.
Keep this idea of pulling down the upper lip firmly in mind when playing without anything to tune to.
You can blow at 100 mph (miles-per-hour air-speeds are, of course imaginary) on a low C and play in tune if your upper lip pulls down, and presses the lower lip and the lower teeth downward in the process.

I suggest using the Tuning CD and being aware of what dynamic you're playing at.
Soft low notes may be flat, loud low notes may be sharp.
Mezzo forte low notes should be right on pitch.

Staying accutely aware of your dynamic when using a tuning source is important, and often forgotten during practise.

-------------------------
Andrew: Since Sir James has such a good embouchure, this compensation in flute construction results in the lowest notes being a little sharp, which Sir James further corrects by drawing out the foot-joint by about 2mm. This surely means that any alternative method (further manipulation at the embouchure) is the wrong thing to do.
----------------------------
I've heard of flutists pulling out the footjoint a millimeter or two in order to compensate for a sharp RH low register. Apparently this varies from flute to flute and from brand to brand.
Obviously an advanced player can try this and see whether it helps.

A few years ago one of our online flute teachers here at GFC spoke to a Yamaha rep. who quietly mentioned that an A-442 Yamaha flute was really capable of being played from A 443 to A 445 and was, in fact, made to do so. If a flute like this had the footjoint pulled out 2 mm. that might indeed help.
However for students, this could lead to repairs as the footjoint must be tight enough, and not fall off. :>)

What I'd like to address is your statement:
"by drawing out the foot-joint by about 2mm. This surely means that any alternative method (further manipulation at the embouchure) is the wrong thing to do."

Manipulation at the embouchure is required for:
- improving the tone
- colouring the tone
- extreme dynamics
- tapering, diminuendos, crescendos
- leaping quickly to low notes from high notes and vis versa

But how much is TOO MUCH manipulation?
One can only find out through experimentation as everyone's mouth, lips, jaw and chin differ by quite large amounts (compare profile photographs to see how many combinations there are; tiny chins, thick lips, protruding front teeth, underbites, thin lips, deeply concave chins etc.)

I believe that the soft tissues are the ones best manipulated as they are very quick to respond (the muscles that surround the lips are manipulated in order to reposition the lips as required.) Afterall the soft tissues used for eating, speaking etc. respond much quicker and without any fatigue or unnaturalness.
This is something Paul Edmund Davies spoke about in one of his masterclasses; if you don't press the flute hard into your chin, but instead, release the pressure on the chin when going for a high note, the air angles upwards naturally from just the soft tissues of the chin and lips.
See his comments here: http://www.jennifercluff.com/davies.htm

So, how to start?

I think the goal of great tone and evenness of sonority is best sought by STARTING tone work in the low register and solidifying an easy comfortable and natural jaw position as the starting point.
Then, as you gradually ascend to work on tone in the middle and finally (much later) the high register, you will continue to keep your jaw in a comfortable and "normal", functional and easy position. Doing tone work along with a drone, such as The Tuning CD makes it all become so much easier to multi-task and find all the variables.

Later, when/if you can play longtones in the low register in tune as a starting point (at mf dynamic) then you can work outwards from there (extending dynamics, colour, increasing tone centeredness etc.)
You can even work upwards from or downwards to the low register eventually, but I would keep the BASIS of the embouchure consistent with what was easiest, best and most resonant and full in the low register.
You should not have to overwork the jaw to play only the low register in tune with good tone.
The jaw should be relaxed and natural at all times to avoid fatigue and strain.

If a student begins tone work with the jaw in any kind of tight or tense position (jutted forward for example) they can eventually develop TMJ (jaw hinge pain) as the jaw cannot be thrust forward and backward with tension/precision etc. without causing fatigue, especially once you start leaping large intervals or sustaining long passages with multiple dynamics etc.
-----------------------------
Andrew:
Now in my practice, at first I thought my flute was in tune as I played these notes, but as I focussed on how I played the lowest notes I realised that I was dropping the lower jaw slightly.
--------------------------------------
I noticed this method several years ago as a terrific trick to drop to soft low notes when otherwise playing in the middle or high register.
Take for example a Boehm Caprice or a Baroque flute work in which soft pedal tones down to low D, low C, or low E or Eb have to pop out unobtrusively (Not forte, but piano or mezzo-piano low notes.)

When you open your jaw suddenly (drop your lower teeth) the lips follow in response to the lowering of the teeth, and the lip aperture opens slightly.
When the lip aperture opens minutely, the air speed naturally slows (larger passageway = slower air speed). When the air speed drops, the low notes are more likely to sound.

This is great to know when you have to keep popping down to soft low notes.
Even the smallest opening of the lip aperture slows the air-speed down from let's say 80 mph to 30 mph.
This is enough to pop out a soft low C or low D on demand, and much easier than deliberately changing the air-reed angle or TRYING to blow softly for a single note in rapid 1/16th note Baroque-type passages.
Give it a try, and keep it in your technique arsenal for when needed, that is what I would do. :>)
------------------
Andrew:
This (lowering of the jaw) was in part my attempt to increase the cavity of the mouth, and keeping the tongue low and flat, for better tone and resonance, but perhaps it causes the pitch to drop. In that case I am getting the sharp notes back in tune but perhaps by the wrong method. If the jaw drops, the lips must
follow, which doesn't seem a good idea.

1. Is this the usual mistake/problem?

-------------------
As I say above, this is a useful technique to use for when you need a quick soft low note in a passage that is mostly written in the middle or high register.
However, if the low note is flat, perhaps you are also accidently blowing too slow and air speed (flattening the pitch of the low note) and/or also angling downward.
You don't need to blow that softly, nor angle downward at all to use this technique, but again, it is only a technique that is for some pieces, and some large interval leaps.
It has to be finely tuned. Try the passage without changing anything else other than the aperture opening slightly from the teeth opening slightly. (dropping the jaw down is the same as lowering the lower teeth 1-4 mm.)

If the low note is sharp, then let me know, and I'll search for more further solutions.
------------------
Andrew: 2. Is it correct to say that the jaw should ONLY move forward and backward according to register and intonation (with adjustment of the upper lip to direct airflow more down into the flute)?
----------------------
Now we come to the crux of the matter:

Does the lower jaw in fact slide easily forward and backward??

It SEEMS to be able to do so, if you jut it forward like a barracuda or piranha fish, placing your bottom teeth in front of your top teeth, you will feel the straining at the hinges which is the most damaging jaw hinge action you could possibly do....but do it for a minute. Feel the strain?

Now millimeter by millimeter, allow your lower teeth to unhook themselves from the upper, and still in a semi-closed chewing position, gradually, slowing slide back from in front, to meeting the upper teeth tip to tip, then to 1 mm farther back, 1 more mm farther back until finally your teeth are at rest, lower teeth in the normal chewing position. Feels much more natural and comfortable right?

So why force the lower teeth forward at all if you could achieve the same air angling using the soft tissues of the lips instead?

Both Walfrid Kujala and Thomas Nyfenger warn against this jaw jutting in their flute books. Michel Debost also speaks at length on "jaw boning" which is a mistaken pedagogy. (more specifics on this below.)

Yes, sliding the lower jaw forward seems to work for flute players at first, as it raises the angle of the airstream for high register playing, but it is the least efficient possible manner of raising the airstream and the most wearing on the tissues being used. So why does anyone ever advocate it?

Because they're mistaken.
They THINK that shoving the lower jaw forward and back is giving them more control, but it's an action that is being misnamed.

Kujala covers this in his three part article called "Jaw Boning".
What he has seen from looking at the skeleton of the jaw hinge is that if you open your teeth, the lower jaw swings downward and BACK as it descends. This is the nature of the way the jaw hinge is built.
The more you lower your lower teeth, the farther back your chin recedes.
Likewise, when you raise your lower teeth, as if to chew, your chin naturally follows an arc and presents as more forward.
This action is very natural and easy and strains nothing.
It is the normal opening and closing of the teeth that in turn, manipulates minutely the soft tissues of the mouth area.

Kujala covers this in minute detail in his article (it is from past issues of Flutist's Quarterly and is worth it's weight in gold; can't believe Kujala has not excerpted it in a book on this very topic!!)

Nyfenger also states the same thing in "Music and the Flute"; the jaw hinge is designed for chewing, not for sliding forward.
His book is WELL worth reading for the three or four brilliant pages on this very topic.

Roger Mather has also stated this in "The Art of Playing the Flute".
You simply keep the jaw open, natural and in its most easy position at all times, and if you need to close the teeth very slightly for various effects (thin, distant tone, soft-diminuendos, etc.) you simply gradually close the teeth and the effect takes place in the sound.

This opening and closing,natural mouth-use method also does not adversely affect intonation and is very easy to repeat or do quickly, without fatigue.
----------------------------
Andrew:
3. Can the jaw be dropped in special circumstances (eg searching for special tone colours)? Have I misunderstood the whole issue? I would be grateful for clarification on this.

-----------------

I believe that the most OPEN tone quality is from having the jaw open and released at the hinges. Often the tone you want to work on the most is the singing, open, well supported, centered tone quality and for this, having a loose and open jaw is very key.
It makes a resonant 'cathedral' out of the mouth space, and releases the root of the tongue from interfering with air flow, and from causing tightness in the throat.

Later, when practising music that demands soft pianos, pianissimos, tapers, diminuendos etc. you will find that the lower teeth can be raised slightly, and/or the front of the tongue can be used as a valve inside the mouth to create faster airstream to keep pitch up when playing softly etc. See videos below.
But each feature that you later add on will be added to an easy and released jaw hinge.

Any tension at the jaw's hinge is cumulative and can create pain and TMJ over the longrun.
I know, because I was wrongly taught to do this when I was 18 or so.
Avoid the pain of TMJ. Trust me.

Hope this helps, and I have here the specific Kujala "Jawboning" article which specifically talks about how to use the jaw for dynamics.
In brief, Kujala uses the acronyms FULP and PLOT.

FULP = for Forte playing - the Upper Lip Pulls downward.
This in turn causes the upper lip to push the lower lip downward.
This in turn causes the lower jaw to descend. (and because it descends on an arc, it will seem to retreat)
This lowers the pitch simply and effectively for loud playing with fast air speed.

PLOT = for Piano playing - LOwer Teeth rise upward.
This in turn pushes the upper lip upward.
This in turn causes the jaw to rise (and because it rises on an arc, it will seem to move forward)
This raises the pitch simply and controllably for soft playing with a slow air speed.

Hope this helps, sorry it's so long.
But I've covered 90% of everything I've discovered.
Wish more teachers knew about this stuff; so very important!!

Best,
Jen Cluff

Useful links:
http://www.jennifercluff.com/blog/2007/06/playing-with-tone-colours.html

http://www.jennifercluff.com/easydyna.htm

http://www.jennifercluff.com/davies.htm

And for development of embouchure control: Spit-buzzing to improve muscle-tone of soft-tissues used in flute embouchure: See Keith Underwood full explanation videos at:

VIDEO Spit-Buzzing 101; the basic 'how to buzz' information.

VIDEO: The Benefits of buzzing (the finding of the right muscles to use for high register without squeezing.)

VIDEO: Preparing the body for a breath: this kind of relaxed release is part and parcel of the whole experience of playing without tension:

All the best, and I apologize for the longwindedness...doh!
(my jaw must be open! hahahhaha :>D oh look...yes it is!)
Jen Cluff

Questions from beginner flute players

2008-08-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hi Jen, its me again! Thanks for the answer! I think I was ahead of myself by asking that question (of how to tune a flute)... gosh.
Ive only had 2 lessons and none now, and sort of teaching myself for awhile while settling into my new place. I'm actually struggling to produce a tone with the headjoint alone, especially the covered-lower tone. I'd find it and loose it almost instantly!
This got me wondering... do all students/beginners find it hard to produce a tone ? If so, usually how many lessons/weeks/months does it take for them to produce and sustain a tone (with practice, of course) ? Or, do they actually get to do it pretty quickly (first lesson) ?
For now I'll be just blowing into the headjoint and hopefully start to develop a sustainable and consistent tone...
I hope I'm not alone !
Thanks! J.

Dear J.

Are you kidding? ((:>)
Have you ever tried to sustain a plain, simple, but nice-sounding tone on any other instrument? Trumpet? Violin? Cello? Tuba???
For that matter, have you ever put on a baseball mitt and learned to consistently catch a baseball?
Hand-eye co-ordination takes time and practise.
And then there's arm-hand-flute-face co-ordination.
hahahhhahahaha!
Cheer up, dude. :>)
Give yourself three weeks minimum of ten minutes or more a day of headjoint only.......then see how you go...

As an adult your ears are FAR ahead of your ear-mouth co-ordination.
Be patient, and stay encouraged by even the most minute improvements.
Optimism is everything. :>)
Best,
Jen

Another commenter wrote:

I've just started last week to learn flute.
My memory is the worst!...is there any easier way to possibly learn the flute fingering? it really takes me FOREVER to learn just ONE note to memory.
HELP!.......

Dear "Help!"
A week isn't very long at all when it comes to learning a new skill. Think how long it took you to memorize the alphabet when you were a child. Didn't it take more than a week? Fingerings are the same. Take one at a time, learn it really well.
Then add the new fingering to the one you learned most recently, and go back and forth between those two notes (B and A for example.) Play little tunes with two notes or three notes ( The beginner book: Abracadabra Flute by Pollock with CD is a fun way to do this.)
And I might add, definitely sign up for some flute lessons. Good flute teachers know how to make this kind of thing easy for beginners; get lessons for sure.
That's what lessons are for, to make things EASIER for you.
Best, Jen

How to tune a flute

2008-08-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Jen,
I love watching and learning from your flute videos and I want to thank you for taking time to actually make them. Your passion for the flute is very inspiring.
I just started learning the flute but I had to move after two lessons for my college studies. I was hoping if you could teach me (us) how to actually TUNE a flute ? Once again, thank you! J.

Dear J.,
That's a good beginner question.
You'll find the basic beginner instructions for flute tuning are in this pdf article.

A list for beginners who need to break down the basic steps of tuning a flute is below.

How to Tune a Flute

1. Check that the headjoint cork is in the right place using the cleaning rod's tick mark, lining it up with the center of the embouchure hole. If unsure about this practise, read about headjoint corks here.

2. Set up your headjoint-body relationship:
Pull out your headjoint 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch (the amount of headjoint draw will change millimeter by millimeter, especially as your tone quality and centeredness of tone develops. So stay flexible and experimental about the amount at first).

3. Next: Take the daily practise time you need in order to develop your tone. In general:
Obtain your best possible tone quality over at least a month of focussed daily tone exercises(or a decade, why be stingy? hahhaa). You cannot skip this "finding a good tone" step.
Tone is part and parcel of the tuning process.
For example, flabby breathing, warbley flutey warbles, unsure embouchure (or a too tight embouchure) and/or possible whispy haunted house flute noises can not be played IN TUNE.

4. After a centered tone (a pure, singing sound) is established in at least the low and middle octaves, start working with a tuning drone during your practise, just like you work with a metronome. Simply work at all your flute pieces and studies, and longtones/scales etc. while matching tones with a drone or a generated in-tune pitch. If you are serious about doing this the fastest way possible, order a $22 copy of "The Tuning CD". It's the best ear-development/tone development flute tool you can have. See: www.thetuningcd.com
Alternately, you can buy one of those $25 flat credit-card sized electronic tuners that sounds the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, and is calibrated for A440 etc. Get one that is also a metronome and tuner all in one. They're very useful.

Also: Get your private flute teacher to help you spot-check your tone, dynamic range, breath support etc. Don't try and work in a vaccuum. Lessons each week get your ears and body skills all assembled for use.
And playing duets with the teacher are even MORE valuable for understanding tone and tuning and how they relate.

5. Caveat for intermediate flute students:
As you experiment with matching pitches you will learn to draw the headjoint out or push it in depending on the ambient temperature of the room (cold rooms make flutes go flat when they cool down; hot rooms make flutes go sharp etc.)
You will also find that as your playing style matures, you will eventually find one headjoint draw that seems to work 95% of the time, and can mark it with ink on the flute.

In general, all these stages of flute tuning and flute tone develop go much much MUCH easier if done with a teacher.

And, of course, it's an endless topic.
This "learning to play in tune" stage of flute playing actually lasts for the rest of your flutey days.
And, yes, there is no such thing as a flute that plays in tune just by blowing and pushing down keys. And just to make the study of "playing in tune" so vast we mere mortals cannot comprehend, every musical pitch is actually modified depending on its musical context.

In fact every thing I know (and I still know nothing---as my father used to say....) about tuning a flute is written in my website's vast tuning articles page.

Have at 'er. (as the west coast pirates say.)

Hope this helps. Happy summer holidays.

Best, Jen :>)

headjoint cork affects tone & tuning

2008-08-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Fluters,

This question appeared in my inbox today. I thought I'd answer it for all the students out there who may ask the same question in the future. Best, Jen

Question: I moved the top cork thing from the top of my flute and i was wondering if moving it would change the sound of my flute?

Dear flute student,

Ah yes; the mystery of the flute's headjoint cork and what it does.
That cork, with the silver discs on either end, hidden inside the tip of the headjoint, is what sets the flute's tuning.
It's supposed to be set at 17.3 mm from the center of the embouchure hole, but more importantly, here's the information you need, first and foremost:

If the cork in your flute's headjoint moves easily when you try and move it, then it's definitely time to take it to a reputable fluterepair shop and have a minimum of $10 worth of repair. Why?
a) Flute headjoint corks shrink over time, from so often being wet and then dry. They have to be adjusted and checked each year when your flute goes in for its regular servicing, so that the cork has an air-tight fit. Any cork that moves easily has already shrunk and is not doing its proper job of making an air-tight seal at the crown of the headjoint.
b) If your cork moves too easily, often you will also hear stuffy or muffled tone quality because air is escaping around the cork, which it shouldn't be doing.
c) Also, if your cork moves too easily (you can simply pull on the crown or push on it with your swab and it moves), then you may unwittingly move it when swabbing the headjoint, and put your whole flute out of tune.

Why?
The cork's exact position affects the tuning of the flute.
Too far out, the left-hand notes will be flatter.
Too far in, the left-hand notes will be sharper.
Either of these positions will put the scale of the flute out of tune with itself.

A healthy flute headjoint cork is very difficult to move by yourself. Some brands even use a rubber O-ring (Mateki for example) in attempt to make the ultimate air-tight seal. So if it's incorrectly positioned (not at 17.3 mm or the line on your cleaning rod is NOT in the middle of the embouchure hole) then you should only reposition the cork with expert help (your private teacher or a reputable flute technician).

In fact, have your flute teacher double check your flute both visually, and with a tuner, so that you can know for sure that you've got the cork in the perfect spot to have all three octaves of the flute in tune.

Now, back to the tone quality question:
If you canhear a change in the tone quality after moving the cork, that means the cork is definitely leaking air, and you have to have it replaced (this is $10 - $20 worth of a flute technician's time.)

On average, corks are replaced and/or tightened by a flute technician every 3 to 7 years.

A PDF for beginners that illustrates how the cork should be positioned for placing the flute's length correctly for tuning is here.

Articles about headjoint corks (courtesy of Miyazawa and Brannen companies) are online here.
http://www.miyazawa.com/library/other11.asp
http://www.brannenflutes.com/care.html

In general, yes, moving the cork will affect your flute's scale andpitch, but a leaking cork will affect your sound.
You can test for a leaking cork by creating suction on the headjoint, and listening for a hiss coming from the crown.

Let us know what you discover about this; and whether your cork is in fact leaking, thus affecting your tone quality.

Best,
Jen

Updating the RCM Flute Syllabus

2008-07-28T13:41:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutists,

I just received a notice about the Royal Conservatory of Music (Canadian flute exam board in Toronto) that there will be some upcoming changes to the RCM flute syllabus.
Here's the notification I received from the Acquisitions Editor at the RCM:

Dear Jennifer,
I was just looking at your website and thought you might like to know that the Royal Conservatory of Music is currently developing a graded flute series to serve the Preparatory level through Grade 8 of the RCM syllabus.(The Syllabus is being revised to "fill in" the missing grades.)

The new series will also include two studies books, a technique book, and orchestral excerpts will be published in 2010. The official launch will be at the NFA convention in Anaheim.

This is great news all around.
Can't wait to see the new RCM flute publications! Yay! :>)
Jen

Ode to Joy with metronome

2008-07-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Summer Fluters,

Have a tiny excellent laugh your own tiny excellent selves:

Ode to Joy multitasking-muppet.

And watch out for those high notes! :>D

Best,
Jen

Truly moving an audience - fantasy& gnocchi

2008-07-21T13:52:00.001-07:00

Dear Flutey Readers,
My classical-music loving older sister sent me the following. It really is hilarious and deeply informative to boot. Enjoy.

My sister wrote:
Don't know if I sent you this blog/write up on Jeremy Denk. Wish more people wrote like this about music (?), concert was great too. Sis

The Substitute
By Terez Mertes

Jeremy Denk, substituting for an ailing Itzhak Perlman, strode onto the stage at San Francisco's Davies Hall Sunday afternoon and gave a rollicking, passionate performance of Beethoven's Concerto no. 1 in C major. Goodbye misgivings over whether he could put on a good show, hello constricted chest, flushed cheeks and breathless anticipation over the next note and the next.

One of my favorite things about watching soloists is observing the way the music flows through them. You can see it clearly; an unconscious bob of the head, an angling of the chin, the way the shoulders move as they ride the swell of a musical wave. From the moment the orchestral tutti commenced, you could see the music course through Denk. He was one big Beethoven conduit, more so as he began to play. His passion and attention to interpretive
detail came through particularly well in the first movement¹s cadenza. It gripped me, literally. My quads began to ache. It gripped the entire audience; you could feel it; the absolute stillness of an enthralled crowd.
He'd draw out the final lingering pianissimo notes of a phrase and there wewere, three thousand units of baited breath, clenched muscles.

When he ended the long, emotive cadenza, after stretching out the last few notes, there was a palpable sense of release‹Beethoven releasing Denk, he, in turn, releasing us. You could hear the audience rustling about, taking care of the business of breathing once again, nudging their bums back from the seat's edge where they'd been perched. It was a reaction like something out of a movie‹the soloist finishing with a flourish, the audience flung
back into their seats, drained by the experience, the intensity of it all, like after great (am I allowed to use the word here?)S___. Honest, that's what it felt like. It's been twenty years since I touched a cigarette, but right then, boy, I'll tell you what.

While I've enjoyed all the soloists whose performances I¹ve caught at Davies Hall, not since Gil Shaham's performance a year and a half ago have I felt such palpable energy and enthusiasm emanating from a soloist. It was an experience all the more enjoyable because the artist, it seemed, derived equal pleasure and energy from the music itself, from the orchestra's contribution in its creation.

A humorous aside, if I might. Having penned my effusive praise, I paused to surf the Net in order to find commentaries that might echo my sentiments on his passion, his concentration, particularly during the opening orchestral tutti. What I found was a blog by Denk himself, commenting on that auspicious moment. Only, as it turns out, it wasn¹t as auspicious as I'd thought. Following is an excerpt of his entertaining, irreverent blog entry,
presented quiz-style, about his week in San Francisco.
-------
The opening tutti of Beethoven¹s 1st Piano Concerto is rather long. (This pianist takes revenge for this during the cadenza heh heh.) You stride out there, all blustery and full of confidence, and then the orchestra just keeps on going, doing Beethoven's C-major-ish version of the Energizer Bunny. What do you do to pass the time?

a) Breathe deeply and imagine the forces of harmony moving in great tectonic plates; b) Glance meaningfully at orchestra members, which may irritate them; c) Fantasize about gnocchi from Union Square Cafe (don't forget to come in!); d) Wonder what the piano will sound like, since you haven't been able to try it out for hours; e)Reminisce over [French bulldog] Noe's redolent saliva.

The whole post is quite entertaining; must have been that Left Coast air and attitude permeating his aura. To read the whole October 9th. 2007 blog post, go here. And then go listen to him perform and tell me whether you needed a cigarette afterwards. © 2007 Terez Rose

Jen adds: Now THAT'S the kind of music making we really should fan the flames under. Might help cook the starving Artist's evening meal of gnocchi at the same time. :>)
Best, Jen

Performing music with Authority or Authenticity?

2008-07-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Flutey readers,

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with James Boyk, author of "To Hear Ourselves as Others Hear Us." He brought up the topic of "Playing music with authority" and we shared a few ideas about this in the hopes of developing even more. Please join the conversation. :>)

The first problem that came up for me, having been born in the '60s, was my difficulty with the word "Authority". Right away my personality cries: "I don't want to be TOLD how to play by a board-of-perfect-interpreters-of-Bach, or an historically-informed-committee-on-the-motives-of-Debussy, I want to play with the freedom that the music shows me, and yet really give life to the composer's vison". So perhaps what I really want is to play music with authenticity?
And, of course, google as I might, I can find no learned articles on playing music with either a-word, so I shall open the discussion up to you the readers. What is it to perform with these qualities?

From my own training I know that I recognize a performer who is "playing with authority". The music sounds "in the now; in the zone; of the moment; deep, and very REAL". I've often used the "play with authority" phrase when a student is playing in a wistful, vague or meandering manner. The music may sound as though it's aimlessly drifting. So, as teachers before me, I too will find myself echoing those words "Oh please play that with authority" and will add: "Perhaps put some lyrics to it, create poetry. You want to be like an actor and SAY something with that phrase; something that you can believe in...." but what does musical authority really mean? Is it the Authority of the performer's vision, or the composer's vision? Or is it the Authority of the performer in recreating that vision in unison?
I often share with students the advice to "walk the razor's edge!" inspired by a passage by Herbert Whone in his delightfully pithy "The Simplicity of Playing the Violin".

"Life interest is directly dependent upon a play between opposites. The emergence of hope in the middle of despair, success in failure, or love out of hate, all give rise to a tension without which life would fall flat.
An actor's art is in manipulating such opposites so that an audience is never certain in which direction it is being led. A violinist may not have words at his disposal but he too has the power to hold an audience on a tightrope through his own particular
manipulation of opposites....
For the player, freedom is not an anarchic release from the bondage of the bar-line but with a subtle note to note flexibility which works within and transcends them.
Such freedom is seen in the whole creative process where the the free spirit, in bondage to matter, moves deviously within it to avoid captivity.
This deviousness is entirely unpredictable. Even in the laws of mathematics, in the structure of harmonics, and in the well-tempered scale, there is always something that does not quite fit. Art has the same unpredictability---the same itching to avoid confinement. It is man's attempt to return through beauty to the infinite: th aesthetic sense is adaptable and unpredictable, reconciling the opposites of free will and bonded intellect. Freedom---or beauty--for the performing musician, is the sensitive avoidance of restrictions that the beats and bar-lines would impose upon him. Such 'inaccuracies'--the holding back or the urging forward of individual notes, or groups of notes--are the unspeakable in music. If a composer were to include all he hears when he conceives his compositions, the pages of music would be black with print: he would also restrict the uniqueness of the individual performances. The written page is therefore the merest guide to playing the music.

...Another aspect of the free and the bound is the player's relationship with his instrument....A delicate balance must be found
between the effort from the player to play and the need of the instrument to play itself. As a human being hinders his understanding by an excess of his own personality, so a player inhibits the potential of his instrument by trying to force it to speak. His instrument wants to speak without his help: the acquiring of a technique is only a means of allowing this to happen."

Whone's quote brings home to us to the first point we must understand about authenticity or authority in music:
1. It requires a very fine technique. As we all know, a fine and freeing technique is not the result of chaotic or random freedom :>), it's the result of many hours of musical skill-building to obtain a finely honed technique on your instrument so that you can perform the composer's pure musical intentions. You want the composer's ideas pouring through you without any personal physical restrictions.
One of the ways to visualize this high level of technique is to observe the technical training inherent in the body work of very gifted dancers as they are interpreting modern choreography. I was particuarly taken with these dances seen recently in competition. Note the mesmerizing emotional purity that these dancer's technique has allowed them to express:

Mia Michael's Choreography on youtube:
Dance ONE
Dance TWO

Here is what the choreographer says about individuality and why it's absolutely required in order to find the dancer's own voice and expression.
A performer who really has the technical skills to be truly free is indeed "avoiding captivity" all the while spell-binding the audience. This can be done in music through the same kind of technical training that leads to creative freedom of expression.

Choreographer Michaels also speaks on "being in the moment" which brings me to the second point:

2. Musical authenticity (or authority) relies a unified body and mind. You perform so that you are "living in the moment" without internal conflict. The most emotionally moving and fascinating musical performances are those in which the performer seems to be "in the zone", completely focused, and utterly emotionally available to the music with the resonation of the whole body. There is no internal war with the self expressed by that body; it gives itself wholly to the task of expression.
This concept is very aptly expressed by deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie in her Ted Talk on "How to listen with your whole body"
Through merging yourself into the music and becoming a participant in the sound that arises, the sound and intentions of the music are amplified through focus and resonance.

3. Thirdly, authenticity often asks artist to look deeply into themselves and to find simplicity without pretense. This may mean removing blockages.
Here is an good quote about finding your authentic voice in music:
From an interview with singer Meredith Monk:

Q: When you are working on a new piece how do you find its authentic voice?
Meredith Monk: I think that it is an uncovering process, and I try not to necessarily accept the first or easiest solution. Making a work is a digging down process. I was thinking about it last night — how one of the things in practice is to really be in the moment and accept things as they are. And I was wondering about that in terms of the dissatisfaction aspect, because often one of the problems in art is that people are too easily satisfied. There needs to be some kind of sifting process, where you take the time and patience to work through the easiest and most superficial solutions in order to discover something deeper......
I think I still have some confusion about the critical mind. But it seems that there’s a difference between the critical mind, which is a kind of judgment, and has a harshness built in, cutting off impulses before they can develop, and discriminating intelligence, which can differentiate between what is authentic or genuine and what is contrived or forced. That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.

These topics are also very interestingly touched upon in the following twenty minute films:
Amy Tan on Creativity

Robbins talks on why we do what we do and how emotion *is* the creative force in life.

Finally I'd like to open up the discussion to all readers: What do YOU think the paths to performing with musical authority are?
Who is the authority? Or is it human authenticity? I'd love your input on this.
Best, and lots to munch on in music, art and dance,
Jen Cluff :>)

Benjamin Zander film 'Everybody really does love Classical Music'

2008-07-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Dear Fluters,

This is a very good 20 minute video by conductor Benjamin Zander.
He's talking about pulse, phrasing and reaching every listener with the passion and form of classical music.
Fabulous speaker. Do check out this film:

Benjamin Zander 20 min. film on Ted.com

Enjoy,
Jen :>)

More practising motivation tips for flute

2008-06-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog readers,

Cristina Ballatori has written a terrific article on how to motivate yourself and how to find the time for flute practice when you have a busy schedule or a full-time job (eeeek! :>)

With her permission I have combined her article, and my most recent blog post (How to get back to practicing flute after a hiatus) in a PDF document for printing out.
Great reading, great tips.
Thankyou Christina!

Read her advice here:
www.jennifercluff.com/fulltimejobpractise.pdf

More suggestions welcome. Just use the comment button below.
Happy practising!

Jen Cluff