By Susan Maclagan
From a FLUTE list submission - used with permission
Warming up
Learing in chunks
Playing position
Phrasing
I expected Patricia George to give an excellent flute class at the flute convention because of all the great ideas that she shares with us on this list. She definitely lived up to my expectations! She was literally bubbling over with stimulating ideas. The following are my class notes from her two-hour Flute Spa:
Patricia started the class with hand exercises which she learned from a book called “Stretching” by Bob Anderson. They will help you to warm-up your fingers and get them more flexible before you play.
Before starting the exercises, put your hands into relaxed fists and then, with your pointer fingers, draw designs in front of you in the air.
Exercise #1. Use the pointer fingers of each hand to trace the alphabet in the air in front of you. It?s not as easy as it sounds! Have your left hand do it backwards from the right hand!
Exercise #2. Join your hands together in front of you. Do circular movements with your hands together in both directions.
Exercises #3-Hold your arms and hands straight out in front of you. Hold for a slow count of 10. Feel the burn.
Exercise #4-With the fingers of one hand, take a finger (we’ll call it finger X for simplicity) from the other hand and move it in circles in the air. Then pull finger X to a count of three. Then pinch finger X. Repeat the exercise with each finger of both hands.
Exercise #5-Arms at sides. Shake and wiggle hands.
Exercise #6-Put your arms and hands in a prayer-type position in front of your body. Push the palms of the hands together to a count of ten.
As I wrote madly trying to keep up with Patricia George, my room mate, Denise Woo, who was sitting beside me, was doing the exercises and nodding regularly as a signal that the hand exercises were working for her.
The next part of Patricia's class was about how understanding how we see can help you to read music better.
On this topic, Patricia George recommended that we read the following two
books:
-"Music, the Brain and Ecstasy" by Robert Jourdain
- John Sloboda-The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music (Oxford
Psychology Series, No. 5). Both books talk about how the eye moves.
There is a problem with reading ahead as the brain is still behind trying to take in what you were just reading. We only see about one circular inch. The eye fixes on something and then 'hops' to the next view. It doesn't see things in between the hops, although the brain makes you think that you are. Learn to work in sync with the brain. Do this by working in 'chunks'. This is not difficult to do because music is usually written in 'chunks'. This is not difficult to do because music is usually written in one-inch chunks.
Patricia gave the following suggestions about how to learn a difficult piece, say the Ibert concerto, in three weeks. In order to do this, you need to get the difficult piece into your long-term memory, not your short-term memory. Once things are in the long-term memory, you can then be free to be musical. In order to get things into your long-term memory, practice in short chunks of time at 9am, at 3 pm, and at 9 pm just before you sleep. Do this for 3-5 days. Then the piece will be in your long term memory. Practicing in short chunks of time like this are better than practicing all in a row.
Teach routines in small chunks and then sew them altogether.
When Pat started to study in chunks, she noticed that her playing improved. She does not practice in musical groups of notes (i.e., Kincaid grouping style).
Next, Patricia George talked about the playing position. She said that: "One of the hardest things about playing the flute, is holding the flute. Figure out how to hold it so that it is stable."
Patricia likes to line up the flute by looking down it's full length from the FOOT JOINT end. She uses the light in a room, which is reflecting down the length of her flute to help her to line it up.
Have the foot joint lined up so that you can reach the low C easily - NOT the low B because you play more low C's than low B's.
Don't put your right hand thumb and first finger in a position that is not natural for your hand. To find the position that is most natural, try the "Coke can test." Pick up a can of coke as naturally as possible with your right hand. See what finger is close to the thumb. For example, if the thumb is opposite the middle finger, then that should be the set-up on the flute as it is your most natural position.
The flute is NOT lined up with your shoulders as it is in many marching bands. Hold it in such a way that it forms a triangle with your shoulders. (My note - This is about 45 degrees out from shoulders).
The flute keys must be facing the ceiling for good intonation. ( I would have liked to ask Pat to expand on this point, but didn't get a chance. Pat, are you around?)
Patricia George likes to do a lot of melodic studies with students. Those of us who have studied the flute for years know all about the famous 24 and 25 melodic study books of Marcel Moyse. One of Patricia's favorite books is the oboe book called "40 Melodies" by Barrett and is published by Leduc, but she also uses simple melodies like "Hot Cross Buns" to get her points across.
In our class Patricia used this simple tune to help explain melodic contour. Go to: http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/freebiesFP.html for the music of "Hot Cross Buns" if you do not know it. Then sing the tune over to yourself and notice the shape of the melody. She drew the shape of the "Hot Cross Buns" melody as a line drawing on a board for us to see. She did this by drawing a 'down-hill' arrow for the first three notes of the tune where the melody descends, another 'down-hill' arrow for the next three notes of the tune since these notes are really just a repetition of the first three notes, and then she drew a small hill for the last notes of the tune where the melody ascends and then descends.
Patricia said that she has found that most melodies have one of the following five shapes. She then proceeded to draw these shapes on a board. I am not able to draw these shapes for you here, so I will use words to try to describe the shapes that she drew. Please bear with me!
1. She drew a large slur-like line (the kind that you would write over notes)
with an X in the middle of the line.
2. She drew an inversion of drawing #1.
3. She drew a line that looked like the first half of the large slur in #1
and then placed an X at each end.
4. She drew a line that looked like the second half of the large slur in
#1 and then placed an X at each end.
5. She drew a line in the shape of a valley (something like a U-shape) and
joined this to a line in the shape of a mountain. Place an X at the bottom
of the valley and then at the top of the mountain.
The main points in the melodies are at the X's. Do SOMETHING at these points. For example, try 'color vibrato'. Then explore melodies on your own to see what shapes you come up with.
I saw this as a really neat way of getting students to start thinking more about melodic contour and how they could use their discoveries to help them better interpret music.
