The way certain phrases are set with joined or separated notes is just one way to start an expression. Articulation for flutists is a set of rules that include tongue placement and knowing where to join or separate a set of notes. It’s important to understand that a flutist separates their notes with the tongue. How hard or soft the tongue touches is just one part of setting the style of the piece. There are description […]
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What is an arpeggio for flute, and how do you play them? This is a really great question because every flute player will come across arpeggios. Here is a really simple, but descriptive answer. Perfecting the respective arpeggios is the best way to become as awesome as you can be! An arpeggio is the same thing as a chord. The difference is that we flute players only have one mouth, so we can only play the
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Alternative fingerings for flute are also called ‘fake fingerings’. Here’s a short guide that will help you start to know when it could be appropriate to use a fake fingering or not. This type of information isn’t usually presented to a beginner flutist. It is crucial that you are super solid with all of the traditional fingerings for these notes before even bothering with these notes. 99% of the time, we will use the regular
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What is ‘tone color’ for flute, and why do you need to know about it? Tone color is the quality of the sound you are either hearing or creating. Basically it is what helps you decide what adjective to use to describe the sound. This is beyond whether or not someone has a good sound that is well supported. It is what you choose to do with the sound once you have learned how to
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Elbow pain for flute players is actually not as uncommon as you would think. But I can tell you that it is completely preventable with this one tip. This causes a condition very similar to elbow tendonitis! Have you ever seen a flutist who plays like the image on this page? Notice how the elbow is raised high and possibly she thinks this is a ‘proper’ and formal-looking position? We see this positioning often in
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There are lots of things we need to think about when we play and perform. Tone, air, notes, as well as staying together with our pianist, recording track or other people. One thing that sometimes we forget is that texture is an important thing to think about too. If we are supposed to think about this, in the words of one my students “how can [we] learn to understand “texture” as musician[s]?” And why do
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There is actually a recipe for how to have pretty high notes on flute. Let me walk you through some of the skills you’ll need to consider and learn about so you can feel better and sound better as you are playing your instrument. The high register of the flute is where we are heard the best, especially in band and orchestra, but it tends to be super sharp in pitch! So the questions is…how
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More and more, fresh, young composers these days will use extended techniques for the instruments they are writing. In this article, I want to explore three of the more commonly used techniques that you might come across in higher level band, orchestra, chamber music, or more advanced solo repertoire. Any sound made by using the flute in unusual ways. First of all, what is an extended technique? I like to think of extended technique as
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E in all the octaves are one of the famous problem notes. But is doesn’t have to be that way. This article will teach you how to improve the note E on the flute. The fingering of E acts kind of like an overtone, that’s why it’s much harder to control. Middle E: We need to treat E like we would treat a higher overtone. An overtone is when we blow a note too hard and
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I recently had a student ask me that they have troubles hearing pitch on the flute. They explained to me that they play other instruments and have no troubles. This quick article will help you understand what it takes to really learn to hear pitch. First of all, let’s define pitch as being the ‘exact tone’ you’re aiming for. When people say they need to learn to play on pitch, they are actually saying they
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