Building and Maintaining Consistency When Doubling

I've recently begun preparing music for four concerts between now and the end of June, and I'll be doing a lot of doubling. The first concert is only alto and sopranino recorder, the second is both recorders and flute. The third is going to be my first multiple woodwinds recital (piccolo, flute, clarinet, alto sax, and alto recorder) ever, and as the woodwinds professor at NSU.

The main concept I have to remind myself about - which is not earth-shattering - is that you must carry over as many concepts as possible when doubling. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the differences between instruments that basic concepts fall by the wayside.
Concepts like:
- consistent airflow
- swift, relaxed finger motion
- clarity in tone and articulation
- intonation

It's far too easy to let yourself think "Oh, I'm just running through this, I'll worry about intonation(tone/fingerings/etc.) later."

The issue here is that by allowing yourself to essentially drop your guard this one time you're setting yourself up for inconsistency in performance later, which is a much steeper price to pay than to just focus in on an issue when it springs up. I remember once when I was still in school I was playing clarinet in the pit for "Annie Get Your Gun." I hadn't prioritized clarinet, and wasn't practicing properly or enough. In the middle of the show one night I went to play an exposed solo - and completely blanked. I simply couldn't remember which key to press! If I had just been practicing the tiniest bit, I really doubt that would have happened.

If you're getting back into the routine of doubling, try this:
Set aside some time *before* your practice session starts to plan out your practice session. Incorporate some time to work on fundamentals (tone, articulation, scales) before delving into repertoire. I also strongly recommend that you work toward a "standard warm-up" for each instrument. Whenever I practice other woodwinds, I start my practice the same way and it always helps me "settle" into the new horn quickly and easily. Even something as simple as five minutes at the beginning of a session will an immediate impact on your practice session and, perhaps more importantly, will set you up for long term success.

Summer Plans

Originally, I had this grand idea that after my recital I would hit the ground running and would plow through at least one more technique book plus etudes and new repertoire, but as the dust settled I realized that I want to use this "down time" to refocus my efforts as a performer and teacher. I want to approach my practice in a more holistic manner. This will help reduce muscle tension and pain. Instead of seeing how much ground I can cover this summer, I want to take this time to reevaluate how I've been achieving my goals. While I am proud of the work I've put in this academic year, and of the progress I've made, I want to make efforts to tweak my habits toward a more healthy approach.

The longer I've been teaching keyboard the better my playing has gotten, but I'd like to spend some time this summer working on really becoming a more well-equipped pianist. Part of this will require me to just squeeze in a little extra practice time here and there, but I'll also be doing a lot of reading. I've currently been working my way through two texts that a colleague at the university loaned me (A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop the Mind and Body for Optimal Performance edited by Kris Kopff, and The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher by Marienne Uszler). It's great to be able to say that I've recognized some of those pedagogical approaches or encountered the same issues as I've been teaching, but it's strangely even more exciting to see how much of this field I'm just not familiar with as I keep investigating.

I'm also working on a couple side projects, including a scale book geared towards woodwind doublers and general woodwind teachers like myself (but more on that later).

Week 3: Practice Plans

Wednesday

Wagner #50/52    5min.

PG                    30min.

Boehm #2            6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1         7min.

Picc. Tone           6min.

Gazza Ladra         6min.

Thursday

PG                35min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2      10min.

Gazza           10min.

W#50/52       10min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1   10min.

Friday

PG                44min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2       5min.

Gazza            6min.

W#50/52       15min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     5min.

Saturday

PG                   35min.

Picc. Tone        10min.

Boehm #2         10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          10min.

Cap. Esp.          5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     10min.

Sunday

PG                  36min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza               6min.

W#50/52         14min.

Cap. Esp.          6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     25min.

Monday

PG                  35min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          20min.

Cap. Esp.         10min.

Moz. Mvt. 1      10min.

Tuesday

PG                    30min.

Picc. Tone          5min.

Boehm #2          10min.

Gazza                 5min.

W#50/52            10min.

Cap. Esp.            5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1       15min.

Happy Practicing!

T-n-G, Patricia George Style!

Patricia George's bio on Powell Flutes' website gives a bit of insight on her, as does the website for Fabulous Flute, a store owned and operated by Patricia George and Phyllis Louke. As well as contact info.

And here's the infamous T&G Practice Guide I've been rambling about:

If you're not a flutist, you probably will have no idea what exercises are contained in the 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Mécanisme pour la flûte, but trust me: they're good. I'd post more snippets, but it's still under copyright. It would be worth checking out though. In fact, I'd recommend that you borrow a copy from a flutist friend and maybe consider buying a copy for yourself. These exercises are easily adaptable to most every instrument! If you would like to buy a copy, I'll put a link at the bottom of this post.

When you look over her document, you'll see some same or similar ideas repeated with various exercises, which is great for people like me who just can't stay focused. I also like the systematic rotation of key signatures from day-to-day.

As you can see, it's a twelve-week plan for working through almost the entire book (Ms. George omits exercises 3 and 17). I appreciate the slow working method that she encourages. For me, it's great because anytime I begin to feel rushed or anxious I can remind myself: “I still have x weeks to learn this. Plenty of time!” My favorite part right now is the space she suggests that you insert between chunks of notes.

For example, here's the first line of Exercise No. 1 from Taffanel and Gaubert's 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Mécanisme pour la flûte:

For this Ms. George recommends playing eight notes and then inserting a quarter rest, as such:

I should note that the original book suggests ten different articulations, but so far I've been slurring each group to make sure the tone is consistent. The addition of these 'mini-breaks' grants many advantages. The space allows you to relax and sort of step back and reflect on what you just played:

How was the quality of sound?

Were all the notes connected gracefully and naturally?

Were the notes of equal proportions?

Of course, this also allows you to listen to what your body is telling you – are you holding negative energy or excess tension? If so, where?

I hope some of this discussion helps you in your own practicing. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions!

I really owe a lot of my 'take a year to practice' idea to Ms. George. I remember reading in a Flute Talk magazine (for which she is the editor) recently where she mentioned that she likes taking a little bit of time every year to just go back to the basics. Now, I'm probably paraphrasing at best (my magazines are still packed up), but if I remember correctly, she talked about going back to very simple exercises to unlearn any bad habits that had crept in and relearn good habits. I thought that was just the best idea, and that was probably the first step to getting me to where I am with this blog today. And for that, I am very thankful to you, Ms. George!

Purchase the 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers from the Flute Pro Shop by clicking here.

Practice Plans for Aug. 19, 2012

I've decided to go ahead and post my practice plans for today before I practice, then I'll come back later today and post some reflections on how it went. If this set up works, I'll draw up similar plans for the next two days and go from there with revised the Master Practice Plan.

Here we go:

Jim Walker's Harmonic Exercise

From the Patricia George Taffanel-Gaubert pages:

No. 2 1^st 8va

No. 4 – Group 1 (C major – g minor)

No. 5 – All Keys

No. 6 – Inverted 3rds, C major

No. 7 – E major

No. 8 – Variation 3

No. 9 – Variation 5

No. 12 – B-F#, two beat chunks

Then I'm going to get back to working on Bolero, maybe I'll be able to video record it and post the first and final versions on Tuesday.

Piccolo – Piccolo Practice Book Exercises 1&3 (pg. 6)

Plan for Year 1, Quarter 1

Here's the master plan of the first quarter:

(hopefully you can click on it to make it bigger...?)

I've got a pretty busy practice schedule coming my way, and I plan on posting the first weekly plan on Monday (July 30th). That one will map out my practice goals and plans for the first week. There are a few codes to explain:

1 and 2 8va Exp. Int: Expanding interval exercises. The 1 8va begins on a low G: G-Ab-G-A-etc.. up to the next octave, then back down. Repeat the process on each chromatic tone until you're starting on middle G going up to high G. Great to do with a drone.
JW: Exercises from a packet I received at masterclasses given by the fantastic Jim Walker. There's a lot of emphasis on harmonics, especially slurring to the second partial (i.e. - Low D, slur to harmonic middle A, without changing the fingering).
Wagner: Exercises from Ernest F. Wagner's Foundation to Flute Playing. I especially like the exercises found in the 52nd lesson, "Embouchure Exercises."
Moyse Tone Dev. and De La Son.: Tone Development Through Interpretation and De La Sonorite
TW PB 1: Trevor Wye's Practice Book 1
Jill Felber: A packet of information and exercises I got from attending one of Jill Felber's masterclasses. I think it's called 'A 40-Day Flute Make-Over' or something like that. It's packed up right now, or I'd pull it out.
PG: A great practice method from Patricia George, available on Larry Krantz' website. I'm doing my own thing for the first week using #3 and #17 because her method is only a 12-wk program, it doesn't use #3/#17, and I'm moving during the first week.
TWP: These are from the Wye/Morris 'A Piccolo Practice Book.' It's currently packed up, but I'll list the page numbers for each exercise later.
The Koehler etudes are from Op. 33, the Bitsch are his Douze Etudes (which are fan-TASTIC!), and the Boehm are from his 24 Etudes, Op. 37.

I have a lot to do for flute, but I hope that it will be a bit easier than it looks because I've worked on most of the repertoire at least a little in the past. I'm doing five excerpts, but they're all familiar as well. Tone and technique are the most important to me.
For piccolo, I'm mostly going to be focusing on sound, pitch, and flexibility. I am doing a couple excerpts and a little rep., but nothing too terribly substantial. The second movement of the Vivaldi is important, but that's why it's at the end. By then I plan to have a good foundation of piccolo chops for such a delicate and expressive piece. I may add another solo work, but I'm not sure as of yet. We'll see how things pan out over the first few weeks.
Alto flute is obviously not that important, it'll just be fun to pull it out for that week. Maybe I'll add a solo work later. Maybe.
The plans for recorder are the most vague, and that's partly due to my lack of knowledge of any recorder methods that are geared toward a serious recorder player, as opposed to a 5-year old, or 75-year old (not hating, just an observation). I intend to do lots of long tones, working with a drone, articulation, etc. Basically, I'll refine this category as it goes along and become more familiar with the instrument and my abilities.

The Overall Plan

Alright, so I've been working on a master plan for the year. It's undergone several revisions, and has now reached a reasonable state.

I'm going to be spending a large amount of time of this year restructuring my playing style and embouchure. It's very critical for my long-term success as a professional that I get the (mostly minor) issues that I have under control. Along with this will be plenty of articulation and finger technique, which I will use technical exercises (Taffanel & Gaubert, DeLorenzo, Moyse, etc.) and etude books (Boehm, Moyse, etc.) Along with the general technique mentioned above, I plan on having certain weeks where I will focus on "special" topics: trills, multiphonics, etc.
 Next is repertoire. I'm only going to work on a few pieces a quarter per instrument. The exact number will vary, and I'll be starting with some vaguely familiar or very important works and move towards works that are brand new to me.
 I'll also be working very diligently on orchestral excerpts. Like with repertoire selections, the exact number per quarter will vary depending on a number of factors.

In order to make the execution of this whole process more manageable, and to help myself in keeping track of my goals, I've divided the year into four 13-week quarters.The first quarter is Aug. 1 - Oct. 30.  I'll plan out each quarter in advance, and then plan daily practice sessions for each week in advance of the start of the week. Once I have a typed up version of my plan for the first quarter I'll post it, and I'm considering doing the same thing with weekly practice sessions. I'm also going to try and make some posts where I review my practice from the day/week, as well as some audio or video recordings as possible.

If you have any suggestions or comments along the way, please share them with me!