My First Video Post!

Okay, here it is! My very first YouTube upload, and the first vlog to supplement this blog. The sound quality isn't as clear as I had hoped it would be, but hey, it's not like I've invested in special equipment, so no complaining here! Enjoy!

Picking Up and Carrying On

I've spent the last couple days practicing and planning, and I've decided that instead of trying to fit everything that I've missed back in, I'm just going to pick up with the start of Week 4. It will be far less stressful than trying to rework the whole plan, and that alone makes it worth it.

I didn't have time to draw up plans for Week 4 today, but that'll be first on my plans for tomorrow! I've got another post to put up tonight: My first video entry!

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.

Reflections on Today's Practice

Most everything went smoothly today in the practice room. There are some consistency issues, but they are mostly fixing themselves as I am getting back into a routine.

Before I continue, I really should apologize for not having posted examples of the various exercises yet. I'm a bit hesitant to do so because I don't want to step on anyone's toes or share information without permission, trample over copyright, etc. I'm trying to work all of these issues out so that I can hopefully share these great exercises with you here.

The harmonic exercises are kicking my butt right now, but I'll keep working at it and it should come back quickly. This is hands down one of the best exercises that I know, and one of the three that I love to start the day with because it gets everything working right off the bat (the other two are tongueless attacks and chromatic scales at a brisk tempo).

I'm really enjoying working through the Taffanel-Gaubert. I have to keep reminding myself that I'll be playing these same exercises for the next 8-9 weeks though, so I really do have lots of room to SLOW DOWN and enjoy exploring my own playing. It's quite liberating, really.

Bolero would be going fine, except I'm having what seem to be some pretty significant troubles finding spots to breathe. The rhythm is better than it was, although I still need some time with a metronome. Tomorrow I'm going to try and focus on the spots where the breaths need to be to see if I can assemble the pieces.

I did play piccolo some, mostly just for the sake of playing it (I did do work, too!). I just love playing piccolo.

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)

Practice Notes and Reflections, Aug. 18, 2012

Today's practice was a bit disorganized, and I was having some focus issues. Those issues stemmed from two sources: my lack of concentration and willingness to really focus, and the lack of a clear plan of action in light of the melee that has been my life.

Despite these issues, I still feel that today was a nice step forward. Here are some notes I took and some ideas I'm trying to keep in mind:

My goals were to keep working toward a smooth sound that maintains connection from note to note and the try and remove negative tension and energy from my body.

I've been noticing a tendency to roll in, especially when moving into the second octave. This isn't a new habit for me, but it's (thankfully) been from being an all-around problem to one that only arises in specific situations. It happens mostly when I ascend (as I mentioned before), but I've also noticed that I roll in when I'm feeling insecure.

I've dealt with a lot of insecurity issues surrounding my playing, which is almost ironic because I'm pretty obnoxiously 'hey-i'm-a-fluter!!!!'-y, but it's true. That's been brought to light recently because we now live in a middle apartment (neighbors on all sides) and our lease has a clause that basically says "Thou shalt not practice any instrument that annoys thine neighbors." As a result, I'm a little worried that someone will complain and then I won't have anywhere to practice. But I digress...

I'm also trying to work more slowly, and play smaller chunks for the many small successes rather than muscle through a technical exercise just so I can cross it off of my to-do list.

I'm really bad at this blogging thing still, but I'll get there. One day...maybe...

I'm still here!

Believe it or not, I'm still alive, and we moved in last weekend. Unfortunately I have not been practicing at all. I think I've only been able to play maybe three or four times since my last post.The move was much rougher than we expected, but we survived! 

I'm over a week behind on the practice plan, but I'm going to keep plugging along. I'm going to redraw my practice plans and post that in the next few days if I can. I'm going to do my original plans for Week 2 from today until Tuesday, at which point I'll start Week Three with the second week of the Patricia George plan. Her method of working through the Taffanel-Gaubert uses 6-day practice weeks, so if I'm able to get in at least a little bit of productive practice each day, I'll be able to make up the lost time.

I was able to practice today, and it felt great. While it was certainly not smooth sailing all the way through and I didn't make it through the entire to-do list, it was a very productive practice session. I'm having to out some tension issues, especially in my left arm, and having to fight the urge to try and play faster than I need to.

Patricia George suggests working in chunks, which I found very helpful. She suggests playing short chunks (between 4 and 8 notes) with a quarter note rest between each chunk. This was very great for slowing my mind down, getting my focused on consistency of sound, smooth finger motion, and getting rid of negative tension.

More to come in the near future, hopefully including some good news!