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Flute - Rushing/District Honor Band

Expert: Holly - 11/4/2009

Question
Hi Holly,
I have been playing for about 1 and a half years. This year I'm auditioning for district honor band and I really,really want to make it!!! I have been practicing non-stop. All my scales, etude, and chromatic. But when I play somtimes I tend to rush and I need to stay on tempo. And when I'm playing my chromatic (I'm using the alternate Bb fingering) my fingers get all juggled up. I'm also trying to improve my vibrato; on the sight-reading the students older then me all have the advantage but I'm trying to improve on that too. Any suggestions? I realize that this is a lot but I'm trying to get as much help as I can. Thank you!!!

Answer
Hey Victoria,

It sounds like you've been very diligent and hardworking on everything, so kudos to you!   I'll give you some tips for the things you mentioned, but for the rest, just keep going as you are. :)

Just a general tip about practicing, first: you said you've been practicing nonstop. That's awesome - just make sure you're doing a very thoughtful kind of practicing with a lot of analysis. A lot of students tend to think that more = better, and that "practice makes perfect." Actually, anyone who tells you practice is perfect is dead wrong. Only *perfect* practice makes perfect - by perfect, I mean playing something correctly. You'll save yourself a lot of time if you make your practice as efficient as possible. So, when you play something and there's something you need to correct about it, stop a moment and realize 1) what went wrong 2) what the solution is.   Know what the problem is in detail, not just that your fingers got mixed up, but the first finger in your right hand was late in coming up, etc.   Once you know this, now you are armed with the knowledge to play the passage again and have it come out right.

As for more = better, yes, time logged in playing the flute and repetition is a good portion of practicing.... but only correct repetition. Practicing is really a matter of playing the odds. If you play something wrong once and right the next time, that means you have a 50/50 chance of playing it wrong the next time. If you really concentrate and get it right the next time, then your chances of getting it wrong get lower, and so on. A lot of students will just blow past mistakes made in practicing in the assumption that it won't happen again, but they *will* happen again... and usually when we last want them to, like in auditions.   But if you teach your finger muscles exactly what you want, then they're less likely to revolt and play unexpected tricks on you.

As to the chromatic scale you mentioned, I've written an editorial in on my site that talks about practicing technical passages. It also talks about other ways of practicing that would be useful for you, like mental imaging. Since it explains it better than I could in here, I'll give you the link:

http://silentgalaxy.com/practice.html

For rushing, it sounds like you're aware that you're rushing when you play, which is excellent. Many people can't tell that they're rushing something until they've been told, or listen to a recording of themselves. If you use a metronome to stay in tempo, that's great for learning to control your speed. (If you don't have one, don't worry, the web has everything for free: http://www.metronomeonline.com/)   But if you have been using the metronome and find that you're still rushing when you don't use it, then this is normal, and we just need to add another method of practicing not to rush. The trick is to use the metronome to school your fingers, but not to use it as a crutch, to where you can't rely on keeping time without it.

I suggest recording yourself while you play... most computers come with recording programs these days, and sound quality at this point really doesn't matter - you're listening for tempo. Play something that you typically rush on, and listen to it. Then, play it again, being aware of where/how you rushed before. It's a slow start-and-stop process, but it really helps you learn to play solidly in time in the end.

For sightreading, the trick is to always keep the eye looking several notes ahead so you know what's coming ahead of time, and focus on maintaining a steady overall rhythm even though individual notes will of necessarity fall to the wayside. When you first see the music you have to sightread, take a quick moment to scan the page for the fastest note value you'll have to play. If they don't have a tempo marking for you at the top, figure out et your tempo around those fastest notes, so you don't have to drastically cut your speed once you get to that section.

The way to get better at sightreading is to practice sightreading something every day. Sightread anything you can get your hands on.... free sheet music online, music that belongs to friends, etc. It doesn't even have to be flute music.... sightread the melody line in piano music, sightread clarinet music, etc. I'm betting those older students you mentioned aren't practicing their sightreading, so that will give you an advantage here. :)

For vibrato, great vibrato makes a flutist stand out. Whether you were taught vibrato or picked it up on your own, I'm going to give you the basics here so you can refresh your vibrato technique.

Vibrato uses the exact same muscles that you use when you whisper "ha ha ha." It should sound very free, but in order to make it sound relaxed and natural, you have to practice it a lot and be able to perfectly control the speed and depth of your vibrato.

First, practice away from the flute: get comfortable whispering "ha ha ha" very evenly.

Then, you use the metronome. Set a very slow tempo at first... say 80 or 90. Using triplet grouping, do three "ha" pulses to each click. I recommend doing 4 triplet groups in a row, then holding the note perfectly steady and even for another four counts. Then take a deep breath and go to the next note.

As you play, work for absolute control and evenness. Obviously, your finished product isn't going to be so robotic, but the more you can control it and make each pulsing sound exactly like the previous one, the more you'll be able to vary it the way you want to in the future. It's a case of the "first learn the rules, then break them." Only you won't be breaking the rules once you've mastered vibrato, you'll just be making it more creative and less machine-like. :)

As you get comfortable with this excercise, and once the vibrato pulses are perfectly regular and even, speed the metronome up little by little. "Real" vibrato is generally around 116-120 on the metronome (still using 3 pulses to a beat). However, vibrato speed can vary depending on the style of the piece you're playing, so there's no hard and fast rule about the exact speed you'll need. You'll use a ton of speeds (exactly why you need absolute control to be able to vary it so much). Deciding what speed to use and where will be up to you and what you judge to be musically appropriate. The only things about vibrato speed to watch out for are these: if you go too slow, it'll sound like "waah waah waah", but too fast will end up making you sound like a nanny goat. :)

Once you have more control over the speed, you also want to think about the depth of the vibrato, too. Vibrato is actually made by pitch bending that happens when the airstream is changed, although it's fast and subtle enough that we don't perceive it as a bad kind of pitch bending.

To visualize this concept, try thinking of the note as a straight line and the vibrato as a wavy line which is juxtaposed on the straight line. You can have several different types of vibrato, such as:

- vibrato that spikes above the note (so the vibrato would be a wiggly line above the straight line). Since it pushes the pitch up, this kind of vibrato is good for low register notes, when we have a tendency to go flat.

- vibrato that dips below the note (wiggly line going below the straight one) This is good for high register stuff, to keep us from going sharp. It makes a very rich, warm sound and is a type of vibrato that the famous flutist Julius Baker often used.

- vibrato that's centered evenly on the note (vibrato that waves a little above and a little below the note's line). This is good when you need shallow, barely-there vibrato that's contained in the center of the note and doesn't disturb the overall sound too much... ideal for very soft playing.

As you can see, there's a vibrato type for every occasion and instance, so it's good to be able to use all kinds of vibrato as there'll be different situations in which a certain kind is better than the others.   By thinking of vibrato as both speed and depth, you should be able to get vibrato that you can control to beautify and vary your sound.

The best way to learn is by imitation, so I highly recommend checking out some CDs of Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, Jeffrey Khaner, or Jean-Pierre Rampal at your library. (If they don't have any, they should be able to borrow some from another library for you, usually free of charge.) Personally, I would avoid listening to James Galway's recordings for learning vibrato, because his is quite fast, and sounds almost nanny goat-ish at times. :) Julius Baker's recordings have the quintessential vibrato, so even if you just listen to the freebie clips of his CDs on amazon.com or bn.com, that'll help give you an idea of what you're aiming for.

Lastly, there's the question of when to use vibrato. Your goal is to have vibrato that you can bring in and out of notes, so it's not like you have an "on" and "off" switch where you're either using a steady vibrato or no vibrato at all. Vibrato on every note is too much, so choose when to use vibrato very carefully. Sometimes on long notes, you might try adding vibrato late, or starting with vibrato and taking it out... there's a whole world of possibilities to try, so try switching it up a lot, according to what sounds right for the kind of music you're playing. Again, imitating what other musicians do on recordings is vital for absorbing how to best use vibrato. It doesn't have to be just classical musicians you listen to: next time you're listening to a song on the radio, listen to how the singer uses vibrato: when she/he uses it, when they don't.

Bottom line, just be sure that you can control whatever you do with your vibrato. If something happens involuntarily, the goal is to find a way to be able to control it, so you're making your vibrato the way you want it, not the way it happens to come out. Many flutists get a nervous tremolo kind of vibrato that happens involuntarily - this is what you want to avoid. (And this is why I don't recommend imitating Galway, because his vibrato is so fast that students end up getting the caffeinated-jitters-tremolo as they try to keep up with him.)

Lastly, you brought up all very good things to improve for your upcoming audition. I'm going to add one more thing for you to think about - the musicality side. A lot of flutists your age never think about that, and that's where you can really outshine them if you have a solid grasp on what's happening musically as you play and what you want those judges to hear. I'll give you a link to another editorial of mine:

http://silentgalaxy.com/auditions.html

Obviously, you can skip the first part, since we're told what to play for district auditions, but the rest is still applicable. :)

I hope this helps you out - I know it's a ton of info, but please let me know if you have any more questions! I'm here to help out. :)

~Holly~

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