Allegro Vivo by Gariboldi

[bandnerd]

Hi. I am trying to play a difficult piece called Allegro Vivo which is the audition material for all-state band competition. It's very fast and has a lot of jumps to high F sharp. Has anyone played this that can give me some tips on how to play it better?

[kodalyflutist]

What are the pitches before and after the F#'s ?

[bandnerd]

In several places it's C# before and low F# afterwards. On one time it's D before and E afterwards. The other time, it's C# before and E afterwards.

[kodalyflutist]

In several places it's C# before and low F# afterwards. On one time it's D before and E afterwards. The other time, it's C# before and E afterwards.

To me, it looks like the fingering is not as tricky as the tone production. Is that how you feel about it? If it is a tone production issue (cracking, squeaking, etc), working with harmonics could be helpful. F# and E are notoriously squirrely.

Work on overblowing the octaves of F# and E with the lower octave fingering, so that you are producing a harmonic for the upper note. Begin slowly, as if playing half notes, progressing to quicker changes like quarters, eighths and sixteenths. Don't progress too quickly to sixteenths. "Play" with rhythm a bit; sometimes I will play quarters, and then go twice as fast, and then slow back down to half speed, continuing to vacillate back and forth between the two. I have found this to be particularly effective. Make sure you are slurring, so that the air is doing the work with the slight help of the embouchure.

After you have done this for a short time with harmonic fingerings, then do the same thing with the correct fingerings. Notice we are still not playing the actual piece, but exercises that are hopefully working our embouchure in the same way the piece demands.

Sometimes playing the troublesome sequence of notes backwards can be helpful. Narrow the problem area and focus on the three notes: the one before the F#, the one after and of course the F# itself. Once again, play with the rhythm and get *very* familiar with these little spots. You will probably get sick of playing them; but always go for correct repetitions. If you start making mistakes, stop yourself and slow down or go back to what was working. This process may take days or weeks and you must be patient. Your muscles and your brain need time to process the correct actions. Sometimes that means taking breaks or waiting until the next practice session because there's only so much new knowledge your brain can process at one time.

High E can be played without the RH D# key (Eb key... pinky). This lowers the pitch and makes the note much more stable. If you have an issue with this note speaking after the F#, raising the pinky on the E can sometimes fix the problem, especially at a loud dynamic.

High F# can be fingered with an alternate fingering, which is RH middle finger instead of ring finger. This lowers this pitch and sometimes makes it more stable, but not always. If your flute has a split E key, this could be one of the reasons that your high F# is troublesome, so this may not be a magic fix. But you can try it and see what happens. If the F# is not sustained (which sounds like it's not), the alternate fingering may sound just as good as the other. Listen carefully though, and decide if it sounds *as good* plus facilitates any fingering problems. You don't want to make anything harder than it already is.

Hope these suggestions help a little! Best wishes.

[bandnerd]

Thanks!