A near year, A new plan

[Claiken]

Hey everyone. Its been quite a while since ive posted. I took a much needed break from everything flute. Now that im going to be getting back into things on thursday (1st day of school) I was wondering if anyone had any tips.

My first concern being skill level. is there any particular exercise that will quickly raise skill level? meaning, less is more? Like, something that will help me excel at flute without needing like 15 hundred hours in the practise room? I need to get my skills way better, but due to an illness I cant afford energywise to practise like 9 hours a day. Im lucky if I can get in 3 concentrated, solid hours. Most days all I get is 2 (with breaks in between of course). So, any tips? advice? certain exercises to try? Im mainly going to be trying on getting my fingers working faster. my last (failed) audition, my biggest challenge was my finger speed. so, this time, I want to conquer that challenge, bite it in the behind, and get it the heck out of my way. any tips?

my second question/concern being, is there any exercises to do to excel my breathing? Partly due to my illness, but partly due to just plain not being trained, i need to breathe aLOT. like way more than most flute players. I know its partly unavoidable because of being ill, but Id like to at least get it better, if I cant get it perfect. Any exercises? tips? tricks aside from circular breathing?

thanks! I want to start my new year off on the right foot.

[flutepicc06]

My first concern being skill level. is there any particular exercise that will quickly raise skill level? meaning, less is more? Like, something that will help me excel at flute without needing like 15 hundred hours in the practise room? I need to get my skills way better, but due to an illness I cant afford energywise to practise like 9 hours a day. Im lucky if I can get in 3 concentrated, solid hours. Most days all I get is 2 (with breaks in between of course). So, any tips? advice? certain exercises to try? Im mainly going to be trying on getting my fingers working faster. my last (failed) audition, my biggest challenge was my finger speed. so, this time, I want to conquer that challenge, bite it in the behind, and get it the heck out of my way. any tips?

my second question/concern being, is there any exercises to do to excel my breathing? Partly due to my illness, but partly due to just plain not being trained, i need to breathe aLOT. like way more than most flute players. I know its partly unavoidable because of being ill, but Id like to at least get it better, if I cant get it perfect. Any exercises? tips? tricks aside from circular breathing?

thanks! I want to start my new year off on the right foot.

Well, first of all, there is no substitute for good old fashioned practice. If you discovered magical exercises that could make you better without having to practice, you'd make a ton of money selling them to the flutists of the world. There are plenty of good exercises for technique that (given time and dedicated practice) will help a lot, such as T+G, scales, various etudes, etc, but you can't expect tremendous results overnight. If you've taken a substantial amount of time off from the flute, you're likely going to have to rebuild your embouchure as well.

As for breathing, there are several things that could be causing your need to breathe too often. One possibility is that you're wasting too much air. This could be because you're having to fight an instrument full of leaks, or because you're simply not focusing and controlling your airstream as you should. Without being able to observe your playing, it's impossible to know for sure if this is the cause, but having your flute checked by a tech, and working on embouchure control with your teacher might yield good results. There's also the possibility that you're not breathing properly. Most people, in the course of everyday life do what I refer to as "chest breathing," where they fill only a fraction of their lungs (the upper portion) with air. This is particularly common in urban areas as a defensive mechanism to pollution in the air. Try to fill your lungs completely, from the bottom up, while you're playing. You most likely will see your stomach and/or ribcage expand noticeably. Then there's the potential issue that you simply can't hold as much air in reserve as you'd like, in which case it is possible to expand your lungs over time. Aerobic exercise, such as swimming is great for this. Also, try to take small breaths throughout a piece of music to "top off" your air supply, rather than waiting until you're about to fall over from lack of air and refilling your lungs entirely.

[Claiken]

its just hard, i feel like i practise & practise & get nowhere... even last year with routine practising for quite a while, i still wasnt great enough to pass the audition. my teacher thinks im good tho (I came right out & asked her if i suck, she said no). who knows i guess.... its only 1st day back

[flutepicc06]

its just hard, i feel like i practise & practise & get nowhere... even last year with routine practising for quite a while, i still wasnt great enough to pass the audition. my teacher thinks im good tho (I came right out & asked her if i suck, she said no). who knows i guess.... its only 1st day back

There's no way for me to be sure, but as I noted in the new Practice Tips section of the FAQ, quality practice is far more important than quantity. A good solid half hour of focused, well thought out practice is far more useful than 2 hours of simply playing through music. You might examine your practice routines and see if you need to start practicing differently. If you don't have a private teacher, I would highly recommend getting one as soon as possible....Having a more experienced player to help you is invaluable. Also, consider that in audition situations, there are a limited number of spots, and a potentially unlimited number of people vying for them. As we've noted before, it's best not to compare yourself to others (rather, compare yourself to how YOU were playing a week, a month, or a year ago), as this gives no indication of how much you've improved. There will always be players that are better at certain aspects of playing than you, but as long as you're constantly striving to play better than you did last time you picked up your instrument, you're on the right path.