Tone Building, Sluring, "Pecky" Double Tonguing, H

[JustinSoundxx]

Hello again everyone!
I am a senior in high school and i plan on going into music education in college.
I have been building up many pieces for repertoire and audition pieces such as Syrinx, Concerto for Flute By Ibert, Marceu De Concours by Faure, The Shining & Effect Out by Laurel Zucker, Harlequin by Margaret Cornils, Concerto for Flute OP.39 by Libermann, Flute Concerto NO.2 By Mozart, Bachs Sonata in A minor, and some other orchestral pieces.
She let me Pick out my repertoire, but has warned me that my choices might be too Modern. that i need to expand my repertoire.
I am very into modern pieces and modern techniques for flute playing. I have found this very hard for me to find a classical, baroque, and or romantic style pieces to play.
I guess what im wanting to know is, is my repertoire too modern and is there any pieces from the baroque/classical/romantic time periods?

I have some questions about tone building as well. I have always been told that i have a great tone, and my lesson teacher has said that mine is sometimes better than hers. but i have been playing in a seperate group and i auditioned and got first chair, but as soon as we had sectionals with one student there she immediately thought that i was always grossly out of tune, and persisted on tuning each one of us individually. i was the only one right. then she measured to see where our corks were, and again mine was the only one that was in line. during the second semester in the group i was moved to second to last and was told that i have to work on intonation and tone quality... so i want to prove to her that i can still improve even though she was a complete butt hole. is their any books that you suggest that work on tone building specifically?

Also when i slur in between notes, specifically greater not jumps such as octaves, i can play them but i feel like im playing them wrong. if that makes any sense. i feel that im relying solely on my vibrato to make the change. my lessons teacher hasnt noticed but has told me to work on it without vibrato. are there any other suggestions or comments to whether this is correct or not?

ahhhh double tonguing. i have become really fast with my double tonguing, but i have noticed that at times for example when i play the sonata in A minor that my double tonguing comes off as too heavy and staccato. i have also noticed that at times when i play straight 8th/16th notes that i make them sound slightly like dotted 8th 16ths. i have tried playing them passages as dotted 8th 16ths, and then again as 16ths dotted 8ths. nothing has seemed to help and i was also wondering if anyone else had another opinion.

Thanks again!
I think i wrote too much!

-Justin

[fluteguy18]

Repertoire:

For Baroque, I would look at more Bach Sonatas, Telemann Fantasies and Sonatas, and Handel Sonatas. For Classical, you should definitely take a look at Kuhlau. For Romantic, you should become familiar with everything in the "Flute Music by French Composers" book, and several other composers. Between Ibert and Liebermann, you have two of the biggies of Modern covered. If you are just looking for audition pieces, I would actually narrow your list.

Look around online at the schools you are looking at and their audition requirements. If they don't have them posted online, contact the applied teacher. Usually, I use Juilliard's audition requirements as the ULTIMATE list. If you have Juilliard's bases covered, you will be over-prepared everywhere else. Aside from their pre-screening process, they require for undergrads: 1 movement of a JS Bach Sonata, Partita or Suite, 2 contrasting works [excluding Bach], a complete Mozart Concerto, and 4-5 contrasting orchestral excerpts. Usually, the "2 contrasting works" consist of a piece from the Romantic Era [Chaminade, Faure, Hue, Debussy] and a modern piece [Liebermann, Griffes, Nielsen, Ibert, many others..... Jolivet].

If you haven't already submitted audition CDs, you have probably missed most of the pre-screening audition deadlines for Conservatories. But because you are going into Music Ed, it is probably better to avoid the Conservatory environment. Most State schools require scales, 2-3 contrasting works, and MAYBE orchestral excerpts.

And for the other stuff: I know I mention this a lot, but check out Nina Perlove's website. She has a LOT of great stuff on there. I don't neccessarily agree with all of her methods, but some of her techniques have worked wonders on my playing. Her videos on breathing and double tonguing [with slight modifications] were really helpful.

[Mark01]

Some of the best exercises for building muscle tone are aerobic exercises. Some of the best exercises to build muscle tone are, Aerobics classes, running or jogging, swimming and working with light weights for multiple repetitions. These exercises will build muscle tone, strengthen your cardiovascular system and provide you the body that you want to have.

Double tonguing is a technique which when mastered will allow you to play much faster than with the standard single tonguing method. To be fully in control with your playing, double tonguing should start as slow as your fastest single tongue and be in control as you speed up.

[lianeandflute]

If you want a book on tone I would recommend Moyse's de la sonorite. It targets specific tone ideas and problems and is a fantastic warm-up. He also talks about intonation. =]

For double tonguing, actually Nina Perlove's video on it gave me some good ideas for practicing. I think you have to start off ridiculously slowly, just to make sure you are making the sounds you want. Then put on the metronome (very slow) and gradually get fast with it. I think you should look long term and not expect immediate results. Also; you can't tongue (or double tongue!) clearly without using support (abdominal muscles). The tongue is just articulating the sound, the sound is coming from your abdominal muscles. If you know what I mean. If you push too hard with your tongue then it's going to be airy and gross because you're just spitting the notes. If you don't push enough, it's still going to be airy and gross. I think you have to experiment to find the right place. I know you said you can already double tongue fast, but maybe if you slow down again, you can give yourself a chance to figure out how to make the tonguing lighter and clearer and sound satisfying for you.

With intervals, it's the same kind of thing. You have to really be using a lot of abdominal muscles to get there. If it comes with vibrato, maybe you're using the air to propel the note out? Like overblowing? Which isn't always the best way to play intervals. Don't worry, we all do it… Moyse's book has a hugh section for big intervals actually which I find really, really helpful.

Best of luck!

[Bo]

Some exercises in the Universal series also focus on tone, particularly in 50 Classical Pieces for flute I think.

[wkzh]

I find the problem with most players when they learn double tongue is that the are tonguing. Kinda oxymoron, but yeah.

The key thing to learning double tonguing is to learn to keep your air flow going, and not to rely on the tongue to much. I start by tonguing very very lightly, as if there's no tonguing at all, and slowly speed it up until it is relatively fast. This trains you to control the muscle movement. Only when you've mastered this, slowly shorten the length of each note while keeping the air flowing. You'll notice that the muscle movement is almost identical, it's just how high your tongue is when you start moving your tongue back and forth.

Bottom line: it's really a long tone with lots of holes in it, not a splutter from a machine gun!

Hope this helps.