I need serious help on technical things...

[ShortButSweet]

I'm learning Godard's Valse right now, and pretty much beating my head against the wall. I've learned other pieces with tough fingering parts before, like Faure's Fantasie and Ganne's Andante et Scherzo, but i never got them perfect or nearly good enough in my opinion.

Now i'm trying to learn this one and it's so frustrating, because i've never been good at tonguing (I can't double tongue) or fast, clean fingering. My fingers seem to just get tense and fumbled, they go up too high, it's so difficult for me to keep them relaxed and close to the keys, which i think is why i have problems with fast runs.

I'm a senior in high school looking to major in music performance in college, because i think i have a lot of potential and playing the flute is what i love, but i can't seem to get past this... i really need tips and ideas on how to fix this problem!

[fluteguy18]

You have to slow down and do it that way. In the book "Nothing but the Best: The Struggle for Perfection at the Juilliard School" in the chapter entitled "Pressures," there is a line that talks about the general attitude there about practicing. "A passage practiced thirty times feels more secure than one practiced twenty."

Slow it down, and play it several times PERFECTLY in a row. If you mess up, start the tally again. It takes 23 (or so) repetitions for something to become muscle memory. If I have a trouble spot, I slow it down, and gradually speed it up until I have it at a speed I can play it at cleanly, but not quite comfortably. At that point I then start counting my repetitions. I make myself play it forty (40) times cleanly IN A ROW. If I mess up, I reset the tally to zero. When I get it 40 times correctly, it is is so clean that it is almost antiseptic. Then I can take it right up to tempo and it's right every time.

Practice it slow, and remember that consistent repetition is your friend.