Advice on practicing for a beginner

Irish Flute
1

Hello all: I’m new here, and am wondering if I could get a bit of advice. I have been playing the whistle for a few years now, in a sort of haphazard way, just learning tunes and playing them over and over again. Recently, though, I acquired and M&E polymer flute from my wife (thanks for selling it, crickett). I don’t want to just fiddle around with the flute, I want to become a decent player in a few years. So I have a few questions:

What should my practice sessions look like? How long should I practice at a time? What things should I emphasize more? Are there any books that I must have?

This last week I have just been working on the embouchure and running up and down the scales over and over, trying to get used to the thing.

Thanks!

2

Single best thing to do is to take two or three lessons with a teacher. Can you arrange that?

3

In addition to working on tunes, you’ll want to spend some time on technique. One of the biggies is developing the embouchure, so here are some lip workouts for the ‘flute gym’:

Long tones: play your nicest middle D, then slur it to a C#, trying to make both notes the best you can. When you’re happy with the match, play the best C# you can. Then slur C# to C. Get a good C, slur to B, etc., on down to low D. You can also do this in the second octave, either progressing up from middle D, or down from the high B. (You can start this exercise on most any note. Low G is another good starting point.)

Octave slurs: Play a good low G, the let a high G grow out of it (if you want, fall back to the low G). Play a good low A, let the high A form, then do the same on B. Go back to the G, and work your way down to low D via F# and E. You can also combine the long tones and octave slurs into one exercise, if you like.

Then, to expand flexibility and range, play middle D, then C#, D then C natural, D then B, D then A, D then G, D then F#, D then E, D then low D. Then go up: middle D to E, D to F#, etc. The farther apart the notes are, the harder it is. You can start this exercise on any note and work up and down from that ‘home base’ note. For instance, start on low G, work down to low D, then work up from the G (G to A, G to B, G to C natural, G to C#, etc.) Harder yet, use low D as the ‘home’ note.

Harmonics: This is a little tricky at first, so don’t force it. If you can’t make it all the way to the top, don’t. Eventually you will be able to. Here’s the scale: D E F# G A B C# D, starting in the second octave (middle D) and playing up to the third octave D. Here’s how it’s fingered, low to high:

D xxxxxx
E xxxxxo
F# xxxxoo
G xxxooo
A xxxxxx
B xxxxxo
C# xxxxoo
D xxxooo

The only “real” fingerings you’re using are for the first four notes of the scale, then you start playing harmonics, instead of the actual note you’re fingering. Don’t blow harder for the high notes, just a bit faster (smaller lip opening) and aim the air a little bit higher (not as much down into the flute). This is a pretty good lip work-out, so make sure you balance it out with some lower notes.

Take your time, play as much of an exercise as sounds good, then stop. I wouldn’t use an electronic tuner all the time, but it’s good check your intonation from time to time, especially while you’re getting to know your new flute.

As for finger technique and style, my favorite tutors are ‘Fliuit’ by June McCormack and Conal O’Grada’s ‘An Fheadog Mhor’. June’s book is available in the US; you may have to order Conal’s directly.

4

Then slur C# to C. Get a good C, slur to B, etc

All this “slurring down to notes” ? impossible to do on my flute unless I’m missing something please could you explain how.

I’d say working on embouchure and intonation were good aims - do a search for both on this forum there’s loads of good advice. Playing long steady notes is a good excercise and check they’re in tune (record and listen to what you’re playing helped me a lot)

5

  1. Listen to LOTS of ITM, especially (of course) flute tunes. Listen to it all the time. Analyze and critique the music and compare to your own playing.

  2. Practice at least an hour a day for the first 4-5 years. Try and make it fun so you don’t burn yourself out. Have a beer or two. You’ll find this becomes very rewarding “alone time”.

  3. Get Conal O Grada’s tutorial book/CD "Irish Traditional Flute Technique. There are, of course, more books from others but I found this one the most helpful by far.

  4. Get software that can slow down tunes and change their pitch. Use this to transcribe tunes to notation or ABC and keep a library of all your transcriptions. This is the best way (I’ve found) to learn tunes and cement them in memory. Read the music as you play and slowly increase speed over time. I find reading musical notation far more intuitive than ABC. I’m useless with ABC. Print out blank musical score pages or (even better) find notation software. I use Encore. This doesn’t transcribe anything for you - you still have to do the work. You can really pick a song apart this way and it’s a great learning tool. Don’t be intimidated away from intricate tunes played by by well-known flutists. Learn them anyway. You can do it.

  5. Record yourself on a decent recording device or microphone through GarageBand or something similar and critique your playing. Don’t just record a tune and play it back and delete it. Record it and play it back a week or so later to get some additional objectivity.

  6. When you’re ready, try and join a local session to get the experience of playing with (and in front of) others.

  7. Keep listening to ITM. All the time.

6

Like drew says, learn to listen, play every day, enjoy listening, enjoy playing, work out what you like and why, seek the company of like minded players, listen lots, respect good playing, ask advice, enjoy the journey, did I mention listening, don’t forget to smile.

7

My advice : play according to your own abillities the tunes you like slowly. Ornamentation will come when you are a bit more experienced. Listen a lot to trad music and other flute players, enjoy what you are doing, attend workshops or go to a teacher. It will take a few years but we all had to go through that process. And if its any comfort : you will always have issues with your playing, we all have.

8

Listening to as much flute music as possible is great advice. It should be pointed out though that it doesn’t have to be Irish Traditional Music, it can be Scottish, Breton, Cape Breton, etc. If you listen to only Irish music you’ll be missing out.

9

Have a goal.

10

Perhaps you’re confusing slurring with sliding? Slurring simply means playing without any articulation between the notes. For instance, play an A, and while still blowing, add your ring finger to play a G. The two notes sound connected; that’s a slur.

11

Perhaps you’re confusing slurring with sliding?

Ok fair enough that rings a bell from long ago and my attempts at sight reading although in all the Miltown and other flute workshops I can’t recall it ever referred to as slurring and I think that for a beginner it wasn’t that obvious.

I’ve been playing flute for the best part of 20 years (mainly by ear not so much with the dots) and it caught me out but then I’m probably just thick.

Thanks for the explanation

12

Thanks very much, all, for taking the time to reply: the info is really helpful.

13

One last suggestion, memorizing your tunes is crucial to playing ITM, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. You can focus on your tone, intonation, technique, and ornamentation with more ease if you have the notes of the tune under your belt. Looking at the music is just another task that gets in the way of truly learning the stuff. The music is meant to be played together, so the sooner you have them memorized, the sooner you can go out and have some fun! Cheers!!

14

Tintin’s suggestion of playing long tones is a great way to warm up your instrument and also work on your embouchure as you play each note. I would also suggest playing each note (say starting with high B) for as long as humanly possible. Before you play the note, inhale as much air as you can, expanding your diaphragm like a balloon. Put your hand on your stomach to make sure you are expanding. If you are moving your shoulders as you inhale, then you are not using your diaphragm. Play the note until you run out of air; you will run out of volume at the end, but the idea is to keep the tonality of the note.

Benefits:

  1. Keeping each note in tune will develop a stronger embouchure(yes, your lips will get tired), especially at the end of the long tone when your air supply is running out. (Remember to take a half minute rest before you play the next note below.)
  2. This is a great exercise that expands your diaphragm. You will develop great breath control, playing longer phrases in a tune. Now that’s pretty darn cool.
  3. Your tone will have a stronger presence, (especially next to accordion players. No offense to accordion players, believe me, or else I would be without a job.)
15

Yeah, christelrice’s diaphragm-advice is great. This was also the first thing we were told to do in the school choir - breathing “into the belly”. You gain much more volume and control of the air this way (and therefore more force, if desired).