I wonder if folks are aware of exercises (or anything else) that helps increase finger agility
on the flute.
I used to have the book ‘Better, Stronger, Faster,’ I think it’s called, but we’ve parted
company. How does one best increase agility? I do think I’m holding the
flute well, by the way, not gripping with the fingers that cover
holes. Anyhow, Suggestions welcome.
Perhaps to sharpen the question: I think that people who come to the Irish flute from Boehm flute have often been
trained in agility, given exercises that develop it. What is that like? Does it work? etc.
Probably scales and arpeggios. I’m not classically trained though.
Thanks. I do these things. I wonder if there is something more ‘fine-grained.’
I betcha there are books of exercises. Maybe if I go to a music store.
Jim
I’d suggest that you play along with some of the tutorial books that are out there. Most start with a slow version to learn the tune, and then a faster version. Playing along with the faster version surly would build your agility, and it’s rather fun also. Although they all have the dots, put those a side once you get the feel of the tune, play along by ear. Hearing the flow of the tune at speed will help with the agility of the mind and fingers.
Here are some that I’d suggest, there are many others:
Conal Ó’Gráda ~ An Fheadóg Mhór: Irish Traditional Flute Technique, which has been getting rave reviews; even experienced players have learned a lot from this book. It may be ordered online from his website http://www.conalograda.com/.
June McCormack’s tutorials, Fliúit and Fliúit 2 with companion CDs (76 tracks for Fliúit and another 78 for Fliúit 2), There are 64 tunes complete with breathing and ornamentation guides. Fliúit 2 is most suitable for intermediate and advanced flute players. More information, including prices and ordering details, can be found at http://www.draiochtmusic.com.
Skip Healy ~ Have Ye This One? which includes transcriptions and recordings of a nice selection of marches, jigs, hornpipes, reels, and waltzes. On the accompanying CDs, Skip plays each tune through three times, once slowly with no ornamentation, a second time faster with basic traditional ornamentation, and a third time in a more uptempo and improvisational style. The book contains transcriptions of the bare-bones setting and the one with basic ornamentation http://www.skiphealy.com/.
Shannon Heaton ~ OIL FOR THE CHAIN A tune book full of traditional and original tunes, sheet music and instructional materials and CD http://www.mattandshannonheaton.com/.
I’m assuming that the goal is to play along at faster sessions. If you can master playing along with these is should help.
I’m in the same situation (an intermediate player whose fingers seem to trip over each other too often), and I second TJones recommendation that you play along with some of the tutorials.
Please take the following with a grain of salt; I’m speaking with the benefit of experience far more limited than others on this forum.
In playing Irish music, agility is tied closely to rhythm, rather than just to speed. The rhythm with which fast sets of notes are played varies a lot, even within one tune. I find that I stumble much less when I imitate the rhythm of an expert player. The best way to do this seems to be to take recordings, particularly ones from tutorials, and slow them down using the “Amazing Slower Downer” software for PC/iPhone/iPad*. Learn a passage at 80% speed, then work up to 100%. Slowing down a full-speed recording works better than using one where the teacher plays the tune more slowly, as most players play tunes drastically differently when they play them slower.
I’ve recently been focusing on the crispness of my playing as well. What I’ve been doing is finding the motions that are more difficult (A to F#, and high E to C# for me), and practicing them slowly, making sure both fingers hit at exactly the right time. I find it easy to get overly tense while working on difficult pieces, and this detracts from my “agility” as you put it. I find my best playing comes from “relaxing as hard as you can,” and that the best speed is one where my fingers are still completely relaxed. Tunes I know very well, like the Jolly Tinker, can come at blinding speed and still be relaxed, while The Drunken Landlady, while not as difficult per se has much more challenging finger patterns for me. (The cuts on B are just a killer for my wrist.)
Let us know if you find a particularly helpful practice technique!
Now then, Jim, don’t go getting all lambsy-tivy on us, not at your (or most of our!) age!
But seriously, apart from flute technical practice, both general and on specific points, exercises or tunes, the key thing is, as always, relaxed control. Tension or stiffness prevent agility.
what exactly is it that you want to do that you are not capable of doing? is it a particular sequence of notes, or a particular tune, or do you want to play at a quicker tempo? or are you looking for finger exercises, dexterity skill exercises?
if you clarify your goal then you can begin to progress toward it.
are you looking for finger exercises, dexterity skill exercises?
Yes, that’s it.
Thanks to all for the comments/suggestions. I agree a thousand percent about the importance of relaxing.
I’m slowly improving, have been for years, and I wonder if there is a way to improve more quickly agility-wise.
Thanks again
… how could you exercise you fingers better than by playing tunes? Well, I’m new to the flute, but playing the whistle for several years. I think everyone experienced that the better you get, the higher gets the tempo you feel relaxed at. But this may be a delusion. From time to time I find it very refreshing for my playing, to take a tune which I’m playing for years, yodeling through at breakneck speed while still feeling relaxed, and slow it down to a tempo that is so slow that it hurts, say quarter = 60, 70 bpm or something. Having played it that way a few times, everything suddenly feels more delightful and better articulated, if only by nuances. However, doing this regularly definitively does improve one’s playing and agility.
Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo. 
I read the thread hoping to find specific exercises. 
I think that improved finger agility is the thing that would move my playing forward most. I suspect that all those scales, arpeggios, and other exercises that the boehm folk do allow a teacher to spot the specific things that need more work.
Doing it through the tunes the things that I have come down to have all been mentioned above. I listen to my playing and think “is it crisp, do my fingers feel relaxed, is the rhythm right”. Usually there is a ‘no’ to one of those, often all three at the same time, somewhere in the tune. So I practice those parts.
Advice I heard at a workshop (it was mixed instrument given by a button-box player, but I don’t think that matters) was to try playing a tune slightly slower, slightly faster, slightly more or less swingy and also staccato. He said that the staccato ‘tones the fingers up’. I guess those all make them work slightly faster or differently than they would than when playing the tune normally at much the same tempo, so give a bit of spare capability.
Oh yes, and though I believe in “practice slow to play fast” I was playing with a mate who wanted to go at more like session tempo and said - “well you could try practicing a bit faster sometimes”. It did seem to help.
There you go…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK2HqKmzWk0
“Begin with the end in mind” - Stephen Covey
Rama hit the nail on the head here: One must know what one seeks to accomplish if one is to find an effective way to get there.
I don’t normally post to technique or style related threads because I feel there are many others here who are more qualified on the subject than I. Still, as someone who has spent a lifetime primarily focused on learning how to learn (physical skills), and then teaching others prefessionally, I do feel compelled to speak up here.
If one says one wants “general dexterity” exercises, this means one doesn’t understand the nature of learning physical skills, for the truth is, there is no such thing as general dexterity, be it for the fingers or anything else. We learn motor skills patterns. Eventually, if we learn enough patterns, and we learn them well enough, it will seem that we are able to move in a free form way, but it is not so, we have simply built up a large number of patterns and we have become good at transitioning from pattern to pattern quickly.
I’d suggest that anyone who is thinking they need some “Dexterity exercises” first clarify in their own mind exactly what rama asked: What exactly is it that you want to do that you are not (currently) capable of doing? Examples 1) ITM ornamentation? If so, which ornaments? Where on the flute are they more troublesome for you? What’s the problem(s) with how you currently play them? 2) Do you feel your fingers just can’t keep up as tunes are played faster at sessions? 3) Do you have trouble articulating scale fragments or arpeggios in a given key(s)? 4) Do you have problems when transitioning certain fingers on and off the flute? 5) Difficulty with certain specific note combinations? Etc., etc.
Asking for general dexterity exercises isn’t likely to get you much return either with regards to people offering suggestions or results. Figure out, as specifically as possible, what it is in your playing EXACTLY that you want to improve, then ask and I am fairly certainly people will have some good suggestions for exercises.
Of course without practicing properly it hardly matters, but I won’t go there, at least not right now.
Loren
Excellent post (yes, all of it), Loren!
2nd that! 
To answer your question, there are books of exercises consisting of series of notes in different combinations
and in different keys. One takes a particular series of notes and plays it methodically, typically four times,
then starts the series again but on the second note, then on the third. This is alleged to help
to develop dexterity (e.g. the ability to play difficult passages more easily and quickly) better than
playing tunes does. It tends to concentrate on difficult transitions.
I worked with a book of these some time ago, it was for fifers, but
it’s no longer with me, and the book said there are more complex/difficult series/exercises
available, which I could probably use now. I’ll go to a music store. Thanks again to all.
I hesitate to jump in here, because I am essentially in agreement with Loren. Jim, you are thinking of didactic literature, such as Klose 25 Daily exercises for Saxophone or even the venerable School for Velocity by Carl Czerny (although entirely piano-centric). Although I have classical training, and shed bitter tears of sweat over some of these exercises and etudes early on, I don’t think they will actually help you in furthering performance of ITM. Their thrust and intellectual underpinning are focused on a classical understanding of performance.
‘Course, you could prove me wrong, or any of us But that would be only demonstrable in showing improvement through these sorts of studies. Perhaps a more fruitful methodology would be to survey the rather vast expanse of Session tunes and abstract out various repeating ‘figures’’ that are sometimes monotonously repeated from reel to reel and jig to jig. Most of us have unconsciously compiled a ‘library’ of these ‘figures’ already and because we have command of these, we can concentrate more fully on the ‘bits’ and ‘twiddles’ of each tune that make it distinctive and individual. . .
Just my twa’ farthings
The book I mentioned earlier in the thread, I now have recalled,
is Bill Hart: Better, Stronger, Faster: exercises for fife.
I did find it helpful, as I recall, and, as one can see, it isn’t intended for classical music.
I was looking for more of this sort of thing.
In earlier discussions about this book, some people indeed affirmed the idea that ITM tunes themselves
would serve the purposes of these exercises. That may be so; but maybe not so much or as well.
I just want to do some more exercises like these and see.
Let a thousand flowers bloom.