As you know, it is my goal to have my debut CD “Stewy Smoot: Aires In My Head” listed in the C & F all-time greatest CDs, and find a place in your hearts alongside Johnnie Madden and Mickey Spillane. I am well on my way down the road now that I have 6+ weeks of almost daily practice under my belt. Which segues me into my question:
Other than running scales and playing tunes constantly, is there any other fingering exercises that anyone would recommend? Also, I would like to strengthen and increase the versatility of my fingers. While my index fingers, and the middle finger of my driving hand, seem strong, I want to work on the other fingers. I work on bending them individually, but am curious if anyone else has additional suggestions.
Thanks, as always,
Stew
“This issue is a test of government’s capacity to give its word and keep it..all social security funds in the federal surplus must stay where they belong – dedicated to social security” George Bush, 5/15/00, from georgewbush.com
[ This Message was edited by: StewySmoot on 2001-08-28 12:36 ]
As for practice, I do cuts, strikes and rolls for at least 15 minutes a day, just doing them up and down the scale with a metronome practicing getting the cut or strike right on the beat.
As for strengthening your hands I find squeezing a tennis ball helps not only for strength but to help keep your fingers limber. I get a touch of arthritis when the weather is damp and it really helps to squeeze the ball to loosen up my joints.
In addition to working on scales and ornaments, try other intervals and arpeggios, working on speed/accuracy. This will coordinate places where you have to lift/put down combinations of more than one finger at a time. Plus, tunes use runs in thirds and arpeggios all of the time. Some examples:
Thirds: D F# E G F# A G B A C# (0r C natural) B D C# (or nat) D, and then back down.
Fourths: D G E A F# B G C A D B E C F# D, and then back down.
Arpeggios: D F# A D F# A D C# A G E C# A G E
D, E G B E G B C(nat) A F# D C(nat) A F# D E.
I’ve been working a lot on my vibrato, the kind Joanie Madden does on her CD’s. I use the finger from the next open hole to slightly, and rather slowly change the pitch. You barely move the finger over the hole, or to the side, hearing how much vibrato you need. Some fingers do this easily while some have difficulty. I already do the vibrato where you move the finger on and off the hole two away from the last closed hole. Then there is the vibrato you do through your breath. I used to practice that on my flute in college. My teacher had me vibrate about five times a second on any given note.
Also, you can practice crans. Turn your fingers into little drums and try different rhythms.
I’ve heard people say that doing scales is a waste of time. They only practice songs. I really believe that one plays more notes per minute through scales and such. Scales are also responsible for developing a better, sweeter tone, since you can use the scales as a way to concentrate on your breathing, once the scale is learned with ease. And if you have a hard time getting the sound out in the upper register, it is due to a lack of breath control. Do two octave scales, attacking each note using puffs of air from your throat, without the use of the tongue. This will greatly increase your abilty to play softly above g. It will also make your tone sound better.
JP
[ This Message was edited by: JohnPalmer on 2001-08-31 12:07 ]
There are a lot of “exercises” in whistle playing but I tell my students that it is great practice to play along with recordings of music that you enjoy. It doesn’t even have to be Celtic. I also stress that you should practice no more than 15 minutes a day. I can give you several good reasons to recommend this. Trust me.
15 minutes! I’ve barely warmed up by then. If I wanted to do long tones at the beginning of a practice session, I couldn’t do anything else!
Seriously, though, why 15 minutes? Conventional wisdom for amateur musicians is an hour or so, and professionals much more. I can’t imagine being productive in 15 minutes if I was trying to learn a tune, and by the next day I’d have forgotten the bits I learned. And I realize that the whistle is physically nondemanding, but if you were to do 15-minute practice sessions on flute, it’d be a long time before you had an embouchure strong enough to play through a session.
“I also stress that you should practice no more than 15 minutes a day. I can give you several good reasons to recommend this. Trust me.”
Bob, you’ve dangled a tantalizing bit of a suggestion in front of us with no explanation. If I’m doing something counterproductive in my practicing, I would dearly like to know how to correct it. (and stop giving out bad advice, if that’s what I’m doing.) I’m reluctant to give up my habits based upon “Trust me.” I’d like to know what your reasons are.
Tony
Yes, Bob …please do give us your reasoning on that 15 minutes only. Inquiring minds want to know. And I do play along with CDs…a favorite is Whistleworks…love it! Gm
Same here, Bob. Your suggestion is akin to saying, “No matter what you’ve heard, it is best to RUN with scissors. Trust me.” I don’t think anyone is questioning your expertise (you may be a very fine paper cutter), but rather hoping to see the rational behind it.
Peace,
Erik
POST EDIT: Maybe there are some semantic problems occuring here. Bob, by practice do you mean playing tunes, or do you mean scales, etc. ?
[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2001-09-01 07:21 ]
“Other than running scales and playing tunes constantly, is there any other fingering exercises that anyone would recommend?”
I learned a trick years ago from (gasp) recorder playing in a book by Ken Wollitz. If you have a particular passage which gives you trouble, break it down into the smallest piece that you CAN play well, even if it’s just 2 consecutive notes. Then, add one more note and play this scrap of the tune repeatedly until it flows. Don’t worry about playing it musically, just play it over and over. YOu are not learning music here, just training the muscles that control your fingers. Then add one more note and repeat until you have the passage down pat. Very boring, but it works wonders. You can even do other things such as watching TV, looking out the window while you do this. Probably drive your loved ones crazy in the process, but such is the price of art…
FIFTEEN MINUTES!!! I say loudly but not screaming necessarily.
I just warmed up my hands to play!! and to run the scales and practice other techniques, just to start to practice or learn a new tune.
From there, I might go on for another hour or two, depending on the day of the week and scheduling. On Sundays I have done a whole afternoon of playing and learning while watching my other passion—golf. CD’s are playing and listening/learning, while golf is on with the sound off.
But only fifteen minutes. Now; if as you tell your students to only practice fifteen minutes a day, then it is known that today’s younger generation do have reduced attention spans, and for them fifteen minutes doing anything is to long.
Bob is using psychology on his students. If he suggests that they only need to practice 15 minutes a day, then those who don’t really want to be there will only practice 15 minutes a day (if that). But if there is that one student or so who really wants to be there, he or she will practice longer because they want to and Bob will have a music student to teach and a student who wants to learn.
Am I close Bob? My parents were teachers and I heard them say the same thing. There are those who are just occuping space because they have to by law. It was only one or two students a year that really wanted to be there. It’s not to say that you didn’t teach all students but teachers learn quickly that not all students really want to learn the courses assigned them. They are taking them because they have to take such and such elective; so they take the ones that they think are the easy ones. So teach them what you can, and what they are willing to learn, if not, don’t spend that much time on them and concentrate on the ones who want to be there.
Now us whistlers are different breed; we are passionately driven to learn everything we can as fast as we can. So many tunes not enough time syndrome. So I don’t think Bob was addressing us directly. Tiger Woods didn’t make it in the PGA on fifteen minutes a day.
Yes, psychology is the answer, Bob is a sick, sick man! Nevertheless so is the Batman, but he is able to take quite a bite out of crime in Gotham as Bob is able to make beautiful music, and I’m sure, facilitate the learning of wondrous potential whistlers.
Mark B is the closest. Also the individual who said something about semantics. Practice to me is learning to play the whistle. Once you’ve got the instrument “under you belt”, then learning tunes and having fun with it can be an endless joy. But in the learing process, one can learn a bad technique or learn something that could be done in a much easier way. It is much harder to “unlearn” this if the student is practicing bad technique for hours at a time. Now, that being said, go look at any picture of my dear friend Mary Bergin playing her whistles. Notice anything wrong? Yep, her hands are reversed. But I’m not going to tell her that she should change and neither are you. But if the student is doing something that will hinder progress, then that 15 minute rule applies. I will share one secret that I have never told anyone. When I learned the whistle, I didn’t have the benefit of a teacher. And, when I heard Phil Cunningham or Paddy Moloney play in the G scale, I was determined that I had to get that one “funny” note. And so, I did what anyone with my “intelligence” would do…I found a roll of duct tape and taped over 3/4 of the C# hole. And now, I could play in G. I DID THAT FOR ONE WHOLE YEAR before a very kind whistle player said, check out this alternate way to place your fingers. I have since led a duct tape-free life. But it took WEEKS to “unlearn” my bad habit of relying on an “altered” D whistle. So for those who already know the beast, then spend hours learning tunes that you love. Like me. And that takes us back to Mark B’s excellent observations. Oh, one more thing. I am a great student of “if it works, don’t fix it”. And so the next time you see someone doing some technique that is totally off the wall (like fingers 4 inches off the whistle like Carlos Nunez or upside down hands like dear Mary), you will know that many times, the teacher is wrong.
Thanks, Bob. I’m sure we all can appreciate your theory. And cheers to Neil Dickey…we were discussing this topic yesterday…and he basically said the same thing..practing hours of a bad habit. Gm
