When you learn a new instrument, style, or tune, what is most important to you in the beginning, and on what aspects do you concentrate later?
My order of relevance is roughly:
Intonation (if applicable, no problem on the harp)
Rhythm and phrasing - playing steady and with appropriate “swing”. This includes breathing on flute and whistle.
On dance tunes, maybe rhythm even comes first.
Acceptable tone
Speed
Power
Ornamentation (might creep in earlier when I’m bored or when the tune doesn’t sound well without some minimal ornamentation).
Really good tone
I think I’m doing it this way because, to me, someone with good rhythm and at least acceptable intonation is, if not a pleasure, at least not a torture to listen to. I’m asking here because I’m especially interested in how other flute beginners and intermediate players tackle this (and what flute teachers think about it). I’m aware that these aspects can’t be seperated from each other completely, but I noticed that it helps splitting up the mountain up into smaller rocks to climb.
Your approach is not bad; however, I would think on a flute tone / air control is the base of the pyramid.
Without good tone and the efficient use of air it implies, rhythm will always suffer.
Without good tone, intonation becomes impossible, ornamentation will not sound cleanly, power becomes impossible, as does speed, since without good tone the flute will not be responsive.
It’s not that all the other things aren’t important–it’s just that on flute if you don’t have good tone nothing else will work to your advantage.
So as to what to practice first on a new flute, if there is any difficulty with tone, I’d say long tones is the best answer.
James, I agree. Good tone is the basis of good flute playing. Long tones, although boring, are probably the best way to develop one’s tone. Long tones with crescendo-diminuendo, i.e. start soft, gradually get louder, and gradually go back to soft are also very good. Trying to do these, and keep the pitch steady is a wonderful tone developer. You have to keep the embouchure flexible and movable in order to keep the pitch level. Often while doing these, you discover the sound you’ve been wanting to make all along.
Well Dana and James your replys make me feel pretty good about how I am teaching myself this monster. That is all I work on now, tone. Every day is a new discovery day. I realy don`t get boored because the complexity of the embouchure and the many changes one goes through to maintain that tone from a soft wisper to loud wale is realy interesting. I do spend 2 to 3 hours a day with my flute so I do mess around a bit but tone is my job right now. And if it takes another year before I am pleased with my sound so be it. What ever it takes. Because this instrument is worth every bit of the work you put into it.
This is all good advice, and I agree that intonation is almost impossible to master until you’ve got a focused tone, but I’d also warn against taking too regimented an approach. A beginner could get very discouraged if they felt like they had to spend months just working on tone before they could tackle anything else. Beginners want to see progress, and tone and intonation can take a long time to develop.
So I would echo something Sonja said in her post: you can’t truly separate all these aspects of flute playing. Focusing mostly on tone and intonation at the beginning is a good idea, but it doesn’t mean you can’t also be working on ornamentation and rhythm. If you see progress in one of these areas, it can help you weather the discouragement of slower progress in another.
Someone said - and I’m sorry I can’t remember who it was - in another post on this list that they found themself sounding best after just playing the music and no longer concentrating on the tone as the prime thing. An earlier teacer of mine - and I did post thes somewhere - said to just play the music AND practice the tones but concentrate on playing the music. All the stuff will come along.
I find that as I play “the music” if I lose something I stop and do some long tones, or whatever seems to be the problem. I’m a sight reader and often just get into playing for playing sake. AND tone does begin to improve in spite of me.
Well put BillG. To play is the answer. In my 3 hour sessions with the flute there is much doodeling aroiund. I can play all the songs I play on the whistle but in the doodeling around out comes tunes that are already in my head. The most discouraging period for me was trying to understand embouchure. I spent months in a rage trying to get that to work. And one day, with out even thinking about it I got tone. Once that happened and I knew how to start developing those muscels in my lips the rest has been totaly satisfing. I am at peace now with how long it is going to take me to play as I want to. But those first few months were hell.