Teaching
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What does “support” mean?
As a teacher, I like to ask questions to my students to get them to think about what they are doing, as awareness is key to improvement and inhibiting bad habits. This could be “Where is the phrase leading to?”, or “What is the character here?”, but also questions about technique, such as “How do…
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Tips on ABRSM Grade 8 pieces: Poulenc Sonata 1st movement
My next few blog posts will be tips on some of my favourite pieces from the ABRSM Grade 8 repertoire lists. Even if you aren’t working towards your Grade 8, I hope these tips may provide you with some food for thought when approaching this repertoire. Poulenc Sonata for Flute and Piano 1st movement: Allegro…
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So you want to be a piccolo player?
Buying a piccolo is so exciting! It may be small in size but it is a powerful instrument, and eventually, you will be able to dominate everything! It can also be a very beautiful instrument and – in the right hands – an utterly magical one.
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Chaminade Concertino – Practice Tips
Following on from my Taffanel blog, here is a practice guide for another great French work: Chaminade’s Concertino. This piece is played a lot, but quite often with some important details overlooked. As I say to my students, “don’t be an overlooker”! I will also give some tips for practising some of the tricky passages.…
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Taffanel’s Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino: A practice guide
Taffanel’s Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino is a gem in the French flute repertoire and one of my favourites. Indeed, I played this piece for my entrance exam at the Royal Academy of Music and I fortunately got in! It’s a piece full of technical challenges, written as a test piece for the concours at the…
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“What Should I be Practising?”
Learning the flute (or any musical instrument) is not always a smooth process of steady improvement. We all learn in different ways with our own strengths and weaknesses, so there will be times when things can get frustrating if one feels they are not improving as much as they would like. Other factors also affect…
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Tips on Andersen Etudes: Op15, No. 3
This is probably everyone’s favourite étude – it is certainly the one that gets performed the most outside of the practice room. It’s a triplet tour de force without any breaks, but it also has a very beautiful melodic quality. Find the Skeleton If we take away all the decoration and leave the “skeleton” of…
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Starting a Beginner Flute Choir
Whether you are starting out in teaching, in charge of your first flute choir, or you are a veteran and have run many ensembles, choosing music for that all-important first rehearsal is a daunting task at any level – hit the ground running with these easy books for flute choir.
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Exploring the new ABRSM flute syllabus 2018: Grade 7
Blog snapshot – my recommendations at a glance! Giuseppe Rabboni: Sonata No 4 in D major from Sonatas for Flute and Piano Telemann: Sonata in G major Frederick the Great: Allegro from Sonata in B flat Spitta No 76. Serini: Andantino grazioso and Allegro assai from Sonata No 1 in D major Gluck arr Boehm: …
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Exploring the 2018 ABRSM Flute Syllabus: Grades 1 and 2
So here we are again! Astonishingly it’s 8 years since ABRSM introduced a selection of the music for each grade in one book. This seemed such a big event back then, but now we are all used to the format, like it or not! The marketing of the ABRSM volumes has been even more targeted…