The Flute Blog
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Autumnal Music for Flute
Embrace the changing seasons with these warm autumnal treasures. Autumn in Homeland for Solo Flute by Anže Rozman This piece was written for Slovenian flutist Matej Zupan, and was premiered, by him, at the San Francisco Flute Festival 2010. The piece is nostalgic in nature and describes a summer that is slowly transforming into autumn;…
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Finding resonance on the flute
“How do I get a big sound?” is often a question students will ask. Indeed, developing one’s sound and dynamic range is part of a musician’s daily practice. So, apart from blowing more, what can we do as flute players to get a bigger sound? Well, it’s all about resonance. Resonance is the quality in…
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Four Fresh Flute books for Back to School
Challenging times for everyone continue, but as the new school year gets underway here are some new books that might make the task of ‘getting back to the new normal’ just that little bit easier and more fun. First Book of Classical Flute, edited by Andrea Cappellari This is a such a great book! Simple…
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British Success at the NFA Newly Published Music Competition 2020! (Part One)
As we all know 2020 has a strange year, but the NFA has still managed to award prizes for new music. The great news is that there was plenty of British success to celebrate! Purge for Solo Flute: Jenny Jackson: published by Tetractys This piece was awarded an Honourable Mention for its imaginative writing style.…
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Chris Hankin’s Mini Flute Workshops for Adults Repertoire List
This series of six mini workshops proved to be a great success. The following list highlights both the pieces I chose and the ideas put forward by the participants. This was a real team effort! Please click on the title to see more details. Workshop 1: How to survive a crisis! My List: Bordogni arr…
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How to Maintain Order when all Around is Chaos!
With the Great Global Lockdown due to continue for a while yet it’s probably time for a shake-up to our practice routine. Self-isolation is a very strange situation for a musician to be in as all our activity is based around social connections. Movitation could dip at any time so it’s important to have a…
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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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A “pressing” issue
To press or not to press? That is the question for many flute players, especially in the early stages of learning, and there are a few different opinions on this which I would like to discuss and offer my own thoughts. When we are first taught the flute, we are told to blow across the…
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Powell Flute Serial Numbers
Below is a list of the serial numbers of handmade flutes produced by Verne Q Powell Flutes. Please note that this does not relate to ‘Commercial’ models. Serial Number(end of year) Year of Manufacture 26 1927 57 1928 110 1929 166 1930 190 1931 207 1932 221 1933 237 1934 258 1935 289 1936 331…