Top Five Books on Extended Technique

In need of a project? Try something completely new with our pick of these inspirational books.

Rogier de Pijper: Flute Colors

This is the definitive book on getting started with contemporary techniques. With something this exciting, it’s great to have a book that sets everything out in logical and easy to follow steps. This series of progressive exercises means that, even if you are not completely at home with this type of music, your flute playing will still improve.

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Tilmann Dehnhard: The New Flute

In this adventurous book, Tilmann Dehnhard takes a comprehensive trip around all the contemporary techniques you will need to play today’s exciting new music. It is comprehensive with explanatory text, diagrams, exercises and pieces. If this isn’t enough, there’s more on the supplementary PDFs. On the excellent DVD, Tilmann demonstrates each chapter clearly, with some seriously accomplished playing. This is a must for enthusiasts!

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Matthews and Chamberlain: Beatboxing and Beyond

This well laid-out book has specific chapters that deal with one skill at a time, each one following the same format. There is firstly a clear description including how the technique is notated, followed by a ‘Break it down and build it up’ practice guide and then a study. This book is really easy to follow, you don’t have to be advanced to use it and it could possibly be inspirational for some more moderate students who perhaps need a new direction. Don’t miss it.

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Wil Offermans: For the Contemporary Flutist

The twelve studies in this excellent book each feature a different skill and there is a comprehensive guide helping you to be able to play it. The added bonuses are the sections on graphic notation, improvisation and movement which are really interesting and helpful, if a little scary for most of us! Finally, it’s all written in Wil Offerman’s own style, idiosyncratic and impossible not to love.

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Natalia Jarzabelk: Infinity – Circular Breathing

This pair of books is a comprehensive and in-depth guide to the art of circular breathing. The Course book covers the technique with exercises that are illustrated to make the tasks easier to understand. The progression starts from using a glass of water and a straw, moves on to the head joint before adding the body of the flute and playing some music. The last section covers the material that is used in the companion volume. This is also progressive and uses an interesting mix of exercises, studies and contemporary pieces to increase confidence. Whether or not you want to master circular breathing there is no doubt that practicing it is both useful and fun. This is a great book to help you on your way.