Hi everyone my name is Liz from  flutesoundscapes.com and today i’m going to perform Allegra assai from the Australian Music Examinations Board grade 2 syllabus which is list B number four. So I’ll play  the piece first and then I’m going to go  through some practice tips  for you.

[music]

The first thing i would say when  approaching learning this piece is to break it up into around three  sections so you don’t feel like you’re  having to to tackle the whole piece all  at once .

When it comes to the styling of this  piece I see it as  light and lifted rather than the notes  being long and drawn out so what i mean by that  is rather than  [music] I would just lift the notes up. So nearly staccato. Staccato in those descending quavers  down  and the the opening of the four crotchets give them bounce, just so you’re  making a confident statement at the  beginning of your piece .

What I find when I’m teaching this piece  to many students  is the technical problems creep in when  the rhythm is  isn’t exactly precise. What I mean by  that is often  after there is quavers and then two  semiquavers  the following quaver after that is not  coordinating with the tongue and the  fingers. and I’ll play for example bar three- I’ll play it slowly  [Music]  so you’ve got to land on that G with  perfectly coordinated tongue  and fingers for the rest of those notes  to  to still be in time and and also it  affects the whether the notes are going  to split or not. You can practice this with a metronome on in quavers  because this rhythmic figure comes up so  often  within the piece it’s worth isolating  this rhythm by itself and practicing it  in all different ways  so you’d practice it all time  [Music]  and then you might put in the slur  but stop on the G. So just to make sure that G is really crisp and clear and then of course putting it either on quavers  n your metronome or crotchets and being  exactly in time.

So learn it at a slower pace- and as always I say break it down  and put it at say 50% speed so  you can actually learn it faster. You can  also say the rhythm  so  however you pronounce your  crotchets and quavers and uh when when  it comes to ‘ta taes’ and  tee tee’s [demonstration].You’re just really aiming for crisp  rhythm and clarity of the notes.

And finally, with the dynamics-you  want to make  a big difference between your louds and  your softs. This is known as ‘terrace  dynamics’  and in this earlier style of music it’s used to really bring out the contrast in the piece. So where it says ‘forte’ you  might consider playing ‘fortissimo’  and where it says ‘piano’ you might play ‘pianissimo’ so long as the notes are still coming out clearly-just to expand and give the illusion of the  expansion of the range  of the dynamics.

[Video Transcript]

Hi everyone my name is Liz from flutesoundscapes.com and today I’m going to be giving you a performance of Vesti La Giubba which is from the Australian Music Examinations Board’s syllabus for grade 2 flute, list B number 5. So I’ll play the piece first and then I’m going to give you some practice tips on how you can learn this in the fastest way possible.

[Music]

The first tip I want to give about this piece is to go and listen to an opera singer performing this piece-so you’ll find it on youtube fairly easily if you type in the name of the piece and this will help you conceptualize the the emotion in in this piece too and and it’s full expression. So given that opera singers have the option of words to express themselves, we want to try and create that illusion with the flute as well even though we’re obviously playing with one tone but we’re going to do it in our tonal colors.

So what do I mean by that when I say tone colors? I mean using our skills to create different sounds on the flute on the on the same note for example i might play a D and I think of tone colors in literal colors-so like a fortissimo very strong would be color red and very quiet or soft and most mysterious would be color blue and yellow would be somewhere in the middle of that.

You can make up your own version of this color chart or maybe you think of it slightly differently but whatever works for you.

Now keep in mind that if you’re at the stage with your playing where you’re using vibrato this is where vibrato can really come in handy because when you’re playing your piano or your blue color you want to use the vibrato at a faster speed to keep the note alive rather than dead. So the difference between a note that has vibrato and doesn’t sounds like this: [music] so this has vibrato [music] and this doesn’t [music].

So i’m going to play the first line without vibrato and then I’ll add in vibrato so you can hear the difference in the direction of the phrase so this is with vibrato [Music] and this is without vibrato [Music]. So if you can hear the difference between the one kind of sounds a little bit flat like it lacks a vibrancy and a direction to it and the other one has a bit more direction in the phrase. It’s like saying a sentence that is leading to a full stop, and the other one just keeps going like and we’re not quite sure where the full stop is.

All right so that’s the difference so at this point you might be wondering-‘well how do I do vibrato’? f you haven’t yet learnt vibrato, and I’m going to create a whole other video on that, so stay tuned for that one, but basically very quickly, vibrato is where we use our diaphragmic support to make the the note sort of sound like that (wavy).

So the way you would start learning vibrato is again, we’ll do it on a D and you’re going to imagine you’re blowing out candles, so if you just think about your birthday and you’re blowing out your candles you know that it’s automatically going to come from the belly. So on one note [demonstration], so no tongue just an open throat and you want to get to the point that you’re actually feeling some fatigue in the uh belly muscle area and that’s how you know you’re kind of doing it right. And then as you build on this you’re going to make this go faster and then faster again and then faster again until the the tension comes out of the diaphragm area and it’s you’re starting to now do it automatically with much less effort.

So that’s how you can begin to introduce vibrato into your playing but like I said I’ll do a whole another video on that. That’s the first tip. The next thing is we want to be thinking in sentences in this piece because it is operatic. I mean we should be thinking in sentences in all music anyway but to enhance the dramatic feel of this piece you want to be playing your notes right to the end of the phrases; right to the the bar line or right to the next note.

So for example in the the second bar, there’s a legato phrase to the D and so you want to not cut that D short. Ideally you wouldn’t breathe between those two D’s in the second bar, but if you’re not quite there yet that’s fine you can breathe, but you want to make the breath really really short. So now I want to play the difference between cutting the D short and and not cutting the D short so I’ll cut the D short this time. [Music} That to me, sounds like two sentences but we want to make this sound like one sentence [Music] So you want to make that the getting to the end of the phrase with all of your phrases and taking as shorter breaths as possible.

You also want to make sure you have enough breath for phrases and the number one mistake I see students making is that they’re not preparing their breaths in time and then suddenly they need to breathe in the middle of a bar where it’s going to break up the phrase. For example, in bar 24 to 25 there’s this long note which you need to hold for six beats and ideally you won’t breathe between the A and the B flat, so you can achieve this in a few ways. One is obviously breath preparation but two is also when you get to the beginning of the A to conserve your breath so you can really make the most of the crescendo in bar 24.

You’ve got to grow that note and you’re going to land on the B flat. So if i play from bar 23. [Music]- you really want to make this point intense and you can hear that I really grew the note in the A and I didn’t breathe before the B flat because we’re landing that as the anchor point and the point of real intensity.

Finally, with this piece articulation is so important to again bring out the expression. So you’ll see there’s a variety of expressions there’s articulation marks-there’s accents and there’s tenutos and there’s even a fermata somewhere- so do be sure to bring out those different articulations because they are important and and also to re-tongue after the phrase has ended. Those legato lines-for example in bar 11, you see this legato line over each of the notes but then there’s tenuto marks over each of those notes so you want to make sure you’re tonguing those notes, but you still want to have it in that joined expression so [Music] [Music]

It’s like you’re adding weight to those notes with your tongue but we still want to have the legato feel.

Original flute music here: https://flutesoundscapes.com/sheet-music/

[Video Transcript:]Hi everyone my name is Liz and today I’m going to be giving you some practice tips on how to play ‘Taurus’ from the grade 3 Australian Music Examinations Board flute syllabus which is list A number 5.. I will play the piece first and then I’ll go through the practice tips.

So the first tip I want to go through is how to break up this piece into different sections so you can master one bit at a time. The first section I see is from bar 1 to 13 and then in bar 13 is kind of like a development so I see that as section 2 is 13 to around bar 24 and then 25 to the end is section 3.

Now the first thing to do before trying to convert this into a swing feel is just to learn the notes in a straight fashion so for example, I would also put on a metronome probably just to to keep the beat really steady and then when you’ve learned the notes in a steady way like that, then you can start practicing the swing.

Now, the swing is where we elongate the first quaver of each quaver group and shorten the second quaver so for example if these were straight quavers these on a D and now we’re going to turn that into a swing [Music] so whenever you see two quaver groups in this piece that’s you’re going to turn that into that swing feel.

The next area i want to cover which I have found as I’ve taught students this piece is bar 21 and just combining that articulation with the swing feel. So again, you can take it back and learn it really simply first without the articulation and without the swing so so you’ll notice that actually becomes a lot more simple when you take out the elements of the swing and the articulation and then once you’ve learned those notes you can just add in the articulation only so [Music] and then when that’s secure you add in the swing and you can always just practice the swing in this passage without the articulation as well.

So that’s it for today if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to my channel and if you live far away from me but you would still like to take some lessons with me or get some feedback on your playing you can submit three pieces to me and and i will give you detailed written feedback with some playing examples as well so i’ll leave that link below where you can check out the video review.

Check out Liz Hennessy’s original flute compositions: https://flutesoundscapes.com/sheet-music/
Would you like an  online flute performance review from Liz?Check out: https://rebrand.ly/FluteVideoReview
Piano accompaniment by Peter Jager: https://youtu.be/B–jQKtW8ZI

Video Transcript:

Hi everyone my name is Liz from flutesoundscapes.com and today I’m going to give you some practice tips on how to play the piece Nimrod from the Australian Music examination Board grade 3 flute syllabus. So in this video i’m going to cover breathing and phrasing and the emotional intensity of the piece and how to approach the climactic points. I’ll also cover a tuning trick at the end when you’re holding the last note of the piece so it doesn’t go flat in pitch, plus a common line that students mess up in this piece and how to fix that. So I’ll play the piece first and then I’ll go into the practice tips.

[Music]

So one of the first things I want to say about this piece due to the emotional intensity that you need to convey is breathing and phrasing. Smooth phrasing is really crucial so you want to make sure you’re not running out of breath. That’s the first thing so you make sure you go through with your pencil and even though the breath marks are already marked in for you you might have slightly different breath marks or maybe you need more or maybe you need less, so you just go in with a pencil and do a big tick as to where you’ve decided to take your breaths.

The other thing is we don’t want to cut phrases short-so sometimes students for example, the falling intervals might sound a bit like this [Music]. What happens is the the second note is being cut short so we want to make each note is equally important. So I’m playing in bar five for example-so it’s really got that smooth line even though there’s big intervals involved there.

Now, regarding the emotional intensity of this piece and how to approach some of the climactic points: before you start this piece even though it looks slow on the page and it looks easy on the page, you want to imagine that you’re about to really express yourself to the max so by the end of this piece it should almost feel like you’ve run a marathon like it’s quite taxing to use all that breath and put all that expression out.

When you get to those higher points you want to bring out the articulation quite clearly. So for example, if we look at bar 34 they’ve got these lines over the notes so that you just want to emphasize those notes-so rather than keeping it kind of boring really almost see the notes as nearly accented.

If you can listen to the orchestral version of this piece that’s going to help because you can watch the string players how they draw long bows and really draw out each of the notes. So, if you can hold that visualisation in your head and your airstream is like the bow of the violin.

Sometimes on the flute we have to give the illusion of dynamics so what I mean by that is where sometimes there might be a mezzo forte, maybe you might play that as a piano so you can give the illusion that you’re really expanding your dynamic range. For example, after the climax in bar 38 we’ve got a C that has a crescendo on it so 38 is fortissimo but you really want to bring the beginning of bar 39 right down so maybe even pianissimo so you’ve got all this room to grow into the notes and and make it louder moving into bar 40.

When it comes to the last note of this piece where you’ve got to hold an for what feels like a long time and you’ve got to keep the pitch up, one thing that can help to keep the pitch of the note up is to put on your G sharp key and that will just slightly lift the pitch of the note so you can hear it’s just bending slightly up as soon as i put it on, so that’s a little trick for the last note of the piece.

Finally there’s a section in this piece that pretty much every student I’ve taught this piece to for some reason they always get the rhythm mixed up so, I’m going to cover that line right now and i’m going to give three repetitions of this line so you can practice along with me so you can get this line right. I like to stick on the metronome as usual so we’re going to put it on-I think the piano pretty much plays this in the the piano backing at crotchet equals 52 so I’m going to put it at crotchet equals 52 and so the line that i’m referring to that is commonly messed up is from bar 24 to 28. So generally what happens is students don’t hold the dotted crotchet long enough because it can feel like this goes forever, and you gotta have lots of breath as well so let’s do this line together three times in a row one two three

[Music]

and again two three and last time two three

[Music]

Now another tip with sorting out the rhythm of this is to break down the notes into quavers so you might put little lines over each of the crotchets so two lines over the crotchets and then three lines over the dotted crotchets, so you would play the same phrase just to help break it up in your mind as to to exactly how many quavers you’re holding each note for.

So that’s it for today if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and also you might be interested to check out some of the original music that I’ve written for flute of which you can purchase the sheet music for if you like it. I’ll leave the links below in the description where you can check those out. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.

Link to browse my original flute music: https://flutesoundscapes.com/sheet-music/

Today’s flute practice tips will focus on the piece ‘Take 5’ from the grade 3 AMEB flute syllabus.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Today i’m going to give you some practice tips on how to play the piece take 5 from the Australian music examinations board flute syllabus for grade 3. So in this video i’m going to cover how to switch from a classical feel into the more relaxed jazz feel that this piece requires. I’ll also cover slower practice speeds and specific areas where mistakes are made and how to iron them out and i’ll cover the four/ five feel and what to listen for in the piano, and i’ll also cover how to break the piece into different sections so you’re not trying to tackle the whole piece all at once so i’ll play the piece first and then i’ll go into the practice tips.
[Music]
Okay so the first tip i’m going to cover is how to switch from a classical feel to a jazz fill so the first thing you want to do when you approach this piece is take the swing out of it so you’re just going to learn the notes and play the quavers straight so i like to use my metronome and put it on 90 but you could put it on slower or faster if you like but for me i’ll start with 90. and i’m just going to play the beginning with just this easy straight feel.
[Music]
So you want to keep it really straight really boring and just be really clear about exactly what the rhythm is now to introduce the swing i would practice just on a d so in in jazz we want to emphasise the second note of each quaver group so if we say we had eight quaver groups which sounded like this if we switch it into a jazz field we’re going to emphasise the second uh quaver which sounds like this all right but then we’re going to elongate the first part of the the first quaver and shorten the second quaver which is accented so it will sound like this so once you get the hang of that you might need to practice that a few time i would stick on the metronome and try and then once you’ve got that then just start to play the opening phrase.
[Music]
and a section that is really good to practice this bit on is in bar uh 12 13 where you’ve got that little run-up[Music]
So next i want to talk about areas where mistakes are often made and this has to do with the sequence of notes that are chroma some are chromatic in nature meaning small steps and others are not chromatic meaning tones as opposed to semitones so basically from bar 10 and bar 11 and bar 12 13. Um you want to just isolate the quaver areas so we’ve got and then bar 11 bar 12 and then 13. so if you can just sort the notes out for this section um this is going to help you really learn the piece faster so i would again put my metronome on and i wouldn’t worry about the other notes just the quaver bits and i actually would probably put this the metronome down to 70 slower just so your brain can take in the actual notes and just do it straight and not in the swing fill so let’s do that three times so you can play along with me if you like one two
[Music]
so let’s do that again from bar ten one
[Music]
and the third time but one two three
[Music]
so after you’ve practiced that a few times at a slower pace uh without swinging it now you can add in the swing so again we put on our metronome crochet equals 70 and we’ll do the same spot but with a swing fill so one two
[Music]
so you might do that three times for example and then maybe bump it up bump it up to say 90 depending on how accurately you’re playing the notes so let’s do it together one two one
[Music]
next i want to talk about the four or five feel this can feel a bit strange to play because we’re usually used to playing in four four or three four or two four or six eight so five four is that uneven number that can throw you sometimes in this piece but there is an easy way to know where you are in the bar and that comes from the piano part for example if we just listen to the piano part by itself four five four five four five so the piano has that um so if you’re not sure where you are in the bar just listen for the four five four five four five and that’ll tell you where you are so let’s listen to the piano now four five four five four five
[Music]
and the last step i want to talk about is the end of the piece now for examination purposes you don’t need to play the repeats in this piece um but just to iron out any um uncertainty about what the rhythm actually is from bar 19 onwards think of it like this one two three one two three one two three one and just keeps continuing like that so and right at the end there um in the second last bar just if you if you’re lost at that point you can just listen to the piano in the second last bar again play the same figure and so it’s that four or five that you’re listening to before you play the downbeat of the next bar so i hope that was helpful for you if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and if you haven’t subscribed to my channel yet please do so for more videos like this and also you might be interested to check out some of the original music i’ve written for flute of which you can purchase the sheet music i’ll leave the links below in the description so you can check it out if you like.

Bye for now!

Todays flute practice tips will focus on Eliza Aria from the Grade 3 AMEB flute syllabus.

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.

Video Transcript:

Hi I am Liz from Flutesoundscapes.com and today i’m going to give you some tips on how to practice Eliza Aria from the Australian Music  Examinations Board’s  Grade 3 flute syllabus. So in this video i’m going to cover what to listen for in the piano part to help you navigate  where you are in the piece because the piece moves fairly quickly. I’ll also point out what what harmonic structure to listen for in the flute part, as well as anchor points in the piece where you are  in unison with a piano to help you know  if you’re in the right place. I’ll also cover rhythm  practice.

So I’ll play the piece first and then  i’ll go into the practice tips.

[Music]  

So the first thing I want to talk about  with this piece is  just to give you a sense of where you  are  in connection to the piano. You want  to establish  fairly early on what this crotchet  beat is and then convert that also to the  minum feel, but let’s start with the crotchet beats, and you’ll hear it straight away in the  piano- and the line goes like this 

[Music] 

So straight away that’s giving you your crotchet beat  in 4/4 time. Now, because this piece moves  quite  fast you want to convert it into a minim  feel rather than crotchets.  So, [Music]  that’s your minimum feel that you can latch on to and then when after you come in-the piano has this crotchet moving figure. So it’s one two four, one two four, one two four, one two so on and again that is an anchor point that you can  latch on to to keep you moving.

Basically in the flute  part there is a harmonic structure that descends  and so if you think of the quavers  as like decorations and these main crotchets notes as the anchor points. So for  example,  at the beginning  you can hear 

[Music] 

That’s the downbeat of every bar so think of this these quavers  as like little decorative notes.

What  I’ve noticed  after teaching this piece to a few  students is sometimes students  struggle with the the rhythm of the  beginning of this  and what usually happens is either the  student rushes  or they’re a little late so you want to  slow down your practice. If you put  your metronome on  say maybe 60,  and that’ll be your minimum beat, now to get used to this rhythm just play  the rhythm on one note  let’s say-rather than focusing on the quaver notes – focus on where you’re landing on the  beat as opposed to  off the beat after the quaver rest.

Then once you’ve  you’re feeling secure in that rhythm  just on one note then  you can start practicing it with the  actual notes that are written . It’s also worth practicing this rhythm  with  the metronome on crotchets as opposed to  minims so if we double 60 we get 120, so then what you’re aiming for in the  quavers  is the anchor point of the downbeat. You you can accent where the notes fall  on the beat just for practice purposes  not in performance . But just circle or mark  where the notes are on the beat and  accent them at a slower speed  and that’ll help iron out the the rhythm  in this section if you’re struggling  with it .

Another thing I want to point out is in  bar 45  it can feel a little bit strange to come  in at this point because the piano  seems a little bit unpredictable but the  one way you’re going to know if you’ve  come in at the right place  is because the piano has exactly the  same melody line as you- it does have a strange harmonic feel at that point so  just listen to the piano a couple of  times and and you’ll know  if you’re in the right spot.

In bar 49  the piano also has unison with you and  this is a really good place  to practice the the rhythm as well. So you could again, practice- if you haven’t  quite learnt all the notes yet-just  practice it on the note d or another note  and play along with the piano ensuring  that you’ve got the same rhythm.

So that’s it for today! If you like this  video please give it a thumbs up and  consider  subscribing to my channel for more  practice tips like this, and also you might be interested in  checking out some of the original music that I’ve written for flute  of which you can purchase the sheet  music if you like it. I’ll leave the links down below in  the description so you can check it out  if you like. Thanks for listening and bye for now!

Check out my shop here: https://flutesoundscapes.com/sheet-music/

How To Learn Your Scales

Musical scales are the foundation to playing pieces of music really well. Without learning our scales and allowing our body and mind to ‘become one’ with them, it is difficult to develop sound musical technique and stability in our playing. Scales give you resilience for the pieces of music you are learning. Think of them as gym exercises for an athlete.

But how do you make them interesting and how do you have motivation to learn them? And how can you make it easy for yourself?

Tip 1: Every note is important!

Recognise that each note in the scale is a living thing! It has its very own frequency and every note is just as important as the next note.

Problems occur in the scale when we give some notes more importance than other notes. For example, it is easy to skip over notes that feel more uncomfortable or require a more sophisticated finger change than other notes. An easy finger change is from middle B to C. A complex finger change is from high E to high F#. Not only is the finger change more complex, but we have to treat the air flow differently too and make sure our fingers are perfectly synchronised otherwise the air flow gets interrupted and may result in the F# not speaking properly.

So, when we play a scale, every note must be important, have consistent air flow and consistent rhythm. Enjoy the sound of each note as a single living and breathing entity in the universe.

Tip 2: Slow and steady

Don’t be the Hare-be the Tortoise

I often say to my students-especially the ones who are particularly bright and dedicated who want it mastered ‘yesterday’ as opposed to in a few days, after they have given themselves some consistent practice and time, to be the Tortoise, not the Hare. Why? Because as the story goes-‘slow and steady wins the race’.

So pick a slow metronome marking to learn your scales. Don’t go any faster than your brain will allow you to go as you take in each note. Pay attention to the area in certain scales where you consistently make mistakes. Zone in on those 3-6 notes and repeat them correctly a few times, then add in more notes around that section until you are back to playing the entire section. Only bump up your tempo once you are completely secure in your notes and playing them consistently with accuracy.

Tip 3: Write in your accidentals

Write in your sharps and flats in the scale as you read the notes in the scale. Circle where these notes are! DO this before you even try to play the scale, so your brain is alerted to the sharps or flats before you get there.

Take note of the related minor/melodic scales because they have the same key signature. See each group of major, minor and melodic scales as a ‘family’. They ‘live’ together-or are at least cousins.

Tip 4: Make it musical

Play your scales musically. Put different emotions into them once you have them well under your fingers. For example, play one slow and romantically and smoothly with lots of expression. Then play another in a fun and quirky way. Have fun with them and make them come alive with character! Don’t just approach them blandly and ‘only’ as a technical exercise.

Today I am going to go through some tips to help students learn and play the Bouree from the grade 3 AMEB flute examination syllabus. The topics I will cover are:

• How to divide this piece into sections to break down practice times to make practice most effective and simple
• Breathing techniques
• Metronome practice
• Common areas where mistakes are made

The first thing to do when learning any piece of music is to break it down into manageable sections. Rather than trying to learn the whole thing at once, approach it in bite size pieces.

For example, the first section will be from the first bar to bar 8. The second section us from the up beat of bar 9 to bar 16. The third sections is from the upbeat of bar 17 to bar 22, and then the final section is from bar 18 to the end. These are just suggestions-you may wish to divide the piece up into different sections.

Step 1:

Site read the entire piece from start to finish.

Step 2:

Divide your sections up.

Step 3:

Start on section one. Play at a slower tempo for example crotchet=80. Leave the articulation out for now, just learn the notes to get them under your fingers. After 2-3 run through s of the first section, start a tally where you will aim to play this section 3-5 times perfectly without making a mistake, at half tempo. For laser focus, each time you make a mistake, you have to go back to the first time. You only pass this section once you have nailed it at least 3 times.

Step 4:

Now put in the articulations and approach the same way as step 3.

Step 5:

Start bumping up the speed on your metronome, starting with crotchet = 80, then 90, then 100, 110, and then finally up to speed. For each metronome bump up, aim to play the section at least 3 times perfectly before you bump up the speed. Once you have nailed this first section, you can go onto the next section, depending on how much time you have left to practice and what state your concentration is in.

Next lets look at styling. Keep it light! Remember that a Bouree is a dance like piece of music, so keep it light and slightly ‘stately’. Watch the video below where I demonstrate what I mean.

Common mistakes

One thing to consider is the different keys this piece goes into at certain points. For example at bar 5, it goes into the key of G major, and then in bar 9 it goes into the key of A melodic minor. So, practicing your G major scales, as well as A melodic minor plus C major scales will be helpful for this piece. You may want to colour code where the music goes into these different keys to help remind you what is coming as you play along. Mistakes usually occur when the student is not prepared to go into the new key.

Breathing

Very often in this piece, you’ll have take short breaths so you don’t interrupt the flow of the music. Make sure you plan out your breathing spots and stick to the same spot each time you practice this piece. One of the main reasons people make mistakes (apart from a lack of good practice time) while playing the flute is because they are running out of air during certain phrases-especially phrases that are more difficult than others. So, be sure to pre plan your air intake well!

You can practice short breaths in a scale. Watch the video for a demonstration.

Mental focus

It’s always better to practice for a lesser amount of time in a very focused way than it is to practice for a long time without good practice. So, use a visual timer (there are many free apps online for this), and decide how much time you will dedicate to each section of practice. Be laser focused for that amount of time before you let your mind wander to other sections of the piece. This will ensure efficient use of practice time.

Performance Evaluation

If you would like some feedback on your playing with this piece or on anything else you are practicing, where you send me a video of your playing, please check out this page —>>HERE.