The Sequential Nature of Flute Fingerings

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flute fingering, flute pedagogy

What is the home scale of the flute? Has this changed as the flute evolved into its modern form? How does this relate to traditional band keys? What effect does learning band keys first on flute have on understanding the sequential nature of flute fingerings?

Historically, the flute has been built with the D major scale being its home key, i.e. starting with all keys closed (minus the foot joint) and lifting one finger at a time in sequential order. With the advent of the modern keyed flute in the mid-1800’s and the addition of the foot joint, you could make a case for the C major scale becoming the home key of the flute today because that is the scale we play by lifting up each finger in direct order from bottom to top on our modern, Boehm system flutes.

I have to say I’m not a big fan of teaching Bb before B natural, despite band pedagogy being so heavily weighted toward flat keys to accommodate the transposing instruments. The main reason for this is I think that teaching Bb first creates an obstacle for kids grasping the idea that the nature of fingering on the flute is sequential, fingers lifting or closing keys in order to go up and down the instrument. And this is despite the fact that I advocate teaching the 1 and 1 Bb before teaching the thumb Bb, as I’ve outlined before. You could teach thumb Bb to maintain the sequential nature of the scale, but then you can cause other problems down the road when it comes to teaching any scale with adjacent Bb and B, regardless of enharmonic spelling (especially the keys of Gb/F# major, B major and chromatic scales). You don’t want kids getting into the habit of sliding their thumb between the B and Bb. That is a really damaging habit to good technique in the long run.

Despite the fact that the major band methods start kids with middle F, Eb and D, I vehemently disagree with this. Good flute tone is based on building from the low octave and up. The middle octave is an overtone, a harmonic of the first octave. You really can’t equate it to what works for brass instruments where you need to start in the middle of the series and work outward. The other problem is that Eb and D are ridiculously hard for beginners. They are some of the longest notes, in terms of length of tube to activate, on the flute.

A better formula for building a successful flute section is to teach B, A, G in the low register. Then add C, being sure to work on balancing the instrument. Then add low F and E. After that, teach E, F and G in the middle octave, relating them to the low E, F and G using octaves. Finally fill in the D, Eb and Bb. By the time the kids get to the D and Eb in the middle register, they have a good grasp of how to move enough air to really activate the tube and playing these notes isn’t nearly as difficult as trying to start from there.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

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Teaching High Note Fingerings

How soon do you introduce your flute students to notes in the third octave? If you are using the standard band methods, probably not until the second year, at the earliest. Personally, I think this is a mistake that impacts the students for a long time. When you wait so long to introduce anything higher than C or Db above the staff, the students often wind up equating the third octave with being extremely difficult or even impossible. Another problem I encounter fairly often with young students coming from a band program is that they are trying to play in the third octave with regular first and second octave fingerings, essentially harmonic fingerings (which are more difficult to produce than the real fingerings).

By the time a student can play from low E or F to the C or Db above the staff, they are certainly ready to start learning the third octave fingerings. I introduce them one at a time using the old tried and true Octaves. That way I can show the students how the third octave fingerings are related to the lower and middle octave, as well as how they differ. Here are a couple examples:

•  D above the staff T023|000Eb compared to middle D T023|123. They left hand is identical in both octaves and the right hand switches from 123 in the middle to 000Eb above the staff
• Eb above the staff T1234|1234Eb, all your fingers on all the keys vs. middle Eb T023|123E with left first finger and little finger off the keys

It is possible to relate all the third octave fingerings to the fundamental fingerings from the first two octaves, though at the top of the third octave the fingering become more about harmonic fingerings of the note a 5th lower rather than a fundamental fingering (eg. the highest C is essentially a modified F fingering).

Once your flute students have some high register fingerings in hand, it’s important to get them to use the fingerings in the context of music they are playing. This means in band literature, technique class material, solo and ensemble literature and in exercises. Here’s an exercise I made up for practicing adjacent third octave notes in pairs and in groups of three. Feel free to tailor this exercise to the notes your students are learning in as many key signatures as possible. A little of this goes a long way. 

The granddaddy of third octave technical exercises is Top Register Studies for Flute by Thomas Filas. Though not for beginners, these can be used with advanced intermediate and high school students. They are short, melodic, in every key and really help students get comfortable navigating the third octave. This book would be a great tool for a high school technique class.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

Tuning Tendencies of the Flute

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flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flutes

Only this week I came across a chart on a high school band website listing notes on the flute that have tuning problems with recommended fingerings for correcting pitch. It is taken from a Guide to the Understanding and Correction of Intonation Problems, Al Fabrizio, Meredith Music Publications, 1994. In looking through the chart, I realized that the advice it was giving was based on the old scale flutes that were available back in the early and mid-1990s. The scale of instruments has changed since that time. A LOT.

When the modern flute was invented, the schematic of the placement of tone holes was based on a lower pitch than we play at today. “Normal” pitch in the mid-1800’s, according to Theobold Boehm, was A=435. Therefore, the schematic he created for the flute was for an instrument that played in tune at A=435. Over the rest of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, pitch has climbed to A=440 and even A=442 or in extreme cases A=444. For a really long time, the solution for getting a flute up to pitch was to make a shorter headjoint, by several millimeters over what would play in tune at A=435. The consequence of this practice was that the low register of the flute would be flat and the third octave would be sharp. The open C# would be hair-raisingly sharp. In order to have a hope of playing these flutes with short headjoints in tune,  all kinds of compensating fingerings were created to correct the pitch. This included things like adding right hand fingers to lower the pitch of the C# and half-holing right hand keys. Student flutes with this older scale were widely available until fairly recently. Think old mainline American student brands, especially Armstrong, Gemeinhardt, Bundy, Artley, etc.

Fortunately, there has been a revolution in flute making brewing from the mid-20th century started by flute makers and players including Albert Cooper, Eldred Spell, Trevor Wye, William Bennett and even James Galway to bring the schematic of the flute up to modern pitch. Most every flute made today, by every reputable manufacturer, at every price point, has a scale that has its basis in the work of these pioneering flute makers and players. Many of the old compensating fingerings are unnecessary and even undesirable with a modern scale. The first and second octaves are now in tune, and only minor adjustments are needed in the third octave.

The C# is still an issue, but not because it isn’t in tune. It is more because it is the shortest tube and therefore the most bendable pitch. It also reveals the player’s expertise in focusing and directing the air correctly. If the C# sounds high, it means that the blowing angle is too shallow. It is absolutely true that if you can fix the pitch and tone quality of the C#, you will vastly improve the tone and intonation on the rest of the flute. More on tone, tuning and C# in another post.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here

Building Flute Technique

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flute balance, flute fingering, flute pedagogy, flute students, flute technique

Technique is one of the more straightforward aspects of playing the flute, and relatively easy to teach. As with every other aspect of playing, it does need to be monitored carefully as students develop. Probably the most important thing to monitor regarding technique is the student’s set up  with regards to balancing the flute and left and right hand positions. This makes all the difference to long term success for building useful flute technique for kids. And, of course, that the students are using the correct fingerings, i.e., 1st finger up for middle D and Eb, using right hand little finger for everything except D, right hand third finger for F#, correct high note fingerings (they are all different, see The 5 Most Common Fingering Mistakes)

We all know scale and arpeggio exercises are essential. In my own studio, I introduce scales and arpeggios as soon as the student knows Bb and can play all the naturals from low F to middle F. Depending on what flute method I’m using, the first scale students learn is either F or Bb major. I prefer to use method books that introduce flats and sharps equally. (My favorites for working with band kids are the Gekeler Flute Method and the Flute Student books by Fred Weber and Douglas Steensland. There are also really good flute specific methods available now, notably by Kathy Blocki, inventor of the PneumoPro, and Patricia George/Phyllis Louke). So the order of learning scales becomes F, C, G, Bb, D, Eb, A, Ab, E, Db, B, Gb/F#. As students learn the scales, we always review them in circle of fifths/fourths order so kids get functional harmony in their ear, even if they haven’t got a clue about music theory. So, for example, if we are learning Bb, we will play G, C, F and Bb so our ear is grounded in Bb for all the melodies we will play at the lesson in Bb. Likewise, if we are working on the key of D, we will review scales starting on Bb, F, C, G and then D, which nicely sets us up for the D major tunes we are studying.

If you have an organized way of introducing both flat and sharp keys, students can be playing all twelve major scales and arpeggios one octave within the first year of playing. I also strongly encourage you to have students read notes rather than just note names when practicing scales and arpeggios. It really reinforces key awareness to have them also play simple melodies in the keys they study. Depending on how quickly the students assimilate the third octave fingerings, you can expand scale and arpeggio practice to two octaves. It might take two to three years to get to the point where they can play all twelve scales two octaves, but when the students have that kind of technical mastery, they will have tools for dealing with more advanced band/orchestra literature, MEA audition etudes and solo repertoire.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here

Solutions for Common Third Octave Problems

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embouchure, flute balance, flute embouchure, flute fingering, flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flute students, flute technique

The third octave on the flute is an interesting phenomenon because of the embouchure issues it presents and because of the technical and acoustic properties of the instrument. It is definitely not as straight forward as the lower two octaves in terms of the mechanics of the flute. The reason for all the cross fingerings and venting in the third octave is because each note is combining the harmonics of two lower pitches to reinforce the sound of each note. One of the easiest to conceptualize is the fingering for high E: T12|12(Eb) It is combining the overtone series of both E and A. In fact, if the air speed is insufficient, an out of tune A will sound below the intended pitch with this fingering. You can get to the high E by playing harmonics on either E or A. For E it will be the 4th partial and for A it will be the 3rd partial. The two combined make the standard fingering for third octave E (among flutists it is generally agreed that the E is better in tune without the Eb key).

Be sure your flute students know the third octave fingerings. It isn’t enough for them to just overblow a 1st/2nd octave fingering. They will be playing harmonics rather than the correct third octave fingering. The real fingerings will always sound more solid and will be easier to play in tune. Give them a way to practice these fingerings and test them on the practicing you assign. The kids need concrete ways to build their facility in the third octave.  Here is one way to practice third octave technique.

Then there are the common embouchure issues you see with kids. It is common for students to struggle with buzzing rather than playing the desired pitch in the third octave. What causes the buzzing? Their lips are stretched laterally, from corner to corner. If your kids are pulling their corners, there is a really high probability that they will buzz in the third octave. Have them pay more attention to how they are shaping the aperture in the middle of their lips (like how your lips are shaped to blow a kiss or to drink through a straw), and forget about the corners. Remember to blow!

Another common problem is trying to control the third octave by flattening the aperture, rolling the flute in and pinching. Usually what goes with this is insufficient blowing. Oh no! High notes! Cue the Psycho shower scene music! The results are going to be really sharp and likely unsuccessful beyond high E or F. They will be lucky to get to a G. You have to help unwind them. Flute lower on the chin, roll the flute out a bit, relax the corners, shape the aperture (think of saying “W”) and blow more. Make sure the flute is aligned properly, check hand positions and balance. It seems paradoxical that rolling the flute away from you a little bit would improve the response and intonation of the high notes, but it works like magic. Check out this device (Flute Tutor) that can help enforce this positioning with your students.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances,  click here.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Trills

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flute fingering, flute pedagogy, flute technique

Your flute students (and other woodwinds) are usually going to be asked to trill by the time they have been playing a year or so. Trills provide the flutes and other woodwinds the opportunity to add brilliance and excitement to a score. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but a trill is a rapid alternation between adjacent pitches, up either a half step or whole step from the notated pitch (never down). The next question is how does one know whether it’s a whole or half step? One word answer – context. Here are the basic rules for trilling:

• Trill to the next note above the notated pitch in the key except….
• If there is an accidental next to the tr sign, then trill to the accidental indicated or….
• If the note being trilled is itself an accidental, again trill to the next note in the notated key unless there is an accidental next to the tr, as previously noted.
• Anything bigger than a whole step is considered a tremolo, not a trill.

In the absence of direction, kids will come up with the darnedest things, especially in the case of trills. They know they need to wiggle something, so they do….any adjacent finger will do. Doesn’t matter if it is up or down. They think because they are wiggling a finger, they are trilling. And it sounds just awful.

Here are some pointers about trill fingerings. Many trill fingerings are obvious like F to G, G to A. No special fingering chart needed. However, a large proportion of trill fingerings are not “normal” fingerings. Trill fingerings are a collection of cheats, hacks and other tricks you would never use to play a regular note. They idea is we are trying to simplify the fingerings to be able to wiggle as few fingers as possible, with only one finger being ideal (but not always achievable). The alternation is rapid enough that the listener won’t hear it’s a cheater fingering. Some notable examples include C to D (first trill key), Db to Eb (second trill key), E to F# (finger E and wiggle the right first finger). Trills that include Bb almost always require using the thumb Bb. Third octave trills require using harmonic fingerings. Having a good trill chart is not just a good idea, it is essential. I recommend the Woodwind Fingering Guide (It’s available on the web. You can see it on your phone in your pocket. No excuses.)

One small performance practice caveat regarding trills in music written before 1800. It is considered correct to start the trill on the auxiliary pitch rather than the notated pitch (except when approached from the scale degree directly above the notated pitch). If you are interested and have time, check out the Quantz treatise, On Playing the Flute. There’s an entire chapter on trills in the Classic, Pre-Classic and Baroque periods.

Lastly, for trills to sound good, you need to remember to blow. You can be furiously wiggling your finger, but without sufficient blowing, there’s no point. In this respect, trilling is like tonguing. It is very easy to get distracted by the wiggling finger or the tonguing and forget that the very foundation of flute playing (indeed any playing any wind instrument) is blowing, keeping the air column moving and energized.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

Choosing the Best Bb Fingering for the Job

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flute fingering, flute pedagogy, flute technique

The low and middle Bb is the only note on the flute where we have three equally viable fingerings without any sacrifices in terms of tone quality or intonation. However, there can be very big differences in ease of use and smoothness of technique. Knowing the best fingering to use is about understanding the context of the passage in which the Bb appears. We’ve looked at the order in which to teach the different fingerings in an earlier post. As I have said before, choosing the best Bb fingering can be like voting. Sometimes the best choice is very clear and you just do it. Other times it is like having to choose between a jerk, an idiot and a crook. None of the choices are very appealing but you have to decide which one is the least offensive in the context and will compromise the smoothness of the technique the least.

Let’s look at these one at a time. I see the 1 and 1 Bb fingering as a necessary evil that sometimes can’t be avoided. It is essential for the keys of Gb and B, and could be advisable for the key of Db, especially going into the third octave because of the high F#/Gb. It is also a viable choice for anything chromatic involving B and Bb.

Thumb Bb is the flutist’s friend–most of the time. Ever so useful for anything in most flat keys, with the exception of the keys  of Gb, B (Cb) and sometimes Db, as mentioned above. When playing in a flat key, just use the thumb Bb key as your thumb key for everything. It makes no difference to the other notes because the actual Bb key (the key you don’t press between the first and second finger) has to be closed anyway for every note from Bb down the rest of the flute. Means for Bb, A, Ab, G, etc. The caveats are never use thumb Bb in a chromatic scale/passage involving B and Bb and never for third octave F#/Gb. The Bb key has to be open for that note to speak properly ( If you try it, the F#/Gb will either be flat and sound bad or it won’t speak at all).

Finally, the trill key Bb (side key Bb or Bb lever), can be a really useful key to use if you are trying to avoid nasty, clunky Bb combinations like G-Bb, Gb -Bb, etc. or in chromatic passages. Some flutists use the trill key Bb exclusively on chromatic scales. This is not my personal choice, but there is nothing wrong with it. And of course it can be used for trilling Bb to B or for other tremelos like G to Bb. Sometimes it is just easier or smoother. Mechanically it is the most simple Bb fingering of all because it only closes the Bb key without all the rest of the interlocking mechanism involved in the other two fingerings.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

Flute Balance and the Left Hand

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flute balance, flute pedagogy, flute posture, flute students, flute technique

Several months ago we looked at balance and alignment issues with the right hand and how that can impact the development of solid technique and good tone. Today we are going to look at left hand balance and alignment issues. When you look at how this young man is holding his flute, what do you see?

I see the flute is rolled back toward him, his right wrist is under the flute and his left wrist is in front of the flute, with his fourth and fifth fingers almost completely straight. Also, his head is forward of his shoulders. Can you see that the headjoint is rolled forward more in line with the front of the keys?

What kind of problems will this type of positioning cause? In terms of ergonomics, he’s going to be fighting the flute because it will always feel like it wants to roll back. If you are fighting the flute, developing a fluid and relaxed technique becomes much more difficult. The flute isn’t well supported and always feels unstable. Holding the flute this way can also lead to strain in the neck, left elbow, wrist and shoulder. In extreme cases, I have heard of players developing problems with nerve impingement in the left elbow.

Notice in the second photo how much better the alignment is for this young man. We turned the headjoint back a bit to between the keys and rods. Now the left wrist is under the flute, supporting it. The right hand is behind the flute and the flute is resting on his right thumb. His finger positions are more relaxed. The weight of the instrument is distributed evenly between both his hands. His ears are now over his shoulders. Now that he isn’t fighting the instrument, his technique improved immediately. The other thing that improved right away was his tone. He could place notes in a big interval much more easily and maintain a focused sound.

To put it in the simplest terms; if the flute is balanced between the hands, the player can get on with the business of developing good tone and solid technique. It’s really difficult to do this if you are always fighting to balance the flute in your hands. Biggest clue there is a balance problem with the left hand is that the left wrist is in front of the flute rather than under it. Check the headjoint alignment and make sure the blow hole lines up between the rods and keys, as we’ve discussed in the past.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

 

Stories My Band Director Told Me

Tags

flute pedagogy, flute students

When I was a kid, we moved around a lot because of my dad’s work. I think I went to schools in seven different towns growing up. Consequently, there wasn’t much in the way of consistency with my musical training until I went to college. A band teacher got me started for a few months in third grade, but we moved to another town over the summer. The new school didn’t have any music program at all, just a closet full of band instruments that were not being used. I had lessons one summer from a college music ed major somewhere between fourth and fifth grade who turned me on to the Rubank Method books, but otherwise was on my own for most of those two years. In sixth grade, I again had a band teacher and remember using the old Master Method books. In junior high, there was a teacher that came once a week to our school, but it was such a weak program, I gave up on it. My dad found me a community orchestra to play with. The director was a saxophone doubler who had a teaching studio nearby. I took flute lessons from the doubler for maybe a year and a half. In high school, my musical instruction was solely from my band teachers.

It was when I got to college that I began to learn very quickly that most of what I had learned from my band directors and the sax doubler about playing the flute was, at the least, inaccurate and in many cases, just flat out wrong. It took many years to overcome the playing deficiencies I acquired because of my own ignorance and a lack of exposure to solid pedagogy. Some of the stories I was told by my band teachers and have heard over the years include:

• Smiling or stretching your lips to form an embouchure
• Playing with firm corners of the mouth
• Using the “kiss and roll method” to teach kids to place the flute on their bottom lip
• Rolling in and out to correct intonation problems
• Being careless about using correct fingerings – 1st finger up on middle D and Eb, using 4th finger for F#, using correct third octave fingerings

I diligently practiced many of these mistakes before I got proper training. Consequently, when I did finally get the correct information, I had to practice ten times as much to overcome those old habits and create new habits. My own students, and many other kids, still tell me either, “My band director said to do it that way,” or “My band director never corrected me.” It puts me in a delicate position with kids, and their parents, when I have to find a way to offer them better information about playing the flute without undermining the authority of their band teacher.

For me, it always comes back to the kids. If you, their teacher, have good information about flute pedagogy, the kids who want to pursue the flute seriously have a better chance of succeeding if they don’t have unintended obstacles in their playing to overcome. And your flute section is going to sound better. That’s a given.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me privately on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

Flute Balance and the Right Hand

Tags

flute balance, flute posture, flute technique

Have you ever seen flute players holding their flutes like this?

How about this?

Were you aware that both of these right hand positions have many negative consequences for students and how they can contribute to the flute section of your ensemble? These consequences can include poor tone, poor intonation, and slow and/or uneven technique. In some cases, hand positions like this can lead to physical problems like tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries.

If you recall, in an earlier post from last school year, we examined the issue of balancing the flute in our hands rather than holding it. Take a look at the banner photo on this blog and you will see how I accomplish this. If you were looking from the bottom end of the flute, the rods should be at about 11:00, with the mechanism pointing slightly forward. That way, the flute can rest on the right thumb, with the little finger on the Eb key as a counter-balance. My right hand is behind the flute and I am able to move my fingers freely from the joints at the base of my fingers.  It is also important that my wrist is relaxed and in a neutral position, not canted to one side or the other.

Let’s examine the issues in the first photo:

• The rods of the flute are pointing straight back at about 3:00
• The student’s thumb is in front of the flute and she is bracing the flute against the base of her fingers so it won’t roll back
• The base of the fingers are against the rods (this is also bad for the flute because dirt and oil can work its way into the mechanism, causing it to bind)
• Her wrist is canted toward the upper end of the flute
• She has a lot of tension in her fingers, thumb, palm, wrist and forearm

If she continues like this, this student will have a lot of trouble developing her technique. Also, her tone is small, covered and flat. The first thing I would do is realign her headjoint so the blow hole is between the keys and the rods. Then she will need to learn to rotate the flute body away from her so she can let the flute rest on her thumb. She will also need to retrain herself so she extends her fingers and learn to move her fingers from the bottom joints rather than the second joints of her fingers.

In the case of the second photo, the alignment of the flute is not so much of a problem, though it can probably be adjusted slightly. The problem lies in what she is doing with her right thumb. There are lots of kids with so-called hitchhiker thumbs. This hand position is seriously impacting her ability to develop her technique. She’s also putting a lot of strain on both joints of the thumb. In some cases I have seen that this can lead to repetitive strain injuries. The solution is to teach the student to rotate the thumb so the flute is resting on the side of the thumb, by the fingernail and extending the fingers so it is more like holding a ball or a sandwich. Once she can learn to move her fingers from the base joints, she will quickly acquire facility in her technique.

If you find these entries helpful, subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Please comment and feel free to ask questions. What do you want to know about flute pedagogy? Maybe the answer to your question will be the next flute tip. Find me on Facebook or email me your questions at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.