As flutists, the most important aspect of our playing is breathing correctly.  If you were like me when you were young, breathing correctly was never explained. "Just take big breath" was what I heard.  Hence when I was developing as a flutist, I struggled with what I was trying to do. Playing long beautiful lines with a full expressive tone, tonguing clearly - not losing my sound, play in tune, open rich high notes.. the list goes on.

In this session we will work on breathing and vibrato.

Vibrato - enhancing our colour and expression with vibrato.

Once we can breathe correctly we can work on our vibrato.

Vibrato enhances our playing, our musical expression.

What is vibrato?  

How can we develop this special technique to add to our playing not distract….demystifying?  Like any aspect of our playing vibrato must be practiced as an exercise. In this lesson we shall work on exercises to allow you to develop oyur vibrato and incorporating it into your playing with control  and enriching your playing.

Open discussion and invitation to come on screen:  Invitation for you to choose a slow tune  (or movt. from a Sonata) to play for the class which we can help you improve your breathing and vibrato.

27 February 2025

Developing our Intonation and Technique.

Hearing the note before you leap!

Being clear and confident in our approach to practice and playing.

Intonation - Developing our ability to hear the note before we play it.  Singing, practicing arpeggios. Learning how to hear the notes, knowing the placement of your embouchure before you play that next leap or jump or semi tone.  Building confidence through these techniques.

Technique - clear finger movement practice.  Scales, arpeggios...in tune!! 

In this sessions we will use our new techniques of 'listening before we leap' when we play a bit faster.

Incorporating scales and arpeggios in our daily practice routine using the techniques learned in listening for the next note, recognising the intervals through daily practice of scales, arpeggios and simple tunes. 

These sessions will be recorded and available to view until 31st March 2025.