Fall Focus

Greetings,

While students are busy learning their music for Region, District, and State Band Auditions and other competitions this Fall, be sure to include sight reading as a regular part of practice and lessons. Sight reading skills are an important part of being a proficient musician. 

Here are my tips for better sight reading. Hope you find them helpful!

Catherine’s Steps to Better Sight Reading

There are also some great sight reading websites and apps I wrote about in January. In case you missed the post:

Websites and Apps for Improving Sight Reading

I also suggest including Constructive Rest as a part of your daily practice, to integrate good physical orientation into your music-making (unlike the photo!)

Here is a post about Contructive Rest.

Best,
Catherine

Keith Underwood Masterclass 8.11.2012, Part 1: Paired consonants

Greetings,

This post is so long I am dividing it into 3 installments. I have included links to all materials referred to in the class. You can still pay to watch this class online.

Here is Part 1.

Best,

Catherine

Keith Underwood Masterclass 8.11.2012

Paired Consonants, Double Tonguing and Multiple Tonguing

Part 1: Paired consonants

[My comments appear in brackets.] when using “Keith’s exact words” they appear in quotes.

Keith exalts the virtues of his “main man” Quantz who wrote On Playing the Flute in 1752, and his “other main man” Johann George Tromlitz who wrote The Virtuoso Flute-Player in 1791.

Of course, these flutists played on traverso, which is played in a more delicate fashion than modern flute.  Keith has been practicing on traverso for the past few years and certain things about articulation have become more clear to him because of it.  When practicing quick, multiple tonguings Keith wonders, “Should I single tongue it?” Bart Kuijken [famous, awesome traverso player] suggested to Keith all single tongued notes.

In his treatise, Quantz mentions 4 types of tonguing with alternating syllables

One of these is “tiri tiri.”

•  Keith states it is useful to pair consonants.
• The anglicization of “tiri tiri” is “teeter totter.”
• Try practicing a scale using the metronome set at 108. Single tongue, then use “teeter totter.”
• Then at 120 single tongued, then with “teeter totter.”

Also, Baroque oboe player Bruce Haynes wrote The Eloquent Oboe: A Historyof the Hautboy from 1640-1760, (and also History of Performing Pitch:The Story of "A") Haynes talks about “turu or not turu”—using paired cosonants in the 18th century.

Keith has everybody play Giga from F Major Handel Sonata using these syllables:

• teeter tee
• tee teeter 
•  turditee

Now 4 of each on the first phrase: 

• turditee turditee turditee turditee 
• teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee
• tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter

IMPORTANT: When saying paired consonants, tongue is striking 2 places in your mouth but from 2 different directions. [This keeps your tongue from stiffening up and allows for faster movement.]

Keith plays the first phrase of Mozart G Major Concerto using the syllables “today-yesterday.”

Back to Handel Giga: You can change/alternate the pattern-like scat singing. 

• turditee turditee turditee turditee
• teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee
• tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter tee teeter

[I call this scat tonguingJ]

Rachel Brown in her book The Early Flute: A Practical Guide calls it “motivic tonguing.”

Learning Baroque flute has explained to Keith many things... 

In the Julius Baker recording of the first movement of B Minor Bach Sonata Baker uses such “super infected tonguing.” Keith suggests appyling this not only to triplets , but also to pair eighth notes. [You can buy this recording here. PDF of manuscript!}

[OK. Part 2: Double Tonguing coming soon!]