With a new piece of music and you, or your student, want to jump right in and learn it. Let’s look at the teaching approach to breaking down the learning of a new piece of music. The student especially wants to play it fast, or up to tempo. Help them learn to be accurate, learn the piece well and play it “up-to-tempo” by focusing on breaking the learning process down into its musical parts. Try doing it in the following order:
Learn the right notes and rhythms. Play it slowly. How slowly? Play it as slowly as you need to to be able to manage the notes and rhythms accurately. Have the student read something out loud. Point out that they did not read so fast that they could not pronounce the words or that they stumbled over the words. That is how slowly they should start.
Articulations are next. Continue to play through the piece slowly and insert the printed articulations. Make sure they are clean and clear.
Dynamics now come into play. Pay attention to where the piece is marked loud or soft. Be sure that you start softly so that you can get louder through a passage. During scale practice one day, practice starting softly and getting louder on each note so you get the feel of this dynamic/volume movement. Another day start loud and get soft. Then try starting soft, getting louder and then getting softer again. Remember to practice soft high notes and loud low notes as well.
Musicality is that special touch that makes a piece more than just notes. In the beginning a student’s goal is a good tone on every note, accurate articulation, watching the printed dynamics and practicing where you need to breath. Later students need to successfully execute things like taking more time in a passage, listening to the character of their tone and asking whether it matches the character of the piece and adjusting pacing or dynamics during sections. Make sure that all notes are heard not skipped over. Fill all notes full of tone. Make the speed of the ornaments and the vibrato fit the tempo of the piece. No finger faults allowed.
Speed. If you have followed the above order of things, taking the piece to the next level of speed and working up to performance tempo will not be a problem. Remember make your own playable tempo have a musical result.
Making Mistakes
If a student practices a piece and they are making a lot of mistakes or just the same ones over and over, let them know they are practicing the mistakes.
- Slow down and play it accurately. Then speed up in increments. Use a metronome to help keep a steady practice tempo.
- Make up an exercise for the student working out a fingering combination. Have them understand how to do this so that they will make up exercises to work out their own on future difficult passages. Just take a couple notes out of a run and repeat them a few times. Or take a run and isolate it so the rest of the music does not “get in the way”.
- Remind the student that they can first work out difficult fingering combinations while just holding the flute and not blowing. Then when new fingerings or difficult combinations sort out they can play through them again.
Summary
There is a current practice technique called “chunking”. This is the method of practicing by taking the music in chunks or smaller bits. Here we have gone beyond that for flutists or students who need to recognize all the basic musical components of their piece of music. Giving them permission to first actually take things out, play the notes and rhythms slowly and accurately and then put back the articulation, breathing, dynamics and finally speed.
See also: Fabulous Flute Playing Tips, 10 Magical Musical Techniques.