“From the simplest folk tune to the most complex contemporary composition, interpretation depends on a performer’s personal reservoir of ideas.”

Nancy Schmalz, Flute Talk, March, 2011

“Far from being a perfection of technique and a literal reading of the notation, music is full of little propulsions, progressions, impulses, inflections and other musical gestures, too subtle to indicate in the notation, but without which the performance would be static and lifeless. These minuscule liberties are generally taken within the pulse so that the metric frame of the bar remains, and the small freedoms taken are almost obscured.”

John Krell from his preface to the second edition of his book Kincaidiana p. viii.

Fast passages

Speed is not written by the composer or is it to be used by the performer at the expense of tone. Articulation is not independent of interpretation. Within instrumental playing itself, it helps to think of fast passages in terms of tone and support.  Conversely, phrasing and poetic interpretation are destroyed by slamming fingers, noisy breathing and tuning problems.  Vibrato should match the passage. Don’t let the sound suffer when the fingers move faster or the music calls for rapid articulation.

Michel Debost, Flute Talk, November 2010.

Musical Staccato

A lighter clean tongue is needed for a quick musical staccato.  You might try using less air for the tone on these notes and leaving a slight space between notes.  It almost feels like you are holding in air. Use a tongue sound like “tah” that has a soft ending.  Always keep trying different sounds and listening to different examples.  Work at copying the ones you like to add to your musical articulation bag of tricks.    

Suzanne Carr

Shenkerian Analysis

This was a very scary sounding college course that gave me some really healthy insights into performing music. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you will find: Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935). The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work and to help reading the score according to that structure.  There is of course more, but basically by reminding you of neighboring tones, passing tones and other “decorations” to the main tonal structure, it helps you “see” where the main notes are in a piece, and guides you to performing music with a real clarity of line. It is worth some investigation if you are not familiar with this process.  You and your students will benefit from being freed from focusing intensity on every note and to enjoy the musical result of enhancing the basis tonal structure of the music.

Runs

First, listen carefully to your runs and pick out specific notes that may be going by faster than the rest i.e. they are easier to finger and are not being given the same amount of time as the rest of the notes in the run. Slow these down.  Make all the note take an equal amount of time.  This problem is lessened when your hands are strong and your position allows your fingers to move freely.

Next listen for any notes which cause you to slow down.  There may be one note combination that is difficult and disrupts the smoothness and fluidity of the run.  Take those combinations out and work them in twos or threes and then put them back in.

Look for a pivotal note in long runs and aim for that one to give you a better flow over the run. Is there a place where the run repeats in the next octave or the note pattern repeats?  This would be a good point to aim your eyes so you move through the notes more freely.

Memorizing a run is an excellent solution for fluid runs.

In a run of say seven notes, decide whether you want the run to start slower and end faster or the other way around.  By breaking it down into three and four or four and three, you can achieve fluid and musically interesting runs with a great effect.

Accents

There are two types of accents. One we will call dynamic in which you increase the attack and the amount of air for a harder more defined accent.

The other might be called an expressive accent. This is a moment in the music which is meant to be “pointed out” but not “attacked”.  For these “accents” William Kincaid noted that they may be better accomplished with a quick vibrato, a change of tone color a minute tenuto or all three.  Excellent advice. Kincaidiana p. 57