Clare Southworth flutist enjoys a highly successful and varied career as performer flutist teacher flautist and author and is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading flutists of her generation Clare southworth claire flute music cd flute player professor of flute royal academy of music claire southworth claire International First Prize Winner of America’s National Flute Association Competition Prize Winner of the Madeira International Flute Competition. Clare Southworth flutist enjoys a highly successful and varied career as performer flutist teacher flautist and author and is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading flutists of her generation Clare southworth claire flute music cd flute player professor of flute royal academy of music claire southworth claire International First Prize Winner of America’s National Flute Association Competition Prize Winner of the Madeira International Flute Competition. Clare Southworth flutist enjoys a highly successful and varied career as performer flutist teacher flautist and author and is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading flutists of her generation Clare southworth claire flute music cd flute player professor of flute royal academy of music claire southworth claire International First Prize Winner of America’s National Flute Association Competition Prize Winner of the Madeira International Flute Competition. Clare Southworth flutist enjoys a highly successful and varied career as performer flutist teacher flautist and author and is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading flutists of her generation Clare southworth claire flute music cd flute player professor of flute royal academy of music claire southworth claire International First Prize Winner of America’s National Flute Association Competition Prize Winner of the Madeira International Flute Competition. Clare Southworth flutist enjoys a highly successful and varied career as performer flutist teacher flautist and author and is internationally acclaimed as one of the leading flutists of her generation Clare southworth claire flute music cd flute player professor of flute royal academy of music claire southworth claire International First Prize Winner of America’s National Flute Association Competition Prize Winner of the Madeira International Flute Competition.

TIPS FOR STUDENTS

Post Grade 8

These days there are so many players who have passed their Grade 8 exam that it doesn’t seem to be anything special. Also the standards are so varied, but that will always be a problem with a national exam system.

The problem that your teachers face is how to keep you motivated now that the main exam system is completed and how to impress on you that there is still a lot more to learn. Passing the last grade exam is only the beginning, not the end of your learning.

If this is the stage that you have arrived at, take a moment to think about a period of revision and observation.

Let’s start by developing your awareness of how the best players sound; listen to some recordings e.g. William Bennett, James Galway, Peter Lucas-Graf and some of the younger generation, Emanuel Pahud, Jaques Zoon, Gareth Davis, Michael Cox. Start asking yourself some questions; what did you think about the tone production or the pitch control? Did you like the way that they phrased the music? Did the technique sound clear and clean? Did the music “move you” or communicate to you?

Now ask yourself, how does that relate to my playing? In which areas do you think you need to improve?

Hopefully you will have heard a wonderful range of tone colours, contrasted dynamics, perfectly executed technique and most importantly, beautiful music.

Tone development is often neglected because it’s a long slow process, results don’t come overnight. Good tone production is also dependant on correct posture, breathing and support. Time spent on long notes, enables you to listen and concentrate on breathing, embouchure, posture, colour, pitch and hand positions.

Listen to yourself, become self-aware and be self-critical. The aim of tone exercises is not to warm-up, but to develop and be able to play throughout three registers, with an even sound, different tone colours, in tune, with a full dynamic range and with a controlled vibrato.

The books that I use to help develop my tone are: Bernold Technique d’Embouchure, Moyse De La Sonorite, and my own Flute Aerobics.

Technique is easier to practise, because it is easier to hear mistakes and difficulties. Students who pass Grade 8 generally struggle with scales, because the exam syllabus only requires two octaves. If you have the desire to really improve your technique, then the answer is to play Sequences, which of course includes scales.

A Sequence is a repeated pattern, which can be played in all keys, all speeds, with all variation of articulation and rhythm. There are many books on the market which give sequential exercises: Reichert - Daily Exercises, Maquarre - Daily Exercises, Boehm -12 Grand Studies, Philippe Bernold - Technique d’Embouchure, Southworth -Sequentials and Gilbert - Sequences. Sequences develop your aural skills and sense of harmonies, which is crucial to musical training.

To compliment the sequences, introduce regular study practise. Studies help put our technique into action and they concentrate on specific difficulties. Regular learning makes the repertoire pieces so much easier to learn, and allow you then to concentrate on music making, rather than be held back by technique.

This is called pyramid learning. You start with the building blocks of tone, finger technique and articulation, and move on to sequences, then to studies and finally repertoire pieces.

There are so many books covering scales, studies and technical exercises and we all have our favourites. Don’t be afraid to spend some time looking through the books on the market, because variety of material is so important for development.

Clare Southworth 2006