Alyssa M.

Hello,

Great job on Saturday!

We continued to work on the 2 octave B-flat Major scale and relative g minor (harmonic & melodic). Please focus on the upper half of the scale as your high notes need a bit more work. Remember to think upwards when blowing the air to reach the high notes. Raising your eyebrows while playing the higher notes also helps a lot. Try to learn the fingerings so that you don’t have to rely on the fingering chart as much. If possible please have the 2 octave B-flat major scale, g minor harmonic and melodic scales prepared for the next lesson. Also when you’re playing I explained in our lesson how we should be breathing and playing from our lower belly area. We don’t want to be playing from the chest because we can’t support our air from that area. If we play from our lower belly (diaphragm) area we will not only get a better sound but we can hold notes for much longer as well. Also when we play we want to have an open and relaxed throat. This feeling is similar to the feeling we get when we yawn. Having an open throat also contributes to our air support and allows us to achieve a better sound on the flute.

We also worked in the Trevor Wye technique book. We chose a duet and I had you sight read the top flute part and then we played the duet together. For next lesson, please choose any duet of your choice in the book and try to prepare your part for the lesson and we will play it together. Playing duets allows you to develop your ensemble, sight-reading, and listening skills so that is why I like to incorporate them into the lesson. Plus, they are a lot of fun to play!

Please for the next lesson try to remember to bring the RCM flute part (white paper book) and not the piano part. We can’t do any work on your piece if we don’t have the music with us. We are currently working on Minuet in G Major in that book so try your best to get some practice done on this piece for next lesson. I know this time of year is busy for students with projects and exams but every little bit of practice helps! :)

 

See you on June 10th!

 

~Andrea