Flute learning through relaxation

  

To play a difficult piece is not so easy and it requires a lot of concentration especially at the beginning. We should be careful about the sound production and his quality, intonation, rhythm, tempo, notes, finger position and so on. We can`t be very concentrated on our technique and relaxed in the same time, especially when we have to play a difficult piece. Just after we resolve all this problems, we have more freedom for interpretation and to think about our feelings. The question is if we can learn some technique by playing an instrument and in the same time to feel relaxed and focused on our state of being NOW and not after a while? Yes, I think that`s possible to learn to play through relaxation and in this case we should start with a easy piece. It requires less concentration for notes, technique, rhythm and gives us more space for our feelings and imagination.

What is so fascinating about this method of learning through relaxation?

1. It`s not very demanding technically.
2. The focus is more on your thoughts, feelings, creativity and less on your technique.
3. It changes your state of being.
4. You don`t need to practice the piece at home.
5. And what`s more, you can experience all this in the PRESENT and not after a while!

Do you want to try it? 



 

Classic, Rock or Modern?

Classic, Rock or Modern?

Classical musicians are used to play classical music! Well, it`s nothing wrong about this, but it can happen that our students desire to play with the instrument not only classical music. Sometimes they look for other styles like: pop, jazz, rock or modern music. We are very different in tastes and so are also our students. Sometimes just playing classical music became boring and not anymore interesting for practicing at home. How do you react as a teacher when your students want to work with you some jazz pieces for example? Do you take their wish seriously or do you think that this preference is not so important for your class? This year, two of my students told me about their preference for modern and rock style. Knowing this, I decided to make our flute class more interesting and to avoid the "routine" by just playing classical music. I encourage all the teachers to take their student`s wish very seriously. Are many benefits of doing this: 
1. The class will be more interesting
2. The students will practice more
3. The teacher will see some results and will learn new things
4. The relation between teacher and student will become stronger and more pleasant

I think that`s very important to find a balance between what you SHOULD do and what you LIKE to do.

SHARE YOUR OPINION and write from YOUR EXPERIENCE as Student, Teacher or Interpret! 

How to improve your practice results

Because I experienced this with my students many times, I can tell you what inefficient practice means. If you are a student and you recognize some of this habits also in your daily practice, please stop immediately! You are wasting your time and in this case is better to take a walk or to read a book.
Now, please read carefully the examples bellow:

   1. You just start to play the piece without looking at: tempo, measure, tonality.
   2. You just play the piece through from A to Z no matter what happens inside.
   3. You don`t play the right notes but you don`t stop to correct them. You just go until the end...
   4. You don`t play the right value of the notes but you don`t stop. You just go until the end....
   5. You play the note without a sharp or a flat more than 3 or 4 times but you don`t take the pencil to make a notation.
   6. You don`t stop when you see a difficult passage to work on it. You just go until the end....
   7. You think that you have practiced and you know the piece!

 Well, from all this examples the number 7 is the worst. Your practice was inefficient, because you just played the piece from the beginning to the end. The truth is that you have learned maybe 10% of it.

 Now, read this advice for efficient practice and apply! I try to give you the essence of my ideas:

   1. Before starting to play, take a look at: tempo, measure, tonality.
   2. Don`t play the piece from A to Z without stopping. You`ll be able to play the piece form A to Z without mistakes later. Now you are learning the piece, so be ready to stop many times.
   3. Try to play the right notes and to correct the wrong ones immediately.
   4. Play the right rhythm and don`t go further if something is not clear. Stop and think about the right value of the notes. If you don`t understand something, ask your teacher.
   5. Take a pencil and write the sharp or the flat if you forgot it more than once.
   6. Stop when you see a difficult passage and work on it. Try to learn and to reproduce it as good as you can now and later.
   7. You feel tired and maybe you think that you don`t know the piece yet, but you have learned more than 50% of it.
    

You can apply this advice for studies and pieces. To practice in this way is not easy, but I can tell you from my experience and from the experience of others that the result is much better than before. Maybe you can`t apply everything what I wrote, but also a small change in your daily practice it matters. Take from above what you like and what do you think it can help you to improve your results.

You can read also this article about efficient practice:
http://www.essential-music-practice.com/faster-progress.html 


Let me know what it worked for you!

Successful performance

There are probably many definition about the meaning of being successful. Of course I didn`t read all of them, but I`ll write what success means:

1. The favourable outcome of something attempted;

2. The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status;
3. An action, performance, that is characterized by success;
4. The accomplishment of an aim or purpose;

How would you describe a successful performance? In my point of view, it means to be yourself on stage and to play at your best potential when it matters most, in some important moments like: exams, competition, auditions, concerts, in front of other people. Being yourself and playing at your best potential will bring you harmony, satisfaction and a nice remember about a great performance.

Let me give you an example. You are in the front of an upcoming performance ( an exam, competition or concert). You prepared yourself very good and practiced a lot. Now, the expectation is to play as good as you can but the result is totally different. You are doing more mistakes than usually, your sound is not so beautiful and maybe the technique it creates you some unexpected problems. Exactly now, in this very important moment! It sounds familiar? How does it feel? Of course, very frustrating; First, because you were not able to play as good as you can, and second, because you consider your performance was bad and you still ask yourself why did it happened to you? What was wrong? It was a bad day, you were unlucky or to much tired? Hmm, I believe that`s not the answer. Try to remember about your goals before playing on stage and about the conversation with yourself during your performance. Which words did you addressed to yourself? Maybe you think that`s not so important, but in fact it is!
When I was student I took part in many competitions and I played many concerts in front of the audience. Rarely I played below my potential in some important moments, but it happened and I know why. It was because I compared myself with other flutists, colleagues of mines or I tried to fulfill  some expectations of my teachers, or I thought about winning the first prize. Well, this goals were for sure not the right ones for a great performance, but I learned something from my own experiences and today I would like to share this with you.

My message for a great performance is quite simple: I strongly believe that our goal on stage should be very clear: To play at our best potential- no less, no more! Giving your best is more than enough to feel happy and satisfied about your performance. This I`ll call a successful performance. It worked for me and I believe that it can work for you too!

Share your opinion about a successful performance! Your story can help and maybe inspire other musicians!

Back in shape

Sometimes it`s nice to come back, isn`t it? After a long break we can start again to do what we love, with much more enthusiasm and joy than before.

In the last article I wrote about short, medium and long breaks and about my decision to take this year a longer break than usually. I`m happy about this decision, and for this reason I would like to share with you some good things that happened to me. The warm-up exercises were little longer than usually because the sound quality it was not the same as before. But this was the first impact with my instrument after a long break. For the beginning I started to play some easy pieces. It was not a new material, I played them many years ago. It`s better to start with something what you played before and to let the new material for later. The pieces once played are still there in our memory and they can be recall quite fast. It`s very  interesting to realize that after some minutes of practice our sound and technique are almost the same as before. What it changes sometimes is our point of view about the interpretation. I think there is a very positive aspect when we can see and hear more details than before and we are able to play a piece with more maturity. After spending some time with easy pieces I decided to work some difficult passages from the orchestral repertoire. The difficult passages which I played into the past frustrated me a little, because I expected to recall them faster than it happened. But it is normal, difficult passages are still difficult also if you practiced them a lot, so be patience! With the new passages the result was good and at some point much better than I expected because I was confident and ready to learn something new again.
As a conclusion from my perspective: a short, medium or a long break is just a break, time to rest and to forget about performance. Don`t be scared to play what you want, also after a long break. The sound, technique and interpretation are still there. Start the practice session gradually, with some warm-up exercises, easy pieces and then practice also something difficult. You`ll became more confident realizing that it works and you are very fast in shape again!




      

Holiday for musicians

This year I`ve decided deliberately to take a longer break than usual. Are 12 days since I didn`t play the flute and will still be 18. I know very well the good and not so good sides of a short and a very short break and now I`m curious to find more about a long one. 

I`ll start with the very short break. In my opinion, 2 or 3 days is a very short break and didn`t allows you to disconnect yourself completely from the music. On the other hand it allows you to start again on the same level where you were before, without losing something from the technique. Your sound has the same quality and the fingers are still fit and ready to play the difficult passages. To know this is very encouraging and motivating, but from my experience I believe that after a big performance or a long period of playing it`s better to have 5 or 6 days off. This I call a short break which allows you to recover very well. What happens in this time? Maybe the first two days you are still there with the mind and not completely disconnected, especially when the performance before it was very demanding or you`ve played a long period of time without break, but 5 or 6 days are enough to relax your mind and the muscles. Paradoxically, after this days for some musicians the sound quality is much better and the desire to play increases. For other musicians it`s more difficult and they don`t feel so comfortable to start again the session of practicing or playing. Why? Because they need more time to arrive on the same level before the break. This is very individual and if for some musicians 2 or 3 days off are enough, for others, 5 or 6 days off are ideal. What can I say now, after 12 days of break? I miss to play the flute but the good side is that I enjoy the holiday and feel myself free and completely disconnected from music. Still 18 days and than I`ll be back again with new topics and fresh ideas.

I wish that you enjoy your holiday, too!

Music Competitions

I found this topic very interesting and I would like to write some ideas from my own experience as a candidate and also as a listener.
Between 1997-2006 I participated in national music competitions and each time I won a prize-first, second or third with the flute. If this was essential for my development as a flutist I`m not able to say, but for sure it was a very good experience. First I was pushed by my teacher and later by myself to be concentrate and to give the best in a certain moment, the competition, and I believe that it was a very good training. Of course, I expected many times to be the best, but I don`t remember to be very disappointed when this doesn`t happen. So in my case, let`s say that beeing a participant in music competitions it was something neutral, maybe with a small positive influence in my future development as a flutist. Also the decision of the jury about the prizes it was not astonishing for me, it was almost the same, with one or two exceptions.
Now I would like to talk about the cases in which a participant is very good and doesn`t take a prize. This is totally unfair! It happens many times, I saw it many times but now I will speak about a recent situation from one week ago. The finalists of an international violin competition played  in the final a concert with our orchestra. The best from all 3 in my opinion and also others opinion received no prize! The question is why? And I have no answer. And the violinist maybe has no answer. This is the difficult part in this field. You can`t prove how good, how musical and how different you are sometimes. It`s a matter of taste, the taste of a jury in this case and the taste of the public other times. In my opinion, the jury is not completely objective from different reasons. First, there are teachers which try to sustain their students or have a clear preference for somebody else and second, they are concentrate on different things like mistakes, technique, the style of playing and less on the musician in itself. Luckily, the audience is more open and receptive to musicians. The public can enjoy an artist`s message through playing and is able to feel without looking for the mistakes or judging. We should be happy to play for the public and to give them our best. At the end, the public matters more than a jury from a competition. They can feel, enjoy and appreciate our performance!

Favourite pieces

As all of you, I have also my favorite pieces of music. Not all of them are from the classical repertoire, but I can listen the favorite piece 100 times or more with the same enthusiasm and without feeling bored. It put me in a very relaxed state of mind and recharges me with the positive feelings. 

The question is: why do we have this preference for some pieces more than for the others? It is a subjective perception, a matter of taste or it`s something more than this? It`s there a "specific technique" to compose this songs? Maybe a composer can illuminate us :-) I`m wondering because I saw on YouTube melodies for relaxation, meditation, for inducing sleep, etc... I was listening some of them but in fact I`m not sure if they really had the desired impact over me. 

Anyway, listening to my favourite pieces it always works and it helps me to change my mood and to relax in a way than no other activity can do it for me.

Classic vs. contemporary music

I`ve heard and read a lot of articles about the effects of classical music on our brain, body or IQ. Most of the information can be real but are also many suppositions on this topic. About the contemporary music it`s not so much written. Maybe not yet...
Although are many styles of music: pop, jazz, blues, rock, metal, my article will refer to classical and modern music. I would like to share with you some opinion from my experience of playing and listening both styles. When I say classical music I refer to the period between 1600-1900. Everybody listened at least once in life works from Bach, Mozart or Beethoven. I mentioned them because they are one of the greatest composers from all this periode of 300 years. After performing or listening their works, we usually have a feeling of pleasure, joy or peace and we can feel a very positive influence on our mood and perception. More about the surprising effects of classical music you can find here:
www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml

On the opposite side, the contemporary music (1975-present) has no tonality, no melody and the accent is on exploring to the maximum the instrumental technique. It`s very interesting and challenging to play or to listen such a music, but in the end you have many contradictory feelings and more negative than positive ones. You can also experiment nervosity, anger, fear and we can see a mirror of our society: haotic and superficial. Of course, there are also some very good contemporary pieces, but very few! After performing or listening a modern piece I heard so many times from the public and performers this fraze: "It was interesting!" I wonder if this is the real purpose of the music. I guess, NO. I strongly believe that the real music touches more the soul and less the intellect. From this point of view the classical music it`s much valuable than the contemporary one and after hundreds of years it is still alive and has a story to tell, a beautiful one!

The conductors

They play a crucial role in the orchestra performance. A good conductor has the power to grow the orchestra level and to inspire the musicians to play at their best potential during the rehearsals and concerts. They are the leaders and most of the times they are also responsible for a successful concert or a poor one. 
The orchestra musicians are open and willing to follow a good leader, but I repeat, a good leader! And the truth is that`s not easy to find very good liders. Many conductors are speaking a lot during the rehearsals, but their words have no essence, no meaning and are not helpful for the musicians performance. With this style of work the musicians become tired, are not concentrate anymore, and their performance is a mediocre one, without energy and soul inside. Arrogance, rudeness or speaking without meaning has nothing to do with a good conductor. This attitude will never inspire the musicians to play at their best potential. I know that`s  not easy to find a complete conductor: charismatic, talented, precise, organized, very good prepared and polite. But when you find one of them, you need to know that he can make a real difference into the orchestra performance. The great conductors know how important is also to give freedom to the musicians to express their own ideas and feelings through music. They know how to ask for the artists involvment and to create a beautiful atmosphere for the musicians and for the public. Their hand gestures are more than 1000 words and express all what they want. And in the end, the orchestra is really playing music! 

That`s why we are looking for Great Leaders!

Fun, pleasure and appreciation

Well, this is a very delicate subject especially for artists. The desire of recognition and appreciation is coming so naturaly and we believe that this will define us as musicians. I`m not so sure if we are teached in this way, or this desire it`s coming more from inside. 
First, let`s try to explain the terms of hobby and profession. It`s a big difference between a child which takes private lessons and is learning to play an instrument just for fun and pleasure and a child which takes lessons in order to pursue a career in this field. Until now, I didn`t hear teachers from the schools telling the students to play WHAT they want and WHEN they want, just for fun and for their pleasure. This can happen just into the private classes. 
Later, those students who are doing music for profession will become teachers or maybe orchestra players. This are stable jobs and are good for a regular income. But remember, this are jobs! In the orchestra is almost the same. Somebody is organizing a schedule with the pieces for the entire season. So the musicians can`t choose the program. We play what we SHOULD play. Maybe the most happy musicians are those who are amateur or freelance. They have not a stable job and an irregular income, but in the end they are more free to choose their program for performances. 
I don`t know if I was very precise, but the idea is that the professional musicians are not  FREE to play WHAT they want and WHEN they want. It`s more about DISCIPLINE instead of pleasure.
About the appreciation I can say that this is a strong desire for all artists. Being the best, the most talented and famous can be a goal for many musicians. I don`t know if the most famous or talented musicians are more happy. It seems that NO, they are so busy with concerts, so obsessed to work hard and maybe sometimes they are more UNHAPPY than the amateurs who are playing what they WANT just for FUN! 
My message will be: Let`s keep the music also for fun and pleasure and don`t transform it completely into a job!

Expectations vs Reality


I will start this interesting topic from the point of view as a performer. We all have expectations before a concert, audition or exam. We know the program, we practiced enough (or not) to be good prepared and this gives us the feeling of predictability. Most of the times, the result is more or less right with small variations. Sometimes it can happen a big surprise like for example to be very good prepared and suddenly your performance is very bad or the contrary, to play much better than you expected. Why? Our feelings are very exposed in the moment of performance in front of a public. It is not so comfortable for everybody to be so open. Some of us will experience nervosity, fear, anxiety. For some of us little from this feelings will be perfect to push us to perform at our best level but for others will be an inconvenient. So, it is absolutely clear that we are different and here is the beauty! Still, I believe that the results are quite predictable in our case, as a performers.  

Now I would like to speak also from the point of view as a teacher. It`s almost the same. Our students are facing also anxiety before playing and they have also some expectations, but I saw one difference. Their results are not so predictable as our results! Simply, we can see a lot of variations between our expectations and the reality. I can give you an example with one of my students which was good prepared. Before the exam she was so happy, so full of energy and so excited to play! I was expecting a good performance, but the truth is that during the performance she played really bad. A weak tone, lack of concentration, many mistakes and some memory lapses. I was astonished! It was  a change of 180 degree in her attitude. Well, I couldn`t guess what will happen so I was not able to help her. I felt frustrated, but then I understood that she was also surprised about what happened. Now I`m more prepared and from this experience I`ve learned something.  The next time I`ll be more reserved with the predictions and more open to a real result vs an expected one!

Simple melodies


I`m glad to share this with you. Sometime I desire to play simple melodies. It gives me a feeling of joy. When we play things which seems to be easy for us, we don`t need to concentrate too much about technique, rhythm, intonation or interpretation. We feel relaxed and this allows us also to enjoy what we are doing.

Our comfort zone is a natural state, where stress and anxiety are almost nonexistent. Being in the comfort zone from time to time will give us a good feeling.  I know, it`s not challenging or demanding and will not help us grow, but look also on the good side of playing simple studies or pieces: you can do it very easy, without to much effort and without mistakes. And above all, you can feel pleasure and joy!
As a professional musicians we need to arrive at a certain level in technique and interpretation. For this reason we should learn also difficult studies or pieces. This it`s not so enjoyable because they are more demanding  and often we are facing stress and anxiety. It requires a high level of concentration, patience to resolve the technical issues, patience for finding the right interpretation and to assimilate the entire piece. This process of learning a difficult piece  it can take one or two weeks, or maybe one month, it depends on each individual level. Sometimes you work on a difficult piece or study for some days and after this you see nothing, absolut no progress! For sure you asked yourself: "What`s wrong?" Well, it`s nothing wrong. Just take a short break for one or two days and then come back to the piece. You`ll realize that some technical problems are resolved and it sounds better. I can give you this example with the flute passages from the Firebird Suite-Stravinsky. There are some bars, technically difficult and in a very fast tempo. I played this passage every day, also in a slow tempo, but still, 3 or 4 days I saw no progress. It took me more than one week to play all the right notes in the right tempo! Simply, some difficult passages or pieces need time and patience. 

Taking risks and going out from our comfort zone will help us grow. It`s the only way to progress if we want to become better musicians and to reach a higher level. Still, let`s not underestimate the easy studies and pieces. I think it`s good to play from time to time simple melodies. In the end, the essence of music, that feeling of pleasure, relaxation and joy, it should be not only for those who are listening, but also for those who perform it!

An unexpected break


Dear readers, this year I`ve decied to write on my blog more from my own experience and less from the general problems or situations which appear sometimes in our career as musicians. Your feedback was, it is and will be very important for me, also from now on!

Everything happened during and after the travel back home from France. Nothing serious, just some digestive problems, but enough to keep me away from playing the flute for some days. So, I was obliged to take a break, an unexpected break. Maybe some of you had to deal with this in the past and you know what  I`m talking about. In this moments we are facing the feeling of not being able to do what we can normally do without problems. Unpleasant, isn`t it?
Sometimes is good and very useful to take a break. If  is planed, in my opinion. But when is coming suddenly, it`s not so easy to handle this situation. Because I`m an organized person and I like the predictability. In fact I can see that life is absolutely unpredictable and maybe this is a good start for me: to accept that in some moments we don`t have control, we are absolutely without the power of decision and still, we must go on. Easy to say, hard to do! 
In the first day I was very sad and frustrated. I was thinking just to my break without playing the instrument and this was not good because it made me feel little anxious, nervous. It was the most difficult day from all this period. The second day it was little better, but not very different: the same mood. My brain was full of worries and it was impossible to relax, to see the good side of this unexpected break. But you know what? Today is the first day when I feel better! I`ve realized that I`m able to do what I want to do and this is a very good feeling! I`ll not play the flute for some days, but apart this I can write, read, sleep, take a walk, watch a movie whenever I want during the day. No plans, no working hours. Now I`m able to see also the good side of this situation with much more optimism, trust and freedom! After some days of worries, I made a big step: back to normality! 

When we are able to see also the benefits of an unexpected break, we are able to go on with a totally different state of mind! Believe me, it matters!