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| "I am a fine musician, I practice every day." (song lyric from the Dick Van Dyke Show) |
| Featured flute recording Herbie Mann: Verve Jazz Masters 56
A good introduction to the man who brought the flute into the Jazz mainstream. This CD Includes almost the entirety of his first CD plus a good portion of his second showing the increasing influence of Afro-Cuban music on his playing. |
Hey, dig me, I can play E3.
I've been pretty busy with lots of musical projects. I may finally get some recordings up here. The jazz trio stuff, surprisingly, is some of the furthest along and my improvisations are becoming increasingly less dictated by my limitations as a flute player and more by the demands of music. My range is now pretty consist up to G#3 (probably higher, but I can never remember the fingerings beyond that note still).
A quick note on my practice routine: I set aside the time right after dinner as practice time (except days when I have plans for the evening when I try to reschedule practice for a different time of day). It's pretty important, I think, to make a consistent commitment to practice and ideally to practice under the same (or at least similar) conditions and at roughly the same time every day. I will usually spend some time on other instruments before coming to the flute so that any food particles which might remain in my mouth have a chance to clear out. Flute time begins with some warming up: First long soft notes in the first octave, then moving into the same in the second and third octaves. Some days, I'll start high and stay low (occasionally even coming at E3 cold which is how I now know that I can play that sucker). From there I move into some scales, improvisations and snippets of memorized tunes (the Tull version of Bouree is a favorite at the moment). Then I will do three lessons out of The Complete flute player and if I'm satisfied with the first one in the group I'll advance the bookmarks so that I'll stop that and add new material. From there it's working on repertoire which at the moment is the Beethoven duet (yes, still) and the sonatinas. On days in which I'm pressed for time I may abbreviate this somewhat, but I do my best to practice every day.
Beyond that, not too much to note about my flute playing right now. Lots of practice, little excitement (which is not to say, however that practice cannot be exciting).