interview with
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interview with
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Mesmerized by the pure, almost vocal sound of the flute since she first heard it as a child, Amanda Markwick has since made that fascination her own reality, playing flutes from the Renaissance through the early Romantic eras. She received bachelors and masters degrees from both Indiana University Bloomington and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. She has since become a sought-after collaborator in chamber music and orchestral work, performing regularly throughout Europe. As an educator, Amanda gives lectures and masterclasses internationally. She is co-author, with Kate Clark, of The Renaissance Flute: A Contemporary Guide (Oxford University Press, 2020).
www.amandamarkwick.com |
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
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When I was in Vancouver a few years ago, someone told me how one of the First Nations tribes in that area celebrates an “awakening” ceremony for their canoes each year in the spring after the long winter break. I love the idea of “awakening” my flute each day! It gives so much honor to the instrument itself, an acknowledgment of the life and energy it also brings to the practice room and to the repertoire. To awaken my flute, I like to start with a nice long d”, and then I slowly move around to other notes, seeing how the instrument resonates on that particular day. In this awakening process, I am of course also awakening my body and my sensitivity to the instrument.
Although I do not manage it every day, one thing I really like to do before even playing is to take the time to connect with the instrument itself by just holding it and admiring its beauty. I admire the grain and the color of the wood and the craftsmanship of the flute maker. I also like to think about where the wood possibly grew, how long it might have taken to get from a little plant to the gorgeous musical instrument in my hands today. Did birds fly over that bush or tree every day? What would it have looked like under sunny skies? Did its planted neighbors also become flutes, or are they now other instruments or other objects instead? |
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?
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Long tones and articulation exercises are always part of the daily routine, but other than that, it really just depends on how much time I have, what and when my next concert is, etc. Objectives will also change depending on upcoming concerts, or if I instead have a more “free” couple of weeks. But the one constant is to be connected with the instrument so that we are resonating together.
If I have concerts coming up, I try to find the tricky passages and work on them slowly to make sure I can relax any tense muscles while doing them at speed. I have realized rather recently that consciously building in the relaxation in the body while playing the tricky passages is very important for me right now, and that relaxation is really key to giving those passages a chance to work. Only getting the right finger movements isn’t enough for me to feel good on stage – I really have to get the rest of the body to join in. It is painstaking work! Many hours are spent asking myself things like, “Is my right shoulder relaxed while I do this fast bit in B-flat major? All fine until the last sixteenth note? Ok, I will try that again until even the last sixteenth note is accompanied by a relaxed right shoulder.” But, the rewards are great! I have actually experienced moments on stage when I felt my entire body relax right during the trickiest part of a concerto, because I had spent so many hours training it to do just that. If I don’t have any upcoming concerts, I like to use the practice time to further develop any technical skills that I feel need more attention, or to explore new-to-me repertoire. Or sometimes I just pull out all of the tricky parts of Bach’s John Passion and give those a go again (this is usually what I do during the slower months of January and February). |
Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?
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After my long tone exercises which awaken my flute and body, I like to do a bit of articulation work, which is really about coordination between fingers and tongue. I alternate between exercises from Taffanel et Gaubert, Reichert, Quantz, and exercises that I make up spontaneously based on passages from pieces I am learning. After that I move on to the repertoire I am working on at the moment.
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Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?
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I find that on baroque flute, I spend a lot of time working on colors of each tonality. I might use the same exercises I used when I studied modern flute, but they take on an extra element of finding and highlighting the color differences in the instrument.
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What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?
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Long tones. If I only have time to do one thing, it is that.
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How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
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There is no one rule I think, but I recently found some inspiration in a handout I had received at university. It lists Trevor Wye’s suggested daily practice schedule for those in his modern flute studio back in the day: 15 minutes of warm up, 60 minutes of fast exercises (scales, finger exercises), 45 minutes of slow exercises (tone, flexibility), 75 minutes of etudes, 20-30 minutes of special problem areas, 60 minutes of repertoire, and 20 minutes of a slow melody. I no longer manage to practice 5.5 hours a day, but I do like to consider the proportion of time spent on sound, technique, and repertoire.
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Any specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
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Do give your body attention while you are working on difficult technical passages! Sometimes the difficulty is not in the fingers or tongue, but in tension in the neck, shoulder, etc. Try to pinpoint that exactly, and then take your time working on releasing the tension before you pick up the flute, then as you are playing the passage slowly. And really be thoughtful and honest about it. I will also add that if you try to be curious about it, and not judgmental, you will have a lot more fun (and probably success) creating solutions for yourself.
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Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
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I do love my tuner and my metronome! I use the tuner usually only for drones underneath any passages I want to check for intonation, although occasionally I will use it to check where my F-sharps will need to be if I know that I will be working with another instrument tuned in a special temperament. I use my metronome to help me build speed very methodically. I like to do the “two steps forward, one step back” method: I might start working on something at 80, then push it to 88, then back to 84, then 92, back to 88, etc.
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How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
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I suggest long tone exercises (for both tone length and color), then articulation work, then repertoire – so, basically my method.
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Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
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One exercise I love to give all my students of any level, and that I like to do myself, too, is a “change one note” arpeggio exercise. It is essentially finding all the major and minor arpeggios that include the starting note, so the one rule is that you never change the starting note. For example, start with a slow D-Major arpeggio, up and down, either one or two octaves. Once you get back to your low D, then change just one note to get a whole new color – you can change the F-sharp to F, so now you are in d-minor. As you go up and down the d-minor arpeggio, notice that new color world, and how it invites you to change the way you play your D and your A so that your F doesn’t feel so conspicuous. Then once you are back at the low D, change one note again – this time A changes to B-flat, and you still have your F-natural from the previous change, so now you are playing the B-flat major arpeggio. While it is only two changes away from the D-Major arpeggio, the sound world is so completely different! Keep going like this, changing just one note each time until you finally get back to D-Major. You can do this exercise with any starting note.
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