interview with
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interview with
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I live on the U.S. West Coast, and spend my time playing the baroque to modern repertoire on (mostly) the appropriate flutes, which involves a fair amount of instrument-switching. This requires a bit of strategic planning and practicing for it to work.
My teaching of baroque flute is mostly to adult amateur players. The performance work varies from all-professional groups, to professional orchestras hired by amateur choirs, very often for the standard big works by Bach. I am available over zoom for lessons. Lars on Facebook www.larsjohannesson.com/music |
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
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I usually start my practice time by finding my middle range - low G to middle G - and then extend from there in both directions. Then possibly some of Taffanel’s 17 Grands Exercises Journaliers De Mecanisme No.4, to find the right balance across registers, especially very high and very low notes, by using mostly the strong note keys at first (G major/E minor), then moving into more remote keys. On modern flute I also often use a simple five note scale ascending stepwise to a long tone on the 5th note, either keeping the full sound until the end or with a diminuendo at the end to practice dynamic control on the high notes. To finish up the warm-up I will focus on the low register for a bit.
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Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?
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I will very often play through bits of the Bach’s E minor Sonata, first or third movements for tone practice, then the second movement of the same sonata as well as the allegro of his C major sonata, in order to work on tonguing, especially with did'll. These are pieces I remember easily, so I play them from memory. Also, the second movement of the Musical Offering Trio Sonata, to keep those patterns fresh. After reading one of your interviews, I also started to include the last movement of that piece because of those difficult scale and arpeggio passages.
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Do you have a daily routine?
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It depends a lot on what’s coming up and how much time I have; if I have new or difficult repertoire to practice, or if I am switching from the modern instrument to a historical one or vice versa. If I only have a little time, it’s just warm up and then work on any difficult parts of what I will be performing next.
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What kind of goals do you set for your practice?
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This depends: if I am in between instruments, for example if I just spent two months playing baroque flute and my next concert is on modern flute, my practicing is mostly focused on finding good tone and dynamic control of that instrument, plus working on the upcoming repertoire as needed. If I am having a long stretch of time on a certain flute, then the practicing is mostly maintenance, as well as learning the music for the next upcoming work. If that upcoming music doesn't need much practicing, then I will often pick something else to play, usually something challenging.
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Do you do any systematic warm-up?
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Apart from the points I mentioned earlier, I am not using a more general or physical warm-up. I might bathe my hands in warm water if I am in a cold environment, just to limber them up a little bit. If I notice that I am getting tension during practice, for instance in the neck or shoulders, I will do some specific stretching as needed. I usually don't start out with stretching, but maybe that would be a good idea.
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Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?
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I would find my sound center, work on dynamics control, work on finger technique a little, then practice repertoire. I like using the Taffanel No.1 & 2 major/minor exercises for basic maintenance, which train your fingers but should also be thought of as tone exercises. I feel quite strongly about this; you have to practice these finger-coordination technical bits but also make sure you have a good sound throughout. Where you have a mix of strong and weak notes, you have to make sure that the weak notes are still in tune, suitably managing your air speed, in particular not to blow them sharp.
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Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?
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Some practice principles and objectives may be the same across the range of baroque to modern flutes, and you may even use exercises like Taffanel’s for all of them, or even tone exercises from Moyse’s “De la sonorité” for flexibility practice, but there are some differences too.
With the Boehm flute, the focus is much on evenness in everything, and that instrument's design makes this easy. With the baroque flute and baroque music, yes there are some specific areas to work on:
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What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?
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Good tone and clean, accurate technique in your fingers and tonguing, as well as good intonation are the key points.
And, practice musicality: phrasing, dynamics and shaping. For many amateur students this will take their playing to the next level! A really good exercise is to play a vocal piece, using the text to guide your phrasing; play the words with contrasting dynamics following the stress, accents, relaxations of sound between syllables. Try this first with a familiar language, then try with different languages; learning what the text means. Use the inflections of the language to find suitable musical expression with the relevant phrasing. An example would be the Airs and Brunettes from the French repertoire, or recitatives by Bach. |
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
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It really depends on how much time you have; sometimes there are days when I only have one hour of time or little more. It also depends on what I will be playing in upcoming performances, and, more importantly, in which part of my cycle with a certain flute type I am in. For instance, if I am coming back to the baroque flute after some time with the modern flute, I will spend more time on warm up and working on tone control and flexibility.
Length of practice: for me more than 3 hours in a day was never productive (my music school days). Less than ½ hour never felt particularly useful, but is better than nothing if life is too busy. |
Any specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
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Typically, difficult passages will involve issues with finger dexterity and speed.
Here is a commonly used technique: find a baseline by practicing the passage (let’s assume is a sequence of semiquavers) at the highest speed that allows you to be accurate with your fingers and tongue. At that speed, play the same sequence with an uneven rhythm, three or four times, long/short and then do the same short/long. Finally you go back to playing in the way it is written, and you will realize that it’s already a little better, so you can now try to increase the speed. Another key point is to avoid tension in your hands as much as possible. A good way to get use to this is to play a passage very slowly with as little energy as possible to move the finger, carefully focusing on absolute hand relaxation. Especially since we don't have to move the keys around, this is kind of neat to do on baroque flutes. At first, focus on making simple small and relaxed motions and then make them gradually a little bit more complex. With a bit of practice, you will be surprised at how fast and relaxed you will be able to play a passage, almost like if the fingers moved by themselves. |
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
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Sometimes I make use of drone sounds to play scales to. This I recommend to all those new to baroque flute, to help learn the intonation of the instrument, and also for learning to listen to intonation over intervals. An app such as the TE (Tonal Energy) Tuner, has nice drone sounds.
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Any other general advice, suggestion, tip?
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Yes, read! Quantz' treatise can be a bit overwhelming; there is so much information, but a little at a time will be useful anyway.
I also really like Bart Kuijken's The Notation is not the Music, both for the information therein, as well as for the questions he raises about areas that are still open for exploration. The End of Early Music by Bruce Haynes is another strong recommendation. Also I'd suggest reading about the baroque period, its composers and their families. I am currently slowly making my way through Gardiner's Music in the Castle of Heaven. A much lighter read but no less interesting would be Evening in the Palace of Reason by Edmund Morris. |
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
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This really depends on the students, and how much they are interested in applying themselves to technique work vs working on repertoire. Playing flute should be fun, so for most amateur players I suggest the technical work as much as they can stand it, then work on repertoire they are playing for their own pleasure or with their group.
In general; warmup, technique (tone/fingers/tongue/dynamics), repertoire. Have short-term goals as well as long-term goals. |
Do you suggest or teach a warm-up routine?
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As a warm-up, the main objective is to find their sound, in all registers, and then work on a little finger coordination. If high notes are still difficult, then they might want to spend some extra time on the extremes of their ability, pushing their current limits. I suggest to also play long tones on the low notes, descending stepwise with crescendo, after a period of work on the high register, just to balance things out.
I usually start students on a five-note scale, perhaps in G major, from low G up to D, holding the D as a long tone. Then start a step higher in the same scale; A to E, B to F# etc.. ending up in the high register. |
Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
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This can vary a lot based on the skill level of the student.
With my mixed experience with different historical periods, I also sometimes like to practice across them. For instance, I find Kohler’s Progress in Flute Playing Op.33 and 25 Romantic Etudes Op. 66 very useful and beautiful to play on the one-key flute. In general, play pieces and etudes that you enjoy playing. Spend some time on pieces that you play well, work on phrasing and musicality. Also spend some time on something difficult, to help you improve. Here is a good tip from my own experience: get a notebook of blank staff paper and write down excerpts that you want to work daily on, like your own Solfeggi. It might just be a short two bar snippet that you would really like to be able to play someday, that you now find very difficult, but spend a little time every day on this excerpt and see what happens with it over time. After a while you will have your own fun little exercise book of focused, difficult bits that you have been practicing all along. As a final recommendation: sample all the typical national styles of the Baroque, i.e. French, Italian and German music, and get to understand the similarities and differences. |