interview with
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interview with
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Hi, I’m Melissa and am remarkably fortunate to live in Australia where I perform as principal flute in Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble and others and teach historical flutes at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
As a student growing up in New Zealand I had some wonderful teachers who inspired me to love Baroque music. I studied at Sydney Conservatorium then Conservatorium van Amsterdam in flute, Baroque flute and recorder. Today I love to play instruments from French Baroque through to Romantic simple system flutes and recently released a solo recording ‘A Viennese Bouquet’ on Liebel flute (ca.1830, 9 keys) with fortepiano, featuring music by Beethoven, Kuhlau and others. Melissa on Facebook www.melissafarrow.com |
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
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I have played the transverse flute for 38 years (beginning with the Boehm flute at 9 years old) and over this long expanse I have shifted my practice methods often and quite drastically, shaping them according to lifestyle patterns and circumstances.
But as this interview is in 2024, I will tell you what I do currently and why I consciously do it this way! I choose not to rush into practice any more. I have realised how important it is to get myself set up well in my practice space to warm my entire body into practice BEFORE I play a note. I always attempt to make the time beginning my practice with a 10 minute mindfulness meditation which helps slow down my mindset, relaxes the eyes and focuses the mind. Next, in front of a full-length mirror I do a few minutes of gentle neck, jaw and facial stretches. These I accompany with a warming drink of herbal tea which is particularly helpful in a cool environment as the drink warms your facial muscles, as well as nerves and fingers before playing. These steps are critical to help ease me into an optimal mode for playing flute. After this, I always check the clock to start work on my first 20 minute warm-up session. Now I play! In my warm-up I begin feeling my way, exploring my sound with a few effortless long notes around G-C. When I feel warm enough I set a drone on my tuner. This is always to a different note each day eg G, and throughout my first 20 minute session I shift the drone pitch chromatically and play long tones adjusting to the held pitch utilising messa di voce, and improvisation around the pitched note. Then I add slow arpeggios, slurred then tongued, expanding my range comfortably, while always tuning to the reference pitch. I make sure my abdominal muscles are engaged, and even though I don’t normally use detaché in the music I play on Baroque flute, it definitely provides a good core to my sound before adding the tongue. I slowly make my way into the mid to high octaves, using lower harmonics from these notes as a gentle guide for the angle of air required, so that no overcompensation of air and volume is made. In addition quite often I begin my first 20 minute practice period with my back against a bare wall. This helps to remind my muscles how to play flute in the most efficient manner and helps guide the usual flute players “straying left shoulder” to remain back against the wall’s surface. |
Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?
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I am not one for playing the same thing every day. As mentioned above, the one thing I do regularly practice though is to improvise around the tuner drone note. I call this Preluding which I find keeps my mind more active than if I was reading music, it keeps me focussed on a particular tonal centre and it opens up my creativity. Of course it also helps to practice tuning intervals as I go. I vary it by setting a daily challenge, for instance: today, a moderate tempo in 2/4 with inégales quavers; tomorrow, a slow 3/4 tempo, slurring in pairs.
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Do you have a daily routine?
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To me warming up is the most important aspect of flute practice though I prefer to work in short bursts of 20 minutes for all other sessions too, as this seems to me an optimum period for focus and for training the body to be comfortable and strong when practicing and not in an state of undue tension. It can go by quickly but is enough to cover the essentials. Any more time and I find the body gets a bit tired of being so efficient and wants to slack off. It means that this new habit becomes how you play so that when you perform you can switch off thinking about the body and concentrate on all other more fun aspects of performance.
Between practice sessions I move and stretch the body again by doing some yoga stretches, using resistance bands, walking or using an exercise bike. My next practice session often involves a continuation of my warm up routine before I finally launch into some written music. On the days when I do have more time, I may utilise an extra two or three 20 minute sessions. I find that this is usually all that’s needed to prepare even the trickiest of repertoire. Having warmed up well, the following sessions are designed to explore and practice in aspects of the music which I’m currently focussed on – orchestral or chamber or solo. Sometimes session two is playing ‘studies’ or excerpts from primary or secondary sources or ‘sight-reading’ with an excerpt from Quantz Solfeggi, his Caprices or from any other book I spy! These are always played in front of a full-length mirror and I am always alert to imbalance in posture ( eg leaning in too much on left hip or left shoulder slipping too far forward). |
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?
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I am moving further and further away from wanting to work on larger tasks with an overly driven mindset where many issues must be solved at once! This stressed state comes from years of aiming for development of technique and facility, but without paying enough attention to the body. This comes at a cost of having pushed my body too far which has led to minor hip and knee, jaw and corresponding facial nerve and muscle issues.
Having said that, keeping the body and mind more open and free in itself is a good goal! In order to cover what is required in my short bursts of practice, I choose small focused achievable goals such as solving tricky finger / tongue coordination issues (while always maintaining good intonation and tone) then in the next session, I might explore musical and dynamic choices for that same sequence, for example. I am happy if I achieve some small ‘results’ in a session. If there is a high pressure performance looming, I might just give myself an extra session or two as well as factoring in the importance and helpfulness of mental practice. |
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
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In addition to my points above on warming up the body properly I think nowadays I rely on previous years of learning and practicing of scales with various articulations and scales of trills, so that I now generally I only need to touch up on a few things for maintenance.
I think it is ok to change/refresh your practice routine now and then over years of playing to address what you still do need to be able to perform your best. |
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?
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According to which instrument and era I am working on I find it super helpful to play with the method books of the corresponding era/ nationality, to have them open and ready to play from as types of ‘studies’.
For example, when playing Classical music on one or multi-keyed flutes, I love to read and play through the chapter on articulation in Tromlitz’s ‘The Virtuoso Flute Player’. On the baroque flute, when stuck for ideas in creating some of my own extempore articulation I look to Quantz’s Versuch chapter of extempore intervals practice. For the flow and beauty in French Baroque music I play through Hotteterre’s Preludes and Traits. Secondary sources are just as good too. |
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
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Here I repeat myself a little from earlier questions, but I do think it is super helpful to have some tools at the ready.
The tuner drone is very helpful as it encourages the player to respond to pitch relatively, recognising that ‘fixed’ pitch is often moveable in reality. It is useful to accept that not everyone in an ensemble will be sticking to the tuner pitch or temperament all the time! As wind players we can be mostly flexible in pitch to be able to accommodate if we have to. Even though the instrument resonates better in a particular spot for each note, we can learn to play in shades of that pitch successfully with others. This also creates variations of tonal quality within a pitch. I find that making the occasional audio recording of ourselves is very helpful. Confronting yes, but using your own ears is the best way to improve our own sound and musical approach. It can be satisfying too comparing a succession of recordings and choosing which is more effective and why, and then using that as a sort of “teacher’’ to guide how to improve something. A full-length mirror is an essential guide to staying on top of maintaining good posture, especially when playing something very demanding. It is at these times that we tend to be preoccupied, letting our bodies tense up and contort to achieve a musical ‘result’. The mirror can serve as a reminder to work on achieving our musical goals whilst keeping the body free of extra tension and stress. Ultimately, I find one of the best ‘tools’ is mindfulness meditation once a day, often before the first warm-up session, which seems to collect stray bits of distraction and bring everything into line helping me feel calm and focused before playing. Some days are certainly easier than others to achieve this though! |
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
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Though I vary my lesson approach for each student I tend to include things that also work for me personally.
I think all students can be encouraged to let go of classical convention and improvise from the very start, by ‘preluding’ over a tuner drone, which is a great way to warm up. As a teacher, I think it’s important to encourage smaller, more focused practices without the emphasis on how many hours have been achieved every day! This is hard for them to understand when many notes have to be learned for recitals, but it is still worth emphasising. The formative type of practice training of practicing various types of scales and arpeggios with varying articulations can be helpful for building muscle memory in all keys and provide an excellent support for building sight reading skills. As a young student this type of emphasis on building technique can be a good process when your body is more supple and can still take a little more pushing. I do feel it is a teacher’s responsibility to chat to students about how their bodies are feeling when they play, if there is discomfort, and learning that stretching and fitness should be a part of being a musician, as it is for sports people. |