automatic translation,
may not be accurate
may not be accurate
a few practice ideas with Marten Root
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In this Practice Pill, Marten Root shares a practical way of building traverso technique directly from real repertoire.
Over time, this took the form of a personal “black book”: a collection of passages, patterns, and transformed fragments drawn from real pieces and reused as daily practice material. The idea is simple: many of the technical challenges we need to solve are already present in the music. The task is to recognise them, isolate them, and reshape them into focused exercises that remain connected to their musical origin. For baroque flute players in particular, this approach is especially meaningful, since articulation, gesture, phrasing, and sound all grow from musical context. It is a practical, historically grounded way of practising that remains immediately applicable. |
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The story behind the method
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Marten began the flute at sixteen and entered conservatory only one year later. This late beginning made problem-solving essential: identify → analyse → solve → apply. That habit stayed for life. Technique grew not from routine exercises, but from understanding what needed to be fixed—musically and physically. At a certain point, Marten began to question the role of traditional études in his own practice. Many of them were written for different instruments, and did not always address the challenges he was actually facing. What he found instead was that real music already contained everything he needed: technical difficulties, expressive gestures, and stylistic detail. By working directly from the repertoire, practice became more focused, more meaningful, and immediately connected to performance. |
My way of solving problems was first realizing there was a problem, analyzing it, solving the problem, and learning by doing. And this analytic approach stayed with me up until today.
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Practicing across different flutes
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Marten moves constantly between Renaissance flutes, Baroque flutes at different pitches, Classical 4–6-key, Romantic 9-key, and Böhm models. With so much variation, one principle became indispensable: First synchronize with the instrument. Feel the pitch. Feel the resistance. Feel the resonance. Only then start practicing the part. |
Your instrument is your best teacher.
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Warm up through real music
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Before touching any technical material, Marten often warms up using real musical lines—taken from whatever he has recently played. Why warm-ups from repertoire?
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Practising for me has basically two purposes: being able to play a part and solve possible problems, and getting to know the music better, thus staying inspired.
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Beethoven — Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”, Scherzo (B♭ major)
Difficult on traverso, but perfect as a challenge. All legato, all registers, all tonalities. 
Bach — Brandenburg Concerto IV (G major, Violin part)
Play it on any flute you have in your hands. Feel the line, the direction, the string-like sustain. 
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Watch the detailed explanation of two of Marten's favourites:
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The 'black book' method
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One bar. One problem. One solution. Whenever a passage feels “impossible,” Marten writes it down in a notebook as a one-bar exercise. Over years, these tiny drills became his most powerful technical work. Why it works
Improvements accumulate invisibly but steadily. |
Difficult parts can be a burden but also a challenge and a possible solution.
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Facing a problem
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When you encounter a problem — and that is one of the main reasons for practising — the first step is to recognise it clearly. In many cases, the ability to detect and formulate the problem is already more than half of the solution. Careful listening to other flute players can be reassuring: things that at first seem difficult only to us are, in fact, difficult for everyone. What makes the difference is how we learn to resolve them — or sometimes how we learn to hide them musically. Usually, a musical solution to a technical problem works best. |
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Three technical ideas for the Baroque flute
Fingers
Modern flute closes holes; baroque flute “opens” holes by lifting.
Fingers
Modern flute closes holes; baroque flute “opens” holes by lifting.
Change the mental model: baroque technique asks for faster, more conscious lifting.
“Baroque flute technique is essentially different… pay more attention to lifting fingers faster, better coordinated and more consciously.”
- Shift attention from “pressing down” to lifting cleanly and quickly.
- When a passage is difficult, make your own exercises to coordinate the lifts.
Sound
Embrace difficult notes instead of grading them.
Sound
Embrace difficult notes instead of grading them.
His point: don’t force equality; design exercises that work with the instrument’s “enemies”.
“Embrace and cherish your ‘enemies’… practice and design exercises to make a D sound like a G# and enjoy it.”
- Stop labeling notes “good/bad”.
- Practice to bring weaker notes closer to stronger ones — without erasing character.
Articulation
Quantz fragments → categories → repertoire → learning by doing.
Articulation
Quantz fragments → categories → repertoire → learning by doing.
Extract, group, practice, apply — then build your own exercises inside repertoire.
“I once cut out all fragments from Quantz’ Solfeggi which contain indications for articulation… I stuck them together in different categories, practiced them and tried to make sense of the how and why they were there.”
“The rest was learning by doing… but it took me a year.”
- Collect → categorize → practice → apply inside repertoire.
- Design your own micro-exercises for the passages you meet.
Stay inspired: practice through music that you love
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Hide your exercises in very beautiful and interesting music. Return to pieces often — not to dissect them endlessly, but to let breath, tone, and gesture evolve naturally over time. Microscope practice is useful, but only briefly. The real work happens in phrases, lines, and expressive shapes. We often look for answers, but the real reward comes from the process of exploring, failing, refining, and learning by doing. |
There are no prizes for playing the fastest.
Who may find this especially useful? This approach is especially useful for: - baroque flute students and advanced amateurs - professional players refining their daily practice - teachers looking for repertoire-based strategies |
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I am primarily a musician playing almost any kind of flute, but still considering these to be instruments in the literal sense of the word like a spoon or a fork are there to eat.
At some point in my life, I even decided to learn how to make flutes, also with the purpose of learning from the process and thus deepening my understanding of music. I hope these few thoughts above about practicing will help the reader. Marten Root 
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