Taffanel et Gaubert - the Finale!

We have reached the end of the month and also the end of my first ever Technique Challenge! If you've been playing along, CONGRATULATIONS!

I would love to hear back from anyone who participated to see how you changed/morphed/experienced this challenge and weather or not you felt it was helpful to you! Sometimes the idea of simply "doing technique" is daunting so I hope this gave you an idea as to how you can organize that practice in your day to day fluting life.

As a reminder, this week I will be posting in a separate post the next technique challenge for February featuring Ervin Monroe's "Power Exercises for Flute"!

For the final week of this challenge I was in Wisconsin for a Masterworks concert so I purposefully planned for it to be a tad less intense. I found it actually pretty fun and enjoyable (especially EJ14) and I also ended up adding EJ5 to the mix again just for a bit more variety and more time spent on my fingers in general. For EJ4 I extended it to include low B and high C#/D. Next time I do this, I will also probably find a way to take EJ12 up to high D.

Below you will find a detailed daily breakdown of how the week went for me including tempos and articulations. I hope you enjoyed the month as much as I did and I look forward to sharing the technical journey in February as well!

Happy Practicing!

Week 4:
Day 1:
I started with articulation 3 for EJ4 with the intent to get through all the hard articulations during the week. I had stopped over in Chicago the day before and for some reason had a hard time finding my sound this day. I also decided to bump low B/high D up a tempo notch. B, b, C, Db - all went well. c# I had to do twice plus a slow rep at the top to get working properly. D/d were rough...
     Tempo - 132 and 104
EJ12 - Each page of this exercise I did a different articulation in the order 1, 2, 3, 4 and found it EASY. I made sure to increase the tempo the next day.
     Tempo - 60
EJ14 - Letters A and B done each with articulation 1 and 2. The tempo was good but if they get harder I might need to take the tempo down. This one was fun!
     Tempo - eighth note = 100
EJ5 - continuing on this chromatic journey I did letters A and B each with articulations 1 and 2. I also took them both 8va. It went surprisingly well!
     Tempo - 92

Day 2:
EJ4 was done with articulation 4 and it went...ok...I found this one oddly tricky. B, b, C, c, Db, d - all went well. c# and D needed to be done slowly as well in order to get the fingers to move correctly at the faster tempo.
     Tempo - 132 and 104
EJ12 - Today was done with each page at a different articulation; #'s 5, 6, 7, 8. Again it went REALLY well so I want to speed it up and in order to keep things interesting I will take the articulations backwards the next couple days.
     Tempo - 66
EJ14 - Letters C and D with articulations 3 and 4. Kept at 100 and with that tempo it was fast enough to be tricky.
     Tempo - Eighth = 100
EJ5 - Letters C and D with articulations 3 and 4. High D wasn't bad! I did have to do it a few times to get it though.
     Tempo - 92

Day 3:
EJ4 - went really well with articulation 5 so now it's time to bump up the tempo! The "extras" all went well and even high D happened after I did a half tempo of the turn around at the top!
     Tempo - 132
EJ12 - was done with the articulations per page reversed (so page 1 was articulation 8, page 2 articulation 7) 8, 7, 6, 5. Again it's time to take the tempo up!
     Tempo - 72
EJ14 - Letters E and F with articulations 5 and 6. This one was a bit tricky and I had to do each letter a couple times with each articulation to make it feel sort of comfy.
     Tempo - Eighth = 100
EJ5 - Letters E and F articulations 5 and 6.
     Tempo - 92

Day 4:
This day I didn't write as much because I had to go right through in order to get to a morning appointment on time.
EJ4 - Articulation 6 went well but with the hard articulations coming don't get any faster. Every one of the extras went well EXCEPT again high D.
     Tempo - 138 and 104
EJ12 - articulations 4, 3, 2, 1. Take up tempo and further mix articulations.
     Tempo - 80
EJ14 - Today was HARD! Letters G and H with articulations 7 and 8.
     Tempo - Eighth = 100
EJ5 - G and H, articulations 7 and 8
     Tempo - 92

Day 5:
I spent day 6 driving home so this was the last day of this challenge for me (although I will probably do the official day 6 today).
EJ4 - Articulation 7 was SO HARD. I found it near impossible at the tempo. I had to pause every two measures or so to re-group and also let like 8 metronome clicks to in between each key to keep my tongue from getting too tied. The extra extensions though surprised me today! Articulation 7 made high D possible with doing it twice and I oddly enough had trouble most with b minor.
     Tempo - 138 and 104
EJ12 - Today I mixed the articulations by page as follows; 1, 3, 5, 7 and also decided again that tomorrow I can take the tempo up.
     Tempo - 92
EJ14 - Letters I and J were done with articulations 1 and 2. This went well! Given the rest of the articulations though, don't take tempo up.
     Tempo - Eighth = 100
EJ5 - Letters I and J with articulations 1 and 2...next time I do EJ5 I need to reverse the articulations so I'm not always doing the same ones on the same letters.
     Tempo - 92

**Don't forget that I am also participating in the Etude of the week group on Facebook. This week was Altes number 4.

Technique Challenge Week 3 and NEW CHALLENGE

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for yet another semi-late post! With the holiday on this past Monday I ended up not starting my week three until Tuesday so I was playing a bit of catch up. I am proud of myself for still completing the week in spite of traveling all day yesterday! I was very surprised to yet again find that the week was not as hard as I had originally thought it would be but there was still enough material that I did not need to add anything this time other than the variations I made seen here;

EJ4 - going back and doing BM/bm 8vb, CM/cm/DbM/c#m, DM/dm, all 8va at a much slower tempo.

EJ 7 - I also went back and did this one 8va and when possible 8vb.

EJ10 - This one was slightly tricky so for ease of my brain I ended up doing the whole exercise in one articulation each day.

Announcing February's Technique Challenge Book:
Power Exercises for Flute by Ervin Monroe - can be purchased HERE

For a more detailed week (including my daily tempos) keep reading. If you would like to skip to this week's set (the final set of this challenge!), scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Week 3:

Day 1:
EJ4 - I had allowed myself a day off before this and did indulge in a few adult beverage's...so it was a wake up call to my fingers and sound when I got to this exercise! This is when I decided to also do B/b down the octave and D/d, Db/c#, and C/c up the octave in keeping with the other weeks of the challenge.
     Tempo was half note at 120
EJ7 I did once at 60 using all breath attacks and then decided to also do this up and down the octave to engage with my air across the entire instrument. I was super careful not to use finger slaps to start the notes in the lower octave, forcing myself to use only my air. After all this I bumped the tempo up to 112 and did articulation 9 and found it to be almost impossible so I bumped it down to 100 for the higher and lower octaves. This is where it stayed.
     Tempos - 60 at the quarter for breath attack, 100 at the quarter for artic 9
EJ10 - I started with articulation 1 and decided that with the tempo I had selected to start I would do the entire exercise at this articulation. Then I went back and did C, C#, and D up the octave at eighth note equals 100 and this ended up being just hard enough.
     Tempo - 60 and 100 for 1/2 tempo 8va

Day 2:
EJ4 - this day with articulation 4 as I had started with articulation 3 the day before. This went pretty smooth. For the 8va I had major trouble with dm, c#m, and DM. They were neither smooth nor easy.
     Tempos - 120 and 100
EJ7 - Doing the breath attack went well but when I went back with articulation 7 a the faster tempo I found it near impossible (especially 8va) so bumped the tempo down to 80.
     Tempos - 60 and 80
EJ10 - Did articulation 2 and found that I was ready to take the tempo up. I did the 8va twice each and bumped the tempo down to 72.
     Tempos - 60 and 72

Day 3:
EJ4 - Articulation 5 went well at the faster tempo! The 8va scales all also went well EXCEPT D Major (a theme I fond common the whole week) and I decided I didn't want to bump them up yet in tempo.
     Tempo - 126 and 100 (1/2)
EJ7 - The key this day was D Major. The breath attacks where written and up the octave went well but the low octave was more difficult navigating the fingers around low B and C#. I then did articulation 9 and found in this key that it wasn't too bad at all.
     Tempos - 60 and 80
EJ10 - Today was articulation 3. It went fine and was just hard enough at that tempo. I bumped the 8va down to 60 shooting for a nice clear tone throughout the high octaves.
     Tempos - 66, 60

Day 4:
EJ4 - Articulation 6 went well and I ended up deciding to keep the tempo for the rest of the week given how hard the next couple articulations were. Again all the 8va went well except for D.
     Tempos - 126 and 100
EJ7 - this was surprisingly easy in Eflat Major. Even when I did it faster with articulation 9 I was surprised how much easier it came out than the sharp scales.
     Tempos - 60 and 80
EJ10 - Articulation 4 was ok. High D was angry when I got to it so I bumped the tempo down for that set.
     Tempos - 66, 72, and 60

Day 5:
EJ4 - Articulation 7 was HARD! I had to rest in between each key so my tongue didn't get caught up on itself. Again all the scales were good except high D and this time c# minor.
     Tempos - 126 and 100
EJ7 - EMajor was the key for this. Breath attacks were harder in this key which I liked as I found this part of the exercise most important to engaging with my air each day. Articulation 10 went well but was a bit hard up the octave.
     Tempos - 60 and 80
EJ10 - Articulation 5 was ok and again I decided to keep this at 66. The 8va's all went well so I decided to take up a bit the last day.
     Tempos - 66 and 72

Day 6:
EJ4 - Articulation 8 was HARD! It also happened to go with the etude I was working on this week (Altes number 3). D Major was the only trouble scale 8va.
     Tempos - 126 and 100
EJ7 - in F Major went well.
     Tempos - 60 and 80
EJ10 Articulation 6 ended up being a bit difficult. I moved he 8va's only up to 80.
     Tempos - 66 and 80

FINAL WEEK (January 23rd through the 29th)
     EJ4 - Starting half note equals 132 with a goal of 144 by Friday
          *articulations set up like last week
     EJ12 - Quarter note = Comfy and getting it to 100 by the end
          *mixed articulations as wanted
     EJ14 - Start eighth note = comfy
          *do two letters a day
          *Consider all slurred or tongued and go for smoothness and speed
*****I added EJ5 today same as week one only done all at 92*****

Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge Week 2

If you've been following the regalement, congratulations! You and I have made it through another week of the Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge and I must admit, it was not as heavy as I thought!

When I was putting this week together I envisioned EJ 3 taking twice as long and also giving me a ton of problems but at the end of the first day I discovered it wasnt bad a all and in fact was SUPER boring. To remedy this I ended up changing the articulation for each scale rather than by key to keep my interest and get more out of the exercise. Again, I found the flats harder than the sharps, but I was surprised to see that by the third day I was having little to no problem with high C# and D (save for D Major). Next time I do EJ 3 it will be MUCH faster.

EJ 8 and 9 also gave me less trouble than I thought (could it be that the first week of the challenge helped?!) and with this exercise I also ended up mixing the articulations a ton and deviated further by doing two letters a day for the whole week (rather than moving down to one on Wednesday).

Once I was through 3, 8, and 9, I felt incomplete so I finished the challenge portion of each day with two letters from EJ 5 and REALLY tried to push myself on the tempo and articulations doing each letter until I could achieve the 92 metronome marking I set for the week.

In spite of being sick, I feel like with my variations it was another successful technical week. Let me know how it went for you! (Scroll to the bottom of the post for a reminder of next weeks set).

Happy Practicing!

*Keep reading or a day by day detailed version of the above*

Day 1:
Wow EJ 3 is BORING! 80 was too easy and I ended up mixing the articulations more to keep myself into it. Can't believe how easy B-C# is! On EJ3 B - trouble with D Major combined with articulation 7.
EJ8 was not bad and I ended up being able to hit all the articulations for each line.
EJ9 not bad and kinda fun! Haven't really done the descending broken arpeggios before.
Decided to add two letters of EJ5.
     EJ3 A - 80, EJ3 B - 60, EJ8 - 72, EJ9 - 72, EJ5 - 92

Day 2:
Bumped EJ3 up to 92 and really still not too bad. Again supervised by the high C#/D ease! In EJ3 B I kept the metronome at 60. Noticing how these exercises are making my tone REALLY suffer...note to do tone exercise after before practicing symphony music...My lips got TIRED. Gflat Major went WELL!
EJ8 - Easy and need to bump up tomorrow (did not bump up today).
EJ9 - This one was harder...keep at 72.
EJ5 - Letters C and D with articulations 7 & 8.
     EJ3 A - 92, B - 60, EJ8 - 72, EJ9 - 72, EJ 5 - 92

Day 3:
EJ3 A - the sharps were EASY! Feels good to know that. B wasn't bad...it's getting easier and also getting better at high C#/D. Bumped metronome up today.
EJ8 - fine nothing significant to report
EJ9 - Fine, nothing major to say
EJ5 - Letters E and F with articulation 9 and 10
     EJ3 A - 92, EJ3 B - 66, EJ8 - 80, EJ9 - 72

Day 4:
EJ3 A - Took up to 100 and it went really well! Deff gonna hit the goal even up to high C#/D! B - Harder but went well...can up the tempo now.
EJ 8 - Letter F was so easy I took the tempo up to 92.
EJ 9 - Took up to 80 with ease
EJ5 - Letters G and H - Articulations 1 and 2
     EJ3 A - 100, EJ3 B - 66, EJ8 - 92, EJ9 - 80, EJ5 - 92

Day 5:
EJ3 A - Not bad but trying too hard to get out high D. B - going up to high D was ok but coming down from it was ROUGH...not going to hit goal with tempo on B.
EJ8 - Fine
EJ9 - Fine
EJ 5 - Letters I and J with articulations 3 and 4.

Had to cut the week short due to a double rehearsal/concert day. Feel good still!

Looking Ahead:
Taffanel et Gaubert Technique Challenge Week 3 Set:

Week 3 - January 16th through the 22nd
     EJ4 - starting at half note = 120, goal is to achieve 132 by Saturday
          *Skip articulation 1&2. Do one articulation a day starting with artic 3
     EJ7 - Starting quarter note = comfy for you
          *Consider doing with all breath attacks
          *Do each indicate key a day (Day 1 - C, Day 2 - Dflat Day 3 - D, etc)
     EJ10 - Starting quarter note = comfy for you
          *Change the articulation at each double bar and don't always start with
            articulation 1 each day.


Happy Practicing!!

Technique Challenge Week 1 Check In

WEEK ONE DOWN

Today marks the end of the first week of my January 2017 Technique Challenge featuring Taffanel et Gaubert! I hope that everyone who is participating enjoyed the first week and learned something about their playing as I have. First up; some general things.

I had no idea going into this exactly how long it would take to complete the set I came up with and I was suprised to find that between me being able to play some things faster than I thought, and with the minimal amount of extra time I needed to spend on each exercize, I only spent about 45 min to an hour each day on this. I had a hard time getting all the way up to high D on the scales (mostly I had MAJOR problems between high B and high C#) so I am probably going to incorporate some kind of exercize for that into this coming week's set. Number 6 also gave me some hard times but not as much as I had anticipated! I started to notice problems more when I began playing around with the articulations and was also suprised that, to me, the flat keys were substantially more difficult than the sharps (especially G-Flat and...believe it or not...E-Flat). Although I am not revisiting this particular exercise this month, I am going to make SURE I include something similar to it in my Febraury challenge (to be determined in the last week of this month).

Keep in mind that I am also participating in the Etude of the week group on Facebook in case any of you did this week's challenge and thought it was too little. I need time for this, my etude, and all the other music I have to learn for work ;)

Let me know what you thought about this week!! If you want to read on about my week I'll have a more detailed description day by day next OR you can skip to the bottom of the post to be reminded of this coming weeks set.

Happy Practicing!!

Day 1: EJ1 and 2 I had a hard time getting up to high D...spent a bit of time working it. Had to take GFlat and above at 60 for this day. EJ5 ended up being WAY easier than I though starting at quarter note = 72. I also ended up taking both of them up the octave. EJ6 A - I had to REALLY work on the turn arounds at the top on B Major and E Major and set a goal that I would not stop near the high B each day for breaths so I could force myself to be able to navigate the awkward fingerings by the end of the week. B was easier than I thought it would be and the tempo was slow enough that I ended up doing this exercize on all breath attacks rather than with the first two articulations. A - Quarter at 66, B - Quarter at 60

Day 2: EJ1 Ihad a hard time changing the articulations between the lines but I was able to bump from GFlat and above up in tempo. on EJ2 I decided to start on low C (wondering why I didn't automatically do that in the first place). My fingers did NOT like trying to get up to high D so I worked on this so I could bump up the minors to the same tempo as the majors. I do this exercize with a tuner and see where I land at the end of each double line...that day I was SUPER flat for some reason. EJ5 I also took D chromatic up an octave. EJ6 A- Dflat Major I had trouble with the turn around. EJ6 B I had a REALLY hard time with Gflat.
     EJ1&2 - 108 (Gflat and up 66), EJ5 - 72, EJ6A - 66 B - 63

Day 3: EJ 1 and 2 were SO easy EXCEPT for still high D and C#...having a hard time with B-C#...EJ5 was ok but articulation 5 (slur two tongue 4) was hard. EJ6A - I had a hard time with A Major and made sure to do this all slur again for fingers but did C Major as all breath attacks due to slow tempo and boredom. B - Had a bit of trouble with B Major and E Major...also did these all slured for fingers. C Major was done in all breath attacks.
     EJ1&2 - 112 (Gflat and up 66), EJ5 - 80, EJ6A - 66, B - 66

Day 4: I had been over practicing a bit this week so I was starting to feel that in my chops. EJ1 I didn't worry about playing piano because articulation 7 (tonue one, slur two, tongue one) was difficult. I bumped Gflat and up to 72 and ended up getting it at that tempo but not consistantly. EJ2 I had an  easy time of low C, C#. High Dflat was hard but going to high D in g minor wasn't bad. EJ6 A - I did a different articulation for each key. B - also did a different articulation for each. On A Flat Major I found that articulation 8 (Tongue one, slur two) was hard and I FAILED while doing G Flat Major and had to resort to all slur in order to get it.
     EJ1&2 - 116 (Gflat and up 72), EJ5 - 80, EJ6A - 72, B - 66

Day 5: EJ1&2 I was suprised how easy articulation 9 (tongue one slur two) went considering how difficult it was in EJ6 the day before. This was the day I decided that I need to make an exercize out of high Bflat-B-Dflat because high B-C# is just NOT happening for me. EJ6A - I did a different articulation for each key and it went really well so I decided the next day to up the tempo again. B - the sharps are apparently WAY easier than the flats for me.
     EJ1&2 - 120 (Gflat and up 72), EJ5 - 84, EJ6A - 72, B - 66

Day 6: EJ1 went well and I was able to comfortably get a rep up to high C#/D at 80! EJ2 went well but I had a bit of trouble around eflat minor. I was also able to get a comfortabe rep up to high C#/D! EJ6A went ok...but GFlat Major was HARD with articulation 7 (tongue one, slur two, tongue one) and I ended up needing to do it all slured to get it at the tempo I had set. B was hard for me. Eflat Major was meh...and for each A and B I did mixed articulations for each keyand it was hardest to do on B.
     EJ1&2 - 120 (Gflat and up 80), EJ 5 - 92, EJ6A - 80, B - 66

Week 2 - January 9th - 15th
EJ3 - A starting at half note = 80, B starting at quarter note is 60. Goal: get A up to 104 and B up to 80.
     *Take up to high D
     *Monday, Wednesday, Friday = sharp keys
     *Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday = flat keys
     *Skip articulations 1 and 2 and do one articulation a day (start on articuation 3)
EJ8 - Quarter note = comfy possible goal 100-112
     *Monday do A and B alternating articulation 1 and 2 with each changing key
     *Tuesday do C and D alternating articulation 3 and 4 with each changing key
     *Wednesday through Friday do ONE letter a day alternating articulations with
       each changing key (covering articulations 5 - 10)
     *Saturday is a break from this exercise
EJ9 - to be done EXACTLY the same way as number 8