Week Three; Powering up My Fingers

Mr. Moroe's "Power Exercises for Flute" is proving to be just as much of a challenge as he suggests several times throughout the book! Week three has been the hardest week yet (mostly due to the articulation choice of tongue two slur two or tongue one slur two in the case of triples). I found day four to be he absolute hardest this week with that day being the day with the most immovable tempos. Strangely enough, though, day seven was no bad at all and I am ready to move almost all of the tempos from that day forward as can be see from my notebook below. As usual for this challenge, below you can see my progress each day if you are so inclined.

I'm getting ready to start the final week of this challenge and felt like this was the time to let you all know that although I had originally planned to do one more this spring for the month of March, due to upcoming auditions I will instead be moving back between the Moyse technique book and T&G. I would recommend that if you want another challenge for the coming month, purchase the Moyse book:

See below for this week's challenge set:

Week 4: February 17th - March 5th

This week is all tongued and increasing metronome markings as possible. The goal is to have the most accuracy possible at the quickest tempo possible.

As always; Happy Practicing!!

Powering Up my Fingers Week 2

Week two of the Power Exercises challenge was the hardest yet for me in terms of logistics. I performed two concerts a day this week and a few of those days I was driving upwards of four/five hours a day which also led me to sadly need to skip one day of the challenge. This week coming up I should be back on track totally (although I'll be driving back from Wisconsin Saturday so may have to skip that day as well...).

I found that a few of the exercises this week were really hard when I started to add in the articulation. I had an EXCEPTIONALLY tough time with day 3 which you'll be able to see in my notebook below. Anything not crossed out in terms of tempos mean that they went well and I can move up if my plan says to, but that I could also keep it at this tempo. Anything crossed out means it was easy and went well enough that I will be upping the tempo this coming week. Anything circled was ABYSMAL and needs to be done again at the same tempo with the hopes that it works itself out through the challenge.

I'm really loving this book still! I can feel how it's making a difference in my fingers. The one thing I want to add this week is more tone exercises afterwards though. The problem with focusing on technique is that often the tone suffers and I have been feeling that hardcore. My control is not as great so I need to focus on making sure I have that where it needs to be as well.

Week three is as follows (all tempos are generally the same and can be moved up if needed):

Week 3: February 20th - 26th

Chromatics - Tongue Two Slur Two (6’s Tongue 2 slur 4) (triplet tongue 1 slur 2)

    Metronome Markings - “    “

Major Scales - “    “

Minor Scales - “    “

Major Chords - “    “

Minor Chords - “    “

Diminished 7th Chords - “    “

Miscellaneous - “    “

Power Exercises - Week 1

As we're getting closer and closer to spring and beginning a sprint to the end of the orchestral season my schedule seems to thicken to a point where if it cools it could turn to stone...so my posts may be late, BUT I will try my best to keep them consistent!

If you've been following along religiously than you are also a day or two into week 2 of the Monroe Power Exercises and what a first week it was! This book is AMAZING. I'm almost sad that I haven't revisited it since I studied it with him in High School! My fingers feel amazing and I can finally get up to high D with some ease! Since there are so many exercises here is the full table of contents for those not actively practicing:

I couldn't believe how awkward some of the scale patterns were (especial day two since I've done it a second time today) but when I came back to the book for the next day I could feel how the awkward patterns built day by day helping each exercise make sense and build throughout the book. Also, since I'm already two days in to week 2, I'm happy to find that I have been able to up the metronome markings from what I predicted (which I had hoped for but with my insecure fingers I never know). As of right now I was planning to create a new challenge for March, but the longer I work on this book the more I'm tempted to do it again next month! I'll keep you posted...what I may do is go to a new challenge and then come back to this for the summer to really work my fingers out mixing it up with the Moyse book.

Since there was a new set of exercises each day, I decided to take photos of my practice notebook rather than write each day out. If anyone would like for me to do that though I'd be happy to come back and transcribe! It'll just be a bit longer.

Here is week 2 (which we're already in) for anyone who wants to jump in now:
Week 2: February 13th - 19th
Articulation of the week: slur two tongue two for douples, slur two tongue one for triples.
I. Chromatics - M - 112, T - 92, W - 92, T - 132, F - 132, S - 60, S - 112
II. Major Scales - M - 120, T - 120, W - 132, T - 132, F - 132, S - 60, S - 112
III. Minor Scales "                                                                                              "
IV. Major Chords - M - 104, T - 104, W - 112, T - 112, F - 100, S - 100, S - 7
V. Minor Chords - "                                                                                             "
VI. Diminished 7th Chords - M - 100, T - 100, W - 100, T - 80, F - 80, S - 104, S - 80
VII. Miscellaneous - Do all comfy and increase as you can

Power Exercises for Flute (New Technique Challenge)

I hope that everyone has enjoyed this "unstructured technical week" as much as I have! I took my favorite exercises from the T&G and had fun with them:

EJ4 - 144 (108 for 8va) Articulations - M1, T2, W5, T6, Fall tongued

EJ6 A - 80 B - 72, Keys/Articulations - Mb1, T#2, Wb5, T#6, Fb7

EJ10 - 72 (80 for 8va) Articulations - M1, T2, W3, T4, F5

EJ5 - 92 Articulations - M1, T2, W3, T4, F5

Now I'm taking a couple days off due to traveling, etc and I'm looking forward to starting the brand new challenge on Monday featuring Ervin Monro's "Power Exercises for Flute; Daily Routines for Acquiring and Maintaining Professional Technique"! 

I love this book because it's set up like Reichardt with 1 exercise a day but mirrors some T&G or Moyse in that there is 1 a day for EACH kind of exercise; Chromatic Scales, Major Scales, Minor Scales, Major Chords, Minor Chords, Diminished Chords, and Miscellaneous. This means you're doing 7 exercises a day and for this challenge that is SEVEN DAYS A WEEK! February may be the darkest month, but with this plan you'll have so much to do you won't even miss the sun. For a look at how I'm planning to structure the next four weeks see the plan below. It shows my metronome markings and planned articulations *all subject to change*. I will once again be updating weekly and hope you will do the same!

Happy Challenge!!

**For a pdf version of this email me at: lepagebrandon@gmail.com**

**Also don't forget that I am participating in the Etude of the week group so the amount I do is subject to change to allow time for that**

Technique Challenge: February 2017

Power Exercises for Flute by Ervin Monroe

    Daily Routines for Acquiring and Maintaining Professional Technique

Week 1: February 6th - 12th

Chromatics - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 104, T - 92, W - 92, T - 120, F - 120, S - 60, S - 104

Major Scales - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 112, T - 112, W - 120, T - 120, F - 120, S - 60, S - 120

Minor Scales - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 112, T, 112, W - 120, T - 120, F - 120, S - 60, S - 120

Major Chords - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 100, T - 100, W - 100, T - 100, F - 92, S - 92, S - 66

Minor Chords - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 100, T - 100, W - 100, T - 100, F - 92, S - 92, S - 66

Diminished 7th Chords - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - M - 92, T - 92, W - 92, T - 72, F - 72, S - 100, S - 72

Miscellaneous - All slurred

    Metronome Markings - Do all comfy to start  

**No day of rest this month**

Week 2: February 13th - 19th

Chromatics - Slur two Tongue two (for 6’s slur 4 tongue 2) (for triplets slur two tongue 1)

    Metronome Markings - M - 112, T -  92, W - 92, T - 132, F - 132, S - 60, S - 112

Major Scales - “    “

    Metronome Markings - M - 120, T, 120, W - 132, T - 132, F - 132, S - 60, S - 112

Minor Scales - “    “

    Metronome Markings - M - 120, T - 120, W -132, T - 132, F -132, S - 60, S - 112

Major Chords - “    “

    Metronome Markings - M - 104, T - 104, W - 112, T - 112, F -100, S - 100, S - 72

Minor Chords - “    “

    Metronome Markings - M - 104, T - 104, W - 112, T - 112, F - 100, S - 100, S - 72

Diminished 7th Chords - “    “

    Metronome Markings - M - 100, T - 100, W - 100, T - 80, F - 80, S - 104, S - 80

Miscellaneous - “    “

    Metronome Markings - Do all comfy and increase as you can

Week 3: February 20th - 26th

Chromatics - Tongue Two Slur Two (6’s Tongue 2 slur 4) (triplet tongue 1 slur 2)

    Metronome Markings - “    “

Major Scales - “    “

Minor Scales - “    “

Major Chords - “    “

Minor Chords - “    “

Diminished 7th Chords - “    “

Miscellaneous - “    “

Week 4: February 17th - March 5th

This week is all tongued and increasing metronome markings as possible. The goal is to have the most accuracy possible at the quickest tempo possible.

Congrats you’re done!!!!

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!!