Edmund-Davies, P :: Coffee Noodles

Methodical warm-up exercises, to stir your fingers and lips into great shape, either before or after that first cup or mug!

Warming up for a practice session on any musical instrument should never be dull, depressing or unimaginative. Those initial moments, on any given day, are just too special. This is the main reason why I decided to put together Coffee Noodles.

Too often, we are instructed to take the well-trodden path and to spend those crucial first minutes with our instruments, playing material that has in some cases existed for well over 100 years and quite frankly is often veering towards being dreary or even tedious. Its potential to inspire us can be extremely limited. If our attention or enthusiasm is lost, then precious time is wasted.

Spending time with our chosen instrument (in this case the flute) should be engaging at all times and at no stage feel like some form of punishment. If an exercise doesn't inspire us, progress will be negligible.

Despite the demands of the instrument, music is, or at least should be, an organic and a very much alive art form. If we can engage with this, as much as with the technical challenges of the flute, our learning journey should be rapid and infinitely more enjoyable.

As an alternative to long tones, scales and arpeggios, Coffee Noodles (written mostly for players of intermediate to advanced standard) provides a further choice of ways in which to start a practice session. By warming up lips, fingers, lungs and brain with material that is always taking us on a musical journey, we will be ready for the various demands and challenges that await us in the main part of our practice sessions. -Paul Edmund-Davies