Most of us have a list of repertoire that intimidates us. You know the pieces that I am talking about - the ones that brought you to tears in the practice room. The ones that you toiled over in your flute lessons but still never seemed to make sense. The ones that took your blood, sweat, and tears just to get through well enough to move on to something more inspiring. Are they still buried in your music collection? Are they hidden in the “I never want to see this thing again” drawer? You are not alone! I myself have a list of works that have caused me so much frustration and trauma that when I hear other flutists playing them, I still feel a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach and a palpitation or two in my chest. Keeping these works buried, however, only gives them the power to haunt us, sometimes for a couple of years and sometimes for a couple of decades. In today’s blog, we are finally going to remove the stigma around these scary pieces. We are going to roll up our sleeves and discuss practical ways to make the tough stuff a bit easier to work out once and for all. Today, we exorcise our musical demons. Are you ready?
First things first, make your list. Write down all of the pieces that truly intimidate you. Include the ones that you avoid and the ones that have caused you past personal and/or mental trauma. Which scores did you fling across the room in a rage? Which ones brought you to tears? Which ones bring back memories of teachers shouting at you to practice more or approach differently? Which ones did you just plain not understand? Write them all down! Pieces on my list, for example, include the Jeanjean etudes, the third movement of the Ibert Concerto, the Classical Symphony excerpts (I could write a series of poems about the frustration I’ve felt trying to nail those runs up to the high D over the years), and the Andersen etudes (you know the ones…the Opus that not even your teachers wanted to tackle…those ones!).
Sit down with the score and a few recordings before you even begin to practice (or re-practice) these works. Avoid playing along or even practicing the fingerings with the music. In this step you are literally just getting an idea of where the potholes are in the piece. Where will you need to invest the most time into woodshedding technical passages? Are there breathing obstacles you will need to work out? What is going to cause you the most headache and/or frustration? You may find that there are far fewer of these sections than you realize. This is a good thing! The piece may be a lot less challenging after all.
Bracket the tricky bits. Take out a good, old pencil and place brackets around the sections that are going to need the most time, love, and attention. This step will take some courage and honesty. It is totally okay to admit your own flute playing limitations to yourself. Limitations are not roadblocks - they are just challenges that will need time and patience to work out. The music is not impossible to master with a decent (and reasonable) plan of attack.
Look carefully at those tricky bits. Can you simplify them? Are there technical passages that are arranged in scales that change every measure or so? Are there clear broken chord figures? What triads do they outline? Write some of these basics above the music (ex. F minor scale, A# major chord). Simplifying what looks difficult on the surface helps your brain use less power to work it out with your fingers.
Devise a reasonable plan of attack for the difficult sections (with projected timelines). How long will you give yourself to work out certain sections? What is your back-up plan if woodshedding these sections takes longer than you anticipated? What techniques will you use to take the music apart and put it back together again? (Some are discussed below). What tempos will you start practicing at and how fast is your ideal performance tempo? Creating a reasonable roadmap will alleviate a lot of that traditional pre-planning anxiety. This is your action plan of attack.
Start by practicing the music super slowly. There is a line from the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare in which the tortoise states, “Slow and steady. Steady and slow. That’s the way we ought to go.” The tortoise is right! Select a tempo that is about half the speed of your goal tempo and set your metronome here. As the music begins to line up with this beat, bump up the tempo a few clicks each day. Do not worry if it takes you a while to reach that goal tempo. The objective is to play precisely yet confidently at all tempos.
Practice in chunks. Our brains like to string smaller units together to make sense of larger pieces of information. A good example of this is phone numbers. There is a reason that a typical phone number is broken down by three digits followed by four digits rather than presented in a string of seven digits. It is easier to remember the first three followed by the last four because they are in two chunks. Practicing music can also utilize this concept. Break the music into smaller, bite-sized pieces of a few notes at a time, adding breaks in between the smaller “chunks.” After practicing the chunks separately, you may put the music back together. Your brain will connect the smaller chunks like boxcars on a train. This technique will also help you narrow down which chunks are more challenging than others. Prioritize the tricky stuff.
Rewrite the rhythms. Sometimes the rhythms themselves can be monotonous and make an already challenging passage even more complicated. Re-write strings of sixteenth notes into triplets and passages of triplets into eighth notes. This will change up where the emphasis in the line falls, which frees your brain from rhythmic fatigue or the dreaded “should” of how the music should sound.
Transpose the music into different keys. If an Eb minor passage is way too complicated for your fingers, rewrite it into C major. When that becomes easy, rewrite it again into Eb major. You’re halfway there! Just change a couple of accidentals and Eb minor will be easy peasy. Understanding the music in different keys will help your brain make more sense about how the music should sound when the fingerings get tough.
Finally, record yourself at all stages in your process. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even need to be correct yet in the early stages. Recording yourself is like a mirror for your ears. You may hear things in a recording that you do not hear in the practice room. This is a great way to gauge what doesn’t work and how to iron out the fumbly bits. A recording will show you where slow practice, chunking, re-writing, and transposition will come in handy in ironing out the technical hurdles.
What helps you tackle the tough stuff? How do you approach difficult repertoire? What motivates you to conquer strings of challenging technical passages?
Happy fluting!
About the Author, Rachel Taylor Geier:
Rachel Taylor Geier holds a DMA in Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, an MM in Flute Performance from San Francisco State University, and a BM in Music Performance from DePauw University. Former applied instructors include Immanuel Davis, Linda Lukas, Anne Reynolds, and Rhonda Bradetich. Dr. Geier currently teaches and freelances in Davis, California and hosts a popular Flute Friday Blog Series.
