Bcoopmando wrote:
Some days I surprise myself and produce a lovely tone on a few notes and other days the flute sounds nicer in it’s case! I am a persevering type of person and at least trying to enjoy the journey.
At what point in time should I begin trying out some of the Ornamentations?
Making sure you take some time each day to play some long slow notes will do wonders for your breath, embouchure and tone. Back in grade school when most woodwind, brass and string players are young, the lesson plans start with something very simple and slow, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for violins and cellos and Hot Cross Buns for brass and woodwinds. Then each week a new note is added until the player has the whole of the instrument's range under their belts. In Irish music beginning tunes are sometimes Rattlin' Bog, Castlebar Races, The Lilting Banshee, Out on the Ocean, Shoe the Donkey and the melody line of the song Sally Gardens. Opening up my Complete Guide to Learning the Flute by Vintan Vallely and Conal O Grada's Tirsh traditonal Flute technique book I see I could happily recommend these books with their included CDs. as well as Grey's.
When we were in grade school bands or orchestras we had technique books that had us doing scales. But adults in trad often skip that step and go straight into tunes. That's ok. But sometimes we need to be OK with using those tunes as exercises to build skills.
As for ornamentation, adding as you go is the best. These ornaments will become second nature.
When I first started out I had two world class teachers (one moved away and passed me along) who broke down tunes into small chunks. In the first year or so I would seldom get a tune handed to me all at once. I would more likely be introduced to all the details of the A part or even part of an A part, learned with a call and response technique, then a week later the B. These details would include the notes, breathing spots and ornamentation. I would record the lesson and practice with my recording. Over the period of a month I would learn maybe two tunes.
This foundation got me to the point where I can fearlessly sit in a session with excellent players playing along on the fly with the fact paced tune I've never heard before after I've heard it the first time or two. That learning by ear in my early days was instrumental in that being possible.
If there are no teachers around and the budget is tight I still continue to recommend the Online Academy of Irish Music, which mimics as closely as possible my experience as a student. It is the neighborhood of $20 or 20 pounds a month and is a bargain. The videos give you a sense of a personal teacher, you can contact them with questions, and they build very systematically giving you tunes and ornaments as you go. You can give as much time as you want to a tune. I do believe they still have a trial week for free.
Alternatively a book with a Cd like the Grey Larsen book followed as written will give you a similar foundation, though you don't get to see the man's fingers. HaHa.
But again sometime each day playing long slow notes will help that flute sound better out of the case than in.
