by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Oct 5, 2024 | FluteTips, Performing, Practice, Repertoire, Vibrato
Do you plan the very first note of your solo performance? What you do with that first note is crucial. It sets the tone for the whole piece, literally and figuratively. Start with the Sound You Want Your goal is to have the first note come out with a fabulous tone,...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Apr 15, 2023 | FluteTips, Practice, Technique, Trills
Have you ever just worked on your trills? There’s a really good exercise in Taffanel and Gaubert’s 17 Grande Exercises at the very end of the book that you can use to work on your trills and to learn your trills. But today I just want to talk about the fingers...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Apr 1, 2023 | Embouchure, FluteTips, Harmonics, High Register, Low Register, Middle Register, Practice
You need to be thinking about your low register as the foundation for everything that comes above it. If your low register is thin and not filled out and rich, then your upper register is going to suffer. There are some things that you can do to work on your low...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 17, 2022 | Embouchure, FluteTips, Middle Register, Practice
I really detest cracking notes. It is one of those pet peeves that drives me crazy. Really, I do not ever want to crack again. But you know what? It happens! One of the areas where it happens a lot is in the middle register: C, C#, D and Eb. Those notes can often be...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 3, 2022 | FluteTips, Performing, Practice
We all have pesky problems in our music that are difficult to solve. We work on them and then that same problem comes back to haunt us again the next day. Do you have a method to fix these spots and more importantly, how is your method working? Sometimes you can go...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Aug 18, 2022 | Etudes, FluteTips, Performing, Practice
Concentration and stamina are two areas of flute playing that we all need to work on. These are skills that you can learn. I know that I can work on those too. These are things that I’ve learned later in my performing and teaching career. They’re not...
