Have you ever taken some time off from playing flute, then when you pick it back up…
YOU
SOUNDED
TERRIBLE?!
Well, I have!
Everyone has those times every now and then. Sometimes it’s because work has taken over your life. Sometimes it’s because you were sick or had surgery. Sometimes it’s because you had 4 children in 5 years, you’re not getting any sleep, and you don’t have a free hand to pick up your flute anyway.
(No, I’m not talking about anyone in particular. But if you calculate my children’s ages, there may or may not be a 5 ½ year age span.)
There are many various reason that you may put your flute down for a short, or longer period of time.
One thing is for sure, when you get back to playing flute it’s discouraging and disheartening.
We all know that to get back into shape you need lots of consistent practice. But, what you really need is lots and lots of specific practice. The specific practice you need is technique, technique, technique.
TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE TECHNIQUE
But don’t listen to yourself play while you’re getting back in shape. Even if that means you have to put earplugs in your ears, so that you can’t hear yourself.
Play through all your technical exercises – your Taffanel and Gaubert, your Trevor Wye finger exercises, your Moyse exercises – all of those that are just plain technique. Then, when you’re bored with those exercises, that’s when you take out all of the etude books that you’ve ever used. Then you just systematically go through them, etude by etude.
Don’t play them for all the music reasons.
Just play until your lip begins to feel like itself again.
When you’re trying to get back in shape, it’s about quantity of time, not necessarily quality of time. You’re just trying to get those embouchure muscles to remember how to play again, to remember what they’re supposed to do, and the shape they’re supposed to take.
Playing all of those technique exercises is the quickest way to get them back in shape.
Now, don’t get discouraged you may need to keep this mindset up for several days. It won’t happen overnight. But you will get back in shape.
Oh, and when you keep at the technical exercises, your tone will come along for the ride.
Have fun!
Doctor Flute
Watch me discuss this: FluteTips 28 Getting Back in Shape
Getting Your Tone Back in Shape
Using Reichert Number 3 to Help You Get Back in Shape
