When we play our low register, we want it to be rich and full! We want to be able to play softly and loudly. The exercise that I like best to work on in the low register is found in De la Sonorite by Marcel Moyse.
I’ve have used this book so much that it’s tattered and missing its front cover. It’s that good!
De la Sonorite
Yes, it was written long ago. But it’s so good, with so many exercises that we can still use today.
The exercise is written in sections. The first is whole notes grouped in measures of 4 followed by half notes, quarter notes and eighth notes. Moyse instructs the player to crescendo and diminuendo through the 4 measures with the quarter note = 60 on the metronome.
When I started working on this particular exercise, I could IN NO WAY do what was being asked! To crescendo for 8 beats going towards a double ff and then diminuendo-ing for 8 beats at 60 is quite challenging. But it is well worth working on.
This Work is Worth it!
What’s really good about this exercise is that it teaches you to hold in your air, to not let it all out! Because, if you let too much air out, you won’t last 32 beats of crescendo/diminuendo. Your goal is to get this all in one breath! In other words, you’re working on holding in that air by developing your air pressure. Are you creating and using your support? Are you able to keep it and control it? Working on all of this will help to rich-up your low register.
As the exercise goes on, Moyse changes the combination of notes slightly. As you work through, he’s got a number of different combinations of notes. I recommend that you stay on the same combination of notes for a month. Just do the same ones every day.
Work with that and learn to hold in that air, keep up the air pressure, to listen to your tone, to keep your embouchure open, to keep it relaxed, learning to crescendo and diminuendo through there by opening your jaw and closing it as if you were tapering.
In 1 Breath
Get through all of ex 1 in one practice session. It’s a good workout for your lip. It’s a great workout for your air, and learning how to hold it in, and to use your air wisely which of course, we need to do on a lot of solos where air is at a premium, at least for me. Plus it helps to take the air out of the tone. What you are left with is a beautiful rich sound.
Have fun working on your Moyse Low Tones Exercise in De la Sonorite!
DoctorFlute
Watch me demonstrate this: FluteTips 72 Rich Expansive Low Register
How to Crescendo and Diminuendo
