Is practicing etudes a drudgery for you? Do you intentionally skip playing etudes? If that is you, I’m here to tell you to stop! Etudes are part of a rigorous practice session and reveal so much of what a musician needs to learn.
Etudes can be the bane of your existence, or they can be the gateway to playing well. There is a lot to be learned from etudes. But there are so many people that don’t understand the benefits of practicing etudes. I probably was one of them – way back when. There was a time when I thought that playing halfway through an etude was good enough. It eventually repeated, so who cares about that middle tricky section? Oh dear, I cannot believe that I got away with that! Only later did I realize that was erroneous thinking.
At some point in my flute education, I had a really good teacher that told me how to practice etudes. She didn’t come out and say “here are the reasons.” Rather it was how she had me practice these etudes that taught me their strength. She helped me realize that there was music in etudes.
Then I Fell in Love with Etudes
Now I espouse that you can learn everything about music through an etude. I even wrote an article on this topic for Flute Talk Magazine. I have done seminars and workshops on this very topic, because it’s near and dear to my heart.
An etude can teach you a myriad of things if you let it. So many of the students that I teach come to lessons without their etude learned. And then I proceed to take the etude completely apart so they realize that learning the notes is only one small part of that etude practice.
Now there are a lot of different etudes and I think every teacher has their thing with which etudes they love and want their students to learn. But I think we all generally agree that Andersen etudes are at the top tier of etudes. They run the gamut from ones that I would do with an intermediate sixth grader to ones I would have a graduate student play. Plus there are Kohler etudes and there are Druet etudes and scads more. It is not totally about which etude you are playing, just make sure you are playing etudes.
Etudes Harp on Technical Issues
I want to give you some other reasons why you should practice etudes. I have this list of accomplishments that can be achieved through practicing etudes. This list came about because etudes changed my flute playing life. They really did. It was not playing solos that changed me as a flutist, it was etudes. We all know that etudes harp on a technical issue and they harp on it for line after line and sometimes page after page. You can have Andersen Etudes that are two, three, four even six pages long! When the composer targets certain aspects of playing that you get again and again and again and again what a phenomenal way to build your technique… if you are practicing it properly.
This brings me to the first point: etudes can build your technique. I wish that I had known this when I was younger because I would have had better technique at a young age. But for all of us at any age better late then never.
Learn to Practice Perfectly
The second point is to practice perfectly every time. Do not allow yourself to practice, go back and fix, and then re-practice. There is a way your brain works that when you practice you create a pathway every time you learn something and if you learned it wrong first then that path is now going the wrong way. You then have to re-practice correctly so many times in order to fix that wrong path even if you only played it once. Practicing perfectly is very important. This means begin slower. Do not allow yourself to have a mistake. Do not allow that to even happen one time. It takes a lot of discipline to do that, but it is very good, especially if you’re planning on a flute playing career. With this method of practice, you will be happy when you’re performing on your first recital that you’ve learned how not to play mistakes even that first time.
Practice with Articulations
Articulation is next on the list of what you can learn in an etude. Etudes have a myriad of articulations, often it is the same articulation that is being worked on in that particular etude. Placement of the tongue when you articulate is especially important. Learn how to get tone at the same time as you articulate. Putting your tongue in the right spot is a phenomenal thing to work on. We do not practice articulations enough. Part of technique practice that I have students use, is the 10 different articulations found in Taffanel and Gaubert’s 17 Grand Exercise for the Flute. I have students practice etudes with many different articulations, not just what is written. This method can then be applied to solo practice. Technique can be learned if you use your metronome and 10 different articulations. Practice with articulations while you are learning your etude. It really helps to learn, and it is a strong way to practice.
Work on Tone
How about tone? Can you work on tone in an etude? Absolutely! When you are looking at your etude, and I think Andersen are especially wonderful in this, there are melody notes hidden among the myriad of technical notes. Practicing those melody notes you can work on tone. I think all Andersen etudes could be used in solo festivals. They are so phenomenal. But I would work on tone with a student by pulling out those notes. When you work on focusing tone on a tiny, short note it can really help tone. Tone disappears often when you are playing an etude because we are so bogged down with all the technique. So, stay focused on tone when practicing.
Find Your Cadences
Musicality is really something great that occurs when practicing etudes. Phrasing, when you find that melody and realize it moves to a cadence. You learn to shape the melodies within the technique and find your cadences. I teach students to play that melody like it is the most beautiful thing and it is the only thing that you are going to play. Then your job is to play the etude up to tempo with all the phrasing to the cadence points. It is a fantastic workout.
Learn to Play Through
How about a less concrete reason: concentration. Learning to play with concentration is learning to play through without stopping. I was one of those who could have benefited from this strategy much younger. Concentration is something I battle when performing. Etudes are where you pay the piper and learn this skill. Practice by starting at the beginning of an etude (after you have already worked on it and know it) and put your metronome on at the tempo it should go. Now play through and pay attention and do not stop for anything. Do not fix a wrong note. Do not go back to catch something. Learn to play through. This a great technique that is often missed when working on etudes. Sometimes, when I have not learned an etude up to tempo but I’m half to ¾ the way I will put the metronome on and play with this skill in mind. Sometimes it takes more stamina and concentration at metronome speed 80 to play through the etude than it does at metronome speed 104.
These are several reasons why you need to be practicing etudes every day. I hope that you can see why practicing etudes can be so beneficial to all aspects of your flute skills.
If your teacher is not having your practice etudes, I do not think they would mind if you added them to your practice routine. You can find several at my website to download for free at the DOWNLOADS tab above.
Enjoy working on etudes. They should not be thought of as drudgery! Think of them as solos. Beautiful, wonderful solos that will make your playing rise to a new level.
Have Fun!
DoctorFlute
Watch me demonstrate this:
Why You Should Be Practicing Etudes Every Day – FluteTips 121
What to Do in a 30-Minute Practice Session
