How to organize your practice: a routine for intermediate and advanced flutists
My overarching goal in starting this site is to help and encourage flutists, whether they are advancing toward a university degree or career in music, learning flute for the first time as an adult with other responsibilities or, like me, continuing to enjoy and play music while maintaining an active non-musical career and family life.
No matter which circumstance describes your situation, organizing your practice session is key to achieving your goals. The practice organization I propose today is suitable for those studying seriously, and perhaps looking towards graded exams or university entrance auditions. No worries, there will surely be a future post on how to practice most efficiently when time does not allow for all the steps below.
Scales. For ambitious musicians, knowing your scales is simply a must. As the backbone of western classical music, having your scales securely under your fingers makes learning repertoire quicker and easier. Luckily, they also provide a great way to warm up at the start of your practice session, especially when played musically, e.g., with a crescendo and good breath support as the scales ascend, and a decrescendo on the descent. As an advanced flutist, I may, for example, in one day play major scales in all keys in an extended range (to top C-D), down to low C and back to the tonic note. Harmonic minors could be practiced the next day, etc. (Scale patterns perhaps deserve their own post!) For students in an earlier stage of development, perhaps a handful of scales a day in one or two octaves, repeating those chosen scales for a week or so until they are secure.
Daily Exercises. Although we may all approach these with a degree of dread, there is good reason that Taffanel-Gaubert’s 17 Big Daily Finger Exercises are considered the Bible for flutists. These daily exercises, and others, will expose and systematically help you to remedy all of your weak points. Play with a metronome, vary your articulation, and be brutally honest with yourself when your transitions between notes are uneven, your tone is weak, or your intonation is off. They can sometimes be a slog and it is never pleasant to focus so much on your problem areas, but doing so pays huge dividends.
Etudes. Etudes are short pieces that can be learned in one to two weeks and often focus on one technique at a time, for example a particular rhythm or articulation, or jumps to the high register, etc. Apart from strengthening your technique, etudes expose you to a lot of musical patterns and increase your ability to sight read and learn repertoire quickly.
Repertoire. Finally you get to the fun stuff. This is the part of your practice session where you work on your goal piece, any pieces you are playing with ensembles, your orchestral excerpts, etc.
Technical studies. I recommend ending your practice session with work on one particular aspect of playing that you are currently focused on improving. Currently I’m working on tone by working through Moyse’s Tone Development Through Interpretation. Trevor Wye’s practice books are also excellent for this purpose. I recommend selecting one topic and “living” with that one for awhile. I also recommend this work for the end of the practice session because it can be a good way to wind down. You do not need to spend an especially long time on it, just visit the material a bit, and you won’t wear yourself out before you have had a chance to work on your core repertoire.
So there you have it, my recommended practice routine for the developing flutist. The amount of time you spend on each section depends on level and the time you have available. Don’t forget to take breaks, stretch, stay hydrated, and enjoy your practice!