Helen Bledsoe

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  • Trouble-shooting problems between composers and performers

    There are several categories of potential trouble areas between composers and intstrumentalists:
    1) Basic orchstration mistakes
    2) Unfamiliarity (on either side) with a particular extended technique or effect
    3) Unclear notation

    What I am about to say may seem a bit didactic and Miss Mannerish, but really, it’s common sense. And as you may gather, I’ve had enough bad experiences to know what works and what doesn’t. I’m all ears for other ideas though.

    Flutists, unless you are dealing with a composer/performer, you are the expert of your instrument and in a possible position to educate the composer. See your role as that of an educator, but use it with care because no one likes to feel patronised. To say simply “this is impossible” is very unproductive, even when it comes to a simple mistake such as a low C on the piccolo.

    When faced with difficulty, the first step is to find an alternative. It is sometimes useful to take the initiative and suggest one yourself. As in all possible conflict situations, it is better to retain the “I” message rather than the “you” message. For example: I naively expect composers to know basic orchestration rules for flute and piccolo; therefore I am constantly disappointed. What to do? Some example suggestions: “could I take this low C up an octave? My standard piccolo only plays to low D.” or “given the (lack of) time we have, I would much prefer to play this rapid 4th octave passage on the piccolo rather than on the flute.” or “on this high C, I can achieve a much nicer pianissimo on the piccolo rather than on the flute.” The composer will most likely get the idea.

    Articulation of staccato notes is another difficulty I run into with composers (and even conductors). On the lowest notes, the flute has a long resonating tube, and this takes time to speak. Some head joint cuts are designed so this register speaks loudly and easily. One can always strive to do better, and there are many exercises for the improvement of this technique. However, if you run into serious trouble trying to match the length of notes with string instruments or electronic sounds, you do have an acoustical excuse. If you see an alternative, suggest it. If not, express your willingness to work on improvement, but show the composer the length of tube required to resonate (and thus the physical limitations).

    Often, when puzzling over an extended technique, rather than say “this is impossible” or “I can’t do this”, it helps to ask what the composer actually wants acoustically. Is there another technique which you can do which would be just as or more effective? Or ask where s/he got the technique from. Was it from another player whom you could simply contact for advice? Was it from a book? Were acoustical considerations overlooked such as the difference between a B foot and a C foot, or the difference between any two flutes or flutists?

    Most composers I have worked with are very open and eager to look for solutions together. I once experienced a misunderstanding in an ensemble piece where I was faced with a passage of rapid, high whistle tones (notated exactly so: “whistle tone”) marked forte. The composer, Beat Furrer, actually wanted these sounds loud, which is an acoustical impossibility. He insisted, however, that the previous player had achieved this. I asked him what the previous player had actually done, then tried out a few things according to his description. It turned out that what he wanted were overblown harmonics with a lot of air, which in the context of this ensemble piece did give a whistling effect. So these effects were not whistle tones as I had learned them, nor as they appear in textbooks. I pointed this out to the composer, who did not take my point or make any “correction” in the part. As long as we had found the acoustic solution together, he was satisfied his notation had produced the results he wanted. What to do? In this case, I decided I had done my “duty” by pointing out a possible misunderstanding for the next flutist. To have taken “educator” role too far would have just meant getting into an argument (which I would have undertaken had this been a solo piece).

    This is perhaps a long way of saying to my fellow flutists: let’s work together with composers to encourage the following:

    • a more standardized notation for extended techniques
    • a good working score for the next performer who comes along!

  • Tips for composing and notating aeolian (air) sounds

    Here are some tips on the use of air or aeolian sounds:


    Be sure to specify if you want these sounds:

    A. produced in normal playing position, so the air goes across the flute and produces a pitch that corresponds with the fingers (pitched air / aeolian sound), or
    B. produced inside the flute: i.e., if you want the flutist to cover the embouchure hole and produce a kind of unpitched “white noise”.

    Here are the symbols showing different embouchure positions from “Flutes au Present” by P. Y. Artaud. Sometimes I have seen the last one (the completely filled rectangle) to generally mean any technique that requires a covered embouchure hole. In Helmut Lachenmann’s music, he uses a filled-in rectangle as a note head to indicate a covered embouchure. A filled-in circle over a note can also indicate a closed embouchure hole – see below.

    Sometimes I am asked to produce type “A” with the specification “no discernible pitch”. This is nonsense: if a flutist blows across the flute they will always produce some sort of pitch. Even with no fingers down, you will get something in the neighborhood of C#. If you want pitched air and feel the need to add written instruction, just write “only air”. If you want unpitched noise, ask the flutist to blow into or inside the flute (cover the embouchure hole). In this position, the flutist can produce a range of unpitched sounds from bright (higher sounding white noise) to dark (lower sounding pink/brown noise) by changing the position of the tongue (changing the vowel shape).

    This leads to my next point: the use of different vowel sounds for color effects. This is most effective with the embouchure hole covered (type “B”). A good use of covered vowels can be found in Hans Zender’s Lo-Shu II. Be aware that vowel sounds are much less marked in normal playing position (type “A”). Vowel changes in normal playing are not very discernible. See my tutorial here where I go into more detail.

    Some general thoughts about notation:
    There are several notational traditions from the Artaud and Levine books concerning the notation of “aeolian” or “air” sounds which I would like to ask composers to avoid. When composing these sounds especially in a situation where rhythm is crucial (especially in an ensemble situation) please avoid the notation that uses empty note-heads*:

    This notation makes the distinction between a quarter note and a half note difficult. When a player is reading, this can be very annoying. It’s good to have a different note shape, but be sure to fill in the note head in when needed so the player can read the rhythms easily:

    An easy way to indicate a gradual change from normal sound to air is by using text with a dotted line:

    or simply with a filled circle connected to an open circle by a dotted line:

    * Using empty note heads under a tuplet is less problematic and in most cases acceptable

  • Tips for composing singing and playing techniques

    When writing for the flute and voice there are several things to take into consideration.

    The first may be: where to notate the voice line?
    For solo pieces: if you have an extended or complicated voice line it is customary and practical to use a separate staff below that of the flute line. On the other hand, for short simple passages, I prefer to have the voice pitches on the same line as the flute.

    In the context of an ensemble piece, I would use the same guidelines as above, and please be sure to notate the voice line below the flute. As a general rule, it is best to leave free space above the staff for an ensemble player to mark in beats, que notes, or remarks from the conductor.

    Another consideration is the distortion produced by the simultaneous use of the voice and flute. The use of the voice (as most of you know, I am sure) in conjunction with the flute greatly distorts not only the flute sound, but the voice line and any text that you may want to set. Because of this distortion, getting a true polyphony going can also be tricky if you have a complicated passage. In this case, if you want true polyphony, use two instruments. I prefer the use of the voice and flute as a coloristic element, rather than using it as an attempt to create polyphony.

    If you want to set text that is understandable to the audience, it is not advisable to ask the flutist to play at the same time as speaking. A better technique would be to have the flutist speak or sing the words using the resonance of the flute only. Beware of text with nasal vowels, these produce no resonance on the flute.

    Speaking or singing directly into the flute (with the embouchure hole completely closed) is another option. This of course produces a muffled effect; however, rapid key action will interrupt the muffling and create an acoustic “panning”. This effect can be heard at the beginning of George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale

    Some examples of the most effective uses of flute and voice are Noa Noa by Kaija Saariaho for flute and live electronics, and Toru Takemitsu’s Voice .

    When using a vocal line with the alto flute, there is the option of transposing the vocal line or writing it at pitch. Personally, I prefer having the voice line transposed with the alto flute. Since I have only a relative sense of pitch, it makes sense for me to have the voice always referring to the alto flute pitch; although, if the flutist for whom you are writing has a strong sense of perfect pitch, it would be better to write the voice part at pitch.

  • Composers, Common Mistakes When Writing for Flute

    Some common mistakes are:

    • Low C# to D# trill on flute
    • Harmonics in the first octave
    • Low C and C# on piccolo
    • Percussive effects in the second and third octave: key clicks, tongue or lip pizzicati, tongue ram. While these are not mistakes per se, they are not very effective outside the flute’s first octave.

    see also:
    Writing for Students
    Pet Peeves

  • All music is an articulation exercise (or could be made into one)

    In response to the question “How should I practice articulation?”, I always answer “everything is an articulation exercise, or can be adapted into one”. Spending more money on expensive Leduc editions will not help your tongue. Reading theories about where the optimal point of articulation is (behind the teeth, on the palate, between the lips) can give you ideas but not answers, since nobody seems to be in 100% agreement.

    Since nobody can look into your mouth and tell you where to put your tongue, I’ll repeat another truism: all articulation practice is tone practice. Your ears will tell you what works. Good articulation requires just as much awakening of the ears as the tongue.

    “But I have an OK tone, it’s just when I use my tongue for any amount of time it starts to sound bad!”, you may answer.

    “Good!” I say, “So the ears are switched on.”
    The short answer to this problem is that when you engage the tongue, the air behind it has to keep going despite a short interruption. Many players forget this and instead of increasing abdominal support to keep the energy behind the air stream they tighten the embouchure, or even worse, use the jaw to help the tongue! This is what causes fatigue and lack of control in long articulated passages.

    It could also be the tongue is working too hard. My former teacher Bernard Goldberg used to admonish me be saying “you are only slicing air, not last week’s bagels”.

    There are a few checkpoints: maybe the distance between the Du and Gu of double tonguing is too great. Some find it useful to shorten this distance by thinking the Du Gu action as having a vertical (up and down) dimension to it as opposed to just a back-and-forth motion.

    How to establish efficiency? There are no shortcuts. I’ll go out on a limb and say that if you seriously, seriously devote time to this aspect of playing, your body can’t help but adopt the most efficient means possible – if you include your ears and brain in the process. The ears tell you when it’s good and your brain tells you to stop, re-investigate when it’s not good or when you’re fatiguing yourself. This process will repeat itself a zillion times. Like any muscular activity we need diligent, consequent practice and patience to establish new habits.

    Try the following with Mendelssohn’s Scherzo, it’s an adaptation of Aurèle Nicolet’s method:

    Break the solo into manageable passages (for example, the first passage could be the first 13 complete bars)
    Play the passage slowly legato – each note focused and resonant
    Play the passage slowly with ha ha articulation (no tongue!)
    Play the passage with flutter tongue (either kind, throat or tongue)
    Play the passage double tonguing every single written note (g,g,b-flat, b-flat,c,c,d,d,etc…)
    Play the passage as written

    You notice I try to avoid advice on placement and mechanics of the tongue, and mention of particular “schools” like the French School, which is supposedly the ace of articulation. That may well be, but listen to old recordings from the early 20th century English virtuosi, holy smokes, they could hold their own! Also, South Indian musicians, whose native Dravidian languages use retroflex sounds, where the tongue is actually pointed backwards, can move their tongues at lightning speed. Just listen to any mrdangam player doing the rhythmic solmization of konnakkol (that ta-ki-di-mi stuff)!

    In a nutshell:
    Ears are just as important as the tongue.
    Remember the air produces the sound, not the tongue.
    Invest wisely, get more on your return! In this case it means a long-term committment to intelligent practice.

  • The Highest Peaks: Tips for the Third and Fourth Octaves on Flute

    A lot of these tips can be applied to high-register piccolo playing as well.

    Twentieth Century pioneers in the realms of composition and performance have set the standard for us in terms of how high we are expected to play. For better or worse, we need to have fluency at least up to high D on the flute. Hmm, gee, thanks guys, I guess…….

    The best way to go for it is to include the fourth octave your normal scale and arpeggio routine, at least up to high D. And the younger you start the better. That means now. Tomorrow you will be already older 🙂 If you need an online guide to possible fingerings for the flute, try here.

    But, before launching, please consider these tips. They will save you time and prevent injury. If you have any more to share, I am all ears (while I can still hear!).

    • Wear earplugs during practice sessions that include 4th octave passages, or 3rd octave passages for piccolo. Loud noises can tire you just like muscular activity. If you protect yourself from them, you will have more energy and be able to practice longer. The ordinary wax kind will do the job and are better than the foam ones because they nestle in your ear more snugly.
    • Regular harmonics exercises can give you a good basis for healthy upper octaves. See my tutorial here.
    • Robert Dick’s initial advice: get the angle of the air correct first by finding the whistle tone. Usually we need to be rolled out a bit more that we are used to. Then blow!
    • Think of putting energy into your air stream, not your lips. The lips have to be firm to withstand the onslaught of air, but that’s all. Don’t try to create the sound with them, the source is down below.
    • Where down below? A quick focus on the muscles of your pelvic floor before you blow will help. They should move down a bit in contrary motion to the upward energy that comes with the air (as happens naturally when you cough). Try a quick cough (especially sitting down) to get the feeling.
    • Don’t be tempted to squeeze from your sides, though, as happens when normally coughing! This squeezing of the rib cage through the intercostal muscles (“helped” by bringing in the elbows sometimes) feels normal when coughing or panting after being out of breath, but in flute playing, for a quick burst of air, it is more efficient to have the ribs stable and let the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles do the rest. This way, there are no hard objects (rib bones) to slow you down.
    • In practice, do not be tempted to bend forward to “help” or force the air to come out. Staying upright will actually give the abdominal muscles more flexibility and space for re-bound. The choreography you add to a dramatic passage for a concert is totally up to you. Bending at the knees would be a better option, though. However, for general practice, I would start thinking “up” instead of down or forward.
    • At first practice the fourth octave in your own dynamic, don’t try to do extremes of loud or soft. What comes will come.
    • Come down again! Don’t spend too many consecutive minutes in your practice in the fourth octave without playing some in the first octave, or even just resting and not playing at all.
    • And while you are resting: if the fourth octave passage is technically difficult and requires a lot of technical repetition to learn, finger the passage silently with the flute comfortably in your lap. Watch your fingers, concentrate on relaxed breathing, inhaling as well as exhaling, without any unnecessary stress or tension in your shoulders or hands. Combine this practice with actual playing.
    • Watch intonation. In a repertoire passage, if tempo allows, choose fingerings that are as in tune as possible. If the passage is microtonal, I often use standard fingerings for notes that should be up to a quarter tone sharper in this octave, then play the “normal” notes with flattened fingerings.
    • With a difficult repertoire passage, make a short exercise based on the 4th octave notes and include it in your daily scale and arpeggio practice. Then while practicing the piece, you will have time to work on musical aspects.

    What to do about quieter dynamics?

    This is where you can go “virtual”, that is, create the impression of a real piano even though the sound may be quite present. In some cases, the struggle to play quietly is part of the composer’s esthetic, or sometimes the composer just wants a diminishing of energy and will allow for a “relative” piano. Always ask if possible, don’t knock yourself out trying to achieve perfection if the composer doesn’t want it in the first place.

    If a composer really wants a true piano or pianissimo in the fourth octave, or even in the third octave on flute or piccolo, do your best to:

    • think of approaching the beginning of the note from above. You can practice this by deliberately blowing too high, and then aiming the air down gradually until you hit the sound. No worries if this doesn’t sound great at first, this is something that you can refine over time.
    • keep the air speed up and not pinch with the lips. Easier said than done. Quite often in the practice room I get that buzz from the lips that comes from them being too close together at too high an air speed. Open them up, allow a little airiness in the sound, it may still sound loud up close but it will carry less. I remember Pat Morris saying that in an orchestral or large ensemble situation, a little airiness in the sound can be ok in that register, it can help blend with the strings, and gives a sound that makes it easier for others to blend in with you.
    • a tip I learned from a student to help with the lips: think of flaring the nostrils just before starting the note. I had heard this advice in the context of trying to get more sound in the low register, and was delighted to realize that it works in this situation as well. Why? My guess is that it somehow activates awareness into your upper lip muscles. They may be less likely to press down with the nostrils flared.

    Photo: EPA stock photo

  • Contemporary Music : Express!

    Classical Contemporary Music which is abstract, atonal or just plain impenetrable may demand something beyond the traditional idea of instrumantal expression we are taught as flutists (the use of vibrato, tonal colors, dynamics and so on). Here are some random tips on how to tap into other sources for musical ideas.

    Studying works that are outside the tradition of virtuosity can help you to focus on producing expression and dramatic impact. Extreme minimalist music or graphically notated music, for example, is divorced from ideas of technical wizardry; therefore one has to concentrate on aspects of timing, bodily movement, manner of breathing, and concentration. The difficulty is to find a way of generating intensity and maintaining interest throughout a work that may be nothing but a series of bizarre noises. Some examples of this type of music are certain works by John Cage (solos from Song Books, the flute part to Concert for Piano, which can be played as a solo or in conjunction with other works by Cage), Earle Brown (December 1958) or Cornelius Cardew (Treatise). Finding expressive solutions to these scores is a good exercise for stretching your musical imagination. Having travelled to this strange land of extremes can give you great perspective upon return.

    To capture the particular expressive and dramatic style of the composer, I often rely on a practice idea that I picked up from Robert Dick: Play a passage of the piece you are working on, then turn the music away from you and improvise a passage in the same style, using the same range, dynamic inflections, length of phrases, etc. Once you’ve put yourself through this creative process, go back to the written passage. I always find something fresh to consider – perhaps a new inflection, a different color progression, or maybe a new sense of rhythmic clarity.

    When searching for expressive solutions, the world of the visual arts can sometimes provide interesting insights. Here is one example of how visits to museums helped me to solve an expressive problem: While working on the Berio Sequenza from memory I started to wonder, what does one actually do with the mind while performing? Some performers may have a photographic memory and are able to visualize the score during performance. Not having this ability, I needed something to focus on, to keep my visual area from being distracted by the audience. (Playing with your eyes closed is not a good option when trying to communicate).

    I do see this as a problem of expression: from the point of stage choreography, playing solos from memory is a challenge for flutists. Pianists are in profile, violinists are also a bit angled so their f-holes are facing the audience. Even clarinetists can pretend to look down at their fingers. And unlike singers, we do not have total facial freedom, nor can we hide behind a mask of facial expression (the bottom half of our face being otherwise engaged). We also do not have the words to carry the expression. Since we face the audience directly, we need a special courage and a strong method of focus. Of course, you can focus on the “exit” sign at the back of the hall, but still, what are you doing with your mind? I don’t want to be thinking of the “exit” sign!

    One tells children to “think up a story” as an aid to performance. However, that hardly seemed appropriate for a work such as the Sequenza, and could prove even more distracting than the audience. What helped in the end was to allow abstract images to form on their own, inspired and dependent on the sounds I produced during performance. This allowed me to concentrate on the actual sounds I was producing and not be distracted by any preconceived, representational, artificially imposed images or thoughts.

    These images that I formed were inspired by visits to the Stedelijk and Van Gogh museums in Amsterdam, where I was living at the time. I was also able to think of a color scheme and progression that helped me through the opening of Franco Donatoni’s Midi, which can otherwise seem like a salad of endless noodles.

    In yoga, the focus of your eyes is called drishti. Sometimes it is straight ahead, sometimes the tip of your nose, sometimes your belly button (not recommended for flutists!). Do whatever it takes to develop your own drishti. Be relaxed in the focus of your eyes, this will help you to concentrate.

  • Microtonality: some basic tips

    Microtonality is the use of intervals smaller than a half-step such as quarter tones, sixth tones, eighth tones and so on.

    There are several standard ways in which microtones are used (which may be interconnected):
    • As part of a “just” intonation scheme (based on pure intervals instead of equal [keyboard] temperment). Used in a simple way (also known as mean-tone tuning), one plays perfectly in tune in a given key, less so in related keys and totally “out there” in remote keys. So far I have come across no better explanation and description for just intonation than David Doty’s Just Intonation Primer. Or click here for an on-line explanation of just intonation.
    • As part of a “spectral” scheme where the notes are not tuned according to equal [keyboard] temperment, but according to the intonation of upper partials of a given overtone sequence. This is related to just intonation (and again David Doty’s book explains this wonderfully), however in a “just”intonation environment there may be a tonality implied, whereas in “spectral” music a tonality is rarely implied (although there may be a tonal center). Here is an example of how the overtone sequence on our low C is naturally (purely) tuned. The deviation from equal temperment is measured in cents. (Cents are measured by dividing an equal tempered half tone into 100 units. These are marked on most tuners to indicate the degree to which one is sharp or flat.)
    ◦ 1st harmonic (fundamental): C (no change)
    ◦ 2nd harmonic C (no change)
    ◦ 3rd harmonic G: (2 cents sharp)
    ◦ 4th harmonic C: (no change)
    ◦ 5th harmonic E: (14 cents flat)
    ◦ 6th harmonic G: (2 cents sharp)
    ◦ 7th harmonic Bb (31 cents flat)
    ◦ 8th harmonic C (no change)
    ◦ 9th harmonic D (4 cents sharp)
    For the deviation up to the 31st harmonic, see Wikipedia’s entry on the Harmonic Spectrum.
    For tips on how to get these partials in tune without having to resort to watching the cent meter on your tuner (i.e. by ear) read my entry on spectralism.

    • Sometimes a composer may invent a tuning system, then it is up to you to determine: a) why/how the composer uses microtones and b) how you should approach them. These questions will help to determine whether or not the composer has included microtones as special “effect”; i.e., should the “de-tuned” notes be given special colors to contrast the “normal” notes, or does the composer want consistency of timbre? This is an important factor in determining fingering (if not already prescribed by the composer).

    Once the interpretive questions have been addressed, there comes the time to actually play them. There are several fingering charts available such as Matts Möller’s quarter-tone chart. They are good resources but think of them as starting points. My personal advice is to know as many fingerings as possible for a particular note. Be flexible in the choice of fingering because there are several factors to consider when making your choice:
    • the speed of the gesture
    • the intervallic relationship to its neighboring notes
    • the dynamic and tone color
    Although each of these is an important consideration, it is crucial to know your end tempo and always have it in mind. I have made the mistake of carefully going through a score and writing in all the “correct” fingerings for microtones, only to have to change them later as I got the piece up to tempo. Practice the notes in tempo, if only two or three at a time to get a feel for this.

    Sometimes the solution can be simpler than you think. Turning the flute in or out to “de-tune” a note can work just as well as a really complicated fingering. For example: on a standard flute there is no stable fingering for F 3/4 sharp. If you need a loud, stable tone just play F# and lip up. If you need a quiet clear tone, finger G and lip down. (Of course if you want that hollow, bamboo sound, use low B and half hole the F-key [index finger right hand].)

    A note on different flute models: I play on a quarter-tone Kingma System (produced by Osten-Brannen). This is a really great system, and I can recommend it for anyone who wants to play a lot of contemporary music. These flutes are also suitable for all repertoire. However, every flute has the capacity to play microtonally (as we all know, sometimes inadvertently!). Please don’t be discouraged from playing the modern repertoire if you have a standard flute, even if you only have a student model with closed holes. There is still repertoire that can be played on student models such as the flute solos by Karlheinz Stockhausen. See my repertoire list for more suggestions.