Blog for Flutists and Composers
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(Bore) Size Matters
Several times this year I have had other flutists asking me about my bass flute and whether I was able to play easily in the upper 3rd and into the 4th octave. My Kingma bass flute has a mid-size bore (sorry, don’t know the exact specs) and is able to play up to high C…
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Audition videos and tapes – presentation advice and warnings
Here are some of my insights into presentation as someone who watches and listens to many auditions. Please feel free to add to this in the comments below. I won’t talk about equipment or software now, an internet search will provide lots of advice on this subject. Audio or Video? If given the choice, I…
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Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Mondfleck errata
Here is quick reference list of errata in the flute part for those preparing for piccolo auditions or performance. The score and parts are available if you search IMSLP, and the manuscript can be found here. This movement is palindromic, but there are several inconsistencies which raise questions, and there are discrepancies between the part…
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Our Mythical Past
Time to vent another pet peeve: “there are no great ____________ today”. Another take on the adage “kids these days….!” “The standard of flutists has declined. There are so many good flutists today, but none can compare to the giants of the past” is a statement I have actually heard in several contexts by flutists…
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New Work for Piccolo (or any instrument) with Video Score
Last April I had a chance play at the Flute Festival of Krakow’s Academy of Music, organized by the wonderful Wiesiek Suruło. There I premiered a piece of my own, and had the added bonus of sharing the stage with stellar flutists like Wiesiek, Anna Garzuly-Wahlgren and Sarah Louvion. I want to tell a little…
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Too Many Flutists
The phrases “there are too many flutists today”, and “conservatories are producing too many flutists for too few jobs” may be true in a certain respect, but they really sadden me. And piss me off, if I really admit. It has been hard to put my finger on exactly why, but when a friend posted…
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Contemporary Music Pedagogy, and Benefits of Teaching Extended Techniques
[This is an excerpt from a questionaire sent to me by Lorenzo Diaz for research purposes. The answers represent my opinions only.] Do you think conservatoires and schools of music really attach importance to contemporary music education? My short answer to your question is “not really” because I think a “Comtemporary Music Education” should require…
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Flute/Audio Geek Question
So, looking through spectral analysis of my different flutes, I notice a strange dip around 10K on my alto flute. It’s as if someone ran a notch filter right at that frequency. (It’s an alto with a straight headjoint, not a curved one.) Here are the examples. They are raw, not processed, all recorded on…