Helen Bledsoe

Category: basics

  • Multiphonics: Tips for Study

    Actually, this is a “notes-to-self” entry disguised as “Tips”. There are good sources for learning and practicing multiphonics such as Robert Dick’s “Tone Development through Extended Techniques” (although I know the term “extended techniques” has gone out of fashion, but the practice in the book is solid). I also have a detailed presentation where I…

  • Using Harmonics: Making Difficult Intervals Even Harder! Why?

    If you have a difficult interval in any kind of musical passage, playing the second note as a harmonic makes it even more difficult. You have to put more effort into directing the air and controlling the air speed. Once you have done that though, going back to the original passage without the harmonic seems…

  • Getting Started with Multiphonics

    I would like to share the following presentation: Getting Started with Harmonics and Multiphonics – with a deep dive into the harmonic structure of the flute sound. Why do I start this presentation with a discussion on harmonics? Because if you learn how to take out, put in, and isolate harmonics in your sound, harmonics…

  • Getting Back in the Saddle

    I noticed a strange thing about getting back in shape after the last winter break. I was frustrated and, to be honest, a little frightened at how long it took to retrieve my “norm”, and wondered if it was a dire sign of things to come. I decided to blog about it, not only because…

  • Intonation Exercises

    Here is a compendium of intonation exercises I have written over the years. They require either two players or one player and a sound-generator such as a tuner or an app. (The exception is the “Exchange” exercise.) These exercises are based on being able to discern and manipulate difference tones, and contain a basic introduction…

  • No More Tears – Breath as a Leit Motif

    For the past year, my colleagues and I have been working with a wonderful vocal coach, Martin Lindsay. His sessions are structured in a way that got me thinking. We start with light stretching and breathing exercises, just enough to activate the abdominal muscles and diaphragm. I won’t go into detail about what these exercises…

  • Wish List

    Things I wish I had spent more time on as a student: Sight reading Scales in intervals of a sixth – and sevenths and ninths! There are too many of those intervals flying around in contemporary music. Improving my writing skills Yoga or sports Learning acoustics. I wasted a lot of time trying to blow,…

  • The True Range of the C Flute

    Back in the USSR, when information was really suppressed, many people were hungry for the truth. Now governments hide the truth from us under a deluge of information. I think composers suffer from this deluge, but it is not a government conspiracy. The true range of the concert C flute is a matter of public…