Helen Bledsoe

Category: Advice for Composers

  • Bass Flute ins and outs II – for composers

    Since my last post about composing for bass flute, I’ve taken note of other questions that pop up with regularity. Q: Should I notate the pitches as sounding or transpose up an octave? A: Please transpose them up an octave. Flutists are not used to reading ledger lines below the staff or reading bass clef.…

  • Air & Percussive Sounds for the Flute

     This entry is cross posted on the musikFabrik blog This video gives a brief demonstration of some common air sounds and percussive effects on the flute. Here are some further tips for players and composers: For players, when doing air sounds, it is not always necessary to use as much air as possible. After a…

  • Trouble-shooting problems between composers and performers

    There are several categories of potential trouble areas between composers and intstrumentalists:1) Basic orchstration mistakes2) Unfamiliarity (on either side) with a particular extended technique or effect3) 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…

  • 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.,…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • Extended Techniques, Blessing or Abomination?

    I am astonished by the occasional vitriol I encounter from some prominent flutists when it comes to extended techniques such as multiphonics, circular breathing and so on. They chant the same nonsense: “bad for your embouchure”, “waste of time”, “don’t be one of those players”. After over 20 years of experience with these techniques as…

  • Flute Multiphonics – Q&A for composers

    Q: Should I write in the fingerings for multiphonics?A: Yes. It saves time. It saves misunderstandings. Books go out of print, so please avoid naming multiphonics by number. I know writing or drawing in multiphonics can be a pain. If you have many of them and want to save time and ink, you could write…