Helen Bledsoe

Category: extended techniques

  • Tongue Pizzicato

     A question came up on the Flute List about how to produce tongue pizzicato effectively. Here is a link to a video where I demonstrate this effect (along with other percussive effects and air sounds).

    This is the notation I prefer for tongue pizzicato

    To get a good POP, you have to close off your air passage from behind and in front, compress the trapped air, then release it. Perhaps a “bubble” image will help. That is what we are doing, popping air after all. It’s a simple concept that each flutist can do differently. I’ll now go into boring detail about what works for me.

    To block the air from the back,  raise the back of the tongue as if you are beginning to swallow. If you try to close your throat further down (as it is in the middle of a swallow), that won’t work (for me).

    For a tongue pizzicato, the release of of the air bubble can be varied, tongue on the lips, or tongue on the palate.

    If on the palate, I find it more effective if the tongue is slightly retroflex. That’s a fancy word, but actually it only means the tip of the tongue is behind the hard palate, pointing up but not pointed. There should be an air-tight chamber (bubble), with the hard palate as the roof and your tongue as the walls and floor. The pressure to create the pop is made by trying to push the air bubble forward. When you feel the pressure, you can release front of the tongue and let the jaw drop a tiny, tiny bit, that will help the air bubble go down into the flute.

    In the pizzicato with tongue on the lips (behind or between the lips, both are possible), the bubble’s roof is the roof of your mouth, the walls are the teeth and cheeks, and the floor is your tongue. The pressure is built up by squeezing whatever muscles you can (lips, cheek tongue, whatever works), then drawing the tongue quickly back. Letting the jaw drop here a tiny, tiny bit can also help here with resonance, getting the air bubble into the flute.

    Hard to put into words what goes on inside us!

  • 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 long, loud passage, you might find yourself passed out on the floor! The trick here is to make as sibilant a sound as possible. One way of doing this is to actually narrow the throat a little to make the air passage smaller (I know, just the opposite of what we all learned!), then raise the tongue a little, so that it disturbs the distribution of air wanting to escape from your mouth. These are subtle adjustments, you needn’t do too much. All you are doing is speeding up the air, as when you narrow the end of a garden hose to make it spray further. For loud passages, you will still need to give extra support from down below, putting your abdominal muscles into play.
    The pizzicati sounds will be louder and more resonant if the flute is turned out a bit. The more you can make resonance in your own mouth, the better. For maximum resonance for key clicks, stay in playing position, open your throat as far as possible, and open your mouth just a bit more over the embouchure hole to create an extra resonance chamber.

    I have posted some further information on the production of tongue pizzicato here.

    For composers:
    There is unfortunately no standarisation of notation for these effects. I have shown on the video those recommended by Pierre-Yves Artaud in his book Present Day Flutes. I find these to be quite intuitive, but maybe another flutist will have another opinion.
    When notating air sounds for the flute, please avoid using empty note heads, unless an empty note head is rhythmically called for (a half note, dotted half note, or whole note). I know, Helmut Lachenmann, Isabel Mundry, and other well-known composers use open note heads, but it makes their music extremely frustrating to read. I am hoping that this tradition will die out. (For more about this and to see written musical examples, read my blog entry here.)
    Key clicks on the flute fall into my “Why Bother?” category. Unless you carefully compose them in a solo work, or under amplification, you won’t  hear them.  95 % of the time, I end up having to reinforce them with a tongue pizz. Helmut Lachenmann’s Mouvement is an exception, there are some passages with pure key clicks that can actually be heard! However,  other passages in that piece that need the reinforcement of a tongue pizz.
    Note that the difference between a tongue pizz produced on the palate and a tongue pizz produced on the lips is not very distinct. It may be best to let the player decide where to produce the pizz. Some can do it on the palate better, others more effectively on the lips. However there are circumstances, such as close amplification, where that small difference can be quite interesting.
    Now, if only I could beatbox…..

  • Small-Interval Multiphonics

    On the occasion of the publication of my article on Kazuo Fukushima’s Shun-San in Flute Talk May/June 2010 and Robert Dick’s upcoming masterclass in Bremen (July 6, 2010), I’d like to elucidate some ideas about multiphonics.

    Working on Shun-San got me thinking about small-interval multiphonics (those with an interval of an augmented second or less). The first line of advice on how to produce these comes from Robert himself, and can be viewed here. His advice is fantastic, spot-on and humorful, I recommend viewing it.*
    *Although I don’t agree with what Robert says in regard to offset G flutes or doing sit-ups, but that’s another story.

    In my Flute Talk article, I touch on the subject of small-interval multiphonics. This passage has elicited some raised eyebrows and questions. To begin, I’ll site the passage:

    Flutists often encounter difficulty with small-interval multiphonics because they are hung up on trying to produce a focus immediately. That is difficult to do when you are blowing in two directions at once. The irony of these small-interval multiphonics is, at first, you have to unfocus to get the sense of focus. Open up the embouchure hole and let both notes in. Initially there will be a lot of air, but with practice you can refine them. They will sound focused and rich because of the very low difference tone caused by a close interval. When you get the hang of playing these small intervals, it may help to focus on producing this difference tone rather than the individual notes themselves. That may seem strange but sometimes it works.

    The first point of confusion may arise in that I assume the reader is already familiar with Robert Dick’s advice: get to know the dynamic range of each note first. Then, keeping a constant airspeed, use the angle of the air to find both notes. If you don’t research the gamut of air speed for each note, you’ll never find the small range of speed that overlaps and works for both.

    This is what I meant by having to unfocus to get the sense of focus. You need a constant airspeed and a wide angle at first that will let both notes in. LinkLinkPlease forgive my artistic crudeness, and the angles are unrealistic, but here hopefully you can see where the angles overlap. If your focus is too narrow at first, you may miss the range where the angles overlap.

    Now, to explain that bit about the low difference tone. An explanation of difference tones can be found in Wiki. Often is is not an actual, distinct tone that I hear. Rather, it is just a low sort of humming sound, or it’s as if something opens acoustically at the bottom – a feeling rather than a sound.

    I hope this has been of help. Some of those multiphonics in Shun-San are hair-raising! Even someone like me who has been familiar with them for years needs to put in serious practice time on them. It is a good refresher!

    [later edit: here is a video tutorial on the subject.]

  • 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

  • Extended Techniques: Benefits, Applications and Tips

    I’d like to open with some inspiring words by Sax player Jack Wright

    In the early decades of free improv, when new techniques were the mark of a fresh approach to traditional instruments, they were often considered the new standard to be displayed. But at this point I find players using a more integrated technique, where nothing is “extended” because no technique by itself connotes a radical departure. […] [N]ow every technique tends to be subordinate to the direction of the music, and pyrotechnics are not flashed as a distinctive badge of mastery. Of course, there are some in every audience who will be impressed by circular breathing, the kind of “look, ma, he ain’t breathing!” reaction, but if we want to stay on course we know we aren’t about impressing people but rather opening up our musical hearts. And for me, this opening calls for the hugest range of sound the imagination can wring out of body and instrument. [From an interview with John Berndt]

    The study of extended techniques as an extension of good traditional technique and good practice habits gives our imagination wide scope for expression. Studied carefully, they will help to strengthen many aspects of flute technique: embouchure, air flow and the cultivation of patience! Below are some of the benefits and applications that I have discovered myself and collected from others:

    • Harmonics. Benefits: embouchure strengthening and development, improvement of upper register, especially articulation of quiet attacks, familiarization of “natural” tuning, finding the correct angle of a note, and their use as “alternate” fingerings
        Applications:

      • to relieve stuffy notes – take a high note that tends to stuffiness such as G#3. Play it first mf sustained. Then play it as a harmonic of C#, then as a harmonic of middle G#, then as a harmonic of E, then as a harmonic of low C#. At each step, play the note sustained, then with repeated articulations: single, double tongued, and flutter tongued. Listen to the intonation as well. Note how much or how little you have to do to “correct” it.
      • for third-octave rapid passages, use harmonic fingerings for ease and improved intonation
      • when playing alto or bass flute in the third octave, I almost always use harmonic fingerings as the “traditional” ones are inevitably too sharp.
    • Singing while playing. Benefits: opening of the sound, improvement of the sense of pitch, control of air flow
        Applications:

      • as an exercise for hitting high notes: sing and play low C, then blow up through the harmonic series. To reach the highest C, notice how you needn’t sing louder. The speed of the air is what produces this sound. You can create that speed by moving the lips forward – like you would sqeeze the nozzle of a garden hose to get the water out in a faster stream. Find the correct angle, focus your energy at the pelvic floor (as if you are about to cough) and blow! But notice how you can keep your throat relaxed: keep singing.
      • throat tuning to help smooth out potentially “bumpy” intervals – such as (above the staff) E down to A.
    • Multiphonics. Benefits: embouchure refinement and strength, control of air pressure and speed, control and awareness of angle of air column
        Applications

      • as an exercise for refinement of quiet tones: push the flute in all the way and play multiphonics of very small intervals (see Exercise L: Robert Dick Tone Development through Extended Techniques). My method is to play the notes separately and refine the sound of the upper note first. Once you have refined it – remember the air speed, this is the one you will need. It can’t be weaker and still produce the upper note! Then by changing the angle of the airstream find the lower note. (This is Robert Dick’s advice, then he further suggests to tune your throat to the weaker pitch.)
      • as an exercise for opening up the sound – (pull the flute back out if you have pushed it in) – play muliphonics of large intervals (see Exercises D and Q: Robert Dick Tone Development through Extended Techniques). For these intervals it helps to think of having a “tall” embouchure, the upper lip controlling the upper note, the lower lip controlling the lower note.
        Tip

      • When you need to hit a stable multiphonic in an ensemble situation, it is often advisable to aim for the top note and don’t let it waver, otherwise it will sound like a mistake. (For example, the multiphonics in Xenakis’ Jalons.) Of course, make the sound as rich as you can by including as much of the lower tone(s) as possible
    • Whistle tones. Benefits: control and awareness of the lip’s aperture, control of very slow air-stream
        Applications:

      • as listening and refining exercise choose a low note such as low C, play whistle tones carefully seeing which notes of the harmonic series you can pick out. To find the proper resonance, whistle the normal way – this prepares your oral cavity for the right shape of the whistle tone.
      • as a relaxing/de-stressing exercise: work on controlling slow air streams by practising low whistle tones. Your embouchure has to be very steady because there is little air behind it to support it. (Patience: It took me a long time to get to low C!) This is another case where thinking “tall embouchure” helps. It also helps to think of having a cushion of air behind your lips (i.e., your lips are not too flat against your teeth) and to relax your jaw. Once you can do this reliably, it is a good de-stressor before going on stage.
      • if you have trouble producing a fourth octave note, find the correct angle by first finding the whistle tone (you may find yourself rolling out more than usual), then blow. It should help.
    • Circular breathing. Benefits: development of the larger muscles for embouchure flexibility and stamina, ability to play longer phrases in moving passages.
        Applications:

      • in classical repertoire, one can use this for rapid or trill passages. I like to use it for long cadential trills because you can give full power without fear of having not enough air for the final note.
      • as a checkpoint for resonance. When I am warming up or just about to go on stage, I check my circular breathing regardless if it is required in the piece I am about to play. This is a sure-fire test to see if either of my nostrils or the back of my throat is blocked. If I am clear enough to circular breathe then I should be able to play with maximum resonance!

    To approach a given technique musically, ask yourself (or by all means the composer):

    • is the technique used to create a certain atmosphere?
    • does it evoke something concrete?
    • does the technique play a role in the form of the piece?

  • 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 a player and teacher, I am convinced of their benefit to traditional playing. But that’s not what I want to post about. I would like to approach this question from another angle.

    Some years ago in an active network forum a very prominent flutist remarked that flutists who can circular breathe belong to a certain class of players whose time would have been better spent working on learning to play properly. I won’t delve into the implications here. It made me livid. I spent 11 weeks in 1992 learning to circular breathe, did that hinder me from playing properly? How idiotic! This person has somewhat recanted this initial statement, but the shadow of stigma still applies in some circles.

    Now I have 5 years experience teaching at the conservatory level, and I’ve begun to understand this attitude. I won’t say I sympathize, but I understand it enough to offer some insights which I hope will help students, teachers and composers. There are two issues, as I see it.

    The first is a basic misunderstanding. Here is an illustration – this semester I had a student who was swamped with student ensemble compositions and several 20th century repertoire pieces. After this period, she came to me with an 18th century work. The sound was bad, no focus, articulation stuck, breathing shallow. She had tied herself into knots because of the difficulty of the contemporary works, which included circular breathing, microtonality and switching to alto and bass flutes. A typical teacher’s reaction would be “OK, see what that stuff does to you? No more!” But folks, the music itself is not at fault, it was the student’s attitude toward it that stressed her and put her practice into panic mode, causing physical problems that set her way back.

    That can happen with any repertoire. It can happen when you first learn to play the piccolo. Good and balanced practice on the piccolo can help and enrich your flute playing, as can good and balanced practice of extended techniques. Managing the airstream and angle for piccolo playing is also an extention of flute technique. Exercising the same management for multiphonics is not such an “out-there” thing.

    It wasn’t for nothing that Aurèle Nicolet always said: “You must play Baroque music every day, you must play Bach every day!” If you practice extended techniques as a true extension of good practice out of good flute technique, you won’t fall back, or at least if you do, the recovery time will be very quick.

    However, there is another aggravating element, which leads me to the second point, the disparity between composing and performing. Student composers don’t necessarily need endless years of training to write very complicated music. Student instrumentalists and singers need decades of training before they acheive the level it takes to play a complicated piece it took a student composer only one semester to write. I’ve put this rather crudely but you get what I mean. Since being a composer-performer is not really encouraged by the conservatory system, this artistic link has been severed. Our only hope is diplomacy! Communication of the issues of difficulty is very important. Encouraging an us-versus-them attitude will make the situation for both worse.

    When a flute student is first exposed to contemporary techniques at the conservatory level, it is likely s/he will be overwhelmed because that first exposure may be a standard repertoire piece written for a professional [think of all the works written for Pierre-Yves Artaud, Robert Aitken, Roberto Fabricciani and so on], or written by a student or faculty composer who assumes that level as the norm. The student is frustrated, the teacher, if inexperienced, is also frustrated and there’s another black mark against contemporary music. The earlier good, measured, positive exposure to extended techniques, the better.

  • 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 the multiphonics with fingerings in your performance instructions so you need not repeat the fingerings in the score.

    Q: How should I notate the fingering?
    A: Robert Dick has the most intuitive system, it is just a template of the layout of the flute’s keys. Carin Levine and Pierre Yves Artaud don’t draw the trill keys but refer to them with the letters “A” and “B”. A flutist unfamiliar with these books (esp. if they get out of print) won’t know what to do. If you need a template, you may use the jpg below (taken from Robert Dick’s Flying Lessons):

    There is also a cheap downloadable font for Sibelius, Finale and text editors available here. I haven’t tried this out myself, so I don’t know how easy it is to use, but I like the results.

    Q: Which multiphonic resource should I use?
    A: At the time of this writing, I would most highly recommend Robert Dick’s The Other Flute and Carin Levine’s The Techniques of Flute Playing. Do not use Bruno Bartolozzi’s New Sounds for Woodwinds.

    Unless you are a flutist yourself, I would not advise using The Virtual Flutist. When a resource shows every single pitch that can be produced by a certain fingering, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a multiphonic can be created from these pitches. Try it with a live player before trusting a theoretical projection of the flute’s acoustic response.

    Q: Can I just notate the main note and leave the multiphonic up to the player?
    A: Sure! Be aware though that on the lowest notes only harmonic multiphonics are possible. In layman’s terms, multiphonics are made possible by venting the tube at a certain location which causes the note to split. Low notes need the long tube of the flute. If we vent a key, we shorten the tube: therefore no low note. In short, the best range for “free” multiphonics is the middle register and up to the flute’s 3rd octave B-flat. At least that is the most comfortable for me.

    Q: Can you trill a multiphonic?
    A: Depends. Almost all have the possibility to do at least a timbral trill. Check with your local flutist.

    Q: Can you fluttertongue a multiphonic?
    A: Yes. Some very close multiphonics are actually easier with fluttertongue. This is assuming however, that the flutist can fluttertongue. It’s not always a given.

  • Robert Dick, 22 March 2009


    Left to right: Charlotte, Johanna, Nozomi, Robert, Wan, Kanae

    Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending, albeit briefly, Robert’s masterclass in Wuppertal, Germany. It was great to see him! The last time I saw him, he was walking out on a concert I gave at the BAM in New York! Not because of me though. Our group was playing very loud minimalistic music, not his (or my) cup of tea. At least I got to wear earplugs. Since then, we’ve both become parents, so we had a good exchange on the joys and difficulties of juggling children and career. We’re both “older” parents, and are on our own as far as having no near relatives or live-in help to give us a hand.

    Be that as it may, I got a good dose of inspiration. He began Sunday morning chatting about singing and playing, and the importance of singing in general. There’s nothing like it to get you listening. He said that if he were to teach a beginner, he would start with singing. This resonates with what I have been thinking these years, esp. after having studied in India. There, one learns to sing or use the voice first, even in training to be a percussionist! I think we are a strange musical culture, that puts some object into a kid’s hand and says, now make music out of it! Someday, I must put my India notes on blog.
    Anyhow, back to Robert.

    5 of our (Harrie Starreveld’s and my) students, past and present, took part. I was very impressed with what Robert had to say about Mozart and Kuhlau. This was the first time I had heard him coach the classical and romantic repertoire; his keen musicality and vivid imagination made for very good lessons.

    We did touch on learning harmonic multiphonics, in the context of Fukushima’s Mei. This applies to Berio Sequenza as well. [The 1st days of the masterclass went into extended techniques in detail – I unfortunately missed them.] When it comes to the harmonic multiphonics that are found in these two pieces, it pays to put in some serious time in studying them before learning the piece. You don’t learn the sonority in the piece, just like you don’t learn the D major scale by playing Mozart!

    He described it thus: by not practicing the sonorities first and just hoping they come in the concert – it is as if you walk down to the sea and just happen to reach in the water and pick out the exact fish you wanted!

    How to go about preparing harmonic multiphonics:
    Practice octaves, fifths, and fourths – in that order.
    With octaves, it is easiest to begin where the flute has a short tube: C2 – C3. then work your way down.
    With fifths and fourths, begin where the flute is longest, low C or B and work your way up.
    Suggested practice time devoted to this: 15 min each day.

    The benefit of this is not only to learn these sonorities, but to make the lips fit. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. This is the practice pathway up the mountain!