So, for a while, I’ve been preaching to my students about how they need to work on their intonation if they want to lead happy and healthy lives as musicians…especially, if they want to play well with others. Most of them have a decent ear, but I want the best for them and the people listening to them! Thankfully, most of them are overachievers (to my delight), and they have jumped on board to be my guinea pigs. Over the past few years, I’ve been trialing ways to develop an ear for good pitch, and I really think this begins with having a good ear for tone.
One of the first things my students work on is developing a good, strong tone. First, it’s all about the right balance of air speed, quantity and direction. When these three aspects of a flutist’s playing are working together, paired with a well-formed, small aperture between the lips, most flutists can obtain a beautiful, rich sound. If, after this, the tone is still not what it should be, there are other things to consider: the tongue placement, vowel shape of the mouth, and tension (or lack thereof) in the embouchure all affect the sound. The most valuable tool a young flutist can have when working on tone is a concept of a good tone. Modeling good tone for your students or playing recordings of professional flutists with good, albeit different, tones are both great ways to introduce the possibilities to students.
After my students work to develop their concept of a good tone, they work on making that tone as homogenous as possible throughout the entire range of the flute. Moyse’s De la Sonorite is my go-to for this. The first series of exercises in the book lends itself to comparing tone from note to note. As the student descends from B above the staff to low C or B, I have them take notes about which notes they like really well versus which notes they like the least.
I then have them work from note to note, trying to match their best tone in an attempt to fix any notes that they don't like. The exercise becomes more interesting if you can get the student to assign different descriptors to the different kinds of tone. Some notes might be described as heroic, wispy, bright, sweet, etc. Other students could use colors to describe the tone quality of certain notes. The point of this extension of the exercise is open up young flutists’ minds to the possibility of intentionally playing with different kinds of tone.
This first step to developing a better sense of tone and intonation will take longer for some and shorter for others. Be patient, and take your time with this step. Move on when you can play with a reasonably consistent tone. Revisit this exercise from time to time. You will notice that with each revisitation, the exercise will become naturally easier, and the tone smoother.
To put this exercise to work:
One of the first things my students work on is developing a good, strong tone. First, it’s all about the right balance of air speed, quantity and direction. When these three aspects of a flutist’s playing are working together, paired with a well-formed, small aperture between the lips, most flutists can obtain a beautiful, rich sound. If, after this, the tone is still not what it should be, there are other things to consider: the tongue placement, vowel shape of the mouth, and tension (or lack thereof) in the embouchure all affect the sound. The most valuable tool a young flutist can have when working on tone is a concept of a good tone. Modeling good tone for your students or playing recordings of professional flutists with good, albeit different, tones are both great ways to introduce the possibilities to students.
After my students work to develop their concept of a good tone, they work on making that tone as homogenous as possible throughout the entire range of the flute. Moyse’s De la Sonorite is my go-to for this. The first series of exercises in the book lends itself to comparing tone from note to note. As the student descends from B above the staff to low C or B, I have them take notes about which notes they like really well versus which notes they like the least.
I then have them work from note to note, trying to match their best tone in an attempt to fix any notes that they don't like. The exercise becomes more interesting if you can get the student to assign different descriptors to the different kinds of tone. Some notes might be described as heroic, wispy, bright, sweet, etc. Other students could use colors to describe the tone quality of certain notes. The point of this extension of the exercise is open up young flutists’ minds to the possibility of intentionally playing with different kinds of tone.
This first step to developing a better sense of tone and intonation will take longer for some and shorter for others. Be patient, and take your time with this step. Move on when you can play with a reasonably consistent tone. Revisit this exercise from time to time. You will notice that with each revisitation, the exercise will become naturally easier, and the tone smoother.
To put this exercise to work:
- Record yourself playing through the exercise. Verbally note any differences in tone quality as described above, so you can notate it in the exercise afterwards.
- Consistently work on this exercise each day over the course of a week. You should expect to spend about 5-10 minutes on this at first. As you become quicker to adjust, the exercise shouldn't take any longer than 5 minutes.
- After a week, record yourself playing through the exercise again. Compare the first day and last day recordings. What do you hear? Do some notes sound better? Did any sound worse?
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