Mastery

In Reply to: Re: Flute Mastery posted by Bilbo on December 24, 2003 at 11:56:29:

Mastery.

I don’t think anyone will ever “master” anything. The mind of the performer is a very strange thing. Masters are always struggling with things albeit on a different level from those who are not considered “masters”.

There are many aspects to be taken into account. The state of your mind, to begin with. The more you have on your mind the more windows you have open and the less concentrated your performance or practising will be.

The physical aspect of it all is another thing we have to look at. I don’t know if you remember recently the discussion on the Lafin Gold head. I was trying to figure out how it played on different flutes, gold and platinum. ( I recently played three concerts in Germany using it on my platinum flute and it was a great success) The day before wrote about this I was practising the ocarina. I have to play a concert at the British Flute Society Convention with Michael Copley who is a master on the ocarina. The instrument I have is not glazed and I got a blister on my top lip, which developed like a cold sore. Well as a matter of interest I shifted my embouchure a little to the left and was able to play. I would not like to do this all the time but it did work and I was able to practice and give an opinion of the Lafin head to you all in the chat room.

There are other physical aspects, which affect us like sore hands as a result of not holding the flute correctly, pains in the back resulting not standing properly, sore neck form holding the head too far forward, to mention a few of the more common pains we are afflicted with. All these little things will hinder our “mastery” of the flute.

As you go along your mind goes to a higher level leaving your body physically behind. This happens to me too. Fortunately there are ways around these difficulties and most of them are easily overcome in the practice room.

Because many of these things apply to me most of the time I do know what I am talking about. But, having practiced the flute when I was very young I was streets ahead in the “mastery” business. When I was fifteen I could play all the Moyse Daily Exercises, A,B,C,D, and the major and minor scales in thirds to the metronome of 126/132. Can you imagine the effect this had on most of the pieces I was playing at the time? Chaminade, Goddard and pieces like this?

Well I already had this great grounding in the scales and arpeggios which meant that when I would play things like the Chaminade, it sounded really brilliant because of the “mastery” of the scales. The same in the Goddard Waltz. To this day I use the Goddard Allegretto to test a flute. It only takes two minutes and you play all over the instrument.

I was then, and am now always struggling to get better.At the moment I am learning the Boehm Op 26 for the second time and finding it very interesting.

I find my hands, particularly the right hand, begins to send me signals if I am not holding the flute correctly. Boehm was acutely aware of the difficulties of playing the instrument he had invented. The Studies and Caprices of Boehm spend more time going around low C and the lower octave of the flute than the Andersen studies. I think Boehm was more aware of the flute keys as a keyboard and that this keyboard needed to be mastered.

Take the first Caprice in C major for example. Unless you have a very good hand position on the flute and specially the right hand you are not going to be able to play this at a reasonable speed, somewhere in the 90’s on the metronome.

The second one in A minor has a section in F major which goes around low c and again if your position is not good you are going to have trouble getting it every time.

Mastery is indeed a very complicated state. I do not consider my self as having mastered the flute, but I get a real kick out of trying.

Well I have to go and master the art of wrapping Christmas presents before the house gets up and running.

I wish you all a blessed Christmas on this very special day.

Best regards,
Sir James