Now play Trevor Wye’s Practice Book #1 – Tone, p. 7, #1 exercise. Keep the tone full and clear all the way to low C1. If at some point you make any adjustments or move your flute away from your lips, you must repeat the entire exercise from the pitch bend exercise.
Take a look at Trevor Wye's Page.
This only scratches the surface of intonation. For more information, see Trevor Wye’s Book #4 on Intonation.
Studies should be played in every key. Each study should help the flutist with certain technical problems, such as articulations, difficult fingering combinations, large leaps, accidentals, third octave notes, etc. In general, a study should not be practiced longer than 3-4 weeks. Studies are just exercises like those a gymnast might use. The should be treated as such. It is a good idea to go back and study the exercise in about year or so. Expression and musicality should be the important part of studies. You need to develop your expression and the only way to do that is to practice it daily.
A daily practice schedule often depends on the amount of time available. The following rules will help you to become a better musician faster.
1. Make the amount of time available to you effective. Quality is always better
then quantity.
2. Have an objective besides “because my teacher assigned it.”
3. If you make too many mistakes at one tempo, slow your tempo down so that
you can play it flawlessly. Then gradually increase your tempo. Keeping a
metronome chart is one way of keeping you honest.
4. Try to practice at the same time every day.
Here is a time table for those who practice between 30-60 minutes a day:
5-10 min. – Tone *** 5-10 min. – Scales
10-20 min. – Etudes/Studies *** 10-20 min. – Solos
People are too hard on themselves and as a result discourage themselves. If you are upset, take a day off and don’t practice. Don’t spend the day feeling guilty about not practicing. You’d be better off practicing than feeling guilty. If you are a little down, put on a record of a flutist you’d love to play like. This really helps to lift the spirits. The idea of positive reinforcement works. You could also try playing just for fun, like some easy flute solos. Think back many months ago. Could you have played this back then? I hope the answer would be no. How rewarding that would be to know how much you've grown in playing your flute.
Spend a certain amount of time on just scales. Practice arpeggios, but spend an allotted time on scales alone. Start in low registers and continue up the octave. If time doesn’t permit you to complete all keys, start where you left off on the next day of practicing. Work on tone later in the day after you’ve warmed up. The lips are much more flexible after you’re warmed up. ALWAYS practice with good tone with the support of good technique. If you get sick of practicing, stop. Automatic practicing is a waste of time.
To work on difficult passages, start on the note before the passage and go to the note after the passage to keep things in context. If there is a problem note in the passage, play the note before the problem. Hold this note until you are mentally prepared to play the next note. When ready move to the note quickly so that the hard note and the following notes are fast and perfect. Repeat this process with the exception of holding the difficult note instead. Another way to practice a difficult passage is to start at the end adding one note at a time. Yet a third way is to play the passage forwards AND backwards.
Another way to work difficult passages is to rearrange the rhythm. Try using dotted rhythms - long, short, long, short - then reverse it - short, long, short, long. After doing this a few times play it in the written rhythm. Another rhythm that works is - long, short, short, short, long, short, short, short. With this rhythm, move the long note forward several times - short, long, short, short - short, short, long, short, and finally, short, short, short, long. After these exercises play the notes in their proper rhythm. You can also try different articulations.
Always practice fast passages slowly when learning a new piece. Make a metronome chart starting with a tempo that you can play every note perfectly and with good tone. Write down every click of your metronome up to the tempo goal. Check off each number as you have fully accomplished each and every metronome marking. By the time you finish doing this, you will probably have the selection memorized.