articulation

Clear articulation, especially in fast passages (for instance, the famous excerpt from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Mendelssohn), can be challenging. Often in virtuosic passages, articulation is unclear and breathy. To fix this problem, I recommend the following process:

Play your passage slowly and legato, being sure to maintain a beautiful and clear tone. As you play, make sure your support is solid. To do this, I like to place a wine cork between my teeth and cheek, while blowing air quickly, and fingering the notes. This keeps me from concerning myself with tone quality, while addressing a few other important areas: air speed, breath support, finger work, and relaxing of the embouchure. When you return to playing normally, remain aware of feelings you had with the cork exercise: constant air flow, low support, and relaxed, puffy cheeks. Now, you will hear a released, open and warm sound. After you have mastered a beautiful legato in the fast passage, gradually add gentle consonants (“d” or “t” as in the *Italian or Spanish “t”). As you add the consonants, be sure to maintain the feelings of air flow, very low support, and relaxed, puffy cheeks. Observe your tongue movement. In fast passages, whether single- or double-tongued, the tongue movement should be minimal.

There are several options for articulation on the flute. Varying consonants provides a beautifully richer palate of colors: c (cat), d (dog), p (pet), ch (chat), g (gum), and t (tack), *Spanish or Italian t (produced without the explosion of air we hear in the English t) are some of the most popular.  Experiment during your warm up routine with these different consonants and the colors they produce.  Be aware of tongue placement for each of them, always minimizing the amount of tongue activity. Some other consonants, though less practical in everyday use, provide interesting effects: th (the), l (log), s (sat), and b (bat). In addition to providing the flutter-tongue effect, the rolled r is particularly good for releasing tongue tension. After a bit of flutter-tongue practice, you will find that tongue tension vanishes, especially in piccolo playing.