Several students and colleagues played for me before the Acting Principal Flute audition last week. One of the nasty excerpts on the list (hey, they're supposed to be nasty!) is from Brahms Hadyn Variations. This particular variation begins forte followed by subito piano. Like I tend to do, these flutists played the music exactly as written from left to right and crashed into the piano passage. After much fruitless repetition, the sudden dynamic change continuing to be less than convincing and frustration setting in, I exclaimed from the comfort of my wing-backed chair “Hey, I have an idea! How about practicing the piano passage by itself away from the transition?” The flutist worked out the difficulties of the piano passage and found a satisfying sense of control. Then he added the forte passage. It was like a small miracle. The subito transition clicked into place.
OK, maybe this seems totally obvious to you reading this, but it was a real epiphany for the students as well as myself. I like to call it “practicing in chunks”. I fine tune one “chunk” in reletively the same style whether it be dynamic, register or articulation. Then I glue this “chunk” to other “chunks”. It solves many problems like control, fingering technique in addition to the need to not telegraph a change when subito is indicated.
Try this out on a piece sometime. Our flutes after all are pretty limited in the range of expression. Contrasts can become quite a challenge. Pushing the extremes in separate passages and then stringing them together can produce a wider range of dynamics and colors.
