Technical Passages on the Baroque Flute – Play Smarter

If confronted with a technical passage which involves awkward fingerings, consider playing them in a light way with gentle tonguing. Reduce the air so that the sound is pure, nimble, and flexible. You want to give an effortless impression (which doesn't mean emotionless or without expression!) like you're floating over everything as opposed to hammering out notes. Especially when on the baroque flute, minute precision is the key and where the instrument will shine at its best. Too much "playing" will rob away sound, resonance, and intonation. This goes against what we naturally want to do, because "playing" gives us something to do, to hold on to which gives a false sense of security (blowing hard, tonguing hard, grabbing the flute)When everything sits right, we can convey great agility without actually playing very fast. Be sure though to think "slow" in the fingers, often problems occur come from the fact that fingers are moving too fast for the overall coordination. Always reducing. The minimum for the maximum.