TIP OF THE WEEK: Flute-playing, dynamics, and a waterfall

Imagine to have all sorts of textures, shades, and energy levels within your playing. Even in a "smooth" passage, there will still be fine details and nuances, just like this waterfall. Can your articulation be prickly? Can they sound like drops of water? Little icicles? In this case, you'll want to work your breath, make it succinct, bouncy, and using very little air. Imagine a small puffs of air (huh, huh), use a deep sounding vowel and use a mirror to make sure that the lips don't get involved and stay put. Working the breath with articulation is a way of engaging your whole "being" with the music, and not just simply using the tongue. On the baroque flute, a little goes a long way so try things little by little and observe their effects attentively. 

And sometimes there'll be passages where you'll use longer flows of air, but remember to always shape. Maybe the notes go a little upwards, try a crescendo with that. Maybe they'll go a little downwards, try a decrescendo. These can be minute differences and also, it's mostly about raising or decreasing an INTENTION, RATHER THAN PURELY VOLUME . Going up can be a sign of intensification, going down a relaxation. Remember that the word “dynamics” can also refer to a motion, a force, an energy. And there'll always be exceptions but these are good concepts to start with.

The long exposure in this image shows that the strands of water waver and are not even. So we see there's an overall form of the waterfall, but within it there are different shapes and details.  Music also hardly moves in a straight line and there are always nuances within a phrase, where different components make up an expression. The most interesting thing is always the path along the way towards the goal.