Holiday gift alert for the uber-flute geek in your life!
Tim Lane
Tim Lane
Flute Playing and
the Arts of Doing Less, Volumes 1 & 2
Paper Route Press ©2016
Dr. Time Lane has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau
Claire since 1989. In addition to his classical music education, he has pursued
additional studies in Alexander Technique and yoga. These influences, as well
as his academically rigorous understanding of musical acoustics and the
mechanics of the flute, are all on clear display in his incredibly thorough,
illuminating two-volume series, Flute
Playing and the Arts of Doing Less.
These slender (57 and 58 pages, respectively), spiral-bound
publications may resemble homemade workbooks upon first glance, but they are
actually densely-written, intellectually challenging tomes for even the
best-trained veteran flutist. His philosophy, alluded to in the title, is that
a thorough understanding of the construction of the flute and how it functions
acoustically can lead to the most efficient, logical approach to playing. To
this end, Dr. Lane includes a compact but rather complete explanation of how
the flute makes a sound (from the vortices created inside and outside the flute
with the application of air to the venting system that creates our fingerings)
and a useful review of the overtone series, partials, and wavelengths that make
up the sounds we perceive.
In volume 1, Lane’s body work in Alexander Technique and
yoga really shows. His introductory chapters (repeated at the front of volume
2) espouse a Zen-like approach to learning, emphasizing patience and
thoughtful, deliberate practice as the student develops (or restructures) every
small physical habit required to make playing the flute as efficient and
physically healthy as possible. Stability and flexibility are stressed here,
and he creates exercises to isolate all the working parts of the embouchure and
oral cavity. He is also focused at every step on deconstructing tension by
heightening physical awareness of over-worked muscle groups. For instance, one
exercise has the student “blowing the candle out” (in this case, the tip of a
finger placed in front of the face) while experimenting with different shapes
in the mouth—open, with a closed throat, and with a raised tongue—to compare
methods of moving air. Obviously, the goal is to release the throat and tongue
for best use of air speed. Other exercises take a similar approach, comparing
ideal to less ideal physical conditions in order to learn how to make a
conscious decision about best practice habits. The book has students isolating
muscles in order to control the corners of the mouth (which should be firm but
flexible), move the middle of the upper lip while keeping the rest of the lips
free and relaxed, and moving the jaw without engaging the tongue, among others. The entire book is done largely without the
flute, and even professional flutists might find some of it challenging to
perform!
In volume 2, acoustical information becomes the basis of his
instruction on how to manipulate the tube in various ways to alter pitch, find
and utilize harmonics to strengthen sound and alter color, and play in tune
with others. Particularly remarkable is his painstaking exploration of all
possible colors on any given note, requiring the student to make minute
physical adjustments to affect the overtones with a scientific explanation of
what happens in each adjustment. His mathematically based chart for identifying
the fundamental difference tones between intervals, which is then applied to a
score of a Corrette duet, is also indicative of his extremely thorough approach
to understanding the flute. And I love
his explanation of how venting in combination with harmonics works to create
pitches, which he then applies to devising alternate fingerings for better
pitch in the third octave, etc. Nothing is left a mystery; every aspect of
playing is explained intelligently.
Dr. Lane’s approach to teaching the flute is one of the most
thoughtful, wholistic, and thoroughly researched I have ever seen. Not only
that, it’s good; every exercise truly contributes to better control over the
flute, with no unnecessary words or ideas merely taking up space on paper. His
stated desire with these volumes is that learners will develop an efficient way
of playing, but I would add that his teaching style also helps students move
towards self-sufficiency by teaching universal concepts of how to manipulate
the instrument based on understanding how it is constructed and how sound is
made. With all of the knowledge acquired and skills developed in these books, a
player should be able to solve any sound production problem, whether it has to
do with tone quality, pitch, or air capacity. It is a brilliant collection
which can only come from a professional lifetime of examining every little
detail of what the flutist does.
While the introduction claims that these books can be used
by flutists of all ages, I do not think all ages can read at this level. However, I certainly agree that these ideas
would be very beneficial to young students as they develop good habits in their
playing. It is therefore an important
addition to teachers’ libraries, who then must take responsibility for
accurately translating these concepts and faithfully recreating these lessons
in a thorough manner. As a college teacher, I will definitely add Flute Playing and the Arts of Doing Less to
my list of required reading in pedagogy class, and I look forward to
incorporating some of Dr. Lane’s approach into my own teaching at every level.
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