Category: Multiphonics

"Think about who you want to be and be it."

11/30/2016

With our recital coming up soon(!), we decided we should probably talk about what we’re playing...
Jenn and I will each do a piece separately, the two of us will improvise, we will improvise with Robert, and Jenn and I will also play a duo. The duo we’ll be doing is Robert’s Time is a Two-Way Street. He told us this piece symbolically deals with the past, present, and future all at once. The past is represented by the folk-like melodies, the performers are in the present, and there are sounds portraying a futuristic feel (accomplished through extended techniques, like multiphonics). One of the main things Robert pointed out was to be aware of pitch in the folk-like melodies, which often have finger/pitch slides, and to make sure the end pitch isn’t flat. The most technically challenging gesture is first found on page 7; it is a tremolo between E and G while the A above that is sustained. Robert suggested rolling in and playing very softly to achieve this. Figuring out the position of the flute (rolling in and out) will help with many of the multiphonics and harmonics in the piece.
(Side note: there is a typo on page 12. The correct fingering for the harmonics based on D should indeed be the fingering for low D, not the shown E-flat.)

I also acquired six more of Robert’s CDs. I’m especially excited about Our Cells Know. Bring on the contrabass flute.

Speaking of the low flutes, we also talked about the bass flute. As far as the construction of the instrument, it turns out that the larger the curve of the headjoint, the better the sound.

We also talked about strengthening the breath. Robert asked a shakuhachi player once for advice on this subject, to which the player replied, “Seek out a strong wind and play into it.” This resulted in Robert trying to play flute while a fan blew directly into his face. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think it will (especially when it’s hot outside). The idea of breath is THE most fundamental part of our playing; continually coming back to fundamentals is key in practice and development.

Other things:
- I tried six different types of cider at the Angry Orchard Innovation Cider House. My favorite was the Knotty Pear. The coolest part though was that they have a treehouse on site built by the Treehouse Masters guy, Pete Nelson! You can actually go and see the space!
- I spent Thanksgiving with my good friend Heather and her family out of the city. This trip also included Christmas tree shopping, a first for me!

So many Christmas trees!

- Pauline Oliveros passed away. She was a huge figure in contemporary music and developed the practice of Deep Listening. She will be missed.

Until next time!

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"I play the meanest 'Daphnis' this side of the Mississippi."

11/12/2016

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Once again, improv was the name of the game. We did a couple of rounds, trying to be as different as possible between them. The first focused on sustained tones with everyone blending to build one texture. The next started with Robert “laying down a beat” on bass flute and Jenn, Sarah (the coordinator for the studio), and I played one short note at a time, varying the articulation, color, and air quality of the notes. It was helpful to have the goal in mind at the outset of the improv session. Robert also suggested exploring aspects of our personality when we’re away from the flute to then bring that side of us to our improvisations. His comment regarding this was, “Your identity is based in the totality of who you are.” So when you’re going through your day and you feel something or react in a certain way, you can think, “How would I play that?” and then use that information in your improv. Just an idea.

We also talked about whisper tones again, focusing on the harmonic series available from the low notes. It turns out that there is a such thing as the thirteenth partial cutoff when it comes to whisper tones done through harmonics. So there is a limit to how high you can get with the whistle tones. To practice the available harmonic range, which is still significant, imagine playing very soft harmonics to achieve the correct embouchure.

The mechanization of different flutes and fingering systems was another thing we touched on. For example, an extension for the flute has been made that allows the instrument to reach low B-flat (though you do have to sacrifice the B-natural). This came about to better play jazz, which is often in “flat” keys. Related to this low end of the flute, there is a mechanism that can be attached to the flute called the left hand C-sharp trill key addition. It is played by the left hand pinky to hold down the low C-sharp key, allowing one to use the right hand pinky to trill quickly and cleanly between C-sharp and B. We also talked about and played the Kotato contrabass flute; the lip plate and embouchure hole was inspired by the pipe organ.

One of the things I’ve been struggling with is sustaining multiphonics. Robert had a few suggestions to help with this. A few of his ideas will work well for my general flute playing, even without multiphonics: open my mouth more, use a strong air support, and have a narrower embouchure. My flute embouchure is slightly off center, so we discussed the possibility of shifting the flute over to better accommodate that. To work on the narrower embouchure, one tactic is to hold match sticks in your mouth to almost bookend the sides of the embouchure hole. All of these things helped me sustain multiphonics as well.

Other things:
- Robert made the statement “If I fall, I’m going to fall on my face.” This implies a forward motion, an urging to continue discovering and moving forward, not leaning back. It really stuck with me.
- We talked about the need for supportive musical communities, rather than those fostered by competition alone. I'm looking at you, Texas schools.
- The comedian Fred Newman wrote a book, Mouth Sounds, that explains how to create certain noises (such as a dripping water faucet). Some of them can be applied to flute playing (like the water sound one can to circular breathing), and it also gives the vocabulary to talk about different areas in the mouth and the combinations there.
- I FINALLY GOT A HAIRCUT. And for only $20. #blessed

Until next time!

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“Part of the creative process is knowing when to stop.”

10/27/2016

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Another student (named Anna Maria, fittingly enough) sat in on the first part of class. We again started with some free improv. After the first session, we were advised to avoid runs, as this is usually an indicator of going on autopilot. Instead, Robert’s advice was “It happens because it needed to.” We did another session, this time with Robert and Anna Maria playing piccolo while I stayed on flute. There were definitely less notes in this second round, and it had a very different feel from the first improvisation we had done. The other word of wisdom from Robert was when you’re not sure what to play, the best choice is space.

I requested doing some work with octave multiphonics, as it was something I was struggling to do consistently in my practice. We started with C (in the staff and two lines above the staff). I was moving the vowel shape in my mouth from “ooh” on the low note alone, “ahh” on the high note alone, and something like “eye/ö” for the octave sounding together. Robert helped refine those vowel shapes and the lip placement as well. For the low note, he suggested feeling the air and sound more in my sinuses while funneling the air deeper into the flute, which gave the low C a much more colorful and individualized sound. For the octave together, I needed to open my mouth more while maintaining the ö-type vowel, and also keep my top lip down. It’s important to practice these at a soft dynamic to avoid using purely the air speed as the “oomph” to achieve the multiphonic. From there, we moved on to large multiphonics. The key to these is to start loud, getting the intervals sounding simultaneously through the use of a lot of fast air. It is much easier to back off from that beginning point than to build up to the loud.

We listened to part of an album by Otha Turner and the Afrossippi Allstars, which was pretty legit. Otha also plays more traditional drum and fife music, and the recordings have a very field-recording vibe. The ethnomusicologist in me appreciates them. And speaking of ethnomusicology, Robert shared a way to make the western flute sound more like a Chinese flute: by putting cigarette/pad paper under the open-holed keys. This essentially makes the flute act like a kazoo. Robert may or may not have secretly tuned once in high school using this method and tone quality.

There were some parts of Sequenza I wanted to work on as well. We started with transitioning from a normal note to its whisper tone, as is found with high B-flat in the piece; I am here to tell you that if you practice your whistle tones in a variety of ways and for a variety of notes, it will work wonders when put into context. I surprised myself with how smoothly I could transition from the normal note to the whisper tone.

There is a gesture in the sixth system on the third page of the piece where the bar extends past the last note in the group; this is the only time this occurs in the entire piece, and Robert interprets the marking as crescendo-ing to an abrupt stop, possibly even using the tongue to stop the sound. Later on page three, there is our first harmonic, to be played at pppp. Because we don’t want to give away the quality of sound for the upcoming multiphonic based on the same fundamental note (C), Robert suggests using a variation other than the low C fingering for this harmonic. The one I’ve chosen to use is the low C fingering without the left thumb depressed. There is a high F-sharp halfway through the fourth page where altering the fingering again aids with its context; in this case, using the middle finger instead of the ring finger on the right hand is an apt choice. A few notes later, there is a high C, which can be colored by using the low B foot keys with the right hand pinky.

We also discussed grouping the grace note figures. Especially in the cases where there are more than four grace notes at a time, planning out how they belong together will help in executing them.

Some of the notes that are fluttertongued throughout the piece also have accents or other articulation markings. If you’re able to use uvular fluttering, then each note, marked or not, will be tongued regardless, so this is not an issue. But if you’re still practicing the uvular flutter (like me), re-tonguing the accented notes while using the tongue flutter is the best way to achieve the desired effect.

On the last page of Sequenza, we see again the notation of four dots above a note head to indicate that it should be tongued four times. Robert prefers to elongate the four repetitions of the note (if it is long, like the last B-natural) instead of tonguing consistently through the duration of the note. For the last line, his words of wisdom are to stay engaged physically, especially in the abdominals, before the attack of the low C-sharp. And continue that support while decrescendo-ing to properly sound the very last, and surprising, C-natural grace note.

Other things:
- It’s time to invest in some actual winter boots
- My mom is shipping me another blanket
- I consistently practice with hand warmers
- The above list makes me think that … winter is coming.
- And so is Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life!!!

Until next time!

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“What comes in goes out.”

10/20/2016

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I believe this quote was something the saxophonist Steve Lacy said when asked why he didn’t take certain studio gigs. Important to consider.

Anyway.

Jenn and I were both curious about repertoire for the final recital we’ll be giving in December, so we started class by talking about some possibilities. That discussion led to the decision to include improvisation sessions in the rest of our meetings. So we did a few rounds of improv as a group. After each bout, we would talk about the music we just made, as many times the discussion can be just as beneficial as actually improvising.

Then it was Sequenza time. One of Robert’s practice suggestions was to play the piece as if we were in Bizarro World, exploring opposite ideas of dynamics and overall feeling. Through this process, your interpretation of the piece in real life may be better informed and your musical ideas for the piece may be strengthened. Of course, Robert also had suggestions for when playing the piece as written. For the crazy tonguing part (you know, at the end of page 2 onto page 3), if you roll the flute in, you are essentially transitioning to a hard reed by shortening the air stream, resulting in a more powerful sound.

I’ve only really worked on the first few pages of Sequenza, but looking ahead shows that there are a few techniques that I can be preparing now. There is a multiphonic on page 5 based on a natural harmonic fingering. To prepare for this moment, it would make sense to practice natural harmonic multiphonics in general. Robert suggested starting with octaves, then fifths, and then the smaller intervals of fourths, thirds, and seconds. Practice these both tongued and slurred; when slurring, you will find some really great potential colors between playing the individual notes of the multiphonic and those notes together. And a tip for the octave multiphonics: start on C and work your way down the chromatic scale, gradually rolling out as you add the right hand fingerings (F-sharp and below). Rolling out lengthens the air stream, which results in reducing the high frequencies.

Whisper/whistle tones are another technique to practice for Sequenza, especially the ability to play a whisper tone immediately after playing the normal note (which is what appears in the piece). For this, you can trick the listener’s ear by playing a resonate normal note, and then actually having a small gap between the note and it’s whistle echo. As long as the normal note’s sound carries, you can use that carrying time to set up for the whistle tone.

With these techniques, it is important to practice them in ways outside of how they appear in the piece. For example, practice multiple whisper tones, not just the B-flat that’s written. Having a broader level of control over a technique will help with the ease of execution in context.

We also had the chance to play on a Gazzelloni headjoint, which is basically a C-flute headjoint with an alto flute embouchure hole. This is the type of headjoint that Gazzelloni played Sequenza on, so it’s interesting to see the different challenges and ease this change in embouchure hole can bring about. But let’s just say I’ll be sticking with my normal headjoint/embouchure hole combo.

Other things:
- Robert was talking about 72 bpm being common in human music because it is closely related to the tempo of our heartbeat. Well, guess what? An elephant's heart beats around 28 times a minute, and when given the chance to make music, elephants tend to hover around 28 bmp. So, yes, the Thai Elephant Orchestra is a real thing. You’re welcome.
- I ended up on the same train, on the same car even, as Robert on the way to class. Small world, even in NYC.
- Sarah and I saw a performance and talk with composer Meredith Monk and poet Anne Waldman. Everything about it was amazing. The venue was Housing Works Bookstore, an awesome organization committed to ending homelessness and AIDS. After being introduced, Meredith and Anne performed two pieces, and then just talked to each other, inviting one another to share their thoughts and experiences. There was a question and answer session to conclude the talk. The last question regarded a prediction that in the near future, 80% of the world’s population will be older and will be women. Meredith’s response was a hope that that will be a time of kindness. #amen. Sarah and I waited in some very confused lines, but then WE GOT TO TALK TO MEREDITH. Sarah asked her about femininity informing music, specifically in rhythm (we were thinking of Janika Vandervelde and cyclical rhythms here #ThanksDrWallace), and Meredith said she thinks her femininity informs everything. She shared that she believes women have a direct connection to The Source (which can be threatening for some men…but that’s a different subject..) and that this connection can be responsible for some wonderful things. Overall, this event was the definition of womanpower. It was inspiring. It was beautiful. It was empowering. It rocked.

Until next time!

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"Think about who you want to be and be it."

"I play the meanest 'Daphnis' this side of the Mississippi."

“Part of the creative process is knowing when to stop.”

“What comes in goes out.”

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