Anne-Marie Houy Shaver
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"If you try to do something because you should, it's not going to work; it's not coming from within."

11/17/2016

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We played the tambin today! The tambin is a type of transverse flute from Guinea. The ones we played were diatonic, while many related flutes are pentatonic. There are a few main differences between the western flute and the tambin that alter the overall sound. The tone hole of the tambin is quite large and is square shaped. On traditional instruments, there are three holes, spaced somewhat far apart, covered by your left hand ring finger, right hand pointer finger, and right hand ring finger. Use of harmonics provides the pitches. Also pretty nifty, you can play the tambin either to the right or left – whatever floats your boat!
 
Sylvain Leroux, the tambin player that was working with us, brought a variety of tambin sizes, which means the modes each played also differed. Phrygian mode was common though. One of the main sonic aspects of the timban is its reliance on multiphonics and the “chuff” of the sound; this is very different than the pure sound we often strive for on western flutes. Typically the low register is not played on the tambin (though it is available), and the style of playing is upbeat/quick. Additionally, singing while playing, or even singing in between playing, is common.
 
Related to the singing and playing, Sylvain demonstrated that this technique of singing certain pitches to highlight the line works well even in traditional western music. He played some Bach as an example. We also listened to a recording of Sylvain’s mentor, Bailo Bah, playing that employed the interspersed singing technique. He was rockin’.
 
The coolest thing to me is that you can adapt the western flute to mimic a tambin! If you remove the footjoint and use the fingerings for D, F, and A, you essentially have a makeshift tambin! How awesome is that???
 
Other things:
- Robert encouraged us to question fundamental assumptions with flute playing to discover new things.
- I’ve been playing piccolo A LOT these past few days. Switching from bass flute to piccolo is really an experience.

This is a tiny part of the Kate Soper piece Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say for flutist and soprano.
(Come to our recital December 11 for the entire piece!)

- I went to the Japanese place Sake Bar Hagi with a friend; it was delicious! I don’t remember the names of the food we ate, but it was tasty. I also tried a plum sour vodka drink, and it was pleasant too
- I’m about to fly to Michigan for the wedding of one of my best friends! Can’t wait!
- I bought a plane ticket to return to Texas!!!!

Until next time!
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"If you only play other people's music, there's only so far you can go."

11/14/2016

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Robert checked in with how our uvular fluttertonguing is coming along. I definitely still struggle with it as I’m much more comfortable with using the tip of the tongue. For the uvular flutter, Robert suggested using more air and almost curving the back of tongue around uvula.
 
We then talked about playing in a rock style. Related to this idea, Robert believes you can fully reveal yourself with your own music. To put this into practice, we walked through adapting the song “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix (from the album “Are You Experienced”) for flute. After outlining the basic form, we talked about specific things the flute can do to achieve a “rock” sound. One big thing is to vary the vibrato with the pitch, aka rolling in and out quickly. This is a small thing that will make a HUGE difference in keeping the flute from sounding classical. We focused on the opening interval of “Purple Haze” and explored all the different ways to treat it with the flute. This took a long time! There are so many options and variants to the colors and sounds available on our instrument. We tried multiphonics, residual/air sounds, singing and playing, and harmonics. Basically, we did it all. Related, the jazz musician Eric Dolfy was also mentioned.
 
A small portion of our time was also dedicated to talking about hand position, specifically Dorothy Taubman’s theory and how that can help with wrist motion.
 
Then things got crazy. P.S. Olt animal calls made an appearance. It turns out that this specific brand actually fits quite well into the end of the flute in place of the headjoint. Robert suggested a band name: Crumhorn for Killers.
 
There was a lot of experimenting today. Part of that was putting a stethoscope to our throats to explore the amplification available there. We also practiced vocalizing on the inhale, similar to Inuit throat singing techniques.
 
Other things:
- I attended the Society for Ethnomusicology annual conference in DC over the weekend. There were some amazing papers, and I heard the words “heteronormative” and “binary” more in those few days than I have in my entire life. There was also a circle dance at one point in support of the water protectors at Standing Rock, which was really cool to witness. Overall, the SEM conference is a wonderful, affirming, encouraging, accepting, intelligent group of people.

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Circle Dance
- Sarah and I visited the “must see” monument area in DC.
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Washington Monument
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Lincoln Memorial
- I visited the DC zoo too! Saw giant pandas, a red panda(!), the arm of a sloth, and some adorable seals. All for free!
- We went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Talk about rough. Especially given the current state of the United States. It was one of the best put together museums I’ve been in. While it was hard to walk through, I’m glad we went.
- We made it to our bus 2 minutes before it left for NYC. It was a miracle.

Until next time!

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“You don’t have to be a great singer to pretend to be a great singer”

10/10/2016

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Singing Day!
 
Vocalist Emily Eagen joined us for class to talk more about singing, since that’s a skill so connected to our flute playing. We started with physical warm ups, mostly stretching with our hands overhead to lift the rib cage and encourage that upward length. Beginning with some purely speaking exercises to get the energy going for projection, Emily then led us in some vocal warm ups, accompanying the singing with physical gestures and movement to better connect with the voice. We talked about keeping the ribs expanded when singing/exhaling, just like we do in our flute playing. A fun portion was when we sang a round; we started by echoing Emily, then singing together, then doing the round in pairs, then as individuals, and finally in a hocket style with each of us singing one single pitch (this last part was deceivingly difficult).
 
Emily also shared about the balance between upward and downward tensions; for example, when singing an ascending glissando, we would move our hands down and think of “lowness”, which is something I’ve often heard in regards to flute playing. It’s a helpful visual (and physical movement) to maintain a full, unstrained tone for high pitches. This also was discussed in reference to chest and head voice and moving between the two. An analogy Emily made was about milk and coffee: the head voice is milk and the chest voice is coffee, but you always have at least one drop of milk in your coffee or one drop of coffee in your milk. Another visual is to think of your body as an elevator shaft; the space remains open even when the elevator isn’t on a specific level, with the levels here referring to the head or chest voice.
 
I played Flying Lessons 3 for Emily since it has some singing and playing. Her most helpful comment was to create more mystery between singing and playing, to strive to play and sing in a more melded fashion. Practically, I was able to better achieve this by changing the vowel sound in my mouth, but not moving my lips to reflect that vowel sound. It was a vast difference in sound and color possibilities.

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Playing for Emily. Check out those socks.
Emily is also a fantastic whistler, and so we briefly discussed whistling. She said she usually places the tongue behind front bottom teeth to create a slide, if you will, funneling the air through to the lips.
 
Other things:
- My Saturday morning alarm was a band across the street playing upbeat polka/jazz music as part of a marathon
- I got to explore rainy Manhattan with flute friends Allison and Yeji from Boston University; we walked through Central Park, had pizza, and saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela playing Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall. I guess we did all right
- I bought some hand sanitizer because the combination of flu season and subways make me nervous
- Made my own French fries (to go with a black bean burger recipe) and they turned out surprisingly good #garlicsalt

Until next time!

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