So, one might ponder, what in the world are 'flibbity fingers'? That's an easy answer. Simply put, 'flibbity fingers' are my term for any holes in technique which prevent a smooth transition between notes. Instead of playing two notes and hearing DAH-DAH, one would hear DahFLAHDah. In my situation it's due to two things; a painfully slow left ring finger and lack of technique development on the side Bb, C, and E keys. It might be different for you. So, how to deal with it?
For some, the problems might work themselves out through basic pedagogy; i.e. scales, arpeggios, and the like. For me, a little more specificity is required. As fundamental study has improved my overall technique greatly, the 'flibbitys' have become more glaring. Here's what I've been doing to address the issue:
The further I've gotten in my degree program, the more basic I've realized my practice routine needs to be. When I refer to practice, I'm not talking about working on literature or etudes. I refer to that as 'preparation' and will be the subject of another post; "Practice vs. Preparation". My current practice routine includes long tones and voicing work, scales (all 12 major, harmonic and melodic minor, whole tones, diminished, and octatonic...every practice session), and articulation work. Following that, I've started working on what I refer to as 'Flibbities'. Were one to stroll past my practice room during 'flibbity' work, one might thing I was doing really poor impressions of Phillip Glass. They are very simple 2-4 note patterns or scale fragments done over and over using a metronome and usually very slowly so I can listen for and completely internalize a very high level of precision. It's slow and boring, but must be done and must involve a high level of concentration. If I'm practicing a pattern of, say Palm D#, E#, F# to E, and D, then I want to hear those notes and ONLY those notes.
Why, you ask. Why put yourself through this? It's simple. That hole in my technique is what stands in between me and the literature I want to play. It stands in between me and mastery of the instrument. It stands in between what I am and what I desire to be as a musician. Once you attain a grasp of good basic technique (and we should never stop striving to set new bars as to 'good basic technique) the devil is in the details.
Get to work.
Oh yeah, coming soon:
"The New Golden Age of Saxophone Production"
"Black Curtain Syndrome- How to get past audition jitters"(That one will be an interview, kids!)
"Practice vs. Preparation"
Please, comment and let me know what you think!
Sounds like your practice routine is very similar to mine. Long tones, finger drills (prolly your flibbities lol) and tonguing. I don't call practicing repertoire anything but practice though. To me, it's all shedding... the physical skills of tone, fingers and articulation and the musical skills of vocabulary, rhythm study, sight-reading and repertoire.
ReplyDeleteFor finger drills I double intervals in a few ways... first by doubling pairs of intervals (think duple meter): |: Bb B Bb B C B C B :|: C# B C# B C# D C# D :| etc. Then I do it with just doubling one interval and moving to the next (think triplets), e.g.: | Bb B Bb B C B C C# C C# D C# | Eb D Eb... etc. I don't use the metronome for ANY finger drills, though. In my first drill, I can find any slop I've got that day and slow it down or isolate it and bring it to the maximum speed that I can do cleanly that day, and the next day it's better.
Avoiding the click means I don't force my fingers to tense to try to be ever faster, and I can easily adjust to the optimal speed for each pair of intervals. I do all of this in a mirror, focusing on posture, hand placement and orientation, wrist and finger position, maintaining relaxed fingers and keeping them on the keys with no wasted motion of either the arm, wrist, fingers or horn. The goal is to practice the drill absolutely as fast as I can do it perfectly. Often, that means quite slow, but it speeds up as the years progress.
I do these drills on all half steps and whole steps each day, as well as another intervallic structure, be it minor thirds, quartal triads, minor 7 chords or whatever throughout the range of the horn and in all keys.
Practicing in both orientations (doubling the pairs of intervals vs moving through each immediately) allows your brain to hit the skill from both perspectives you will encounter it outside of practice: as a repeated figure and as a passing figure.
We need to talk mechanics sometime. I have students whose fingers bend backwards (think "double-jointed"). I don't know how to fix that....
ReplyDeleteWe need to talk mechanics sometime. I have students whose fingers bend backwards (think "double-jointed"). I don't know how to fix that....
ReplyDeleteWow, that's something to ponder. Hmmmmm.....while folks would tell us that we need to play with our hands/fingers as relaxed as possible, a certain amount of tension is obviously required. I wonder if developing finger strength would help. Something as simple as squeezing tennis or stress balls might help. A company called Ironmind (ironmind.com) makes products specifically for the development of hand strength. They actually aren't that pricy, for the most part.
DeleteI disagree that tension is required. When you move your arm, it doesn't mean it's tense... the muscles are just activated. I think tension is the enemy and activation is the goal!
DeleteI disagree that tension is required. When you move your arm, it doesn't mean it's tense... the muscles are just activated. I think tension is the enemy and activation is the goal!
DeleteThe muscle have to have a certain amount of tension. Yes you should be as relaxed as possible but as muscles contract (which they must do to flex or extend joints) there must be a certain amount of tension present. One may feel very relaxed when playing but there is still tension present. Tension isn't in and of itself a bad thing . EXCESS tension is where the problem lies.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I'm calling activation. It's an important distinction because as soon as you tell the student it's ok to tense the muscle, he'll overdo it! LOL
ReplyDelete