Getting out of a rut

I've been feeling recently that I've plateaued a little bit in playing. I seem to be treading water a little bit and even maybe going backwards.

Part of my crisis of confidence was the Telemann no 7 which I have really been struggling with.  I just couldn't seem to get my fingers to do what they were supposed to do.  But I finally realised that the reason I was struggling is that it is a difficult piece to play!  It isn't that I'm getting worse at all. It may seem an obvious point but most of the pieces that I've played recently have been difficult due to stamina, tone, breathing and phrasing issues and it is a while since I've played something that I've struggled to get under my fingers.  So I need to stop worrying and just keep ploughing on.  It will get there eventually.

However it has made me think about my practice, and especially my technical practice, which has slipped into a bit of  rut.  It's too easy to do the same thing everyday without thinking too much about it and I had reached the point where it wasn't getting any better.  So this weekend I've had a rethink and found some new exercises which will challenge me in different ways.  I've gone back to my roots as a flautist and dug out my Trevor Wye Practice Books, a different instrument but so many of the exercises are relevant.  There is too much to do everyday but some of the ones that I'm finding useful are:

1. Vibrato - beyond pulses on the scale.  I like that this book explains the next step which is simple tunes with a focus on keeping the vibrato going as the note changes and through quavers so that the pulses begin to become independent from finger movement.

2. Technique - pages of very concentrated exercises based on scale patterns making sure that each finger movement gets practised.

3. Expressive scales - I love these scale exercises which focus on having an intense and beautiful tone and include different dynamics with crescendos and diminuendos to widen dynamic range.

4. Articulation - a simple basic exercise with a multitude of different rhythms/ articulations to use.  The first exercise is to play it in all keys without any tongueing but just using the diaphragm to give a loud, fast, short note. I could certainly feel it even after the first 3 keys so it must be doing some good.

Hopefully this will help me get back on track.