Practice update

I've really enjoyed having this week off work while staying at home.  The weather has been horrible so we haven't been able to get out too much - so I've had lots of time for practising and thinking about practice.

The two double reed days, and my lessons have focussed my mind very much on technique and I've found myself spending more and more time on this.  I am still working through my flute technique books and I've found that I am improving both my articulation and finger facility.  I am now moving my focus back to vibrato, tone and control.  Spending more time on long notes, improving resonance, shaping the dynamics.  I need to spend a lot more time on this.

I am working in Ferling studies again in my lessons.  I usually have a fast and a slow one to work on.  Some of these I first looked at 2 years ago.  When I first looked at these I found the slow ones pretty straight forward and spent all my practice time trying to get the fast ones under my fingers.  It is amazing how much more difficult the slow studies have become in the last 2 years.  I'm now finding that I can spend all my alloted time on just a few bars of the slow study.  I am trusting that this is a sign of my awareness of details increasing rather than my playing deteriorating.

I'm still working on the Vivaldi Sonata in C minor - so far just the first and second movements.  Again, trying to get the control and smoothness required for the first movement is really tricky.  The second movement is coming along too though some of the notes are not quite in place yet.

No other "official" pieces at the moment but, as it is my week off, I've been having some fun going back over the Mozart Oboe Quartet - trying to get those semi quaver sections a bit quicker, and I've also been having a look at the Arnold Sonatina 3rd movement which will be a labour of love to get anywhere close to speed.  It is fun to play though.