Hereby a few tips!

When starting to practice a new piece, a lot of players start with pitch. That seems to be a good place to start, but unfortunately is not a handy strategy.

I always recommend being patient and first find out what kind of music you are going to play. Have a listen, of have a close look at all the clues in the sheet music. Check the style, atmosphere and then what is said about dynamics and articulation. Feel the music before playing by checking the time signature, tempo and the feel (swing, funk, romantic classical etc etc. )

And then: check the rhythm. Do you understand, or can you clap/sing along?

And then: have look at the key and thén the pitch.

And then play.

It seems like a lot but this can take just 5 minutes and the result is a more musical approach and less mistakes.

You can have taste by listening, and study along with this video.
This song and video are part of the online course Learn to Play Sax. In this course my aim is to teach you not only how to play but also how to study!

And for additional study tips check this article.

Have fun and be patient! 😉

Floor Wittink

Het bericht How to practice; thát is the question! verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

There are several possibilities for a good embouchure depending on which sound you want to have en fits you. Focus on finding the right balance between tension and relaxation. In my next blog I give exercises that help you get a flexible embouchure. Good breathing and a right posture are neccesary to get a good embouchure!

Embouchure basics:

1. The teeth are firmly on the mouthpiece approximately 1 cm from the edge

2. The mouthpiece does not slide into the mouth (as if there were a clamp between your teeth and your left thumb pushes you forward slightly)

3. Keep your lower lip somewhat loose, feel the reed vibrate in your lip

4. No chubby cheeks and the mouth corners are forward

5. The jaw must be relaxed, do not drop or pull back the jaw for the lower notes, nor bite for the high notes

A teacher can help you establish your embouchure. It’s easier to learn it right from the start!

Het bericht Five Embouchure Checks verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

Here are four exercises to help you become aware of your breath support.

1. Observe
You will make quick progress if you pay attention to breath support, but the real art is first of all to observe and learn how your body behaves when you are breathing. Note where you feel your breath in your body as you:

– smell something nice
– sniff
– yawn
– cough
– laugh
– when you sit on a stool and lean forward until your stomach touches your knees (feel your back move!)
– when you breathe in and out slowly

2. Observe with your hands

Lay one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest and breathe in and out for about six seconds. Do you feel how when you breathe in your stomach extends forwards first, and then your chest?
When you breathe out your chest falls first. This is followed by the stomach going inwards. Maybe you don’t feel this. Note, however, where you feel movement.

3. Make space

In this exercise you want to become aware of how to make space in your back, sides, stomach and chest:
Take a scarf and tie it around your waist. Tie it on tightly (though don’t use a knot, so that your arms are free to move).

– Can you push this scarf outwards when you inhale, and cause your hands to come closer together? Can you inhale in this way without using your chest cavity? And can you also inhale when using it?
– See whether you can make the movement greater, and thus use more of the scarf.
– Focus your attention on your back. While inhaling try to feel your back move outwards.
– Focus your attention on your sides. While inhaling try to make your sides go outwards.
– Tie the scarf around your chest. While inhaling can you make your chest cavity expand, and thus push the scarf outwards?

4. Active exhaling and relaxed inhaling

We are not always active when we exhale nor do we always let the inhalation come of itself. However, this is what you have to do when you play a wind instrument (but also when you speak and when you are doing heavy lifting!). You can feel this well with the help of the following exercises:

– Exhale completely using a strong “fffff” and also use your stomach muscles. You may use your hands to stimulate the inward movement of your stomach.

– When you can no longer exhale, let your muscles loose and you will feel that you inhale of yourself with the use of your waist. Your stomach will extend forward again.
Practice this until it is effortless and you inhale quickly.

– Be careful that you are standing completely straight, as if you have a string tied to the crown of your head pulling you up. Be sure you are standing correctly when exhaling, as well as inhaling.

– Also practice this quickly with short powerful exhalations. If you become dizzy, this means that you are inhaling too high and your need to relax more when you inhale.

Het bericht Does breath support takes care of itself? 4 exercises verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

1.
Stand upright, with your weight evenly distributed on both legs, as if a rope were pulling you up from the crown of your head.

2.
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. In that way your balance is optimal.

3.
Shoulders, arms, fingers and throat should be relaxed; the tension you need to produce the air to blow into your horn comes from your torso.

4.
If you let your sax hang loose the mouthpiece should come to the height of your mouth and not lower.
Tip: stand upright and then adjust your saxophone, instead of the other way around.

5.
Keep your wrists straight. Tip: have a look in the mirror while playing and check your wrists.

6.
The hands: the fingers should be relaxed and slightly bent as in natural position.

7.
Press the keys with a definitive movement, but do not move your fingers too far away from the keys. Your fingers should stay bent while pressing the keys.

8.
The thumbs should remain still, the octave key is pressed by your thumb tilting your thumb slightly.

Watch this video to see a véry unshakable posture…..…and if you know how to play well, you can play in many different postures as you can see in this video.

Het bericht 8 Tips for good posture while playing the saxophone! verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

1.
Practice everyday at a fixed time en keep it up for at least a few months to make it into a habit. Use the power of a habit to remind you of playing and not postpone it.

2.
Always make your practise a combination of both having fun in playing music that you are familiar with (or improvising) and practising new stuff. You become what you practise and making great music is the most important thing. If you only do exercises and don’t apply them into music they have no meaning!
……In addition it is more stimulating for most people to pick up your horn in order to make music than to do just exercises or practising a new piece.

3.
Make a plan before you start playing.
An example:
a. Start with 5 minutes of playing long notes/scales or something that can make you aware of your attitude/breathing/reed etc etc.
b. Then play something you are good at and really like
c. Practice something new
d. Play something that is going quite ok already and choose a focus (tip 5)
e. End with a favourite piece or improvise.

4.
Practice creatively:
Never repeat something more than three times in the same manner but vary in tempo, articulation, dynamics, colour, timing and other things that you can think of. In that way you get really familiar with the music and you learn how to play it really well. But the most important thing is that you learn how to make music in a creative way.

5.
(Don’t just) repeatrepeatrepeat
Repeat a lot ánd choose everytime a new focus. For example pay attention to timing when playing a song you are familiar with. You don’t have to dó something, just pay attention. Without a doubt you will get aware of new things.

6.
Train your awareness through saxophoneplaying.
Make saxophoneplaying into something that makes you aware of your creativity, your way of learning and all the mental issues you come across (f.e.like your mind saying that you can’t do it). In that way you practise something with the saxophone that you can use in the rest of your life. It’s not something additional anymore that takes time, but a, very pleasant, part of your life and development!

Het bericht Six Tips to Practice Music verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

You can find an almost infinite list of exercises and effects in saxophone literature. These exercises can take you a long way.

1.
Sound a tone, and feel what you’re doing with your embouchure. Do you feel your lower lip and the trilling of the reed against it? What about your upper lip? Do you feel anything in your cheeks and where? What are you doing with your chin? Is your jaw relaxed? Do you feel the “back” of your cheeks as if something is moving, for example, near (in) your ears?

Do you feel your oral cavitity and tongue?; find out where your tongue is, high or low, curled or not, whether it’s moving or not. Do you feel the trilling, the resonating of the tone inside of your nose, for instance.
There is no right or wrong in these exercises! Just pay attention!

2.
Sound another tone and move your mouth corners forward and backward. What feels better? What sounds better? How would you describe the difference in the sound?

3.
From time to time vary the position of your tongue as you blow. Move your tongue and feel and hear what happens. You can think about the form of various vowels in your mouth. What sort of differences do you hear?

4.
Sound a tone and make big and then small movements with your jaw down and back again. The tone goes up and down again in correspondence to the movements. Don’t move your jaw forward and keep a good air stream. Can you make the tone drop a half step without making any use of your keys? (for example can you make a B go to a Bb?)

5.
Make the same movement with your jaw downwards in the same manner as in the former exercise, but smaller and faster, as if you were saying “wahwahwah”. Be careful to get a regular pulse. This is what a vibrato is. Change the vibrato faster and louder.

6.
During the time when you are blowing, keep your throat open, as if you are yawning. The tone will be lower; try to make it sound as low as possible and then try slowly to make it go as high as possible. In this way you can make “glides” between different tones.

*You can vary between high and low tones and between blowing hard or soft!

What sort of effects can you make if you have mastered these exercises?

1.
These are the well known “glides” (official name bend/glissando/) which you hear saxophonists doing where the tone is made into a sort of glide for example in the well known solo from Baker Street. Get to the point where you can drag the tone lower with your throat and/or lower lip and chin. You can combine bending with fast runs and make a ‘smear’ but this is another story.

2.
The vibrato is another effect: this consists of vertical movements of your lower lip and chin (as if you were saying “wahwahwah”), naturally very lightly.

3.
You can influence the sound of your tone by where you put your tongue, throat and lower lip. The saxophone by its nature is not completely in tune and in addition you adjust your tuning when playing together. Therefore you are always adjusting your tuning when playing!

4.
Also the color of your tone you want make will affect where you place your tongue, throat and lower lip; after that you need to be aware of your breathing. The atmosphere of the music may ask of you a fierce, soft, hazy or warm tone. All these colors and nuances can be brought into your tone.

Do you have any questions or remarks after reading this article or do you have suggestions for new topics? Let me know and leave your comment!

Het bericht Seven exercises to reach a flexible sax sound verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

Connect

Random data is harder to remember than data that is connected; 123456 is easier to remember than 492756. The underlying principle is that our brains want to connect information. Imagine you want to study a new piece of music and apply this principle. It would be very impractical to go through all the pitches separately first. Because what is the connection? You might recognize this as my pet peeve by now, but first, take a broad look at the music in front of you. It’s about the context of the music, within which the elements become a comprehensible whole.

Structure

Another variation of this ‘connect principle’ is this tip from the book to structure. You remember a large number of words more easily if they are grouped in words that belong together. All ’tool words’ together or everything related to animals, for example.

In music, you can apply this by focusing on one component and examining its coherence. For example, the form; if you realize that the song consists of an intro, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, outro, you already have a much better grasp of the piece. Also, consider dynamics in this way: suddenly, you see connections and differences. Perhaps you hadn’t noticed before that the same theme is softly repeated later. Or that the dynamics build throughout the piece, getting louder until the end where it becomes soft again.

Break down

Another handy tool that Tigchelaar mentions in this chapter is breaking down information into understandable pieces. A long name in another language like Csikszentmihalyi is difficult to remember. Break this name down into words that are understandable to you, like “chick send me high,” and now you can remember the whole.
In music, there are sometimes long sequences of notes and rhythms that are challenging to store in your mind at first. Break the sequence into small pieces, for example, 5 notes that belong together like a kind of word or phrase, and then piece them back together. A tip here is to play each piece 5 times in a row to anchor it. So: doobadooháá 5x, dap-dadadap 5x, tagadadadá-doedat 5x. And then doobadooháádap-dadadaptagadadadá-doedat.

In summary:

* Connect; first, create an overview so you know how to place all the notes and symbols. For a ballad(e), a slow tempo, legato play, and soft dynamics fit. You feel the tempo and mood, just like a conductor indicates. Analyze the rhythm and then play the melody. You will now automatically play it as a ballad(e) (slow, soft, legato, etc.).
* Structure; focus on a component such as the form, and you will see more connections.
* Break down; break long lines into small, logically sounding pieces that are easy to learn. Then play the whole thing in sequence.

Het bericht Studying Music Part 3: Connect verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

This time, I’m providing tips based on the book “Lezen, weten en niet vergeten” (Reading, Knowing, and Not Forgetting) by Mark Tigchelaar. I’ll translate these tips into the context of music in the upcoming blogs. Here’s the third principle: Embrace Single Tasking!

Imagine I’m giving you a lesson. You play a piece, and afterward, I ask you to play it again while focusing on dynamics, intonation, your embouchure, and the attack. This would be too much to think about, and playing wouldn’t exactly be relaxed. But in music, you have to simultaneously blow, attack, and keep track of the rhythm, etc. So, we often just start playing and try to do everything as well as possible.

When learning a new piece, it becomes more challenging; how do you create a step-by-step plan? Some people start with the pitch and play all the pitches in sequence like a kind of rebus puzzle, hoping that a logic and correct rhythm will magically emerge. This is not practical because this coherence usually doesn’t occur miraculously. Moreover, you end up practicing things incorrectly, which can be challenging to correct later on.”

Returning to Tigchelaar’s principle: embrace single-tasking. The conclusion after a five-year comparative study of more than six hundred scientific articles on this subject is: when you perform multiple tasks simultaneously, multitasking, you are on average four to ten times slower and make significantly more mistakes in each task. Not handy at all, even though it sometimes feels like a time saver.

But don’t we often do things simultaneously? Cycling and talking? Walking and playing? That’s correct, and it’s not a problem. It only becomes a problem when you learn to cycle and have a difficult conversation at the same time. It’s about the amount of conscious attention you need. Is something new or challenging? Then you want to focus your conscious attention on that.

In the case of music, focus on one aspect at a time that you want to improve, such as playing loudly and softly. So, going back to the lesson situation: I might ask you, for example, to play the piece again and specifically pay attention to the dynamics. While playing, you notice various things: ‘Hey, here it says you should play softly, I hadn’t noticed that!’ or you realize that it’s quite challenging to play really softly. The next time, you’ll apply the dynamics better, even if you’re not actively focusing on it anymore.

When learning a new piece of sheet music, nothing comes naturally at first, so how do you start? What is a good first step? The key is to first hear the music in your mind, without the instrument. This is easily achievable, and you won’t ingrain any mistakes. Start by determining the type of piece it is; mood, style, tempo, time signature. Then, hear the music roughly in your mind before playing. This way, you’ll know whether it should be a rhinoceros or a flower. So, start from the outline and then gradually fill in the details.

Have fun studying!

Floor Wittink

Het bericht Studying Music Part 2: Multitasking? verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

This time, I’m providing tips based on the book “Lezen, weten en niet vergeten” (Reading, Knowing, and Not Forgetting) by Mark Tigchelaar. The principles he explains should be generally known but aren’t yet. I will translate these tips into the context of music in the upcoming blogs. Here’s the first principle!

Principle 1: Always Learn

I have always been interested in how we learn. Since my high school days, I’ve wondered why we’ve organized our education in this way and whether it can be improved. If you’ve attended my workshops or purchased the online course, you know that I always emphasize how to practice what I explain. Music is always about practicing; new music needs to be rehearsed, and at the very least, you want to maintain your technique. That’s why I was curious about Tigchelaar’s book. In it, he describes eight principles for learning. I’ll translate them for you into the world of music.

The first principle is what I’ve just described: it’s about finding the right method. Let’s move on to the second principle from the book:

Principle 2: Fill the Void

Empty moments while playing? Indeed, it makes sense. How often do you catch yourself thinking about groceries, what’s going wrong or right, what your fellow musicians might think, and so on, all at the same time? It’s incredible how all these thoughts occur simultaneously in your head.

I hadn’t realized that when I’m thinking while playing, apparently, I have the time for it. My brain simply isn’t using all its capacity for playing. And so, it starts doing other things; think of small children getting bored and fidgeting.

How do you fill the void then? In the case of reading, according to the author, you should do this more quickly. The results are astounding, like speed reader Anne Jones, who read the latest Harry Potter first and finished it in three quarters of an hour. She could also answer all questions about the content correctly.

Playing faster is not, or not the only, solution for us. What we can do is fill the void with attention to the music. This means not just playing as if you were a CD being played; the ‘see if it works method.’ Instead, consider the story you are telling. Envision it, feel what you feel about it. What musical phrases are you actually playing? How do you start, how do you finish? Or focus on dynamics, timing, intonation, articulation, your posture, the movement of your fingers, the breath you feel in your body. There is so much for us as musicians to pay attention to.

Repeat with different focus

Secretly, I must already introduce the next principle, because zooming in on everything at once is not practical. So choose a focus and play it again with a different focus. That doesn’t mean you play without dynamics if you focus on timing. But you pay less attention to it.

I practiced Tai Chi for many years. In Tai Chi, you practice a form: a series of movements that are always the same. And you preferably do this every day. And every lesson as well. The only thing that constantly varies is the focus. One time you focus on the moments of inhalation and exhalation. The next time on weight distribution, or the ‘string on your crown’ principle, and so on. This way, you can dedicate your entire life to improving one fixed series of movements.

In music, you study a piece much more thoroughly in this way. As soon as you drift off, you can choose a new point of focus. Or apply the next principle, more about that in the next blog!

Het bericht Studying Music Part 1: Drifting verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.

The composer Aaron Copland has named this very beautifully in his book about listening to music: there is an active and a passive manner of listening. We are accustomed to background music. This is a passive way to listen with which we are most familiar. You set up an atmosphere and in the meantime you eat, have a party or get down to work.

If there is singing in the music, then perhaps you follow the lyrics and thus follow the story of the music. This makes listening more active: you are now anticipating what will come next.

How do you listen to music which has no text and is only instrumental? I am thinking here of western, classical music for instance. Imagine: you go to a classical concert, an orchestra or ensemble begins to play. What do you pay attention to? Do you shut your eyes and let yourself be submerged in a pool of sound? Do you get associations, for example, memories which the music calls up? Consider the musicians: how do they move or do they are look at each other? Do you analyze the rhythm, harmony, and timing of the music? There is no one right way to listen, that is assumed, but maybe you notice that there are actually many ways to listen!

Let’s consider even abstract, classical music: I think that the listening experience is much more intense and enjoyable if you are actively following the story line. There is no story in words, but you can follow the melody, the rhythm and the color. What’s happening? You can’t give an answer in words, no technical music tidbits, but you hear…

I ask you to take part in the following experiment and to see whether your listening experience is more “active” after you have listened to the following videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVmQMNOYGMw

Ask yourself these things while you watch the video:

Where are the notes going? Try, in the slower parts in the beginning, to come up with the next note and look anywhere else than at the pianist. Listen with your eyes closed to where the notes have gone. It doesn’t matter whether you can anticipate well or not, this is only one way of listening more intensely to the notes following them as closely as you can. Are surprised where the melody went? Can you follow the melody? Were you carried along? What happens to you when you speed the piece up?

Even if you don’t like music and don’t ever put on music at home, a concert can be a beautiful experience. Surely modern music will surprise you, draw you into a whimsical story and above all it won’t submerge you in fine harmonies. If, despite the strange noises, you can follow the story and you let yourself be surprised, you will find that it is much more beautiful than you ever thought!

Try this with this composition and ask the following questions:
Which instrument do I hear carrying the melody? Which different rhythms do I hear? How does the rhythm develop? Heavier, more complex, repetition? What sort of story can I imagine when I listen to this piece? Probably you will have to listen a couple times in order to consider all of these questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfZ7i7930Yg&feature=relmfu

To be clear: listening actively does not mean to analyze the music or to give all sorts of technical answers. The questions are only an aid to help you concentrate your listening and to discover as much as possible, even if you can’t answer them all.

Other questions you can ask yourself are:

What sort of tone colors do I hear and how do they mix with each other? What is the form of the piece, for example, are there repetitions or is the melody repeated by different instruments, can you distinguish different parts?

Try this and I am curious to learn what you experienced!

I find it very interesting that we as people in history have developed how we listen. The most normal sounds now were absolutely controversial a couple hundred years ago. Also it’s obvious that our hearing evolves with what we are exposed to. Modernist composers strive to go beyond where the public is accustomed to.

Also there are times when your life changes how you hear: the more adventurous sounds, the more your hearing develops and the more you can distinguish, or what you now find beautiful that you did not before.  Have a look at this nice overview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82JiVWmzmNs

I wish you a lot of listening pleasure!

Het bericht An Ear for Music verscheen eerst op Floor Wittink.