Why not extend your palette with singing and playing? Part 1. By Dean Stallard

As promised last time we`re going to take a look at singing and playing simultaneously. But why bother trying to learn, or have your pupils use such an obscure technique?

I have found singing and playing to be very beneficial to the improvement of regular playing and the technique that shows the most immediate results in tone quality. In fact when it comes to improvement of tone production I would tentatively suggest that singing and playing gives faster, more noticeable results than any other technique.

My intermediate students are always surprised at the immediate and radical improvement they experience when playing a passage immediately after having sung and played it. Why should that be? Of course one of the reasons that advanced players work with this technique is to consciously improve throat and body resonances, but that is a whole world away from the level of the first few playing years. I believe that for the lower to intermediate levels of playing the advantages of working with singing and playing are several.

Firstly there is a necessary improvement in breath support. Necessary because going from the relative free-blowing of flute playing we have now closed the throat with the vocal chords and created resistance that must be overcome.

Next, the embouchure becomes more accurate and focused. After passing through the vocal chords there is very little air pressure left and the embouchure must be used to focus this air to get it up to an acceptable speed/ pressure for tone production. Because the air-stream is now more focused it will also have to be directed more accurately Just putting your lips together and blowing isn`t enough any moreJ

Lastly aural skills improve. Contrary to popular opinion, a flute is not like a piano where pressing the right keys guarantees production of the prescribed note! You should be able to hear a note before you play it if you are going to have a good chance of it being in tune and having good quality. Singing, especially while reading music, will help improve these skills.

So how and when should singing and playing be introduced?

The fact that I`m going to use examples from Liz Goodwin`s “The Fife Book” (published by Just Flutes) in Part 2 should answer that question. The technique should be introduced very early as a fun factor in the lessons. If you have moved on from the beginner level and still haven`t tried singing and playing, don`t worry, it`s never too late to start and it`s so simple that even a child can do it (in fact the chances are that a child beginner might initially experience less difficulty than you!) J

You need to be able to do two things to sing and play simultaneously, produce a note on the flute and sing! (Surprised?) As you are reading this magazine we can safely assume that you are capable of playing the flute but can you sing? A strange question perhaps but I mean can you really sing, as in letting forth with a from the guts Pavarotti type note that will shake the chandeliers in the roof, not can you emit a faint embarrassed “laaaa…..” whilst studying the pattern on the carpet!!!

If you recognise yourself in the latter description (be honest now) then you need to do some preliminary exercises if you are going to stand any chance of singing and playing. It doesn`t matter if you can`t sing in tune, that can come later (as I said working with singing and playing will improve your aural skills) but if you don`t get enough air moving you`ll never be able to produce the flute note. You also need to get over your self-consciousness if you are going to make strange and foreign sounds on your flute intentionally.

Preliminary exercise 1: Quite simple really- put on a CD, any CD as long as you like the tune, and sing-a-long-a-karaoke at the top of your lungs. Remember to adjust the volume according to the level of your embarrassment!

Preliminary exercise 2: Place your hand flat on the bottom of your rib-cage and pant like a dog, then suddenly raise your face to the sky and howl like a wolf! Notice the movement in your abdominal muscles while you are panting and the tension created when you howl. This exercise is excellent for feeling how the support mechanism works and at the same time will whisk away any embarrassment you might have felt about singing!

Important; the above exercises are preparatory ones. When we proceed to singing and playing simultaneously you should back off a bit so that you don`t strain your throat.

Finally, as I said at the top of the page, in my experience singing and playing gives faster and more noticeable results in tone development than any other method. The flip side of this is that the results are short-lived unless you work at it over a longer period in addition to other more traditional tone development exercises. This technique should be seen as an addition to other methods of working not a quick fix replacement. Well what did you expect? Nothing in life is for free!J

In Part 2 I`ll give you some specific exercises to get you singing and playing. In the meantime keep at the preliminary exercises, “ha, ha, ha, aWOoooo”!!