Todos los botes salvavidas que vayan a ser arriados por medio de una o varias tiras, salvo los de caída libre, estarán provistos de un mecanismo de suelta que cumpla las siguientes

The necessary development of your tone will also help train your ear. Upon play-ing Intervals 3, for instance, splay-ing the second note internally while playplay-ing the first. If you must use a tuner, this exercise is the best, especially if your machine is of the relatively old type, which does not follow every sound you make. The ancient stroboscope, part of the furniture in band rooms, and the first electronic tuners showed one note at a time but responded to all multiples of the basic fre-quency, thereby telling you about the tempered intonation of the octave (second partial), fifth (third partial),¹⁰ and so forth.

Let us consider now what happens when a slurred interval is not smooth. The critical moment is when the acoustically vibrating pattern of the sound (not to be confused with vibrato) is leaving the first note and the second note is being fingered. A millisecond of eternity . . .

An octave is usually smoother than a somewhat smaller interval because it is the second partial (harmonic) and uses, for the most part, the same basic finger-ing, except for the extreme high or low notes.

Even for apparently simple patterns such as the following, there can be a prob-lem with smoothness. The fingering of the first note fingering is in black, and the fingering changes for the second note are in gray.

Intervals Figure 1. First-note fingering in black, second-note fingering changes in gray

Intervals Figure 2

Left-hand finger lifts off just before right ring finger lands.

When, to form the second note, some fingers come down as others lift, we tend to slam the downward ones. Things are smoother when the upward fingers are the most deliberate.

But do not slam on the downward fingers. Instead, synchronize the move-ments of fingers with the shift of the air speed.

Our equivalent for the octave key of other woodwinds is the C key. When it is

10. Partials used to be called “harmonics.”

 133 involved, it is the one that should move first, because it is little devil no. 1. It is vital because it vents different harmonics (partials) of our schema, yet it is a lazy finger because of its awkward position. It wants to stay down on Eb/DS, a com-mon mischief.

When the second note consists of fingers moving in opposite directions, it is safe to say that, since the down movement is more automatic than the liftoff, we should pay more attention to the fingers coming up than to those going down.

Finally, when an interval needs to be smoothed out, before trying to lip it, we should imagine a seamless track of air going from one note to next. From my ex-perience, the most vital key in the shift between two notes is the one that vents or closes the hole closest to the embouchure, where sound originates. While the left-hand keys in general and the octave (C) key most often work that closest hole, the trill-key holes, when involved, are even closer. All fingers of the left hand, at one time or another, can be viewed as agents of the closest hole. In the high range, the trill keys become that closest tone hole.

To improve the synchronization of fingers in intervals, it is a good idea to time the shift by counting so that the fingers, air speed, support, and the inevitable slight facial movement all happen together and smoothly at the same split sec-ond. That is why I (and my students) play, as practice, metered intervals within the octave, instead of the proverbial and soporific long tones.

I am not against reading light material while doing these exercises, such as a weekly newsmagazine. Shame on me! My reasoning is that our actual playing in-volves two concurrent activities: reading or recalling (the music) and playing (the flute). Even as we read, we hear and control our playing. Many of our activities are twofold in this manner. As an orchestra member, you are always conscious of the conductor’s motions without taking your eyes off the score; you can drive and speak or listen to the radio; as I write this, I am aware of some Schubert songs in the background; their beauty actually helps me to think.

In a nutshell:

Air Speed

Intonation, Intonations Treat intervals as a cultivation of your fingers as much as tone. Think of the tone holes involved and vent the one closest to the mouthpiece first. Avoid most lipping. Tone work is as technical as finger twisters are. It is also the ex-pression of soul.

Please refer also to:

Finger Phrasing Finger Antagonisms Jawboning Center of Gravity

134 , 

, 

It is an inexhaustible subject. Many people have certitudes about it; they are dan-gerous, be they flutists, conductors, or instrument makers. Tom Nyfenger, with his sardonic humor, used the term “outonation.”¹¹ Concern for intonation is the first of civilities toward partners with whom music is performed.

Tonal beauty, of course! Bright tone, clear tone, dark tone, ethereal tone, bravo! But often, the flutist, in his rapture about tone, gives it priority over into-nation. One gets used to everything, including playing out of tune.

Intonation concerns act as a negative: it seems natural and beyond comment that an instrumentalist or a group play in tune. The listener does not even think of it. But if the intonation is defective, it is the first thing that is noticed, even by nonmusicians. A feeling of aural discomfort negates any perception of an ex-pressive nature. Listen to the greatest pianist playing on an out-of-tune piano: the first thing you hear is the honky-tonk sound.

I have always regretted not having perfect pitch, and I succeed (hopefully) at playing somewhat in tune by referring to other pitches. Yet I am always ready to modify my playing to match other musicians, to the constantly changing har-monic environment, or to playing modes incompatible with our modern con-cepts.

Thus, when we say: “ The modern flute is more perfect than the pre-Boehm traverso,” we commit the sin of arrogance as well as a mistake, which often go hand in hand. Our modern criterion is equality in all ranges and on all the de-grees of the chromatic scale. It is also what I try to teach in order to achieve in-strumental playing as reliable as possible. However, for the flute players of yes-teryear, it was not the main concern. “Intonation is a bourgeois luxury.”¹² Colors changing with the keys, uneven timbre, even defects in intonation were elements of instrumental playing. They contributed to expression and to the character of their music. Boehm was criticized more for the “insensitivity” of his flute than for the imperfection of its mechanism. The lover’s eyes change into virtues the beloved’s defects.

Still, today, thank Heaven, each flute has its shortcomings, its own color, and each flutist has his own personal tastes and preferences.

In spite of what the experts (who are often salespersons) say, perfection is not of this world. Only the angels play in tune. Trouble is, nobody has ever heard them.

How’s the weather among the gentle souls of the hereafter?

Have the musicians at last found the A?¹³

11. Music and the Flute (published by the author, 1986). Nyfenger was a well-known flutist in New York until his tragic death in 1990. He taught at Yale and Oberlin.

12. Pierre Séchet, current professor of baroque flute at the Paris Conservatory.

13. Georges Brassens (1921 – 1981), French minstrel in “Mon vieux Léon,” a song about a de-ceased musician friend.

,  135 Since there is no absolute truth, the other instruments being what they are and styles being so personal, there can be no ensemble playing, and ultimately no music, without everyone being willing to adapt and to bow to the common good.