Hi, everybody! I doubt if any of you remember me at all, since I was never a big poster and was looking more for advice on my own playing than handing it out to others. I started coming around here this time last year with much need for help (Detailed descriptions of my flute dying before a performance in Toronto, anyone?) and as usual, this is the case. Unfortunately for you, dear readers, have more questions than usual and they are hardly related except that they all (obviously) have to do with fluting. Okay? So, without further ado...

Problem One:
This is problem one for the assumable reason that it is, naturally, the biggest issue I have right now and is the one I need to solve most quickly. As some of you know, and most of you do not, my flute has this horrible habit of dying on me at random and dreadfully inconvenient moments in time: right before or during important performances, in the middle of a playing test, at Solo and Ensemble, two days prior to leaving for a competition, et cetera. We all know that flutes are temperamental creatures. I had the predicament mostly under control until Mary, Queen of Scots (herein referred to as "MQoS") decided that I was no longer worthy of her services and fretfully let her padding rot off, knowing fully well that I cannot get that repaired due to lack of a music store in the area, willing parents to drive me to one, and most importantly, a job. Now, MQoS is by no means an old flute -- seven years, I believe -- but she has undergone a lot of damage since the fourth grade and apparently did not like me that much to begin with.

Since November I have been practicing with a school flute, the ancient Bundy that I was forced to use over the summer and that destroyed my embouchure and tone completely. ([Group shudder]) Alas, my foe and I meet again! This qualmish quandary has begun to arise again; my tone has gone from darn good to breathy or tinny, and it is impossible to find The Sweet Spot to play and a distant dream to play vibrato. Does anybody have any ideas on how I can save my embouchure so that it isn't horrible by the time I get a new flute in about a million years, and improve my tone altogether before this Bundy becomes a light fixture?

Problem Two:
My band director abhors my being, and has since I was in the seventh grade. He is the sort of person to harvest grudges, choose favourites, and ignore the needs of all who do not bow to his asshattish feet. (A regular Horace Slughorn, if you are familiar with Harry Potter.) Please know that becoming a symphony flautist has been my goal since the beginning, and fluting is one of the few things that I am naturally good at and can take me away from the world entirely, but because he loathes me so and treats me like dung stuck into the crevasses of a steel-toed boot, coupled with the aforementioned and highly frustrating flute issues, I am losing my interest in music, quickly. If anybody has been in this quagmire before, could you provide some insight on how to deal with him for the next two and a half years while still retaining my absolute adoration for music?

Problem Three:
This is not nearly as dire, but I am horrid at sight-reading. Tips on that would be great, as well as a recording to Handel's Flute Sonata No. 6 in B minor. :X

Thank you, everybody! Any little fragments of help would mean the world to me. And I do hope that my writing style does not bother anybody or sound terribly pompous; I much like to keep you laughing.

Hi Kito,
I feel temped to say that, apart from your deep interest in flute playing, you also like to write!(lol)

I have a german edition of 11 Haendel flute sonatas and a couple of recordings, but unfortunately the one you mention (in B minor) is not there. I made some searching some months ago and recordings of these Sonatas were scarce, if not rare. If you have the score, it would be a rather simple job to get a midi file from it, but of course it would be far from a real performance. But if you could do with it, let me know.

<Added>

Your problem one (the flute repeatedly dying in the middle of a concert or in similar occasions) does sound strange. May be the instrument has a defect that harms the pads. Or could it be you press those keys too hard?. Sure the experts here could float some ideas...

hey kito, my old flute used to fall apart during performances. there's no cure for having to get your pads replaced...you just have to, but when you do you can save the new ones for a little longer at least by not eating or drinking anything directly before playing and if you do rinse rinse rinse your mouth with water. as for the falling apart...keep a mini screwdriver set with you at ALL TIMES. this way you can adjust all those little problems that would allow the flute to fall apart right before whatever event it is that you need your flute for. just make sure you have it adjusted correctly and nothing is too tight. for screws that continually work themselves loose within minutes or a half hour place a smaaalll drop of clear nail polish over it right after you adjust it to where you want it to be. this helps keep it in place.

the best solution for me was to just get a better flute, but if this is not possible you just need to know the temperament of your instrument. i always knew what it felt like when something was off and if you can feel for it you can prevent anything disasterous happening during an important event.
=)

I would not suggest the screwdriver except in absolute emergencies. It can be handy to have one around when your flute stops working 3 minutes before you go on stage, but working on it regularly is likely to introduce new problems unless you know what you're doing. I notice flauta mentioned not to tighten screws too much, but without some experience of how much is too much, it's still easy to overtighten which has the potential to bind the mechanism. To solve this part of problem #1, have a tech adjust the flute, at which point he can apply something to lock the screws in place, or you can do so after getting it back, but before you play the instrument. As for tone, can you put the headjoint from your flute that is falling apart on the Bundy body? The head is what affects sound most, so if it is either a good fit or slightly too loose (in which case a little teflon tape should snug things up), this might be a good solution. Are you doing tone exercises such as those in the Wye book or De la Sonorite on a daily basis? These are very important to developing and maintaining a good sound. In any case, how good or bad a head sounds should not affect your ability to use vibrato while playing. Problem #2 I'll leave to others with more experience in that area, but problem #3 is easily solved with a little patience and work. The more music that passes in front of you, the easier it will be to sightread well, so just start reading things straight through without stopping. Get an etude book and read 1 or 2 new ones every day, or borrow music from friends and teachers and jsut read through it. Practicing your scales and arpeggios in all their permutations (majors, minors of all sorts, whole tones, etc...) will also make things much easier, as most music is made of them or fragments of scales and arpeggios.

Welll!
Here following, may be a plethora of verbosity with unintelligible wordage for your edification.
The word should be Adieu as in "without further adieu.." at any rate,

Problem One: For your preferred woodwind, get thee to a fixery. The instrument is basically an inanimate object in reality and as such isn't capeable of random acts of violence so don't chop off it's head (proverbaly speaking) for falsehoods, leaving her pet dog to the misery of the moment.
This fixation, should be of quality and not be administered by some hack with a bad aim. As some repair individuals are better at taking money than they are at supplying happiness. Alternatively, if your instrument is from the 16th century, you may consider (Shudder) abandoning her for a newer model. -an upgrade of sorts.


Problem Two: As a teacher, you CAN'T IMAGINE how often I hear a student use the opening greeting of a lesson with the three words: "My band director...."
Now I understand how important a good role model and a positive influence a good band director can be on your interest in music. It can be very important. But at this point in your life (What age ARE you anyway?) , you should assess for yourself how much you love the music because there will in the future be a fairly constant parade of Horace Slughorns on our podium. The problem is that your band is really your band director's band. You are as one of the keys on a piano which he is playing on the podium. From a music educational standpoint, you don't have time to be dragged down by one individual. Don't dwell on these thoughts. Learn your flute extraordinarly well. Learn some piano (take LESSONS on it). Maybe even learn to sing. All musicians NEED these skills to pass through even a mediocre music school.
So, learn your music well independant of this baton wielding demon and the next 2.5 years will be only a vague bad memory on your road to musical success.
At this point, an ancient folk song to live your thoughts by, "Die Gedanken sind frei" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei


Problem Three:
Finding that particular piece in recording may be a task. What edition? Different publishers have cut, hacked, transposed and refitted these Sonatas together to the point of utter confusion.

However, Handel is good music for learning to sight read. Get as much of his music as you can, also Telemann and Bach (J.S. And C.P E). LEarn a few Kuhlau duets too. -zero in on the slow movements. Duets are good for sight reading. Kuhlau are very good at this point. Learn to subdivide well. If your don't undersand the concept, ask your private instructor. Generally the slow movements of Baroque music (~1650-1750) are more difficult to count. In the Handel Adagio stuff think 16ths (semiquavers) or eights (quavers}. Then when you think that you know the piece, get thee with an accompanist. One could use the "Smart Music" system if you wish to shell out $$$ to the establishment or one could try to find some MIDI files of pieces to play along with.
http://www.classicalarchives.com/handel.html#handel_sonatas_solo

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

it's really not that hard to tell when your screws are too tight. with my flute one key would be leaky so id hold down the other one connected to it in the mechanism VERY GENTLY and turn that screw until both were making contact with the tone holes. and with a student model flute, you really have to have screwdrivers and be able to do this because you can't bring your flute to a tech every other week just for one leaky key (not having anything to do with pads of course). with a lot of sutdent model flutes this is how often problems like this occur and it would do much more damage to your playing if you left them as is. you could create a ridiculous amount of excess tension by pressing the keys too hard to make up for the slight disalignment which could possibly lead to even more troubles with the mechanism, slow down your technical playing and increase potential for injuries like carpal tunnel oorrr your could potentially resort to the wrong methods of producing the right notes, damaging your embouchure. and for the screws that actually hold the mechanism together...you only need to screw them in enough so that the keys are not in danger of popping off, not to the point that you couldn't possibly turn the screws anymore.

oh and also...this especially applies if you don't have a good tech in your area...i sent my flute to be repaired by the local music shop and it came back and within ten minutes the screw had worked itself loose and the keys popped off again. i send it somewhere else now obviously, but sometimes there's no one available who can really solve the problem.

Wow, I'm glad that so many people care enough to try and help! You are all quite awesome.

Jose:
Yesyes, writing is one of my hobbies. :P Where did you find the sonatas? Perhaps I can find another one in my book and go with that one, instead. And as for the padding, I am pretty sure that the main factor is age, because she is seven years young and has never had the pads replaced (I had quit for two years, and before that I was young and cared little for maintenance).

Flauta:
The screwdriver thing sounds like a good idea. It's common sense to realize when things have been over-tightened, and until I can get a new one it will have to do. Thank you! =)

Flutist06
I have tried putting the Armstrong head on the Bundy body, but the Armstrong cut was too large and didn't fit. =/ Thank you for the advice on sight-reading, I will definitely keep it in mind. I don't know the Wye book, but my director probably has one somewhere or other.

Bilbo:
Apologies for the grammatical error; I was copying off of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and figured it was the same spelling. :X
I have sent her in for repairs before, and you certainly don't lie when you say that companies are better at taking money than making repairs (for instance, I had her repaired and sent in for some general buffing just before a competition last April and they didn't even replace the padding), but for the money I would have to put into her for repairs and upgrades it would be best to get a new one. As for the Bundy, I am going to pretend that it doesn't exist.
To answer your question, I am fifteen and trying to learn other instruments -- the bassoon, the piano, et cetera -- and do sing on occasion but he isn't of much help there. The only thing to do is get better, as you said, but it is so difficult when people are hindering one's will to succeed. =/
I am honestly not sure which edition I have, because I found it lying on the band room floor and was like "neat, NYSSMA music" due to my being a horrible person. It says "Boston 1944" (o.O?!) so...not of much help there, sorry.

I disagree with the screwdriver except in unusual circumstances, as I mentioned above. The linkages between keys should be adjusted in a particular order to prevent later adjustments from opening new leaks. It's not a simple matter of just taking a screwdriver to the flute. I've worked with Jon Landell (a custom flute builder in Vermont) to learn some basic flute repair and maintainance, and I storngly suggest you do not try to make adjustments to your flute until you have some training on how it all works. However, a good quality student flute should not fall out of adjustment within a week, provided the work done on it was of reasonable quality. I'm not sure what kind of flute you were playing on that fell out of adjustment within ten minutes, nor the qualifications of your tech, but it certainly not the norm for that to happen.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the mastering of the language displayed by some of you; this time is one of them.

I must say that I admire (and confess that a little, I envy) the eloquence and verbosity of some posts on this site and in this particular thread. I wish I could do the same, but it is not possible, as English is a foreign language for me.

I also like to write and once received a prize for one tale I wrote when I was a student. But I did not continue writing and now I regret it (as many other things I could have done but didn't).

Kito, if you really are 15 and already write like that, I believe you have also another talent!

Concerning the Sonatas, I can propose you the following:

I have received quite recently a recording of the Basso Continuo for Haendel's Hallenser Sonata I HWV 374 in A minor. This is a complete Basso, I mean, it has a Cello and a Basson (that take turns in the repetitions) plus a harpsichord improvising on the ciphers.

It was recorded by professional musicians of very high level (big orchestra soloists), but the session was just made for my personal playing as a student and therefore it is rather slow in Tempo and the music was performed at sight reading without any rehearsal.

If you can do with this Sonata I could make a mp3 of the B.C and send it to you to your private mail.

I also have the score (but this I suppose you can obtain yourself) and a commercial recording on CD. But the flute in this recording is probably a baroque flute, very low in intonation, to the point I cannot play in tune with it. Well, I could, with big efforts and taking the headjoint out for about 2 inches, but then there are too many problems for keeping in tune. So it is not confortable to play along, to say the less.

Just let me know.

Ah Jose,
Your recording is most likely a Baroque flute. They have a less "solid" edgy tone quality and can be in a lower historical pitch. Perhaps 1/2 step lower than our modern 440 (or so). There are some software programs that can raise the pitch of a recorded file but it should be heard as is.

~Bilbo
N.E. Ohio

Wow 15 and you write like that. Excellent job. You must also be a regular reader.

BTW I have a Bundy that is older than me. (and I'm 39) Built in 1963 according to the serial number. She might not be much to look at but she works just fine.

I'd say its not about the age, but the condition that matters most. Which applies to more than just instruments if you catch my drift.

Personally I love things with history. I'll take the old stuff over new any day.

Good luck with everything.

Flutist:
So the screwdriver is a bad idea, then? Hmmm...

Jose:
Thank you very much! I appreciate it, and you're too kind, really. I also stopped writing for a while (just like with my fluting, it's sort of a habit), but it is never too late to start again! You said that English is not your native language, and I also must say that I envy your skill in it! I'm currently learning both Spanish and French, and while languages are fun my mastery is nowhere near yours.

As for the sonata, I can't seem to find that one in my book though I think that, once I go back to school again (we are on break) I could ask if my band director has a score and if the NYSSMA people would let me play it. What level is your sonata, do you know?

Marie:
Aw, thank you! I do spend far too much time reading, if I am not on the Internet.
Oh, I don't mind having an old instrument -- in fact, I would just about die if I could get my hands on a Haynes from the 1920s. This flute, however, is a school instrument (and high school students take care of very little that isn't actually theirs) and is pretty much dead, like my own flute. I must ask, though, where you found the serial number and year?

Kito, thanks for you concepts concerning my English. I would like to improve it, but I have no opportunity, except for participating in this and sometimes in other Forums.

The Hallenser Sonata I is easy, IMO, but I am not acquainted with the level numbering system you probably use, so I cannot tell. It has four movements (two Adagios and two Allegros) and all are in C major so there is no problems with key alterations.

I can play it with three years of private lessons (albeit with a slower tempo for the the Allegros) and I thoink that I do not learn exceptionally fast.

In my opinion it is not the most beautiful of Haendel Sonatas for Flute, but one of the easiest. It dates from his first period in Halle (near Leipzig in Germany), where Haendel was born in 1685. I believe that the numbers in the HWV (this one is 374) are not chronologically related, they are actually a number system invented by the editors.

The one I find most beautiful is HWV 359b in E minor, I am studying it but the Allegros are still more difficult. Unfortunately, I do not have a record for the Basso Continuo, but a Cellist friend has promised to mail me his version (but no harpsichord, this time).

So for the moment, I only have the accompaniment for the Hallenser I. I could send you a partial copy of one of one of the allegros, so you can see if it is at the level you expect.

Hello Kito,
I hope I might help you with your 'does not play' problem. I have this happen in two different situations: First, M'Pingo (Swahili for Grenadilla), my wood headjoint, won't play if my mouth is smiley or if I've just got over a rash of the giggles. I have to calm down and push everything from my mind and relax my embouchure and STOP thinking about that dirty joke that my stand partner just told me.
The second problem is one that I haven't heard of anyone else having, but I'm sure it is possible. I had a silver, handcarved headjoint that was quite likely a factory 2nd, because on close inspection the hole was not symmetrical but more oval to one side and more rectangular on the other. When moisture condensation would build up to the left side of the embouchure hole, it would stop playing. Swabbing the moisture out solved the problem temporarily, and flute lessons wherein I learned better aim of my airstream helped the problem. I also sold the substandard headjoint and found a new one that suited me better. Interesting to me was the fact that the flute (headjoint) would stop playing for me, but other people didn't have the same problem with it.