I am a flute player, having recently passed (only just!) Grade 6. Before I think about signing up for Grade 7 I have to work on my intonation, rhythm and tone. Can I do this alone or do I need the assistance of my teacher? Does anyone have any advice/suggestions you could share?

Hi Neenee

I'm writing from the perspective of having got a high merit at Grade 3 clarinet and then a scraped pass at Grade 4, mainly due to my intonation. So having looked back at your other posts, I can identify with what you've written. Mentally and emotionally, it's a huge knock-back when you've invested so much into it, only to be told that you haven't done as well as you were expecting to.

I changed teachers shortly after taking my exam (although before the results came out), and my new teacher made a big difference to me. Having said that, I see that you think you've got an excellent teacher, and acknowledge that you didn't take on board everything she was trying to teach you. I don't think that's unusual - to coin a phrase, you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink until it's thirsty. I would suggest going back to the same teacher, talking it through, and making her understand that you're now ready to address the issues which she was trying to teach you before. And in answer to your specific question, I don't really see how you could do it without a teacher. Apart from anything else, from reading your other posts, you seem a bit demotivated at the moment (which is often the case after an unexpectedly low exam result), and without a teacher to give you support and guidance, I think it would be even harder to get your motivation back.

Good luck, and well done on going back to it after so many years and sticking with it to get Grade 6. It obviously means a lot to you, and hopefully with your teacher's help, you can get over this knock-back

I think you need to do both, a personal commitment to work at the problem spots even if it involves much of your practice time spent on "boring" exercises rather than playing real music, and a teacher to guide you as to what and how to practice and to let you know when you're making progress.

Rhythm and tone are two areas I've been concentrating on. The more I work on these the less I work on "proper" music, but when I do play it it sounds so much better and new pieces come together far more quickly because I'm no longer struggling to work out the rhythms or worrying about how to get the sound OK in the high bits.

I think the best aid to working on this on your own would be some sort of recording device: high quality would be better for listening to tone, but your ears are even better for that! Whilst you need to develop listening skills for all three areas while you are playing , listening to yourself on a recording will show you where the problems are in the first place.

We all have a limited capacity for what we can focus our attention on, so play pieces/exercises rather below Grade 6 standard so that you're not worrying about the notes, and concentrate on one thing at a time to begin with. If you're working on tone, then listen for that and don't worry unduly about rhythm and intonation. As playing with a good tone becomes more automatic you'll find that working on intonation as well becomes easier.

You can work on rhythm separately, by clicking or tapping the pulse as you say or sing the rhythm of the notes.

Your teacher's ears will undoubtably pick up things you have missed, but you have more time to work on this in practice sessions than you do in lessons.

Good luck!

On the flute intonation/tone (the two are related) is something which will benefit from the advice of a *good* teacher (i.e. avoid teachers whose main instrument is not the flute). But people have taught themselves, you just need a lot of time, patience and some guidance on what to do.

I would suggest you devote a few months (yes, months, not weeks: patience!) to the following:
-M. Moyse, Beginning the Flute (it's rather expensive, but you might find it in your local library).
Once you have studied this carefully, move on to
-M. Moyse, De la sonorite'

Think relaxation and full tone. And do record yourself!
Also, go to as many *live* flute concerts as you can, to get an idea of what a "good" tone sounds like.