What's the best way to polish flute scales / arpeggios etc? I'm practising them tongued and slurred every day, including both minor versions. Tomorrow I plan to identify the shakiest ones and do a separate, shorter practice session just concentrating on those. I also try to vary the order I play them in. But does anyone have any other ideas, please?

Loads of different ways, but one of those is to put the names of all your scales/arpeggios in a hat, pick them out in a random order, and see how you do, to recreate that examination experience.

Also, try starting with the highest note, then decend and go back up again. It's amazing how many times I find that pupils struggle descending scales...

Me too, unfortunately! I get to the top, and then my fingers take on a life of their own!

Thanks for those ideas. I'm a bit worried about the scales section - I thought I knew them really well for my G5, but still mashed them in the exam. I'm sure the scraped merit was down to having a generous examiner!

I find that practising in different rhythms really helps to smooth out the tricky bits. Also playing up and down small sections of the scale e.g. just four or five notes especially round the top.

Baz's Hat is an Excellent Plan.

Also - aim for accuracy first, let the speed come later.

Trust me, I'm a Bag. A Flute-Bag no less....or...

Bag-Flute (Alan Bullard where are you?) x

I found playing them in jazz quavers quickly established which ones were sussed, and which ones quickly collapsed into pieces...

Yes, I definitely need to work on varying the rhythms.



Okay, I tried this today. It was actually rather terrifying, because I worked out that - taking into account tongued and slurred scales, arpeggios, both forms of the minor and all the other bits also slurred and tongued - there are no less than 82 possibilities that I could be asked to play!

82!

So they had a whole hour today, and the tricky ones which I weeded out might get a bit more when I come home from choir.

Two weeks to go........

Thanks for the ideas - please keep them coming. Or just pop in to give me some moral support! Scales are my weakest section.

I was going to say "as a hint for next time", but I guess with you exam imminent there won't be a next time!

But anyway, if anyone else ever reads this thread, the scales are less intimidating if you make three sets of cards: One with the key, one with the articulation and one with the scale-type. Now okay, you might pull out a scale you don't actually need to know (whole tone, jazz quavers, starting on A, anyone?) but as the G8 requirements are mostly "everything, on every note, with every articulation", it isn't going to happen that often...

Thanks for your suggestion, Misti - I like this idea. Actually, knowing me, there probably will be a next time (if I get through this time!)

Just one small snag, which I'm sure you can help with......I haven't come across jazz quavers yet.

Well, they aren't on a syllabus. I just used to practise scales with the dotted swung rhythm... it prevented me rushing the scale and tripping over my fingers!

Ah, I see. Thanks for that - I will experiment today!