Anybody any suggestions for something I could play at the Sept concert? - remembering that it needs to be 3 minutes max. I prefer expressive stuff but i'm open to any ideas.

Mozart

or how about some movements form John Rutter's Suite Antique

Have you played Faure's Morceau de Concours? It's absolutely gorgeous, about the right length, and has a really easy accompaniment which is easy to put together with the flute part on the day.

No - i haven't played Faure -Morceau de Concours - I'll try to order the music & have a go at it. 3 minutes seems quite short relative to a lot of pieces - the Grade 5 Gluck & Faure were both longer than that. The Poulenc unfortunately is 4 minutes & the MOzart is longer again.

I hope you like it. It was on the old Grade 7 syllabus, and I was really sad they took it off the new one. If you do decide to do it, I would be happy to accompany you - it's one of the few flute accompaniments I can play.

Thanks andante, I'd like to take you up on that offer. This may seem like a silly question but which edition of it should I try to get? - one music shop thought it was UMP(?) they usually stocked but other sites have Schott, or other editions.

The old syllabus has Bourne Co. - Kalmus/M.D.S as the publisher. As far as I know this is the only edition as it was not published until 1970-something.

I've just checked JustFlutes website (www.justflutes.com) and this is the only edition they list. Musicroom don't appear to stock it.

I need to hear this piece... one of those I've heard lots about but crazily, never heard!

I would certainly suggest the 2nd mvt of the Poulenc Sonata (Cantilena). It's beautiful, but the piano parts a bit tricky. I think it's either grade 6 or 7. It's very expressive!
David

It's a grade 7 piece - I think it's just too long for performance in that concert, David. It is beautiful!

Have listened to a midi file of the Faure - morceau de concours (many thanks to Janexx for it). Sounds beautiful - still waiting for the music though - hope I can play it/learn it!
I do see what you mean about the accompaniment , andante-in -c, - hope I manage to count it right & come in in the right places. (BTW counting is not my strong point though I have improved it considerably - very proud of the fact that I've accompanied child playing grade 2 trumpet piece -Tuxedo Junction - none of teachers at school can/will play it for some reason??).

Could I possibly listen to that midi file? I'm always looking for new music to play.

Yes of course. Umm how do I do that? Do I attach it to an email?? like I'd attach a word document or something. Also not sure if I lost your e mail address when the other computer hard drive completely failed & lost everything on it? Nat has your email doesn't she?

i do indeedy

Yes, ask Nat for it, that would be great!

Nat, can you send me Nicki's email addy again, please?

suppose so!!!

Nat, do you think you could send Andy my email address too? and Andy, if Nat would be so kind as to do that, could you send me the MIDI file... ... I'd be everso grateful!

Of course sarah-flute. Nat is that OK with you?

yep will do now!

Nat sent me your address Andy - you should have email!

Just back from flute group & got your email sarah-flute - hopefully you'll have that midi file by now - happy listening!

I got it - will listen in the morning! Thank you

And now I have the music but no time to try it yet

Having the music's a good start though

Not having the greatest of days. Tried taping bits of exam pieces & scales late last night. Admittedly tape recorder is about 20 years old & tape was probably oldish but although scales & jade sounded OKish, The Mozart sounded yuk. Poulenc probably was between the Mozart & the study in yukkiness. So feeling very demoralised & though may feel tomorrow like using it as an incentive to do it better, today (apart from having no time at all to practise) I feel like binning the wretched flute.
Lets hope piano teacher's concert for /by pupils tonight goes better - playing a Debussy duet with her - Un Petit Bateau. My hands are already shaking

In my experience: quality of the tape recorder and of the mic you use will affect how close the recording is to how you actually sound - I'm fortunate in that my dad was into this sort of thing so I have a professional quality if rather old mic and recorder - it makes a VAST difference. If this recorder is the only thing you have access to, may be worth trying to mic it up rather than use the internal mic. Expressive pieces also (IMO) suffer more from bad recording than scales or studies.

If the tape recorder you have is the only record you have of yourself, don't despair: don't compare it with what you think you sound like as you are playing (even with pretty high quality equipment, it won't sound the same) but compare day to day or over time and listen for improvement rather than the actual quality of the sound (does that make sense?)

I heard last November in close succession two different recordings of myself on camcorders: not the best recording medium at all for music! Neither of them was stunning, but the two performances were almost exactly a year apart from each other. The first actually made me cringe in places: intonation wasn't spot on, tone was so weak and wavery - ugh, did I really sound like that??! The second I was pleasantly surprised by - same type of recorder and play back as far as I'm aware, and boy was the difference HUGE or what. Still not the best quality of sound etc, but the sound I was making was so obviously SO much better than I had been making the year before - much more than I had realised.

So... get yourself a good quality tape if possible... if at all possible, buy beg steal(!) or borrow a decent mic and or tape recorder and experiment to see what positioning works best for picking up the flute... and if all else fails use it as an exercise in comparison, because things like intonation and tone will show and improvement even if the recording quality is nto that great...

HTH... sorry you've had an icky day practice-wise. Hope your concert goes great tonight.

Sarah

Oh and one more thing... don't let yourself be mega critical just because it's you... you may not do that, but I know an awful lot of musicians who do.... your exam results and your teahcre's confidence in your speak for themselves... you're a good flautist!