Coordination for recorder players & other wind instruments: air, fingers and articulation

In this fourth and last episode of my series Recorder Technique Essentials, I'm throwing together the three elements of air, fingers (posture) and articulation! We are taking them apart first, then combine two elements, and finally look at how to work on coordination when tackling a musical piece!

Link to the document: https://lobke.world/documents
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Versión española de este vídeo (sub PT/IT):    • Coordinación para flautistas de pico ...  

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:41 - Isolation
00:01:21 - Air
00:05:21 - Articulations
00:06:46 - Fingers
00:12:21 - Air & Fingers
00:12:54 - Air & Articulation
00:13:47 - Articulation & Fingers
00:14:29 - Practising a piece
00:15:29 - PDF and info
00:15:57 - Some last words :)

I'm a Dutch professional recorder player involved in multidisciplinary performance arts, I have taught the recorder at the Conservatorio Profesional de Valencia (Spain) and I am the recorder teacher at Madrid Royal Conservatory. My aim with this series was to open up this essential information to those of you who don't have access to a teacher, and to improve technical presence of this beautiful instrument on social media.

AIR

Once you have worked on finding the centre of the separate tones, the next step is to connect the centres of different tones.
Start practising this through movements of seconds, in a scale, and work up towards bigger intervals. Also, begin with long notes, then speed up. The faster you go, the less you can focus on consciously finding the centre of each tone, which means it requires already some experience in separate and long notes.

FINGERS

In order to make sure your fingers collaborate with each other, keep in mind these key point:
- Small, efficient, relaxed, rounded movements.
- Give your brain the time to know what the fingers are doing. If it doesn’t grasp the finger movements, then NAME the fingers that change. Practising slowly and consciously is necessary for the brain to form the correct muscle memory.
- Observe how the fingers are playing together like children. Who is jumping and who is landing?
- Watch the sensation of gravity in the fingers. Lifting a finger is more work than dropping it. How does it feel?
- If one finger is late, then do the opposite in an exaggerated manner. Move it far earlier than the other fingers. Shorten bit by bit the time of being early, until it moves exactly on the same moment as the other fingers. This happens more in fork fingerings than in other combinations.
- If you repeatedly leave out one note in a scale or melody, do the opposite: elongate it a little bit more than the other notes and work towards making it equal to the others. In this way you make sure you don't skip that note, by making it conscious.
- We can practise difficult combinations by playing with rhythmical patterns. Start with dotted rhythm. Then 1 long and 2 rapid notes, shifting them along the melody. After this 1 + 3 and 1 + 4, etc.

ARTICULATION

Remember that the tongue always depends on the air.
If you have trouble with combinations of articulations in a piece you play, or in their coordination with the fingers, first try playing them all on the same tone.
A good exercise for an articulation pattern is playing it on the same tone in, for example, groups of four, and then jump on to the next tone. In this way, you could make a scale of a repeated articulation pattern.

AIR & FINGERS

Especially in jumps be careful that they go together.

AIR & ARTICULATION

Since air is essential for a light and precise articulation, when working on articulation we automatically include its coordination with air. There are some more detailed things to explore in this section, such as:
How does air help with soft articulation in the higher notes, or in jumps?
How do we control it in staccato?
Remember it's always a question of sensing and listening.

FINGERS & ARTICULATION

As for all aspects of coordination, the first time you practise something, do it slowly and consciously, so that your brain has the time to encode the right muscle memory.
Some important tips for this combination:
The tongue should follow the fingers, because these are just a bit more precise.
Relax as much as possible: while the air support is steady and strong, the fingers and tongue are light and small. Relax your shoulders and think of your posture.
Be as conscious as possible of everything you are doing. Work with different rhythmic patterns.

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See you in the next video!