"There are a lot of tutor books on the market nowadays, but The Tone and Timbre Toolkit really is something new. You can dip in and out to find multiple tips and tools for the area of your playing that you are prioritising and use the excellent selection of repertoire to try out, explore, and develop what you find useful. The online links to accompaniments also make it easy to hear and enjoy the harmonies, as well as keep a keen ear for good intonation. There are excellent resources that demonstrate how the flute player’s body works, with fun illustrations and online links. I found this tutor book straight forward to use and a great way to expand your flute playing and musicianship. Happy playing and learning!"

"Steven Cupitt presents a remarkable anthology on technical and pedagogical strategies for playing and teaching the flute. His work reaches far beyond a mere compilation of insights from established methods. By posing a detailed set of questions to esteemed colleagues recognized as expert pedagogues, he has unlocked a treasure trove of information, making their expertise widely accessible. Readers are invited to delve into and select from this wealth of knowledge at their own discretion"

Recommendations

Kate Hill, Professor of flute Royal Academy of Music, London, 1995 to 2021

Thies Roorda, Retired Professor of Flute Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, Emeritus flautist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hilversum

The ‘tools’ contained in this book all have the potential to be incorporated into an effective practice routine designed to improve tone and colour. Practice time is precious, and professionals are expected to be on form every day with minimal time for preparation. Choosing the tools that suit you best will enable you to make the best use of your practice time. Ask yourself: how can I condense my practice time and how can I make this sound better quickly? Always aim to have clear goals and a clear set of tools to achieve those goals in the shortest amount of time possible. Imagine that you have a big gig immediately after you return from holiday, or that you are returning to playing having been ill for a few weeks. What tools will help you regain your optimal control of tone and timbre in the shortest amount of time? This knowledge of how your tone production works will take time to develop and will change over time as your skills improve, so be patient, focussed and determined.

Finally, before you begin on your journey exploring tone and timbre through the tools in this book, I quote Jeanne Baxtresser, ex-principal flute of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and ex-professor at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music in New York, giving the following advice to students hoping to be successful when auditioning for a professional orchestral position:

'In your preparation keep in mind that you are alone on a stage and that you have a tremendous opportunity to explore the full range of colours and dynamics available to you. Don’t make the mistake of forcing your sound, there’s no other sound competing with you, or trying to prove what a large tone you have. It is infinitely more interesting to hear a player with a tremendous tonal range, from an effortless pianissimo to a full, rich, powerful fortissimo'.

                                      (Jeanne Baxtresser, 1996)

This book contains a variety of ideas and approaches that some of the world's leading flute players and teachers use in their playing. These ideas can be thought of as ‘tools’ with which flute players can experiment. Each tool has been proven to have the potential to have a positive impact on the production of tone and timbre (also called ‘tone colour’).

Most of the repertoire used in this book has a link to one or more piano/instrumental accompaniment videos on YouTube. These accompaniments provide the student with a harmonic context within which to consider their use of tone and timbre, and another instrument against which to measure intonation, which should always be of paramount importance.

The purpose of this book is to enable players to develop a range of factors that impact the production of tone and timbre (aka tone colour); to bring awareness to aspects of playing the flute, both physical and audible, and to offer a selection of practical ideas – ‘tools’ – and repertoire, with which the player can experiment.

For each individual player their needs and interests will be different, and some tools will be useful whilst others will no doubt be discarded, but the ultimate aim is to develop the biggest tonal range possible, gaining both the physical control and the musical and auditory awareness required to bring life, interest and imagination to the tone and thereby to the music.

Experimenting with each tool can bring awareness to a range of relevant issues, whereon the player, working with their teacher, can decide where their personal priorities lie. The tools cover a range of factors that impact tone production, including:

1.Breathing;

2.Supporting the Airstream;

3.Embouchure and the Lips;

4.Resonance;

5.Posture.

To participate on live online Tone and Timbre Toolkit workshops, click the link below for more information

Monthly, Live Online Tone and Timbre Toolkit Workshops

Home Videos of some of the repertoire from The Tone and Timbre Toolkit, playing along with the backing tracks provided in the book

Each piece in this section can be found in The Tone and Timbre Toolkit, and each video is recorded in my living room. They contain a live flute recording played by me, along with a backing track from YouTube; links to the backing track can be found in the description for each video, so that flautists can play along and develop their expressive skills.

Playing musically with backing tracks presents specific problems. Firstly, there are sometimes unexpected tempo changes (accelerando or rallentando) that require heightened listening skills. Secondly, each video might be recorded at a different pitch (A=440, A=441, A=442, etc.); this requires careful listening to tune correctly at the beginning of each piece, taking time to find a good starting note from which to set off. Finally, when making music with other musicians, everyone listens and everyone reacts and interacts, so the music is a joint effort. Playing with a backing track, all of the responsibility to listen and react lies with you. You are responsible for creating a musical listening experience. I hope you enjoy listening and feel inspired to play some of these pieces yourself!

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Rachmaninoff Vocalise

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Gabriel Fauré Au Bord de L'Eau

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Gabriel Fauré Les Berceaux

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Debussy Reverie

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Lili Boulanger Reflets

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Antonin Dvorak Song to the Moon

The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

Marcello Adagio

To listen to the complete Tone and Timbre 'Inspiration' Playlist, including video tutorials, click the button.

To access the complete Tone and Timbre 'Accompaniment' Playlist click the button or use the QR code.

Testimonials

Feedback from students from different age ranges who trialled an early copy of The Tone and Timbre Toolkit

• ‘It has helped with my embouchure. It made me feel more relaxed in my face muscles and made flexibility easier’.

• ‘I really liked the exercises for lip flexibility and found it very useful’

• ‘It made me more aware of what sound I made. It also made my practice more interesting when playing around with different tone colours. I also have a bigger understanding of others’ use of tone colour, which made it more fun to listen to others play’.

• ‘The book has been a great source for beginning my practice sessions and as a student looking to go into the profession, I will be definitely using it for the foreseeable future!’

Pre-tertiary learner comments

‘I particularly liked that you included recordings of pieces that were not flute. I think more recordings like this encouraging players to listen to other instruments is very helpful for providing colour inspiration. I think that these different timbres provide a much clearer idea of what different shades of colours you can aspire to than word descriptions’

Master’s degree learner comments

• ‘It is a book that I go back to time and time again when I get stuck (or more often frustrated) and it always helps me push through the challenge due the amount of different ideas are in there’.

• ‘It really helped me with my bottom lip relaxation, and support as all the different exercises helped me to find out what I was doing wrong and how to correct it’.

• ‘I would say the amount of text to pictures, depends on the group you are wanting to target. For me as an older pupil I loved the text and found it useful, for other players you may want more pictures’.

• ‘loved the book, really helped me, the headjoint upside down was a revelation! I loved the book as an adult player, and really found the text useful.’

• ‘Some of the above, whilst they might not be directly useful to me in my practice, may be useful to my pupils e.g., Collarbones floating helps me a little but it is really useful and important to be able to suggest this tool to a pupil and for me to be aware of this as an option.

Adult learner comments

Table of Contents

SECTION 1: The Toolkit (the theory part) 8

• BREATHING 8

• ‘SUPPORTING’ THE AIR STREAM 11

• EMBOUCHURE AND THE LIPS 14

• RESONANCE 20

• GOOD POSTURE and GOOD BALANCE! 26

• ‘The Tools’ (photocopiable page) 28

• A ‘Harmonics in-tune’ Sound: Understanding the Concept 31

SECTION 2: The Practical Section (get your flute out!) 36

• Kōjō no Tsuki by Rentarō Taki 37

• EXERCISES: 40

• EXERCISE: Developing Vibrato – The Early Stages 40

• EXERCISE: Developing Vibrato – More Advanced 41

• EXERCISE: Vibrato/Air Control exercise with a Tuning Meter 42

• EXERCISE: Using Harmonics to Improve Low Note Tone Quality 43

• EXERCISE: Singing and Playing Simultaneously - Octave Glissandi 44

• EXERCISE: Singing and Playing simultaneously (5th below/ 4th above) 46

• EXERCISE: Using Harmonics and Note Bending to avoid the ‘Pyramid Effect’ 47

• EXERCISE: Using Harmonics and Cranking the Car Vibrato to avoid the ‘Pyramid Effect’ 48

• EXERCISE: Humming - To avoid tightening the throat and access chest resonance 49

• EXERCISE: Blow and Chew Disgustingly - to relax the sides of the embouchure 49

• EXERCISE: PHRASING ‘Elephants’ and ‘Taxis’ 50

• Exploring Repertoire using the ‘Toolkit’ 51

• Barcarolle by Offenbach (low octave) 52

• The Colour Spectrum 55

• EXERCISE: Long Note Colour Metamorphosis 57

REPERTOIRE USING THE TOOLS

• Gymnopédie No.2 by Eric Satie 58

• Gymnopédie No.3 by Eric Satie 60

• When I am laid in Earth (Dido’s Lament) by Henry Purcell 63

• Ici-Bas by Gabriel Fauré 64

• Ich Stand in Dunklen Träumen by Clara Schumann, Op.13 66

• Sie Lieben Sich beide by Clara Schumann 68

• Les Berceaux by Gabriel Fauré 69

• Au bord de l’eau by Gabriel Fauré 70

• Après un Rêve by Gabriel Fauré 73

• Chanson D’Amour by Gabriel Fauré 76

• Reflets by Lili Boulanger 78

• Life and Death by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 80

• Kaddisch by Maurice Ravel 82

• Nuit D’Étoiles by Claude Debussy in Db, Eb, and F major 84

• Song to the Moon by Antonín Dvorak 86

Developing Tone in the Middle Octave 88

• Barcarolle by Jacques Offenbach 89

• Gymnopédie No.2 by Eric Satie (8va) 91

• Gymnopédie No 3 by Eric Satie (8va) 92

• Largo e dolce by J.S.Bach (Sonata in B minor) 93

• Gnossienne No.1 by Eric Satie 94

Mimicking the Oboe 96

• Andante e Spiccato from Oboe Concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcello 97

• Adagio from Oboe Concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcello 99

• Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff in C# minor 100

• Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff in E minor 101

• Vocalise by Sergei Rachmaninoff in G minor 102

• La fille aux cheveux de lin by Claude Debussy 105

• Rêverie by Claude Debussy 107

Advice for the Top Octave 109

• Useful Tools as we progress from the middle and top octave 110

• Gymnopédie No.2 by Eric Satie (top octave) 112

• Gymnopédie No.3 by Eric Satie (top octave) 114

• Berceuse by Gabriel Fauré 115

• Final Check-Up! 117

SECTION 3: The Teacher Section 122

• Balancing the Flute/Covering the Embouchure Hole/Headjoint Alignment 124

• Developing a Good Embouchure 127

• Working on Mouth Resonance: Maximising the Space Inside the Mouth 130

• Vowel Shapes 130

• Breathing and Blowing 134

• Supporting the Airstream 138

• Vibrato: From Mechanical Exercises to Controlled, Nuanced, and Natural 138

• Singing 141

• Dynamics 141

• Tone Colour or Timbre 143

A final note from the author 144

Links to Piano Accompaniments 146