Saturday, March 03, 2007

Galway's Texas Masterclass 2007 on video

Dear Fluters,

The clips from a Texas masterclass, of Galway's lecture/demonstration, are finally all up for public viewing on Youtube. Fabulous Saturday morning viewing (right before I do the vaccuming hahhahaha! :>D)
I attended his 2005 masterclass, and have seen most of these demos, so with that as preface, let me say that the one that I think is the very most interesting to ME, personally, is Part VI, where he talks about ironing out scales.
He doesn't explain it fully here on the Texas videos but, listen to the mp3s of his 2005 masterclass (LINK NO LONGER WORKS, sorry)  to hear the actual "ironing out" advice. However he does break into improvising to "get to know his flute", which is what I've been doing with the Tuning CD when I'm warming up. And it's nice to watch him improvise and check his tone and flexibility, as we all do.
Humanizing. :>)

What he said in 2005 about "ironing out" and his demonstrations of it are here:
mp3s of Galways' Vancouver Masterclass 2005(LINK NO LONGER WORKS, sorry)

For a full version of what he does to practice each scale (using flowing musical style, and not sounding bored or robotic, unlike the scale books make you *think* you have to play) listen to:
Galway scale method mp3s(LINK NO LONGER WORKS, sorry)

But back to the new Texas '07 videos (below):
I find the "you don't need a gizmo" point of view humourous, and I notice that the overhead projector has a sharp missing, which is why the class of flutists can never play the same pitch when they try the arpeggio warmup for flexibility.
And, of course, I enjoy the longtones that bore him so.
At least I enjoy them alot more than Sir James does. More on that in the book that I'm writing.
But what a nice thing to see the whole thing up for viewing.
Thanks to Mark who shot the footage. :>)
Best, Jen See links below

Part I: Galway's early Headjoint Exercise

Part II: Headjoint Exercise cont'd

Part III: Boredom with longtones and using an Idol's recordings

Part IV: On his own flutes: Cooper/Muramatsu/Nagahara, and A 443-445.

Part V: Galway's flexibility tone warmup (arpeggios)
Note: There is an F# missing in the second bar on the overhead version Galway uses in this class.

MOST INTERESTING:
Part VI: Galway "ironing" scales out; getting to know your flute/improv/excerpts

Part VII: Galway's Vibrato development exercises

And in case you didn't know they were online, here are:
Galway's printed warmups:
Comments (2)
Anonymous Reuben Lane said...

At one time there was a link with James Galway (Weggis 2008) with a great explanation about the benefits of thumb B flat. I can't seem to find it anymore .. just error 404

Friday, August 23, 2013 12:01:00 PM

 
Blogger jen said...

Hi Reuben,

Sorry to say that the 2008 Weggis videos/articles have moved.
Not sure where they've gone now.
The Galway Network may have become jamesgalway.com with changes in available materials.

I do recall that Sir James Galway recommends that you use Bb thumb whenever "needed" to make fingering easier.

My own articles are linked below.
These are a full look at how we all know Bb thumb as the easiest version of Bb, but that at even very advanced repertoire levels, you still need to be fleet with index fingers Bbs and side lever Bbs as well as knowing how to do easy thumb switches.
I don't think Galway had time to cover all that, so I filled in with lots of downloadable repertoire examples and articles:

http://jennifercluff.blogspot.ca/2012/08/why-work-on-standard-b-flat-fingering.html

http://jennifercluff.blogspot.ca/2013/06/dear-flute-lovers-discussion-has-come.html

Best, Jen

Friday, August 23, 2013 12:56:00 PM

 

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