Musical Perception - Developing Artistry within Technique

Our musical perception is crucial to how we shape our performances. A student will often focus only on the details alone because they haven't yet developed the musical intuition that often takes years to coax out. In my reading and listening, I come across many wonderful players that always seem to focus only on the technical part of playing the flute. Some may be so talented that their musical intuition has always been there, and they don't know how to express what it is that they do. Others are so focused on the instrument that they become consumed with technical details.

We're all here to play music regardless of our focus; however, I think musicality is a skill that must be taught from the very first lesson in order to develop a student's intuition. Helping a student develop his musical self is the best step you can take to develop his or her musical competence and independence - the ultimate goal of music study.

We practice the flute to develop advanced skills as they relate to tone, technique, articulation, dynamics, rhythm, style, and vibrato. Michel Debost wrote an interesting article in November's issue of Flute Talk ("The Artist as Technician") that discusses how the farther along we advance in the flute, the more all the technical elements of the instrument begin to overlap to produce the ultimate musical product. He writes, "We should put technique into our music, and put music into our technique."

The previous articles I have written (http://sensibleflutist.blogspot.com/2010/07/intention-and-emotional-inhibitions.html; http://sensibleflutist.blogspot.com/2010/06/personality-of-musician-deeper-look.html) discuss musicality primarily because I think it's a topic that does not get discussed enough in the flute world. Great intonation, fast fingers, and connectivity of sound all go far to offer the flute as a musical offering, but how do we combine conscious artistry with conscious technique?

To play musically, we must be in touch with ourselves. Musicians are communicators, and whatever message we are conveying will always speak through us wrapped in our individual life experiences. This is what makes live performances so important and critical to the development of young musicians. Require or encourage your young students to attend local concerts and recitals. If they don't have the sound of a good musician in their ear, they will never have a higher goal to strive for.

This is a difficult skill to teach, which is why more tangible skills are taught in favor of opening up a student's awareness to the ultimate power of music as a vehicle they can communicate through. Recital attendance, regular practice, and drawing attention to music as a whole package instead of a series of notes and rhythms on the page will begin to open up a student's musical world for the better.

Play with intention and your artistry will emerge.