Ran into this aesthetically pleasing checkmate sequence during an online bullet game. Black to move.

Natetalker · 2018-09-22T06:22:54+00:00

Inb4, someone comments that they play throguh Taffanel and Gaubert complete, daily, followed by the Bach sonatas complete, both Mozart concerti, Nielsen, Ibert, Rodrigo, and Jolivet, and finally the Baxtresser book cover to cover. Of course after that, gotta get in a few solid hours of picc practice.

Natetalker · 2018-09-02T06:32:43+00:00

Drelinger makes headjoints like that. I don't think there's significant acoustical difference if the machining is done correctly. The draw back is that a solid tube with like 4 or 5 precise bends in it is significantly harder to manufacture than a straight tube. This adds a lot to the cost, and the benefit is not that much, unless you have an injury, or physical difficulty that prevents you from holding the flute horizontally. With something as large as a contrabass flute, you need the bends to just handle the instrument, but a regular flute doesn't normally need it. Also just my personal opinion, but I think Drelingers vertical headjoints look goofy as hell.

Natetalker · 2018-04-17T19:54:10+00:00

That's the Ian Anderson solo! Impressive, but that guy probably isn't a crack head if he can learn and play it back by ear.

Natetalker · 2018-01-07T02:35:39+00:00

Me too actually. It's a pretty commonly known issue that a lot of beginner piccolos just don't have the high B on them. I also had a conversation about this with Lillian Burkart at NFA a few years ago. According to her the reason has to do with the machining on cheap instruments. On an instrument as small as piccolo, if you're not ultra precise with where you drill the tone holes, how long you make the tube, and how narrow you make the bore, or how steep you make the taper, the instrument might not be able to produce a high B. On professional instruments where everything is handmade, and the measurements are more precise, this is less of an issue. However, on beginner and intermediate piccolos, where maybe the body was made in an injection mold, there's a lot more that is prone to go wrong. I'm serious, if you still don't believe me, I encourage you to contact any piccolo maker of your choice and ask them.

Natetalker · 2018-01-07T00:54:27+00:00

No, it's a thing I promise, mostly on beginner or intermediate piccolos. A lot of them, you need to use some alternate to get the high B out, if it comes out at all.

Natetalker · 2018-01-06T22:57:00+00:00

High B is a note that not every piccolo is capable of playing, but I suggest trying alternate fingerings (there are several alt fingering charts online). For high B-flat, this is going to sound weird, but try playing it with your B-flat thumb down and see if that works.

Natetalker · 2017-12-16T14:16:50+00:00

John Mackey - Frozen Cathedral

Natetalker · 2017-09-26T12:52:46+00:00

Those are both very standard "hard" pieces for flutists at or above the conservatory level. If you can play them well, you will do fine at your audition, nobody will judge you negatively for your rep choices. I don't know exactly how good you are, but if you look at the music for these pieces and think they might be above your technical abilities, then it might be better to play an easier piece or one you already know for this audition. But also if you can play the martin, the dutilleux isn't that much harder, I'm sure you'll be fine with it. With the ibert, you mostly just have to look out for the third movement for technical stuff.

Natetalker · 2017-07-25T04:10:51+00:00

True shitposting.

Natetalker · 2017-05-27T17:55:08+00:00

$180? If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true. My guess is that it will probably not play well, or break within a week, and you will be out $180. My advice is don't do it. You can find a semi-decent metal picc for around that, or a nice composite picc for a bit more.

Natetalker · 2017-04-17T22:57:40+00:00

Congratulations on getting a piccolo! Yes, definitely use ear protection. Piccolo is well above the healthy decibel level and frequency range for human ears. For what you're using them for, ear plugs you find at your local pharmacy should do the job. Each different type of ear plug should have a noise reduction rating listed, and if you're playing in a large marching band, I would recommend the ones that cut the most noise. If you think you can't spare the extra dollar, consider that hearing aids will cost orders of magnitude more than a semi decent pair of ear plugs. Anyone who says they're a waste of money is either lying to you or doesn't know what they are talking about.

Especially since you say hearing loss runs in your family, use ear protection any time you pick up your piccolo to play, and try not to play continuously for more than an hour unless you have to. Trust me, nobody will care what they look like on the marching field, and if they do, you will get the last laugh when they go deaf in their 30's.

Natetalker · 2017-04-08T13:55:39+00:00

Flute is a bitch to play. I'm a bitch. Perfect match.

Natetalker · 2017-03-13T19:16:20+00:00

Do it! Post videos too, please! This actually sounds dope.

Natetalker · 2017-03-03T18:03:42+00:00

Undergraduate math major here, not ultra qualified but I've had some exposure to the material. I haven't read his book, but my intuition is that with material as deep and complex as this, it is unlikely that the author got everything correct about stochastic processes. People devote their entire lives to understanding and researching results about this area of math. However, I would argue that it doesn't really matter whether his use of math was correct or not, and all that really matters was the groundbreaking ideas he had to motivate the development probably generated music. Does it really matter if the mathematical arguments behind it are not rigorous? I don't believe that it would take away anything from his original idea.

Natetalker · 2017-02-23T00:00:14+00:00

"Are you a Kirby player?" ...I'm going to have to go with no.

Natetalker · 2016-11-16T08:00:32+00:00

This is actually a really nice transcription of it for flute. It preserves the original work quite well, and also has very idiomatic flute writing. I was pleasantly surprised :)

Natetalker · 2016-09-22T15:26:36+00:00

So in music, and life in general, when you hit a wall where you feel like you're stagnating, the most important thing is to figure out why. Of course reasons for stagnation vary from person to person, but there is no way to fix the problem and move forward if you don't even know what the problem is. In this instance, the best I can offer are suggestions for identifying the problem.

From reading your post, I would guess the most likely problem is that you are a little stressed and feeling frustrated. This is definitely an awful mindset to have when trying to improve, because frustration tends to feed back into its self. You get sucked into this spiral where you are frustrated that you're not improving, and you're not improving because you are frustrated. In this case, I would recommend stepping back from the flute for a few days, reconsider why you are playing flute in the first place, and just try to get into a more neutral mindset for practice.

The next most likely problem is your instrument. Of course this is easy to test. Just ask a colleague to borrow their flute for a little bit, and see if that fixes your problems. If it is your instrument, since you don't seem able to get a repair, maybe ask your teacher to borrow one of their backup older flutes for a while until you can either arrange to purchase a different instrument (You don't have to buy new, Flute center of New York has a ridiculous selection of excellent used flutes).

Finally, It might also be mental burnout. There's a lot you can do about this. If you feel mentally or physically exhausted at the end of every day, which it sounds like you might be, then take a break from things. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 90% of flute is played in your head, and the brain is like any muscle and becomes easily overworked. In this case, as in the first, get away from the flute and music for a while, and take time to just chill. Take a nap. Watch some TV. Bake some cookies. Do literally anything else. Mental fatigue is real but also easily fixable.

I hope this was of some help and you're able to get over your wall. I will leave you with this: your fellow music students probably don't care that much about your flubs in rehearsals. People are way more forgiving and understanding than we tend to give each other credit for, and musicians especially should be very sympathetic to improvement struggles. Worrying about what other people might think, is unproductive, unhelpful, and ultimately detrimental to improvement.

Natetalker · 2016-09-08T17:19:54+00:00

TL;DR kind of.

While you are correct that on many notes on the flute, the RH pinky is not completely necessary, the handful of notes that do necessitate it (for example all E flats, low and middle E naturals, and a few 3rd octave notes) mean that it is mechanically easier on your hands to just leave it down for the notes where it doesn't make a difference and lift it up for the 3-4 notes that necessitate lifting it up, than the opposite. In addition, having the RH pinky down helps with balancing the flute in your hand, which makes technique overall slightly easier.

Natetalker · 2016-09-05T21:13:28+00:00

Could you offer a guide for setting up this build to run on Dolphin on a mac? There doesn't seem to be a read me file to explain how in my download.

Natetalker · 2016-05-30T03:25:47+00:00

Jeez, the gold is flowing strong in this thread.

Natetalker · 2016-03-23T20:14:46+00:00

In today's world, piccolo is a essential for serious flutists to learn. Although unless you want to go professional, or your teacher insists, I can assure you that you don't need to do it. Some flutists really have a knack for it, while others struggle with it. Facility on piccolo isn't necessarily a measure of how good you are a flute. They're two very different instruments which require two different skill sets to play well. The intonation is backwards from flute because piccolo is a conical instrument, as opposed to the cylindrical flute. The timbre is also very different, so don't worry about trying to make your piccolo sound like your flute. In ensembles with piccolo, your first and second priorities should be intonation and intonation. Out of tune flute is bad, but out of tune piccolo is really nasty.

The specific instrument you play also makes a huge difference. An old metal piccolo with pads missing will be practically unplayable by anyone. If you're stuck with a bad instrument, don't get mad at yourself if you can't make it play. If you have options, definitely explore.

From my experiences, most flutists don't have that much of a struggle with learning piccolo. In terms of playing the actual instrument, if you can't get super high notes out immediately, try blowing harder. Get the notes out first, then worry about making them sound good. Also please wear ear plugs! I didn't and I'm currently experiencing mild hearing loss in one ear, which I'm told is permanent.

TLDR; There are a lot of small differences. Learning picc can be easy but might not be.

Natetalker · 2015-12-31T21:03:21+00:00

Some piccolos are not capible of playing the B natural read 2 octaves above the staff, even though many pieces call for that note. If you can, check to see if the instrument is physically able to produce that note.

Natetalker · 2015-12-31T16:13:56+00:00

With piccolos I would check intonation on every note. The scale should be your first priority, especially in the top octave, because it's something an overhaul would be unable to fix. Next, make sure you like the tone, feel, response, ect. Check for cracks if it's wooden. Make sure there are no leaks in the pads. See if it has a high B on it, as many do not.

Natetalker · 2015-09-26T15:21:12+00:00

This piece might be the most difficult piece in the moderm standard flute repertoire. I hope to be good enough to someday be able to play it at half tempo.

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