Almost every flutist will one day or another come in contact with the method written by Taffanel & Gaubert (1923). In this method there are exercises that range from basic to advanced technique. The exercises called Grand exercises jornaliers de mecanisme are great tools for developing control over flute technique. These you can play alone or with others.

Based on these exercise’s basic form there are different ways one can vary one’s practice. The following is a variation that one can use when studying the fourth exercise (EJ 4). Instead of playing the scales up and down from the beginning to the end we’ll work through the following structure:

i) wait at each turning point of the exercise;

ii) hold the last note long before the scale moves up or down again in the following bar;

iii) repeat the the last tones of the bar you just played as a pickup to the next bar of the exercise;

The exercise looks like this:

If you can play with somebody else you can take turns: while one person hold the long tones (flute 2) the other plays the scale up and down. The one who plays the long tones plays also a major scale, but slowly. While setting the floor to the first flute part you get also to develop your tone, supporting the note throughout the bar as you yourself was playing the scale in eighth notes. Besides working with tone and technique, by playing together you’ll also have the chance to work with intonation.