Long Tones Exercise: Summertime

In The Woods · Post by **In The Woods** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:39 pm

Hello, everybody:

I have been practicing my "technique" (such as it is at this stage) and I have been using slow tunes to help with my embouchure and steadiness. One of the challenges I have is to work the upper register and keep it steady as well as be able to hold a note for a spell.

Anyway, I have found (as I'm sure a lot of you have) that it's more fun to play a tune as an exercise and keep exploring the tune, getting better acquainted with it, and coming to own the tune, so to speak. And I discovered that Gershwin's "Summertime", starting on b, is a fun challenge and a splendid way for me to get some looong tone practice in the upper register. I will start recording myself later, but right now I just can't bring myself to be so cruel

; I'll do that later.

Just thought I'd pass this along for fun.

All my best to the group:

With best regards,

Steve Mack

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:42 pm

Another good one is She Moved Through The Fair
in G, starting on the second octave D.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 9:43 pm

jim stone wrote:Another good one is She Moved Through The Fair
in G, starting on the second octave D.

Yes, but when you do exercises like this, it's very important to play tunes your neighbors know and enjoy.

I'm sure my neighbors will looooove hearing Summertiiiiiiiiiime all through the sultry Florida night.

In The Woods · Post by **In The Woods** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:20 am

But I live a mile off the road in the woods. My nearest neighbor is about a mile away, and the only other close neighbors are four, six and eight-legged ones, and I don't think they really care!

With best regards to all.

Steve Mack

Chiffed · Post by **Chiffed** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 10:47 am

Don't forget Ellington's Mood Indigo. It's great for long tones on cross fingerings (trying to get even tone), and the rub of it is, the tune started life as a long-tone warm-up. The Duke's trombonist played it so much that it eventually got arranged into a big-band chart.

More extraneous trivia from the department of redundancy department.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:42 pm

The ravishing Gershwin tune, Someone to Watch Over Me,
originated as a quick, sprightly thing, played fast, that
was used briefly as the dancers came out on stage. If you
hum it to yourself real fast, you can hear what it was.

Then one day George G was sitting at the piano, musing,
and he played it slowly....

Butterfly · Post by **Butterfly** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:57 am

Lambchop wrote: it's very important to play tunes your neighbors know and enjoy.

If they only would start playing things that I like too...............

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 11:36 am

seeing as how it is practically summer, "summertime" should stir up the hormones. i like "blue skies" by irving berline too.

on an only slightly related subject (slow airs) is there a cd of slow airs. i don't know a lot about itm and (please forgive me) just don't appreciate the jigs and reels, and stuff. i like the music in "lord of the rings." is there any other similar available slow airs?

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 12:48 pm

Mel Bay has a book and CD set out of Irish slow airs.. I've not heard it or seen it so can't comment on the quality. Sometimes Mel Bays gets knowledgable people putting out their Irish music book and sometimes they don't.

KateG · Post by **KateG** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:07 am

Summertime is also a good ear training exercise. Try it starting on B, then on E and finally on A. Actually, this is great exercise with any tune. I first started doing it with Christmas carols since they are so deeply embedded in the brain, then to folk songs I knew well. Haven't tried it yet with any ITM tunes, although I keep wanting to play Dusty Windowsill starting on low E rather than A, which doesn't work.

psmithltd · Post by **psmithltd** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:37 am

It's sometimes fun to play G tunes in lower keys on the flute, as the rearranging that must neccesarily take place with most of them sometimes leads to some interesting developments. I'm fond of the tune George White's played in D. I played it in the lower key for a fluter in Chicago that I'm fond of, and he said "I'm from the same parrish as George White, I've been hearing that tune since I was a little boy, and I've never heard it like that! It's lovely!" The amazing thing was that everyone at that session was able to play along immeadietly -- that's the biggest advantage to playing and learning by ear and not by mere muscle memory.

I remember reading in the monograph on Packie Byrne that his disciples would sometimes play tunes he had taught them in different keys to see if it would trip him up, and he wouldn't blink an eye.

Sometimes the fiddle and box tunes that go lower than D can be rearranged at a higher pitch as well. The tune Farrel O Gara can be interesting in G, although the second part needs to be redealt with extensively.

doogieman · Post by **doogieman** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:59 am

A long tone exercise I have used for years is to take any new tune I'm learning - a jig, a reel - anything and I play each note as a long tone and think about where I am in the song and how the notes relate to each other. So I learn the tune and get long tones in at the same time.