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London Symphony Orchestra
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Gareth Davies Flute
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>>GARETH: Hi my name is Gareth Davies and I'm principal flute with the London Symphony Orchestra.
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I'm going to run through a few orchestral excerpts that you will hopefully be playing
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in your audition for the You Tube symphony orchestra.
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Now let's start with Beethoven's Leonora Overture number three.
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It's one of the most widely played excerpts at orchestral auditions
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and there's a few little things that people always slip up on.
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Mainly the timing.
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Now I would advise you first of all to go and listen to a few recordings of this piece
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because there are many, many different tempos you can play it at
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but pick one that you're comfortable with
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and stick to it.
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So if you go from the opening
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it's normally done in six. It's quite slow so make sure you take a big breath.
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Now don't worry too much it says fortissimo at the beginning
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but the whole orchestra is playing so don't blow all your lungs out right at the beginning
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and then run out of breath halfway through.
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So it's really important to remember your sense of pitch as well.
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It's very easy to start that note its fortissimo with a diminuendo to a piano
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at the end of the first bar.
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Make sure you keep the pitch up. Don't let it drop
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because unfortunately the violins won't drop with you.
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Now the next section where we move onto bar 17
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again remember the tempo 'cause we've got different
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changes in rhythm here. So it moves from crochets
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and then we've got triplets.
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But just remember when you're playing the triplets there's an answering phrase of the triplets
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as well in between so don't rush through it.
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Remember you've got to play the rest as well.
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It's really important in that triplet bit
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that you keep a steady tempo.
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I've heard so many people come and play at auditions for the London Symphony Orchestra
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and they suddenly change to a completely different tempo
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and it's one of those things that shows that
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perhaps haven't played in an orchestra before or you're not aware of what's going on around you.
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So always make sure you know
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what else is happening in the music. It's not just all about flute solos.
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Now when it moves onto the allegro section
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there is a very famous solo with a bassoon.
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Now again don't try and play this too quickly because you'll probably come a cropper at the end.
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And again make sure the relationship between the different sections of the music is the same.
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We've got triplets, crotchet triplets at the end,
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but before that we've got quavers.
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Make sure that you keep a steady tempo.
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Practice it with a metronome It's a kind of obvious thing to say
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but you know it's amazing how many people don't do it.
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Now let's have a look at Brahms 4.
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There's a very famous solo in the last movement.
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It's one of those moments where seemingly the whole movement just stops all of a sudden
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and the flute is left alone with a very, very small accompaniment of strings.
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Now when you look at the music it doesn't look like a particularly fantastic solo
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but it's one of those moments where if you get it right it can be a real show stopper.
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Now the most important thing to do is to look at where the phrases go.
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Brahms marks lots of small phrases and he marks lots of
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crescendos and diminuendos as well.
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There are also many, many quaver rests all the way through.
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Now don't get caught up with the rests.
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If you always play the rests then the whole piece stops.
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It's important. It's one of those things we all do as flute players sometimes you see
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a rest and think oh I'd better take a breath.
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You don't actually need a breath every time there's a rest.
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In fact if you take a breath every time you'll probably explode about bar 16.
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So just make sure that you actually play through as one phrase.
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After the initial run down you get this phrase.
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And then there's a rest and it continues.
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Another rest.
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Now on those rests
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there are string chords they're very, very quiet.
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But you can see if you play it like that and you play all the rests it can be very choppy and it doesn't work.
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Imagine it's a really really long phrase so take a long breath.
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Don't take a breath at every single rest
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and try and play it all the way through to the end.
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Now the other thing to remember is not to overdo the crescendos and de crescendos.
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I always think of them more as expression
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so perhaps vary your vibrato.
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Just don't do lots of bulgy bits because it just sounds ridiculous.
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And just remember to keep that last bit. Brahms has written a crescendo in for the last two bars
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so when it goes down into low register, don't let the sound disappear. Keep supporting it from down here
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and keep on blowing but just enjoy the fact that
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it's one of those fantastic solos where you can really, really sing out over the orchestra.
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Piccolo
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Now some of you may want to audition on the piccolo.
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I am not a piccolo expert but I can give you a few tips.
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The important thing to remember when playing the piccolo is to still blow.
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A lot of people stop blowing and the sound just disappears.
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Now there are several pieces that you can have a go at. There's Tchaik 4 which I will not be
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playing for you today.
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You can also have a look at the overture to Semiramide.
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This is quite difficult because it's got lots of repeated notes.
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But again just like the flute excerpts approach them in the same way.
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Just make sure that you keep a steady tempo.
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So I hope you found some of those tips useful.
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Now I'm looking forward to seeing some of your videos
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and don't forget if you have any questions that you want to ask about any of these pieces
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or about flute playing in general,
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I will be able to answer some of those questions on the internet.
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I look forward to it and good luck.
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London Symphony Orchestra