Competitions: Do we need them?

Competitions may be inherently flawed because music making is an art, not a measurable science or sport. Judges will always have their own ideas about what constitutes exceptional playing and in the end, there can rarely be one absolute “winner” in such a subjective art form as music.   Of course, if technical problems plague a performance, that will be a significant factor, but in most cases contestants come to a competition with solid technique already in place so the judges are really voting on the intangible elements such as sound, sparkle, stage presence, pizazz, emotion. Given that, are competitions fair? Are they healthy for a developing musician? I think they are. Watch my video to find out what I think the real benefits of competitions are.  

Read Erinn Frechette’s comments on COMPETITION AND AUDITION PREPARATION

Watch this editorial on music competitions by Benita Rose:

“Benita Rose Competitions Good or Bad- Response to Ninaflute”

Flutist or Flautist

Whenever I tell a non-musician that I play the flute, I am immediately asked the million dollar question, “Is it flutist or flautist?” I found an interesting article on Wikipedia to help me answer this question. Thank you, Nancy Toff!!



By the way, I consider myself a FLUTIST!

-Nina


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Naming controversy: 'flautist' vs. 'flutist'


The choice of "flautist" (from the Italian flautista, from flauto, and adopted due to 18th century Italian influence) versus "flutist" is the source of minor dispute among players of the instrument. "Flutist" is the earlier term in the English language, dating from at least 1603 (the earliest quote cited by the Oxford English Dictionary), while "flautist" is not recorded before 1860, when it was used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. While the print version of the OED does not indicate any regional preference for either form, the online Compact OED characterizes "flutist" as an American usage.[1]

Richard Rockstro in his three volume treatise The Flute[2] written in England in 1890 uses "flute-player". The US player and writer Nancy Toff, in her The Flute Book, devotes more than a page to the subject, commenting that she is asked "Are you a flutist or a flautist?" on a weekly basis. She says, "Ascribe my insistence either to a modest lack of pretension or to etymological evidence; the result is the same." She describes in some detail the etymology of words for "flute". (She is an editor for Oxford University Press.[1]) She compares OED, Fowler's Dictionary of Modern Usage, Evans' Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, and Copperud's American Usage and Style: The Consensus. Fowler says "flautist" has displaced "flutist" in usage, though "flautist" is not so popular in the USA. She prefers "flutist" personally and etymologically.[3]

The first edition of the OED lists fluter as dating from circa 1400 and Fowler's Modern English Usage[4] states that "there seems no good reason" why flautist should have prevailed over fluter or flutist. However, according to Webster's Dictionary of English Usage,[5] flautist is the preferred term in British English, and while both terms are used in American English flutist is "by far the more common choice".

James Galway summed up the way many players of the flute feel about "flautist", saying, "I am a flute player, not a flautist. I don't have a flaut, and I've never flauted."

Click here for Fenwick Smith’s take on the subject.

10 Flute Demonstration RESULTS

This post is a response to THIS BLOG. Watch that one first.

Find out the which flute is which and hear them again! 

Then watch video part 2 to find out winners of the voting and my responses to many of your questions.

If you are interested in learning more details about these flutes, please don't contact me, but contact Burkart Flutes and Piccolos at 978-425-4500 or visit them at www.burkart.com.

If you want to ask specifics about the instruments in this demo, here are the serial numbers for the flutes I played:

#1 .016 silver (my flute, sorry!) with plat riser

#2 19.5K Gold body 488, head 2027

#3 10 K Gold - body in tape, head 1344

#4 14K soldered, body 446, head 2027

#5 14K drawn, body 07035, head 2027

#6 595 drawn, SOLD

#7 .016 silver (mine) with platinum head # 1979

#8 998 body 459, head 2147

#9 .016 body (mine) with 14K head 2027

#10 595 drawn body sold, 998 head with plt riser 2020

Which flutes did you prefer? Which flutes did I prefer? Could I hear a difference between metals? If so, why? Can we prove that different metals sound different?  

You may find the study SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM - AND THE SOUND OF THE FLUTE interesting. It “proves” that there is no measurable difference between metals, just players. 

“I found this exercise extremely interesting, both as a flute player and coming from a background in psychology. The fact that overall we were not able to distinguish between the flutes, and that flutes 1 and 10 and also 3 were most voted for, seems to result from the Primary and Recency Effect, aka the Serial-Position effect. Basically we chose the flute at the start (primary) and end (recency) and flute 3 would also fit with the primary, because our brains are just wired to remember those best. It's scientifically proven that information at the beginning and end of a event is best recalled. So I found myself not surprised by the results from this regard and predicted 1 and 10 would get the most votes before hearing your results. This may sound like utter rubbish but I do feel that it's an interesting, possible explanation which must have contributed to the outcome in some way at least.”

- Eoghan, Ireland

Cultural Creatives and the Future of Classical Music

In a recent interview in Fanfare, the talented flutist and arranger Robert Stallman made a fascinating observation, “there’s a quiet revolution going on; there’s a growing public that’s hungry for something genuine and inspiring—something that goes deeper. So you have these “cultural creatives” tuning out what big media promotes, because they want something personal, beautiful, and real. And of course chamber music is all those things and more. It’s rich with worlds of meaning that are absolutely life giving, sustaining, and uplifting for us on a daily basis. And in time more and more people will be able to find it on the Web where you don’t have the old set of “gatekeepers.” 

This is exactly what REALFLUTEproject.com is all about and I have been thrilled to share this vision with all of you, my fellow “cultural creatives.”

Photo: Robert Stallman

Hear me perform Stallman’s arrangement of the Carmen Fantasy

Music Study and Test Scores

I think all of us who are musicians already know the benefits music provides to students beyond those which are strictly musical, but this study was compelling because it showed not only that some music study is beneficial, but that higher QUALITY music education produces even better academic test scores.  

-Nina

Study Finds Link Between Quality Music Programs, Test Scores

A recent study found that students in high-quality school music education programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs.

     The study, which was published in the Winter 2006 issue of MENC’s Journal for Research in Music Education, is the first to examine the quality of school music programs as a factor affecting test scores, apart from the socioeconomic level of the school or school district.

     The study was funded by the NAMM Foundation under its “Sounds of Learning” initiative.

     The study comprised 4,739 elementary and middle school students in four regions of the United States and revealed a strong relationship between elementary (third-or fourth-grade) and middle school (eighth- or ninth-grade) students’ academic achievement and their participation in school music programs that differed based on quality.

     On the elementary level, it found that students in top-quality music programs scored 22 percent better in English and 20 percent better in mathematics than students in deficient music programs.

     Middle school students in top-quality instrumental programs scored 17 percent higher in mathematics than children who did not participate in music, and 33 percent higher in mathematics than students in a deficient choral program.

     MENC member Christopher Johnson was lead study investigator. He is a professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He said, “It is crucial to note that this project has revealed a relationship between quality music instruction and heightened academic performance.”

NAMM Sounds of Learning Study Reveals Strong Relationship Between Quality Music Education Programs and Higher Standardized Test Scores

Among the elementary school results:

     Students in top-quality music programs scored 22 percent better in English and 20 percent better in mathematics than students in deficient music programs.

     These academic differences were fairly consistent across geographic regions.

     Students at the four elementary schools with high-quality music programs scored better than students participating in programs considered to be of lower quality.

Among the middle school results:

     Students in top-quality instrumental programs scored 19 percent higher in English than students in schools without a music program, and 32 percent higher in English than students in a deficient choral program.

     Students in top-quality instrumental programs scored 17 percent higher in mathematics than children in schools without a music program, and 33 percent higher in mathematics than students in a deficient choral program.

     Students at schools with excellent music programs had higher English test scores across the country than students in schools with low-quality music programs; this was also true when considering mathematics.

     Students in all regions with lower-quality instrumental programs scored higher in English and mathematics than students who had no music at all.

     Students who participated in low-quality choral programs generally scored the lowest.

From: http://www.menc.org/news/mag/news.html

The Mystery Flutist

I've been getting lots of video responses to my REAL FLUTE project.  To see any of the video responses mentioned in this video, you'll need to go to my videos on youtube and click video responses which appear under my videos. Tell the flutists you found their videos from ninaflute! 

I received MANY more excellent videos than I can possibly mention here, including videos of flutists from the UK, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, the Ukraine, the USA, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, Iraq, Venezuela, Austria, and more!   But the most interesting response I have had to my REAL FLUTE project is a package I received from a prominent flutist. See if you can guess who the mystery flutist is.  All the background music to this video is performed by the mystery flutist.

Mystery Flutist PART 2

Find out the identity of the mystery flutist with a few thoughts on cultivating a unique artistic voice.

10 Flute Test

Can you hear the difference between gold, silver, and platinum flutes? Listen to this test and place your guesses and votes for favorite flute.

Here is the James Galway video which got the discussion started on different metals.

In response to Galway’s 16 Flute Test, flutist Jennifer Cluff conducted an experiment to see if she could imitate the sounds of Galway’s 16 flutes. You can also find the RESULTS of Galway’s test on her page.