Before arriving to Aarhus (for my studies), I felt that one of my biggest weaknesses was Flexibility. It was always a challenge to go from one register to another. It was frustrating to practice it and I never felt any progress. I hated it and I felt that I just didn't know how to do it and wished it would somehow come together at some point.
When I started my studies in Aarhus it was a good opportunity to just sit and solve it. I started with Bai Lin studies. Very basic and slow. First, I worked with small intervals in the range of one octave. The book is written very well and the difficulty is gradually developed. After one week of mouthpiece work and very slow practice, making sure I kept the sound and tone quality, I went forward to bigger intervals and range (Decima / Perfect 10th). And so I enlarged the intervals and range. I tried to use as many books and different drills, firstly so that it would be more interesting, and not boring, which would lead to mindless practice, and secondly because I felt that the more variety of drills and ways to practice flexibility, the faster I would improve.
Today I can really say, as nerdy and weird as it might sound, that I love doing flexibility. I do it every day, especially after the warm up, combined with Clarke and Arban drills (I'll write about random practice separately very soon) but I always do a bit more of it here and there. I really feel how important a skill it is and how it improved my playing. We meet flexibility in many different places in the repertoire. Very recommended books for flexibility are Bai Lin, Irons and Collins.
I attach to the post some examples for exercises from Bai Lin. Again, I do my best to stay open as I go up with a big fat sound, keeping the quality all the way up and down the register and trying to play each note in its center.
Thank you for reading - comments are always very welcome!
Eyal
Bai Lin Flexibility Exercises
Bai Lin Flexibility Exercise