Taffanel & Gaubert #4

Taffanel & Gaubert #4 is one of the most enduring scale exercises, used by countless flutists of all levels of ability. It is quite a workout. For some reason, in talking with Jen Cluff a few days ago, our conversation turned to talking about intonation and Taffanel & Gaubert #4.

I recalled how double-bassist Edgar Meyer had told a friend of mine (this was about twenty years ago - yikes!) that to improve his intonation, Edgar used a synthesizer and programmed in the parts he was working on. I remember at the time thinking what a brilliant use of technology that was and so, shortly thereafter, programmed in Taffanel & Gaubert #4 into my keyboard to give it a try.

Right away in playing along with the keyboard, I could see the weak spots in my scales - both in terms of evenness, as well as intonation - everything was so transparent! Unfortunately, that synthesizer program got lost a long time ago. The good news is that Jen said she's got a Sibelius version of it done and just needs to upload it to the Web. I'll post that link here as soon as she does.