Go with the Flow – 21 Original Flow Study Etudes

Description

Go with the Flow

21 Original Flow Study Etudes

by Eddie Lewis

Go with the Flow is Eddie Lewis’ third book, after The Physical Trumpet Pyramid and Daily Routines. Go with the Flow has three flow study etudes for each of the seven skill levels in Eddie’s system, for a total of twenty-one etudes.

These flow study etudes go through waves of popularity, which is funny because Eddie didn’t like the book when it was first completed. It was about three years after the book was published when Eddie revisited the book and saw in it what other people were enjoying so much.

What do they enjoy?

We believe it is the implied harmonies that make Go with the Flow special. In fact, Eddie wrote the harmonies before every writing a note in the etude. He did it this way because he wanted the etudes to make sense, even though some of them had odd numbers of measures. By composing the harmonies first, Eddie was guaranteed to have melodies that fit those odd measures appropriately.

Cichowicz Influence

As a book, the Go with the Flow book was highly influenced by Vincent Cichowicz’ flow study book. To be clear, we are not talking about the current flow study book published by his son, Michael. No, the Go with the Flow book was influenced by the compilation that you had to purchase through the Evanston Kinkos. My understanding is that it was a book Cichowicz used in his private lessons, a compilation of etudes from a variety of etude books.

Eddie practiced from that original Cichowicz book long before he had the idea to write this one. The reason he wrote the Go with the Flow book was because Eddie wanted flow studies for his less advanced students. And while he was at it, why not write for all seven levels?

And that’s how the Go with the Flow book was created.

Used as a Warm-Up

Because the etudes are in order of difficulty, the book as it stands makes a very nice musical warmup. While Eddie has used it this way before, he was not the one who had the original idea. It was Darryl Bayer, a friend of Eddie’s, who first mentioned something about using the Go with the Flow book as a warm-up. After Darry said something about it, Eddie tried it, too. And Darry was right. It does make a wonderful warm-up.