NOT EVER

What I mean then is that if you have a tight embouchure, it is no problem for you to fix it. You can learn to play without a tight embouchure, which will noticeably improve your tone.

Why Tight

The way a tight embouchure usually develops is when you start flute, and while you play, you got dizzy. So, I’m sure you all remember at least the fact that you got dizzy if you don’t remember what that felt like. You got dizzy because as little kids, we think we have to blow a lot. We don’t know that really the less you blow, the better your flute tone. And in order to compensate for that, especially if you were a band flute at school and you never had any private lessons, chances are the way to combat being dizzy when you played flute was to develop a tight embouchure.

I’m Dizzy

If you have a smaller embouchure, that gives your tone more focus because the smaller it is, the more air you compress inside and it’s going to only let out a sliver. For example, if I play a hi G with sort of a beginner sound, I will be completely out of breath. Then, if just keep taking more breaths, then blow it all out, I start feeling dizzy. So, you compensate by tightening up your embouchure.

I could play a whole lot more notes because I make my embouchure really tiny by firming up or tightening everything – you pull the corners back, you make it a tiny little hole, and that’s how you compensate for all that air that came out.

Band Blast

Another reason why that tight embouchure developed was maybe in band in high school band you had something that all the flutes, all 18 flutes, because sometimes there’s a lot of flutes, had to play in that third octave. And the band director says, it’s too loud. So, half of you drop out or only two of you play and all the rest of you 15 flutes, just sit there until that part’s over and then join back in. And to compensate for that was to be really, really tiny because then you could play a lot softer. So, what is the big deal if when you tighten up, it still focuses the sound, right? It is a decent sound among the other flutes in the band.

Solo Reveal

Well, the problem with that is as you go on with your flute life, what you’re going to discover when you’re playing solos is that your range from forte to piano is very narrow. You can’t do anything. And if you heard anybody talk about different colors, that tight embouchure can’t give you anything but one color. You cannot get that woody embouchure that you would typically play a Bach sonata.

Not Flexible

To get a woody embouchure, you have to change your embouchure. That means my embouchure would have to be flexible to get a color change, even to move to a more modern sound. Plus, it is much harder to get a good tone forte to piano with a tight embouchure.

The Solution

Okay, now what do you do about it? Well, I have some videos that really talk and go into how to develop this loose, relaxed embouchure. So, check those out. But right now, let me just say what you need to do is elongate a little bit. So, this makes you wide, right? You need to go long in your embouchure as when you say “awe.”

You cannot pull these corners back and make it tight if you are thinking awe. Now in my low register, I am very much awe. When I go up to the middle and high, I’m a little more ooh, but the thing that changes, I am never eee. Unless I want a certain color that gives me edge, a more modern tone color.

Another Tool

But the thing is I have got that in my tool basket. I could decide to use it and I could decide not to use it. It is up to me what I am going to do because my natural embouchure is much more awe.

I am just much more open this way. I am trying to think about having a natural relaxed look on my face. But do not overthink this as a student once did with these totally relaxed flabby lips. We have to have some type of flute embouchure. We cannot just be flaccid and just be totally natural. It does not work!

Coke Bottle

So, I just say loosely “awe” embouchure like you would blow into that Coke bottle to make a whistling sound. Or take your headjoint off and blow down into it. If you widen and tighten your embouchure, you are probably not going to make any sound.

Stay relaxed with that awe, see that the corners of your embouchure are not pulled back at all. They’re just awe. Look in the mirror and see what you look like naturally. You want to maintain that embouchure.

That awe shape, at least for a middle, A flat, your index finger should fit in between your teeth. You can check elsewhere I have discussed teeth spacing at length.

New Problems

When you start changing from a tight embouchure to a natural loose, relaxed embouchure, you are going to find a lot of errors coming out really fast. And you might find yourself getting dizzy again.

I have had that many students say, okay, yep, I’m dizzy. I’ve got to stop playing. The answer to that is all about breathing and about support and how support is pressure and holding in your air.

Support

Again, you can look at my videos on breathing and how you create pressure, also known as support. So, if you heard the term support, it’s pressure because that tightening of your muscles, that pressure you create, will control that air so you can maintain a loose embouchure and not use up all your air.

So, look in the mirror. Are you playing with a tight embouchure? And if so, you can fix it. You can fix it quickly. You need to be thinking about your breathing. If you just start loosening up your embouchure because so much air is going to come out, you are going to have to learn how to control that air. It’s all about holding in the air. And if you hold in the air and create pressure, then your embouchure can be as loose as it wants, even up there in your third octave.

Mirror Mirror

So, check out in the mirror what your embouchure looks like, learn to loosen it up to relax your embouchure. Use support so that you can still have a great tone and make your tone go from forte to piano in a much wider range with beautiful colors.

Try it out. You are going to enjoy working on your embouchure, although it can be a little bit of a pain in the neck, it might cause you a little bit of frustration, but you can do it and you will love the results.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Tight Embouchure No Problem – FluteTips 182

How to Form a Great Flute Embouchure – FluteTips 132

I Can’t Relax My Embouchure

Making Your Embouchure Be Flexible While You’re Playing

Relax Your Embouchure to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 154

Loosening Your Embouchure While You Are Playing – FluteTips 165

The post Tight Embouchure No Problem appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Even when I am in good shape from a steady diet of practice, rehearsals, and performances, I can still have a bad tone day.

So what can we do to pull out of the doldrums and make it a good tone day? I remember during my college years when I had bad tone days, all I did was technique. Just the thought of doing long tones turned my stomach! Working on technique was my fallback practice.

Well, I’ve learned a few things since then, and I think that we can sound good every day, all the time. Even when you are tired, or distracted, or just mentally tuned out. Back then when I caught a cold, it felt like my tone caught the cold as well.

If you ever tried to exercise when you’re just so tired, you find that you can do it. And it’s good to plow through exercise even when you’re tired. But your muscles don’t respond in the way that you want them to. And you really have to say, you know what? I’ve got to do it anyway.

So, here’s how you experiment to fix your tone while you are working on your technique.

Pull out your chromatics from Taffanel and Gaubert Number 5.

#1 Lip Pressure

For me one of the first things that happens when I am having a bad tone day is that I apply too much pressure with my flute against my lip.

This of course will also give you some intonation issues. Usually, you’re flat when you do that. So the first thing I’m going do is play my groups of six, and lighten up that pressure. Because I can do it while I’m playing. Don’t worry if you are a little bit uneven in there. Just concentrate on decreasing that lip pressure.

#2 Angle of Airstream

The next thing to think about is the angle that you are blowing across the embouchure hole in the lip plate. So, you want to experiment with that.

And you can take your exercises, whatever you’re doing, and just take them out of a rhythmic context and just make your fingers move. But think about what you can do here to find the right angle to blow the air across.

#3 Relax Embouchure

Sometimes, probably all the time, when I feel like I have a bad tone day, it is because I am way too tight in my embouchure. That may be the case for you too. So, I am going to concentrate on loosening that up.

Now of course you still must maintain your support – your pressure. But if you work on these three issues, I think that it will make a big difference in your tone. And they’ll change your tone right now as you’re playing. And you can even do it while you’re doing your technique.

Once you have worked on these three, next add articulation. Because if you can make a good tone on that tiny little punch of articulation, then you know you are on your way to a better tone day.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Experimenting with Tone – FluteTips 176

Getting a Better Tone Quality on Your Middle Notes C C# D Eb – FluteTips 161

Finding Your Tone with a New Headjoint – FluteTips 158

Get a Better Tone on Your C, C#, D, and Eb – FluteTips 187

Practice Articulation to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 155

The post Experiment with Your Tone appeared first on DoctorFlute.

There are some things that you can do to work on your low register and know that that is also helping your high register. Now, that does not mean that you can stop work at anything in the high register because your low register was nice and rich. You still need to be thinking about how you are playing and how your low register reaches that upper register, and even just taking the high register out all on its own.

Round & Full

But let’s just talk about the low register. So, what are some things that you can do to fill it out, to make it strong? Long tones, of course, down in that low register, just doing from B down to low C is a really good place to get started for building your low register. And what you are thinking about is how round and full can you make this low register. You are not thinking about playing softly. You want to fill it out, to make that low note really round.

You also want to think about:

The shape of your embouchure
Opening your jaw wider
Putting air in your cheeks

These are things that will help you make it rich and resonant and full.

You also want the sound to come from behind your sinus cavity. So, the back of your tongue should be down, and the roof of your mouth is arched up. This is how singers have the sound resonate. And then that sound can be rich and full all the way down.

Low to Middle to High

Now, if that is tenuous or if you crack a lot, or if it just does not stay there, you know that there is probably going to be something that is affected above it because that roundness, that fullness, that resonance can move into your upper register. This is why when you do long tones for the third octave, we actually start on middle B and we go up instead of always descending. Because if you can get a round full low register, then middle, then do long tones going up.

So, you keep what is full in the low, move it to the middle, and then take it higher.

Keep it really full. You are not trying to play really softly. There is a time and a place for doing your long tones with diminuendo and trying to play really softly. But right now you are not trying to do that. You are trying to get your high register to be rich and full and beautiful, just like your low register. So, you are going to work from a low note to a middle note as in those octave slurs, and then work to keep that resonance all the way up.

If you start with a good low note, you can match those registers and it becomes a beautiful sound that you can work with and build on all the way up.

A Word on Hearing Loss

If you are going to work your long tones in your third octave, wear ear protection so it does not damage your ears. You can just use those foamy things if you do not have real kind that allow sound in, but keep out the higher harmonics. If I am going to work in the third octave, I usually wear ear protection same as if I am playing piccolo.

So that is how you can fill out and strengthen and make your third octave be so much more resonant and beautiful. You start with a low register that is fabulous. That is the foundation that pushes up and holds up that third octave. Then you can make it just as glorious as your low register.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

You Can’t Have a Good High Register Without Having a Really Good Low Register – FluteTips 172

FluteTips 66 Easy High Notes

Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes – FluteTips 171

Putting Air in Your Cheeks to Lower Your Pitch – FluteTips 32

Resonate to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 178

The post You Can’t Have a Good High Register Without Having a Really Good Low Register appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Now, these are probably my younger students. My college students have learned to work this out a little bit. Sometimes the compensation to not be forté is to make your embouchure really tiny. If you do that so that your third octave, and the top of your second octave is not a forté or a double forté, you are not going to get the tone you want in those octaves.  When I play through these octaves, I want them to be even all the way up. Now, there is going to be a difference in timber because the sound wave is faster, or the wave lengths are closer together as you get higher.

So don’t get confused with the sound of the timbre and forté. As you play through the octaves, flutists tend to either blow harder for the 2^nd and 3^rd octave or they squeeze their embouchure. If you are not blowing harder, you are tightening up your embouchure to compensate for getting those high notes out. What is the key here to getting your high notes out and not blowing harder?

Air pressure

Air pressure is the answer to so many problems we have with tone on our flute. If you maintain that pressure all the way up, you free your embouchure to be loose, and to get those notes out with the best tone quality, while not being forté. Do I have to do some adjusting of the embouchure too? Certainly, we must adjust our embouchure as we go higher or lower. Your job is to listen to yourself as you play through the octaves. As you are playing through your music ask yourself; am I changing my embouchure getting tighter? Am I blowing harder or am I compensating by getting tighter in my embouchure? Or am I allowing my air pressure or support to hold up those notes which then frees up my embouchure to be nice and open?

When I play a high note, I aim to have quite a loose embouchure. Now, I might be a little more firm right here in the center of my embouchure. But it is still very loose and relaxed. However, each note that I move up to, I have to push more from my stomach muscles. There needs to be a little bit more pressure to hold those notes up. When I do this correctly with air pressure, I get evenness of tone through the octaves. It doesn’t get louder. It doesn’t get softer or buzzier. I also kept the same color all the way up and all the way down.

So, record yourself then listen and see what you are doing through those octaves. What do you think you are doing with your embouchure or your pressure? And are you maintaining the same dynamic level?

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

Evening Out Your Registers – FluteTips 169

Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes – FluteTips 171

FluteTips 11 Support – Ribcage Air

FluteTips 71 Tapers

How to NOT Go Flat at the End of Notes – FluteTips 168

The post Evening Out Your Registers appeared first on DoctorFlute.

It is so frustrating to barely be able to get a good tone quality when you get to the low notes in your piece. If this has happened to you, you know exactly what I mean.

Tight Embouchure

When you identify the cause of the problem, you can start working on solutions. We often lose our low register because by the time we get to the low notes our embouchure is as tight as a drum! Throw in a little performance anxiety and our air is not aimed in the right direction. Then our rich low register loses its tone quality, or worse, becomes puffs of air.

The problem might be that you are keeping the embouchure you use for the high notes when you move to the low register. Pay attention to when you are playing a lot of high notes and then have to come down and play low. Is your embouchure stuck in that high position?

Stay Flexible

It takes time to train yourself to move your embouchure while you play. But your embouchure must always be in a state of flux. It has to be moving and adjusting. If we keep it in one spot, then not only we will lose our low notes, but we will not get the color we want or the sound we are looking for in the lowest octave. Plus, if your embouchure is just too tight, then you might do a lot of cracking on some of your notes as well.

Rests

But you know what? You can learn to loosen you that embouchure while you are playing! For example, in the Prokofiev Flute Sonata in the area between measures 3 and 4 you have a rest during which you can think about your jaw – open it, relax it. Identify spots like these in your music and write the word “loosen” right on the music. Or write some symbol that will remind you to loosen up your embouchure.

Now you do not have to wait for a rest because sometimes you do not have the right kind of rest that will allow you to really open up. So, you have to do it on the fly in the spur of the moment.

Breaths

Another opportunity for you to loosen up your embouchure is when you breath. Each and every time you take a breath remind yourself to loosen up.

All too often when we perform, we tighten up when we take a breath. Our throat gets a little tighter, then our fingers get tighter, and our embouchure gets tighter. That is a vicious circle that you can break by learning to take a quick quiet breath.

If every time you take a breath, you open your throat to take that yawning breath, this will help you practice keeping your embouchure loose. Then it will be ready for those low notes.

Marks

Again, you can mark the spots in your music where you have to take a fast breath. Then, take a fast yawning breath and loosen your embouchure. You can be loose and relaxed and still be speedy.

You can learn how to loosen up while you play. Train yourself to loosen and relax your embouchure at rests and breaths. Mark the spots in your music to remind yourself to loosen. Then you will learn how to play and keep your embouchure relaxed throughout the performance without losing the low notes.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

Loosening Your Embouchure While You Are Playing – FluteTips 165

Tight Embouchure No Problem – FluteTips 182

How to Form a Great Flute Embouchure – FluteTips 132

Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes – FluteTips 171

Evening Out Your Registers – FluteTips 169

The Importance of Your Throat in Tone Production – FluteTips 157

The post Loosening Your Embouchure While You Are Playing appeared first on DoctorFlute.

How about you? Does that sound ever come out of your flute? I bet it does because it happens to everyone. What can you do about it? How can you fix it if it happens to you? Let me see if I can help you.

I have some FluteTips on how to tongue your middle Eb, D, C sharp and C and how to get a good tone on those. But I want to get a little bit more specific today, and that is how not to let those notes crack. We have other notes that tend to crack. But right now, I want to concentrate on these middle register notes.

Middle D (4^th line on the staff) is a note that wants to crack especially if we have that D or we have a couple notes that are in that very middle narrow range of C sharp and D and E flat where our first finger is up and we have come to one of them from a high note or the opposite has happened and we have come up from a low note. They will tend to crack.

By cracking, I mean that there is an actual cracking sound where it just flips from one octave side to the other – high to low or low to high. Often, we call that kind of cracking sound a “caught in between” sound. Caught in between is that you are getting a low sound and a high sound simultaneously.

One reason why that caught in between sound happens is because your airstream is probably too high. And then related to that is we don’t have a nice open embouchure. The embouchure is too small. If I have a small embouchure, I can maybe get an edgy sound. But the chances of cracking go way up with that small embouchure especially if I have to tongue quickly and I have a firm tongue. Then if I’m playing really low, what is going to happen is this is going to be airy as well.

When you are dealing with a tricky area in your solo and you tend to crack, analyze your air and your embouchure. Where should the airstream be blowing, how high or how low, hard and soft. That will really help you to figure out where to get the best tone quality. It is tricky when you are playing a Bach or Mozart solo. These genres of solos often have much that is in that second octave that cracks.

That is what my advice to help you figure out how to get those middle register notes. Your embouchure and your airstream are the places to look at to stop cracking.

Sometimes you don’t even know you have been cracking until you record yourself and then listen to yourself playing in the middle register and realize you are cracking! So, grab a piece that you are working on and record yourself playing through some middle register runs. Then listen for cracks. If you find them, analyze the cause. Is it your embouchure? Is it your airstream? Is it the two of them mixed together? Then make sure that your embouchure is oo shaped and your jaw is out slightly to raise your airstream is up just a bit. I think you’ll be able to fix those particular pesky little notes that you don’t want to crack or get caught in between.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

How Not to Crack on Your Middle Register Notes – FluteTips 164

Getting a Better Tone Quality on Your Middle Notes C C# D Eb – FluteTips 161

FluteTips 77 Getting a Good Tone in Your Middle Register Specifically Ds & Es

How to Form a Great Flute Embouchure – FluteTips 132

The post How Not to Crack on Your Middle Register Notes appeared first on DoctorFlute.

But We Rarely Think About Our Throat

Sometimes when you are on the cusp of getting that perfect tone, just figuring out what the throat should be doing is the key to getting the tone that you are looking for. Sometimes you can only get so far with your tone, but you just cannot get over that hump. That is when you should consider this a throat issue. Because once you have figured that out, your tone will just blossom.

So, let’s just talk about the throat for just a bit and about what should the throat be doing.

When I played in high school and even at the beginning of college, my throat was really tight, but I never knew it. I had no idea that my throat was tight and that this would negatively affect my tone. Furthermore, I did not even know about opening my throat or how to do it.

An Open Throat is the Key

What does it mean to play flute with an open throat? Well, an open throat is when you take a yawning breath that opens your throat. That is, you just open up as if you were going to yawn – then you keep it open when you play. When you open your throat and breathe, you sound like a bag of wind. There is no loud breath sound. When you hear a sound like a gasp, that is from a tight throat. That sound means the throat is tighter together. When you open up your throat it is like a hollow tube that sends your tone out.

So, the first thing that you need to think about is having that open throat which will let your tone out and help it to blossom. If I play with a tighter throat, I can play with a nice sound, but I will most likely also have a tighter embouchure. When my throat is tight, my embouchure tends to tighten.

I can hear the difference when I open my throat up, as opposed to playing with it tight. You should be able to hear it too. A tight throat may give you that buzzy edgy sound. But if you want a resonant sound with a beautiful tone you need to open your throat and find another way to sound edgy.

An Open Throat Enables a Relaxed Embouchure

When I open my throat, then I am not relying on my lips to get all my tone to come out properly.

Opening the throat opens up the embouchure which allows you to have more freedom with your embouchure because when you are tense in one part of your body, you are tense in other areas as well. Ask a massage therapist or a chiropractor to explain how that works. But if you are tight in your throat, you are probably tight in your embouchure. It is harder to maintain a relaxed embouchure when you have a tight throat.

I have students that are working on their embouchure. Sometimes I can get them to loosen up, to relax their embouchure, but there is still something not right. Usually all they need to do is to learn to open up their throat with a yawning breath, and WHAM, their tone comes out beautifully.

You do have to work to achieve a fantastic tone. You need to relax your embouchure, increase your teeth spacing, and work on your support. But opening that throat to improve your tone is sometimes the last key that you need to achieve the tone that you are looking for.

Open Your Throat Up to Your Sinuses

To take this one step further, think about opening your throat all the way up to your sinus cavity. That is, when you take that yawning breath, and you think about what does it feel like in there? Is it open all the way up when you yawn? You are not closing off anything. You need to take the soft palette, that is just the top of roof of your mouth and raise it while you lower the tongue, or in other words bring the back of the tongue a little bit forward or lowered. This movement stops clogging up your throat.

If you want to have an edge of your sound, there are ways you can do it and still have your throat open all the way up into your sinus cavity. So, experiment with opening the throat because it’s the best way to give you that final push you need into getting the tone that you are looking for.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

The Importance of Your Throat in Tone Production – FluteTips 157

Improve Your Tone by Opening Your Throat – FluteTips 56

Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes – FluteTips 171

Evening Out Your Registers – FluteTips 169

Loosening Your Embouchure While You Are Playing – FluteTips 165

Experimenting with Tone – FluteTips 176

The post The Importance of Your Throat in Tone Production appeared first on DoctorFlute.

If you've been reading any of my blogs (or watching my videos) you will know that I think a relaxed embouchure is the best way to get a good tone. I don’t think that is controversial either. The embouchure is the gateway to tone of course since that is where it is produced. So, everything you do with your embouchure is going to affect the tone that you produce.

I have seen all types of embouchures in my years of teaching. If you watch professional flutists perform, you will see all types of embouchures as well. But I think that no matter what it looks like, to the professional flutist, their embouchure is relaxed. Since we all have different shapes to our mouth, relaxed is going to look slightly different.

Let’s talk about how to do that – how to relax your embouchure.

Did you learn to form and embouchure long ago from those beginner books? They have the most atrocious pictures in the front demonstrating how to form an embouchure. In the book that I started with, there was a man who played. It showed various forms of the “correct” embouchure. These pictures were just no good. Not only was the shape of the embouchure not demonstrative of what I would teach today, but the man also had a moustache. Now moustaches are fine. But if you are taking pictures for a book on flute embouchure don’t choose pictures from a mustached gentleman. All of us little girls in fourth grade screamed in delighted horror because we thought it looked like a caterpillar! We were in no way looking at the shape of the embouchure. In truth you could barely see it for the bushy mustache. It just was not the most flattering picture to show us.

Today there are so many sources out there to show a correct embouchure that those pictures aren’t even necessary in beginner books. What I have never seen in any beginner book is descriptions of a natural embouchure.

Natural Embouchure

When I look in the mirror at what my face looks like when I'm just neutral, I can see what I should look like when I play the flute. All I need to do is then open up, slightly firm the corners, and play. Easy right?

I don't want to pull the corners back or pull them down, or really do anything with the corners. I want them to fall where they may. Our embouchure is not the shape that our lips naturally go in. But when I play, I want to keep as natural as possible. If I were to pull the corners back, it would close my embouchure. That closed embouchure keeps the tone in. It gives you a small sound with very little color opportunities.  When my embouchure is natural then I can open up and let the sound out. It's going to free up my tone, and it's going to let it come out. The tight embouchure closes in your tone, keeps it all inside.

The best way to work on the embouchure is to use a mirror to help you see what relaxed looks like for you. It's going to be different for everybody.

Have Faith

Then you must have faith. Here's where a lot of people go wrong. You must have faith that a relaxed embouchure is still going to get you good tone. I have had many students that have not had the faith that this relaxed embouchure will work. For them it has been a longer struggle to change the embouchure. If you have been playing with a tight embouchure, then you have relied on that tight pressure to give you tone. Then when you totally relax you feel that you have no control over your tone production. This is where faith comes into play.

Just opening up, leaving it relaxed is something that it takes a little while to believe in. Allow yourself to say “I can get a good tone, even with a relaxed embouchure.” You do not have to rely on pulling those corners back. Believe that it's going to happen. Even if it is fuzzy and bad at the beginning. That's the way it goes.

Hold in Your Air

You can eventually work this out when you learn to hold in your air. Because that is generally the problem. When you relax your embouchure, it opens up and more air comes out. Then your tone is more airy. You then must learn to hold your air in while keeping your embouchure relaxed and open.

Whereas when it is really pulled back, your embouchure tightens manipulating how much air can come out. So, this sort of gives you a better tone at the beginning because you have made it so small, only a little bit of air comes out. Then when you relax your embouchure more air comes out. If this is a mystery to you, please read my other blogs on support.

Work on that relaxed embouchure.  Use a mirror and see if you are pulling back and using a really tight embouchure. Then work to change it for a more open and resonant tone. Your tone will get bigger and better and you will be able to have a lot more colors.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

Relax Your Embouchure to Improve Your Tone - FluteTips 154

Tight Embouchure No Problem – FluteTips 182

How to Form a Great Flute Embouchure – FluteTips 132

Experimenting with Tone - FluteTips 176

Getting a Better Tone Quality on Your Middle Notes C C# D Eb – FluteTips 161

Finding Your Tone with a New Headjoint – FluteTips 158

 

The post Relax Your Embouchure to Improve Your Tone appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Using tone color in a solo or performance is something that separates the professional from the amateur. Knowing how and when to use tone color makes performances of the same piece differ from performer to performer. But it can be one of those ethereal ideas that one can’t possibly do without being gifted. I’m here to tell you that you too can use tone color. It is just a matter of understanding how to get a different color on the flute using vowel sounds.

Tone color was a huge mystery to me when I was growing up and even in the first year of college. I didn't really get tone color.

What is Tone Color?

What was I supposed to do with it?
How was I supposed to change it?
What does it really mean?

So, I have gone on a journey and I still feel like I'm on a journey of tone color. Sometimes tone color can just be an instinctual thing that you don't even know you're doing. That is fine when you are performing. But as a teacher, you want to know what is it that you're doing, so that you can teach it to your students. Let me explain this by using the second movement of Muczynski's Three Preludes for Flute Alone. The opening line is a great one for talking about color as the slow melodic line lends itself to color change.

I must be intentional if I am going to change color. Because I need to understand what I am doing, so that I will be able to repeat it in future practice sessions. There is nothing wrong with instinctual changing of tone color. Many times, this just happens. To find out if you do this without thinking, record yourself then listen for color change. Do you do something different with your tone as you are playing? Analyze it. If you like what you have done, try to repeat it.

ee vs. ah vs. o

Let's look at the opening phrase of the Muczynski. The opening is beautiful and slow but it's Muczynski, so you know that there are a lot of choices. Since it is a modern piece, you might play the opening 3 different ways. I might begin with a little darker and a little edgier sound. To do that I will widen my embouchure and blow across the edge or use a more spread embouchure with an ee vowel shape inside my mouth.

The thing about color is that it can change. Just because I used that edgier sound at the beginning does not mean that I must keep it all the way through the phrase. Maybe I will change the vowel sound to ah as I get to the end of the first phrase. The ah vowel gives a more open woodier sound.

Vibrato is a color too. Don’t be afraid to use vibrato as color. You can make the vibrato slower when you use a woodier sound and faster vibrato or more prominent vibrato when you want the edgier sound. Also, in this Muczynski solo, vibrato should be more intense with the 3^rd octave notes. So, I have a little bit faster vibrato. I'm keeping that ee sound and change.

Vibrato is Color

Now I might play that same opening phrase and change the color. What if I used a vowel shape of o? What kind of sound does that give me? Let me change the vibrato as I go and listen to how that changes the phrase.  I like to change the angle of my air on the lip plate. I can achieve different colors when I do that. There is a dark modern sound that I can produce when I move the air stream down on the lip plate strike edge. Now I need to experiment with these different colors and vibratos and see what shape I want this phrase to take with my color.

There isn't a formula for the perfect color or vibrato for each phrase. It is what you like that is important and you get to experiment around with that. Changing the vowel shape inside your mouth is a great way to start changing the color and experimenting around. So, let your ear guide you as you try different colors. It's so much fun for you to make your own music and not always to make someone else's music.

Have fun with your tone colors. Use them to start experimenting and see what music you can make.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Finding Color in Your Musical Line - FluteTips 146

Vibrato Pet Peeves on the Flute – FluteTips 117

Live Flute Lesson on Vibrato with 12-Year-Old Student Waverly – FluteTips 122

Watch me as I teach my 12-year-old daughter in real-time how to play with vibrato:

Controlled Air Stream on the Flute – FluteTips 129

The post Finding Color in Your Musical Line appeared first on DoctorFlute.

What I am talking about specifically is that you can learn a lot about your playing, and you could fix a lot of problems, if you take your scales at a slower clip. When you play any piece slowly you begin to hear where the problems are. Problems such as glitches and fingers that are not moving evenly. Sometimes we think we are playing evenly because we are keeping up with our metronome. But really the inside beat is uneven.

Playing Slowly Reveals Problems

Playing the scales slowly with a metronome at a slower tempo, allows me to hear exactly what is happening in the scale. We need to listen to our fingers. Just because our fingers moved really well two weeks ago, does not mean they're moving really well today. There are a lot of factors that go into our muscles, and we need to be training them all the time. I'm not just training them for one solo that I played two weeks ago. We need to be training them for every day or else we lose it.

Play a scale two octaves slowly. Listen to what is happening both in unevenness and what is happening between notes. Do you hear any glitches happening? Glitches are when your fingers all don’t go down or up at the exact same time. Even though playing the scale up and down does give you some insight into your technical issues, my shtick is that you have to interact with scales for the most benefit. Interacting with scales means playing scale exercises such as the Reichert studies or the Moyse method or Taffanel and Gaubert. Whatever method you have that has scale exercises which allow you to interact with those scales.

Interact with Scales

I will also listen to the way my tone sounds. I want to match my octaves when I play the scales. Do they all match in volume and weight and resonance, or do I get bigger as I get to the bottom and smaller as I go to the top?

Scales played slowly reveal glitches. Glitches are always hidden by speed. They are there and are the thing that makes runs not sound absolutely fluid. However, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we can play a run just fine and then we play slowly and hear that the fingers glitch. We often think that we are playing really well, but we are really hiding a glitch. Glitches can be tedious to work on. They are not the most glamorous thing to practice, but the pay off is great. Your runs will sound effortless. Maybe you are still working really hard, but to a listener, that work sounds effortless. You want that as a goal. You want the listener to think that what you are playing is effortless. Then the listener can concentrate on the music that you produce.

Make Your Embouchure Flexible

So, this is what I mean when I say you should practice scales slowly. You can play your scales up two octaves and down two octaves and then move on to the next one. But interacting with scales helps to reveal more problems and thus make you a better performer. A lot of times this is the kind of thing that separates the amateur from the professional. Sometimes it is really tedious work. But the payoff is fabulous. So, work on playing your scales slowly. You will like the results.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Play Your Scales Slowly - FluteTips 139

Making Your Embouchure Be Flexible While You're Playing - FluteTips 87

Marcel Moyse Scales and Arpeggios - FluteTips 95

Fixing the Glitch Exercise with Taffanel & Gaubert 10 & 11 Practice with Me

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