by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Oct 26, 2017 | FluteTips, Octave Slurs, Practice
When you practice octave slurs, you need to think about the tone you’re getting when you go up the octave. Are you actually blowing harder, or are you using your airstream and raising the airstream in order to get that upper octave? If you struggle to get the...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Oct 12, 2017 | FluteTips, Practice
Does your mind wander while you play long tones? Long tones are an essential part of your practice time. And I hope that you’re doing these as part of your practice time. But what you have to make sure you do is concentrate on what you’re doing. Because they’re LONG...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Oct 5, 2017 | Breathing, FluteTips, Support, Tone
We all know that when you breathe for the flute, you need to breathe from your stomach. But what do you do with your ribcage? Have you learned to breathe and expand your ribcage at the same time? Some teachers call that back breathing. You want to breathe from your...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 28, 2017 | Embouchure, FluteTips
Look at your embouchure in the mirror. Do you look relaxed? Are you pulling your corners back or down? Are you tight in the cheeks? Is there tension in your mouth? Those are all factors that are going to influence your tone. Now there’s many different embouchures in...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 25, 2017 | FluteTips, Tone
Did you know that you can improve your tone today by just widening the space between your teeth? If you’re playing, and you take a look in the mirror, can you tell how far apart your teeth are? Or can you feel with your tongue how far apart your teeth are when you...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 19, 2017 | Embouchure, FluteTips, Intonation
Do you adjust your intonation by raising and lowering your air stream, or by manually rolling in or out? You don’t want to adjust intonation by rolling in or rolling out. The better way to adjust your intonation is with your mouth by changing the direction of...
