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...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 18, 2017 | FluteTips, Intonation
How much embouchure hole do you cover when you play? If you cover too much embouchure hole, you’re going to compromise your sound, and of course, you’ll be flat. If you cover too little of your embouchure hole, you will be sharp. And of course, your tone is also...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 15, 2017 | FluteTips, Intonation
Did you know that you can use your lip pressure to change your intonation? When you’re playing, you want to check the pressure that the lip plate puts on your lip. You’ll play flat less often when you lighten the pressure. Now when I was in college I played with a lot...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Sep 12, 2017 | Finger Placements, FluteTips
When you’re playing, you want your fingers to be very light on the keys. If you’re using too much pressure, the keys make too much noise when you’re playing. And in the flute world, that’s just not acceptable. Because, well we can fix that. And if we can, then we...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Aug 26, 2017 | FluteTips, Tonguing
One of the problems that I hear with my students is a flapping or thunking sound when they’re tonguing a piece. This occurs even with my college students. It comes out very clearly when they’re double-tonguing a piece. That thunking flapping sound is clear to me. But...
