There are differing ideas on tongue placement, and I think they can all be used for various reasons. But I want to discuss the unfocused Tah sound. You know that one especially in the low register where sometimes it’s a puff of air rather than good tone quality.

Here are some practical tips to improve your tone quality by focusing your Tah when articulating.

1. The Importance of Articulation Practice

First and foremost, let’s establish the significance of practicing articulation. It’s not just something you do in passing; it should be an integral part of your practice routine. Whether you’re warming up, working on scales, or diving into your etudes, incorporating articulation exercises is essential. Variety in your articulation patterns helps you develop versatility and adaptability in your playing.

2. The Precision of the “Tah”

Let’s delve into the heart of the matter—the “tah” articulation. I often find that many of my students, even those at the college level, tend to use too much air when articulating. This excess air behind the tongue can lead to imprecision and a lack of control.

3. Tongue Placement Matters

To master the “tah,” you need to pay close attention to tongue placement. Your tongue should be as far forward as possible without touching your teeth. This precise placement results in a sparkling, pointed articulation, which is crucial for achieving a clear and focused tone.

4. The Art of Air Control

A significant part of achieving a well-focused “tah” lies in controlling your breath. The key here is to hold in as much air as possible when you articulate. The more control you exert over your breath during tonguing, the more precision and focus you can achieve in your sound. This results in a cleaner and clearer tone, as opposed to a vague dispersion of air.

5. Monitor Your Stomach

To gauge your progress, you can use a simple exercise involving the observation of your stomach. If you notice your stomach contracting with each articulation, it’s a telltale sign that you’re releasing too much air. Using a mirror to keep an eye on your stomach and practicing to maintain a steady position will help you achieve a more focused and controlled sound.

6. Practical Articulation Exercises

Practical exercises play a crucial role in your journey toward mastering articulation. For instance, pieces that involve a lot of tonguing, such as the Bach E-flat Sonatas, provide a perfect challenge. Focus on holding in as much air as possible while maintaining a precise “tah.”

7. The Ultimate Goal: A Focused Tone

In the end, our objective is to achieve a focused tone that is free from excess air. With practice and control over your breath, you can ensure that your performance is characterized by a clear, rich sound.

In conclusion, I’ve found that paying attention to these aspects of flute articulation has significantly improved my playing. Whether you’re a beginner starting your musical journey or an intermediate flutist looking to enhance your skills, I encourage you to follow these guidelines. With consistent practice and a focus on your “tah” when you articulate, you can achieve better results in your flute playing.

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

*This blog article was edited by ChatGPT. What do you think?

Watch me demonstrate this:

In this video I discuss the exact position of the tongue necessary for a good clear Tah using embouchure, tongue, and support.

Let’s Talk Articulation – Focus on Your Tah – FluteTips 179

Practice Articulation to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 155

FluteTips 38 Practicing Articulation

FluteTips 1 Articulation Tonguing Too Far Back

The post Flute Articulation – Focus on Your Tah appeared first on DoctorFlute.

When we think about our flute sound resonating, we are talking making a tone that is vibrant and alive. When you use resonation to improve your tone, you will be surprised at how much you like it! A tone that resonates will make people stand up and take notice.

There are 3 places or ways to make our tone resonate. The first way is that we want our sound to resonate through our flute. The second place is we want our tone to resonate in our sinus cavity. The third place we want to resonate is through our body. And we want everything in our body to work towards getting that resonation.

Think about your favorite flutists and how they sound. They achieve that beautiful tone because they are resonating in these three areas.

Our Flute 

It is very important for you to have the instrument that will do it for you. If you have a beginner instrument, you could still get a good tone. I have had many students who still get a really nice tone on a beginner instrument. But in the end, there is a limited amount of resonating that you can achieve on a silver-plated nickel instrument, if that’s your beginner instrument.

So, it might be time for you to upgrade if you have that beginner instrument and you’re really looking to get that tone, because who doesn’t want to practice more if you’re sounding really good? At minimum, make sure your instrument is in good shape, has had a clean-oil-adjust, and no pads are leaking.

While I’m not talking about embouchure and how you must put that in the right place and have the right shape embouchure on your lip plate. While that is important, we are just discussing resonating today.

Our Sinuses

How do you resonate in your sinus cavity? The main point of resonating in your sinus cavity is to open the back of your throat. Some of you can just do it when told. You just read it, tried it, and it worked. That is great!

But for the rest of us, here are some pointers. First think about what happens to your throat when you yawn. Go ahead, take a yawning breath. Feel how that opens up your throat. You want your throat to just open right up like that when you play. You want to feel that there are no restrictions that are going to inhibit the tone. You want to have that resonating sound echo through your sinus cavity. It can resonate when you keep your throat open.

Now, one of the ways for it to resonate in your sinus cavity is to make sure the back of your tongue is down and your soft palate is up. Practice yawning again and feel the back of your tongue pressing down; and feel the open space as your soft pallet goes up. When you yawn like this you create an open space in your sinus cavity for your sound to resonate. This is why I encourage my students to “take a yawning breath” because it opens up sinuses.

Now, if you are not thinking about this and working at it, it is very easy to close off your sinus cavity, which limits your resonation. So be sure that you are thinking about that tongue being down in the back, that your soft pallet staying up, and that when you take that breath, it just fills it right up.

Our Body

Now let’s talk about the third place for resonating, and that is through your body. So, when I breathe, I expand my rib cage and expand my stomach at the same time. Plus, when I take that yawning breath and I open my throat, all of a sudden when I am playing, that sound can resonate through my body from the floor all the way up to my sinus cavity.

So, I will stand not with my feet right together, but I’m a little bit firmer of a stance, having my feet a little bit apart. So, I’m very solid. I feel very grounded from the floor all the way up into this sinus cavity. It is all open because I put my whole body into it.

Now, for me, I know I am pretty good at this, but I will let the back of my throat close off. So, I must concentrate on that. I focus on it. I can hear the sound close off when the back of my throat closes. And I can hear my sound resonate more when I open it back up. You too may have something to focus on to achieve a resonant tone.

First, you want it to resonate through your instrument. So, make sure that your instrument is in good working condition. Upgrade if it is time to upgrade.

Second, the back of your tongue is down, your throat is open, and your sinus cavities are open.

Third, let the sound resonate through your body, all the way up into your sinus cavity through that nice hollow tube you have just created by expanding that rib cage, taking yawning breath, and opening your throat wide open.

Try that. Experiment with these areas and see if you can get that rich, warm, resonating tone that you are looking for.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Resonate to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 178

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

Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes – FluteTips 171

FluteTips 69 Playing Flat Scales to Expand Your Tone

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

The post Resonate to Improve Your Tone 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.

The post Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes 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’s quite common when you run out of air or lose your support. But you can keep those notes on pitch even when you’re running out of air by working on tapers, keeping the airstream up, and keeping up the support – or what I like to call pressure.

What I am talking about going flat is when at the end of a long phrase or a slow movement you end up playing your last note flat. It does not have to be a slow movement it can be a fast movement too.

Now, there’s a couple reasons why a note goes flat, and it all has to do with how you are playing that last note.

So, we can have it go flat because basically we are letting it go instead of just keeping it like when you attack the note. When you attack the note, it could be right on pitch, but then somewhere along the way something changes, and it makes that note go flat.

The biggest reasons that it goes flat is that we are either running out of air, or lacking support.

Support

When we reach the end of a phrase, if we start to run out of air, and then we let go of that support we are almost certain to go flat.

Now I can be out of air but still keep the tone up as long as I maintain my support. I just have to think about it ahead of time.

Another reason why notes tend to go flat at the end of phrases is because along with the airstream dying and the lack of support, we allow this embouchure to lag and that means the airstream starts lowering. It just comes down and whenever you lower your airstream, you are going to bring the tone down.

Airstream

Sometimes lowering your airstream is a good thing. For example, if you are sharp in an ensemble and you need to bring the tone down, you cannot necessarily always be adjusting it with your headjoint. You can just lower that airstream without lowering your head, and then you can keep that good sound but get back on pitch.

So, if I keep my air support and up and I keep my airstream up, even though I’m running out of air, I am still going to keep that note in tune.

Tapers

Now one of the things that you need to do, and you need to be doing this on a regular basis, is practicing your tapers. Tapers are how you end notes. I’m closing my embouchure, bringing my jaw out and tapering that sound right off.

If I bring it up as I’m tapering that note, my airstream is going to stay right up where it needs to be to maintain the proper intonation – to not go flat.

When we allow the note to just end without tapering, even if you didn’t jump down the octave, if you’re just doing it by your air, your airstream is going to lower and then you’re going to be flat.

So, keep your airstream high. It’s all about keeping that airstream high, keeping that air pressure up, keeping your airstream higher, and then using your taper to end that note.

All those factors will work together to keep that tone at the end of your phrases right on pitch. And that’s how you don’t go flat at the ends of phrases.

Listen to yourself playing and tell yourself to keep that air pressure up, even though you are running out of air, keep the air pressure up, and your tight muscles can keep that note, uphold that note, right in tune. Just because you run out of air does not mean you have to go flat.

Try it. Experiment with these things. Practice your tapers and you’ll find that you can fix going flat at the end of phrases.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

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

Evening Out Your Registers – FluteTips 169

FluteTips 71 Tapers

FluteTips 11 Support – Ribcage Air

The post How to NOT Go Flat at the End of Notes appeared first on DoctorFlute.

The post Practice Articulation to Improve Your Tone appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Question #1

Do I need to stand when I'm practicing?

The answer to that is maybe. I think that standing is the best way for you to get the best posture.

My teenage daughters like to practice in their room with the door closed. When I open the door, they are sitting, not standing!  For them, when they sit, they do not have great posture. Since I am their mother as well as their teacher, I can go in and take their chair away. Then they have to stand to practice. Plus, I tell them to stand up straight and tall, and keep their head up. (It doesn’t always go over well!)

So, when I say that “maybe you need to stand when you practice” my daughters point out that I sometimes sit when I practice. You can sit to practice once you have learned to sit with a good posture so that your airstream is straight. Your airstream needs to be straight, coming from below and going all the way up into your sinuses. Most young flutists cannot do that sitting down.

It's all about that straight airstream. If you are slouching or you don't have of great posture when you are sitting, then you should be standing. Now there's something to be said for having the sound come from your feet and go up. You are grounded when you stand, and your sound comes from below and comes out.

However, on a practical basis, some people are injured. They can't stand for long periods of time. For you it is not wrong to sit. So, if you are having trouble standing for your whole practice time, it is okay to sit. But just make sure that you are sitting with great posture. Make sure that your back is straight so your airstream can come out completely straight, and that there is no bending that interferes with that path.

So, the answer is that you probably should stand to practice but there are circumstances that allow for correct sitting practice.

Question #2

Do I need a new flute?

The simple answer is that you might need a new flute. If you have been playing on a beginner flute and you feel like your skills have come up and your tone is developing, then it might be time to step-up. The bottom line for what you need is a solid silver head joint. The body can be something else. Many step-up flutes have a silver-plated body and a solid silver or Sterling silver headjoint.

If you have that, it can take you a, a long way, depending on your goals. If you want to be professional flutist, you will eventually need a professional model flute. You are the best judge as to whether and when you need a professional model flute.

Now you can get a good tone on a beginner flute but at some point, you are going to hit a wall, and your tone is just not going to get any better until you “step-up” to an intermediate level flute. These flutes may add silver or gold, and a more responsive finger action from a higher quality mechanism.

If you go from a step-up flute with a solid silver headjoint, to a professional model flute, you are not going to see quite the same immediate jump in tone quality. You will have to work for it. But the professional model will allow you to go so much further than the step-up.

Professional models are well worth the money, depending on your goals. I have had many students go to music school with a good quality step-up instrument. They have not needed a professional model until they are in grad school.  

I think that you do eventually need to go from a beginner flute to a step-up flute to continue your progress as a flutist. But, if you are the amateur flutists that plays a lot, perhaps you are in a community band, the step-up flute is probably all you will ever need. It can take you a long way.

However, if you have the extra cash, then I would say, yes, move up to that professional model flute. If not, and you are stuck with a beginner flute, don't be discouraged. You can still get a nice tone on a beginner flute. Just make sure that its maintained. Get a regular clean oil and adjust; have the pads checked and replaced when needed. Then you can be sure that the beginner flute will work for you.

Question #3

What are flutes made of?

That depends on whether you are asking about beginner, step-up, or professional model flutes.

Beginner, flutes usually have a mixture of metals, like silver and nickel. This mixture makes it a hardier flute for younger students. It doesn't bend or dent as easily, and it will therefore withstand rough handling.

Intermediate flutes will add silver, which is a more pliable metal, and therefore more delicate than beginner flutes. Step-up flutes usually have a silver-plated body and a solid silver headjoint. But some step-up flutes have a solid silver body as well. You also may have the option of adding gold to a step-up flute: gold to the lip plate, to the riser, to some of the keys, or sometimes they are gold plated. This of course adds to the cost of the flute.

Professional model flutes have a lot more options as far as the metals that are being used, including silver, gold, and platinum in various combinations, and even in mixtures called an amalgam. For example, Haynes produces a 5% gold alloy professional model flute. It is a solid silver hand made flute with a small amount of gold mixed in with the silver. The flute looks silver, but the gold gives it a different sound.

Powell makes a flute out of Aurumite. My friend Nicolle Chamberlain plays on a Powell Aurumite 9K.

Additionally, you have options to add certain metals, such as a gold head joint, a gold body, a gold lip plate – or platinum. My professional model Haynes flute is solid silver with a 14K gold riser.

Question #4

Why are flutes so expensive?

The main two things that make flutes expensive are the content of precious metals, and the amount of time required for master craftsmen to make a flute by hand.

The price of flutes will fluctuate with the market prices of silver, gold, and platinum. Beginner and step-up flutes cost less, as they contain less precious metals, and more of their components are factory made. Some step-up flutes will have a handmade Sterling silver headjoint, but a silver-plated factory-made body.

So, of course if a flute has more factory-made components, and less precious metals, if will cost less. This is the case for beginner flutes. The step-up flutes have a range of prices which increase as does the value of the metal and time put in it.

It pays to read the descriptions closely, so you know exactly what you are getting.

Professional flutes are the most expensive because they contain the most precious metals, and of course they are handmade. If you read the book Johnny Tremain, it was about a boy who wanted to be a silversmith. So, he apprenticed with a master to learn the trade over a period of several years. Professional flute making today is similar in that master craftsman spend years learning how to form the metals into flute heads, bodies, and keys. It is this care and precision that makes this level of flute so phenomenal and expensive.

Question #5

How do I get a better tone?

Well, I have a lot of videos on how to get a better tone but let me just give you my bottom-line ideas for improving your tone.

1. Drop your jaw, open up the space between your jaw.

2. Open up the space between your lips. Your teeth can be apart, and your lips closed in every octave, whether you're doing high octave or low, the answer almost always is more space.

3. Open your throat, take a yawning breath, and keep the throat open while you play.

4. Use great support.

If you concentrate on those four things, you’ll be on your way to a fantastic tone.

Question #6

How do I tune the flute?

Well, the easy thing to say is you move the head joint in and out. But we need a much more subtle method of tuning because I can be in tune with my A, but my high D is wickedly out of tune. Or my low D is wickedly out of tune. What we must do is manipulate the airstream with our embouchure. That is how we raise and lower the airstream. You don't want to raise and lower your head. I don't want to get flat or sharp and change things with my head. I want to move my jaw to lower or raise the airstream because if I use my jaw, then I will maintain my sound. If I move my head, the tone is going to not be the same. So, if I change the intonation by rolling in or rolling out, not only is it flat, but the tone becomes dull. And if I raise it because I need to go sharp, it becomes just airy. Thus, I using my jaw to move the airstream up and down is going to help me to tune better while maintaining a good sound.

Question #7

Are all flutes in the same key?

Well, no, they're not in the same key. However, most of them are. So, if we talk about the four basic piccolo, C flute, alto flute, and bass flute, three out of the four are in the key of C. The alto flute is the in the key of G. If you have the bass, the C flute and the piccolo, they can all play the same music. If you want to warm up with etudes or something without accompaniment, then all flutes can play the same music. It is only when you add accompaniment or you are playing in a group that you must worry about the different key.

Since an alto flute is in the key of G, it is not going to be able to play the same solo that a C flute can play in, unless the music is transposed to a new key.

There are bigger flutes, the Contra bass and the double Contra bass flute. There is a hyper base which is an interesting low flute. But of your main flutes, three out of four are in the key of C.

Question #8

What is support?

Well, support is a long and involved issue. So, I won’t take that time right now to fully explain it. You can read my other blogs and watch my videos on support. But I'll just give you the basics. Support is when you breathe from your stomach and your ribcage then you tighten the muscles you will then create pressure inside. That's what support is – internal pressure.

You should be playing with support 100% of the time. If you do not play with that kind of pressure built up inside, then you are not getting the kind of tone you really could get. Support helps you to get resonance and to get a lively tone that really carries in a group, in a band, in orchestra and in solo performances.

So, you want to use support. When I'm teaching my students, I often just use the word pressure. Do you have pressure? Because I think that depicts exactly what support is doing for your tone. Support is creating pressure inside by tightening my muscles and then pushing up on my tone.

Support is just like the beams in a house that help hold the ceiling up. It's holding it up and you want to think of support as holding your tone up. It is this cushion of air that pushes up on your tone.

Question #9

Is gold or silver, better in a flute?

Well, that answer is preference. The one that you prefer, is the better one for you.

Gold gives you a warmer golden honey kind of sound. Silver gives you bright and edgy sound with a lot of color types in that sound.

If you do a flute trial with similar flutes except one is all silver and the others have some gold in part of the head, or the entire head, you will clearly hear the difference in the sound. Gold and silver sound different on a flute.

However, what your ear tells you sounds good is what is good for you. One is not better than the other.

In fact, teachers of old, like the famous teachers and concert flutists when I was growing up, they really criticized the gold trend because to them, the gold just doesn't give you the same amount of color as silver. They insisted that silver has so many more colors than gold. I have never quite determined if that is true or not. But I do like to have some gold on my flute. I have a gold riser in my head joint, and I think that gives a nice edge, a little bit more bigness to my sound.

The only caution that I would give is that if you are not a really big player, I would not recommend a lot of gold in your flute.  Gold is a softer metal than silver, so it takes more air. I'm not the biggest air player around. So, for me, it doesn't do enough for my tone, for me to switch over to gold. I like that I don't have to work quite so hard with a silver flute.

That is the difference between gold and silver.

Question #10

Do I need an open hole flute?

That is a question for you to answer. I'll tell you just some of the benefits of an open hole flute, and one reason not to get open holes. But it is up to you to decide.

The benefit of open holes is that it gives you a tonal resonance that you do not get on a closed hole flute. If I were to play a closed hole flute, I think you'd probably say my tone is still pretty good. You may not hear a huge difference if played on a closed hole professional model.

The openings of the holes give you a little bit more sound, a little more resonance. It is in how they make those holes, and how they make the keys. In this way there is more resonance and more tone.

Additionally, in late 20th and 21^st century music there are a lot of extended techniques that you need open holes to be able to play. So, it's important to have for these reasons.

However, if you have some hand problems, closed holes will make it easier to play for you. You can still get a great tone without additional stress on your hands. So don't feel pressured that you must have an open hole flute, if it is not going to be the best thing for the health of your hands.

Use your best judgment when deciding an open hole flute is right for you.

~

I hope you enjoyed my answers to these questions. Let me know what other questions you still have about the flute. Keep learning about the flute and keep practicing!

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me answer these questions:

10 Commonly Asked Questions About the Flute - FluteTips 143

The post 10 Commonly Asked Questions About the Flute appeared first on DoctorFlute.

In this blog I will teach you 5 things that you could be doing right now that could be preventing you from achieving that great tone. I will explain to you what the problem is and then teach you how to fix that problem.

Problem # 1

Too much pressure with your lip plate to your lip. Think about this and then play and see if this is your problem. Do your press the flute into your lip with a lot of pressure? If someone cannot use one finger to gently pull the flute away from your lip, then you are pressing your flute too tightly to your lip.

When the lip plate is pushed too hard against your lip, your lower lip will cover too much embouchure hole. The tone then goes straight into the flute and keeps the tone covered. Your goal is to let the tone out and not keep it in.

Try loosening up when you play. The issue is usually the left hand first finger is pressing too hard. When you let up, you will be surprised at how much more comfortable it is to play. The tone relaxes as well and can come out.

Your air needs to be split by the strike edge at the right angle for optimal sound. When you cover too much embouchure hole you cannot use that strike edge to split the sound the right way.  

Problem # 2  

The mouth cavity is too closed. Or more to the point, everything is closed. That means that inside your mouth, your lips, your teeth are too close together. Being tight and small is really ruining your potential.

If you were my student, I would work on learning to open up one step up at a time.  Here I’m telling you what to do all at the same time, but I would suggest that you take one of these at a time and work on it.

Here goes:

Open your teeth

Open your lips

Open your mouth cavity

When these areas are closed your tone is small and tight. It is amazing that when you open up your teeth, lips, and mouth you can fix your tone immediately. Your tone opens up and becomes bigger immediately. It is miraculous. 

Problem # 3

Being rolled in too far.

During an online lesson, I noticed that my student was rolled in too far. Online lessons are great in today's environment. But it is a little bit more difficult for me as a teacher to see how much a student is covering the embouchure. It took a little bit more creativity for me to see but, I was able to figure out that she was indeed covering too much of that embouchure hole.

Her problem was that she was playing with her head down. With the head down ¾ ths of the embouchure hole was covered. When she raised her chin, it was amazing how much her tone opened up and sounded so much better.

Another problem that got fixed by lifting her head was intonation. When you cover too much hole you are often flat.  When I’m looking at the student straight on, I generally want to see the outer edge of the tone hole. So, if you look in the mirror, you should be able to see the outer edge. If you see too much hole, you have rolled out too far.

Problem #4

You don’t change your embouchure in different octaves. Our embouchure is not set in stone. It can change and it needs to, absolutely needs to change depending on the octave you're in. When in the low octave, I'm going to use my low embouchure and change when I'm in the higher octaves. My embouchure needs to be flexible. It needs to move.

My jaw should always be in a state of flux. It moves so that I can get the low register. I remember in high school and even in those early years of college, where I would play a piece and I thought halfway through that piece in that I was performing, my low register was gone. I got nothing, but puffs of air. I'm sure something came out, but it wasn't great. It wasn't until I really did this embouchure exploration and learned how my embouchure could be flexible that I realized it's because I was keeping a high embouchure when I needed to change to a low register.

Problem #5

Blowing too much air.

I can’t tell you how many people I have that the answer to their tone problems is they are blowing too much air. Until you learn how to hold your air in, by support, you will not have the sound you want. Air pressure is the key to holding the air in and not let it come out. Learn how to take that breath and hold that air and tighten up those muscles and keep the air locked inside to control the pace of which that air comes out of your embouchure.

Those are just five reasons that ruin your tone, and you can fix them all today. They are not long hard techniques that take a long period of time to fix each one. If you feel like all five of those are a problem for you, work on them one at a time. You will see that you can get control over your tone and start having a fabulous sound.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

5 Things That You Do That Can Ruin Your Flute Tone - FluteTips 136

The post 5 Things That You Do That Can Ruin Your Flute Tone appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Sometimes it is clear that the air is having its own way. At other times we do not even know that we are not in control of that airstream. A non-controlled air stream can be hidden in a nice tone. Just because a tone is clear does not mean that you are in control.

I would suggest that you record yourself. With today’s technology it is easy to record and then listen to yourself very carefully. What do you hear when you listen? Is your tone a smooth sound that expresses the music beautifully? Or do you hear times where your air surges through your tone and becomes a little obtrusive? If you feel that your air surges forth when uncalled for, then your air is not under control.

Your goal is to have a steady stream of air throughout a musical line. This requires you to have control of every drop of air that comes out!

I would bet that a lot of you have intermittent air surges to some extent. What I mean is that some notes have just a little bit of an explosion of air. However, you need to be in control of your air stream. And you can learn to get control!

The way to control your air is through what we call support. Doesn’t it feel like everything goes back to support? When we are talking about tone, support is the foundation of everything we do. So yes, this issue is a support issue. What is your support doing? If you are not in control of your air, it is probably because you are not controlling your support. Take a breath from your stomach and your rib cage and tighten those muscles. Make sure that your throat stays open when you take that breath – a yawning breath.

I had a student who could not figure out why her tone was not going in the right direction when it seemed like she was doing everything correctly. We finally figured out that her answer was to loosen her throat. Once she opened that throat up, then all the control that she had practices just came through beautifully in the pieces that she was playing.

Now try playing with those tight muscles. Control how you use that air. That is, only let out the air that you need. Create an atmosphere around that sound. It is smooth and alive. If not, then too much air is coming out at one time. When you are in total control of your air, there may be times when you may use up your oxygen and must let air out before you can take a breath in.

If you know Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun, then you know, that here you need absolute control. Any uncontrolled air will ruin the color of this beautiful solo. The current thought is that you do not have to do it in one breath. But for all my life anyway, the standard has been doing that in one breath. For me that is a really difficult thing. If I am going to play that in one breath, I have to control absolutely every aspect of it: where do I add vibrato? where do I change the color? what exact beat do I start putting more dynamic on? I need to plan exactly where I do all those things in order to make it in one breath. When I have complete control of my air, I can play it. But when I let out too much air, I am a goner.

If you are playing a slow movement, listen to yourself, maybe record yourself and see if you hear any of that undulation. Is your tone coming in and out? Are you getting louder for no apparent reason? If you are getting louder because you want to get louder, that is completely up to you and your musical taste in the piece you are playing. But are you just unknowingly fluctuating your tone? How about vibrato? Are you controlling it?

After analysis and practice, record yourself again. Then compare the two recordings. What do you sound like? Keep practicing until you hear improvements. They will come.

Like so many aspects of flute playing it all goes back to breathing. You have to have your pressure built up inside by tightening those muscles and being in total control with how fast you use that air. If you do not tighten those muscles, you can breathe from your stomach all you want, but you will not have support without that pressure built up. It is the tightness built up with those muscles that enables you to control how much air you are using. Only now will you create an absolute, phenomenal sound, atmosphere, and musical line. Think Debussy's Syrinx, Mozart Concerto, slow movements or any other slow movement and work on having total control.

So have phenomenal support and use recordings of yourself, listen, and see if you are in control of your tone, or are you fluctuating that airstream?

Controlled air, that is where it's at.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Join me and watch as I explain how to control your air stream:

Controlled Air Stream on the Flute - FluteTips 129

Finding Color in Your Musical Line - FluteTips 146

Faster Air vs Blowing Harder on the Flute – FluteTips 128

The post Controlled Air Stream appeared first on DoctorFlute.