by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Apr 11, 2019 | Daily Routine, Embouchure, FluteTips, High Register, Practice, Support
We all want our third octave notes to be easier to play. But much of the time of those notes are difficult to get. You feel like you are blowing against a wall or there’s just a hiss that’s coming out or you are so tight that the tone barely squeaks out...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Jan 31, 2019 | Embouchure, FluteTips, High Register, Practice, Support
How do you like your 3rd octave? Does it have the tone quality and resonance of your other octaves? Often the 3rd octave is not the same as the first two octaves. It doesn’t sound as full and the tone is tight. It’s very hard to make this octave brilliant...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Apr 19, 2018 | Breathing, FluteTips, Support
Does your throat make an unwanted inexplicable noise sometimes when you play? There are a couple reasons why throat noise occurs but usually the reason is because your throat is too tight. When your throat is too tight, it engages your vocal cords. While that is the...
by Dr. Angela McBrearty | Oct 24, 2017 | Daily Routine, Low Register, Practice, Support, Technique, Tone, Tonguing
Who has difficulty tonguing short articulations in the low register? Do you? Or you? Tonguing in the low register is a bear. It takes a lot of work to get that low register working at optimal levels, especially if it’s short articulations. Hello Cantabile et...
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 | Aug 22, 2017 | Daily Routine, Low Register, Practice, Support, Technique, Tone, Vibrato
The most monumental concept that I learned about support is when I finally understood this one thing: Support = Pressure It is an equation that I could understand. When put into those few words, it all made sense to me. Now some of you will say “of course,...
