Start with the Sound You Want

Your goal is to have the first note come out with a fabulous tone, vibrato, liveliness, and color. The first note tells the audience what’s coming next.

We all know what we want to sound like when we perform. To get there, it’s important to start there.

But sometimes we think that the first note is too short to put on some vibrato. Perhaps we don’t consciously decide to not put on vibrato. It just doesn’t happen.

Always ON Vibrato

Here’s how to make sure that the very first note has presence:

Decide now, that every time you pick up your flute, it’s as if a switch has flipped and your vibrato is turned on. Your vibrato default setting is “ON.”

Convince yourself that your vibrato setting is always on. Then when you start a piece, the first note comes out with vibrancy and life. Your sound will be lively from the start.

If I start without vibrato, it starts off dead. There’s no life to that first note. But the quality when it has a liveliness is amazing.

When that first note is not long enough to have vibrato, you can still decide what you want to do with it. You can know exactly what tone you are looking for. You can play around with embouchure placement. You can move it around on your lip. You can adjust that angle of your air across the lip plate strike edge. Figure out where you get the best tone. Then every time you pick up your flute to play that again, you have the makings of a lively tone.

Lively Start

Then, even though it’s not long enough to hear vibrato, you’ll start with that tone having liveliness and vibrancy. It’s going to start alive. The audience can tell that you’re excited for something that’s coming.

Are there times where I might not want vibrato? Sure. The opening of Afternoon of a Faun. Most flute players start with no vibrato. Part of the reason in this opening is to conserve air. You know what I mean if you’ve played this piece. But it also gives you the ability to change the colors. You’re manipulating your vibrato and that opening note, but you’re doing it consciously. You’re doing it because that’s the color you want. That’s what you want to create.

You might also start the Fauré Fantaisie without vibrato, as many intermediate flutists often do. But it’s more often that it’s just not even thought about what you want to do with that note.

It just starts with no vibrato without any rhyme or reason. Now, I might want to start off with no vibrato, but I’m going to think about it. What if I were to start with vibrato?

We need to start with vibrato unless it’s a conscious thought to not. But I think it’s more often than not, we start with no vibrato, with no real reason, except that you just didn’t put vibrato on it.

Start with your vibrato going. Your motor is going right off the bat.

Because when you start with that vibrato, it has a life and movement, and it’s going somewhere right away.

Record Yourself

Record yourself when you’re practicing for a performance. Identify how you want to set up that first note for what is going to come. Determine whether that first note has a fabulous tone and vibrato and liveliness and color. Does it tell your audience what’s going to be coming?

The first note should make the audience sit up in their chairs, on the edge of their seats, excited for what is to come.

Listen to yourself. Plan that first note with just a little bit more thought. And it can change your whole piece. By doing that, it really can change your whole piece because you now have a different attitude about the whole piece.

Focus on that first note!

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this using:

Mozart Flute Concerto
Fauré Fantaisie
Jade from Ferroud’s Three Pieces

Playing the First Notes of Your Solo – FluteTips 186

FluteTips 84 Adding Vibrancy to Your Tone on the Flute

Producing a Lively Sound on the Flute – FluteTips 115

The post Playing the First Notes of Your Solo appeared first on DoctorFlute.

The post Getting Spin on Your Third Octave Notes appeared first on DoctorFlute.

It is so easy to lose concentration while you are playing long tones. They are by their very nature long. When they are played, the mind can wander to other issues that are not even flute related. But by understanding what you are listening for and what to work on while playing long tones they can do a whole lot more for your tone then you think.

Do You Lose Focus?

So how about you? How many times do you play your long tones and you’re not really thinking about what’s going on in your long tones?  I, for one have thought about what I’m making for supper tonight, who must be picked up from which activity after school today, and where everybody needs to go tomorrow or over the weekend, just to name a few.

I’m a culprit of not always having a concentrated tone practice. If we can concentrate while practicing long tones, we can accomplish so much more in the same amount of time. When we think more carefully while practicing, we will make them much more successful.

Focus on Vibrato

One thing to think about when playing long tones is vibrato. When we perform solos we need to use a variety of vibratos. We don’t learn one vibrato and that is it. Now I do have a default vibrato. One that I use if I just pick my flute up and play. We all have one go-to vibrato. But we should not want to use that vibrato all the time.

Concentrating on a different vibrato while you practice long tones gives you something very tangible to work on. It will help you to listen to your tone, while you are listening to your vibrato. If I am working on a new vibrato speed and my mind begins to wander, I will resort back to my default vibrato. So, it is a good tool to keep me on track.

Focus on Tone Color

Another thing to concentrate on is tone color. While most of us have a default vibrato, many also have a default sound, or tone color. But in some pieces, I may want to play with a darker color or a baroque color or a light sound. These are all different from my default sound and would require me to concentrate on their production.

While you practice your long tones, practice different tone colors. Work on getting a different sound. This becomes yet another to tool to keep you focused during long tone practice.

Focus on Tapers

Do you work on tapers while you are working on your long tones? These are torturous little buggers that make a huge difference in solo performances. A beautiful taper can really make a piece. It can show the difference between an amateur and a professional.

Tapers do not come naturally for me. I need to work on them to make them sound beautiful. So, I have learned to work at making the most beautiful taper at the end of every long tone. It is the perfect time to work on tapers.

Give yourself something to concentrate on when practicing long tones. If you work on vibrato, tone color, and tapers this will keep your focus while you are practicing and performing. With more focus, you will then get more from your long tones. They will stop being drudgery and start becoming your favorite part of practicing!

Have fun!
DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this idea:

Get More from Your Long Tones – FluteTips 150

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

Tone Color from Nina Assimakopoulos book The Virtuosic Flutist FluteTips 107

Getting Your Tone Back in Shape FluteTips 89

The post Get More from Your Long Tones appeared first on DoctorFlute.

That something extra that they have is called nuance. A nuanced performance has special meaning that the performer is expressing to the listener.

Nuance is the meaning given to a musical passage by the performer. It is expressed differently by each musician.

But what does nuance really mean? Nuance is one of those tricky little words such as support that’s thrown out into music circles, and we all think, oh, yes, I know exactly what that means. But I think for a lot of people, they have only a vague idea of what that means.

How Do We Add Nuance?

Let's talk about that idea. Nuance is something that's not just a flute thing. It is something musicians and non-musicians talk about. When you refer to a topic of conversation as nuanced, what you are saying is that the subject under discussion has multiple meanings or interpretations. That is sort of what we mean when we talk about nuance in music. We are saying that I may give the music a different meaning than you give to the same piece. That is, I emphasize certain parts of the music that I deem more important. Whereas you emphasize different parts that you deem more important.

I think it's like saying, “The boy went on a walk” and then someone else would say “The boy went on a walk,” meaning there was something going on in that walk or the boy, a specific kid went on a walk. You can emphasize something different, and it gives a slightly different, more subtle meaning to the sentence. That's what we want to do with music.

Give More Weight

Now I’ll do that in a phrase, but I might decide this time when I play, I will give one note a particular meaning. How am I going to give that note meaning? Well one of the ways is to give a note in the phrase a little bit more weight than the other notes in the phrase. What does weight mean? In plain English weight means to hold a note just a little bit longer than other notes. Once you know this piece of information, then listen to some of your favorite solos performed by the great flutists and determine where they are giving weight in a particular phrase.

Play a phrase from the slow movement of your solo. Listen to a couple different recordings of this solo and listen to the weight put on certain notes in the phrase. Then practice doing what you heard. Play that phrase a couple different times imitating each of those performers. When you begin to hear this phrase, then try on your own to determine what you like. Make that phrase your own.

Change Color

Nuance can incorporate color changes as well. With color, we're talking about your tone color. How can we change tone? Your tone has many different colors to explore. You can play a woody sound such as the sound a Baroque flute would make. Or you can play a 21^st century dark edgy sound. I like to experiment with colors to see what I might like in a phrase. Feel free to take that same phrase you were just working on change that color a few times to see what you might like best.

Vary Vibrato Speed

What else can we do to effect nuance? We can vary vibrato speed. Vibrato speed is something that I think we do not use often enough to give us different color changes. I can use a slower vibrato or no vibrato to give a phrase a completely different sound altogether. Slow down your vibrato to sound woodier. Speed up your vibrato to sound more intense.

So, use all the tools you have available, weight on the notes, color changes and vibrato speed, and that all gives you the idea of nuance.

Now, if you have never experimented with nuance, then just take a phrase, and begin by just putting weight on different notes. As you explore and change, listen for what speaks to you as something important. Then vary the color. Start off woody, then end edgy. Next keep it woody all the way through. Try to give it an edge at the beginning, then go to wood. Finally, experiment with vibrato.

You can use the same phrase and change it over and over. Eventually you will see and hear what sounds good to you, what is important. This gives it meaning – more to the point it gives it your meaning. Not mine.

When I teach students, I teach them basically my meaning. But eventually I want them to come up with their own interpretation. I want them to have an idea of what they think the music is saying.

That is nuance in a nutshell. It is giving meaning to notes – giving your meaning to those notes.

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

What is Nuance? FluteTips 140

Varying Your Vibrato with Speed with 14-Year-Old Student Allegra - FluteTips 124

Does the Cut of Your Lip Plate Make a Difference on a Professional Gold Flute? FCNY Sponsored

The post What is Nuance? 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.

Now, vibrato is one of those things that, for a lot of people, once it gets turned on, it does not ever change – not ever!  This is not how we should approach vibrato. It should never remain the same for everything. Vibrato should vary to suit the style of the piece we are playing. Not every piece is set in the same style and thus one vibrato does not work for every piece.

Use Vibrato as a Color

When vibrato changes in speed it colors our tone. A faster vibrato can make a sound more intense. A slower vibrato can help bring out a woodier tone. Use vibrato as a color. It then becomes a new tool in the basket of different sounds and colors.

In this video, I have my daughter Allegra demonstrate how to change her vibrato. She has a good “default” vibrato. Our default vibrato is the one that just happens when we put the flute to our lips. But her vibrato is very much the same in everything she plays.

Good Tone is Essential

Before she begins, I have her play the first note in the Fauré Fantasie. I notice that she needs to adjust her embouchure as she has rolled in too much. But then because I have her roll out, the high B fights to go low instead of high.  A good tone is essential to working on vibrato. If you do not have a good tone first, no one will care that your vibrato varies. To make the note not fight for the low register, I have her raise her upper lip and use more air pressure. If these two things are good, then the tone will be good. When she has her tone sounding nice, then she re-plays that high B at the beginning of the Fauré Fantasie.

When you listen to the video, you will hear that she plays with a nice vibrato, with a nice speed. It's not too deep. It's not too slow. It's not too fast. It's a good default vibrato. We all need to have our default vibrato. But that default vibrato, the one you always start with must vary. You must learn to vary it.

Speed Up Your Default Vibrato

I like to begin the Fauré Fantasie with a medium vibrato. I think it works very well. But it does not have to be that vibrato. What if we wanted a more intense opening? Could that vibrato move faster? When you are working with this long opening B, let yourself explore different tone colors with different speeds of vibrato. It really helps you to figure out what you like best. If you only ever play vibrato one way, then how do you know it is the best one for the piece?

When speeding up your vibrato, it should feel slightly different. I have my student works with this faster vibrato and try to describe if they think the vibrato physically moved inside them. For me I feel that the vibrato moves more forward. I do not want to say it is a forward vibrato but that it moves slightly forward to speed up. Try it yourself. Does it feel different when you speed it up?

Learn to Vary Vibrato

Now let’s take a look at the Allegro in the Fantasie. Because of the much faster tempo, the vibrato absolutely must speed up. The sound waves are moving faster, so a slower vibrato would not settle into the sound waves. The faster vibrato fits into the wave and does not hit the top of the wave like a speed boat thumping up and down on ocean waves.

How about a different style of vibrato such as one we would use when playing Baroque? My default vibrato will not work because it is too present. I need a vibrato that recedes into the music. I do not want it to stand out and be prominent. I want Baroque vibrato to not be too discernible. One of my teachers called it back vibrato. To do this vibrato, I slow it down and open up my embouchure to make the tone a little less bright more on the woody side, and I move the vibrato back.

Can you do that? Try it out and see what affect you create. Make it a very gentle vibrato.

Sopranos Call it Spin

Sometimes we stop talking about vibrato and start using the word spin. Sopranos use this term for their vibrato as they are in such a high tessitura. We flute players use that term when we must play high short tones. If you think of the word spin on a high short tone, then what comes out is a resonant high note that is alive. I have my student try this on the video and I think she is successful.

The bottom line is that you must be in control of your vibrato. Too many people are not in control. When they put the flute up, they use the vibrato that comes out – their default vibrato. There’s many a pop singer that only ever uses this default vibrato, because they have not learned how to change it for the song they are singing. So, they can only use the vibrato that comes naturally to them – their default vibrato.

The Bottom Line is Control

I think a mark of a true musician is that you can vary your vibrato speed. It is something that you learn to manipulate to add to the tone color of a piece that you're playing and/or singing. So now I want you to think about your vibrato and not to just use the same one all the time. Instead, you should think about the piece you are working on and decide whether it needs a faster or slower vibrato. When you play a more modern piece, or a Baroque piece, decide which vibrato is appropriate for those pieces.

Vary your vibrato. Change it up. Show that your vibrato does not have to stay the same all the time.

Have fun working on your vibrato!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Varying Your Vibrato with Speed Lesson with 14-Year-Old Student Allegra - FluteTips 124

How to Create Vibrato on the Flute - FluteTips 109

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:

The post Varying Your Vibrato with Speed appeared first on DoctorFlute.

Vibrato is one of those tricky things that we think is going to be extremely hard to learn. But with a little persistence and a couple little tips here and there, you too can play with vibrato.

Vibrato is one of those things that when you play flute, it makes your flute tone sound much more mature. When you play with vibrato, you sound like a more mature flutist. This is because It adds something alive to your tone. Your tone stops being a dead sound and it comes to life. It has movement in it.

I have discovered that when I teach vibrato to a young flutist, the less said the better. The more words I use the more it can make the process seem complicated. So, I like to go from the easiest method to the more detailed.

The easiest method is to tell students to just do it. I play vibrato and ask the student to do it too. I tell them to imitate what I just played. This is because some people get it right away. For whatever reason, some people just hear it and then can do it with little effort. It is not common, but it happens.

I then listen to the student. It is important that vibrato is placed in the correct spot. My description is that the wrong spot is a forward vibrato. Vibrato that sounds like it is coming from the mouth and is shooting out. That vibrato lays on top of your flute tone.  It does not go inside the tone making a smooth, round sound. It can be a little bit like a machine gun.

So, where do you produce your vibrato? I am sure you can do a detailed search on the web and find out anatomically what is happening when you vibrate a note. But you know what? I don’t care. I only care where I feel vibrato being made. I would describe it as being produced in the back of the throat. Here is a way to feel where that spot is located. Begin by singing a note that is easy for you and then bend that pitch down. Basically, put a big wobble in it so that you dip perhaps a ¼ to a ½ step down and create a deep sound wave. Now, feel where this happens in your voice box. Know exactly where it is being produced. This is the back of the throat feeling. This is how I would describe it.

Can you make that dip or wobble slightly less deep? In essence speed it up a bit? Try starting slowly and then getting faster and faster. Take a breath where you need to and come back in at the same speed as before you breath. Most people try to get too fast too soon. Control that speed. If you get too fast and it the wobble disappears then go back to the slow large wobble.

Now, can we do that on the flute? Well, we cannot do this method exactly the same on the flute. We can bend our voices for the wobble. But on the flute, it is a whole different ball game. What you can do is pulse a note. You want to use the same motion as you did with your voice except instead of dipping down the note below, you will pulse. Make that pulsing begin to go little faster. Then faster. Don’t get too fast, too soon as that usually means the pulse moved out of the back of your throat to the front of the mouth where it shouldn’t be located.

As you begin to work on vibrato make sure that you have very good support. Vibrato is much, much easier if you have support. That pressure that is built up inside because you’ve tightened your muscles and created a cushion of air, pushes up and helps to create vibrato. It is much easier to pulse the air with good support.

Now, work on this pulsing and getting faster. Take a breath when needed and come back in at the same tempo that you left. This is something that you should practice on every day. It will become easier to hold steady and move to an actual vibrato. Whenever you lose that feeling of vibrato then stop and go back to the pulsing speed where you are still doing it properly.

This is exactly the process many students go through to get vibrato, and you can do it too. It is well worth your time to work on this process. It might take a while to get to a nice vibrato that is “always on.” But that’s okay. Don’t give up it’s not going to be perfect right away. Eventually when it works, and vibrato is now natural, you will have taken a giant step forward.

Have fun working on vibrato.

DoctorFlute

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

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

How to Create Vibrato on the Flute - FluteTips 109

Vibrato Pet Peeves on the Flute - FluteTips 117

Live Flute Lesson on Tone with 14-Year-Old Student Allegra - FluteTips 120

The post Learning Vibrato appeared first on DoctorFlute.

But our job is not done. Vibrato has a way of sneaking on and off notes. Sometimes a vibrato is on some notes, but not on other notes. We must learn to control vibrato. It should be used as a tool for beautiful color on solos, not just a mundane action that occurs without thought. 

Once you begin to really listen to your vibrato, you may notice your vibrato falls into one or more of my pet peeve categories. Then, it will begin to drive you crazy!

At some point or another we have all fallen into a vibrato trap. It’s time now to break free!

I would guess that I have found, focused on, and then fixed at least one of these vibrato pet peeves in absolutely every single one of my students. However, I first found and fixed them in me too!

These little habits begin because we don’t take every note captive. That is, we don't analyze every note. However, if we take some time to look closely at the typical places where these pet peeves occur, we can then prevent or fix most of them. At least those that occur without our knowledge.

Vibrato is a funny thing and we all do it differently. That's a great thing because that's what makes us all sound differently when playing a Mozart concerto or a Poulenc Sonata. We can all sound a little bit different because our sound is different, our vibrato is different and the color of our sound is unique to us as individual flutists. The problem I’m talking about is not how we do vibrato, but aspects that we don’t control in our vibrato.

Pet Peeve #1: Vibrato on One 16^th Note, But Not the Next 16^th Note

This is the biggest vibrato pet peeve that I have when there are a group of 16^th notes where 1 and 3 have vibrato and 2 and 4 do not. It may come in the opposite flavor where 2/4 have vibrato 1/3 do not. (I demonstrate this effect in the video below.) It isn’t so much that it sounds terrible, but that there is not consistency in the vibrato.

Sometimes this effect interrupts the musical flow of the phrase. Often this particular trouble with vibrato is so subtle that you have no idea it is going on. It’s quite eye opening when you can identify yourself doing it. I’m all for a cessation of vibrato from time to time, but only if it is your choice not a random spot at which the vibrato mysteriously fades out unbeknownst to the performer!

I had a teacher that brought this to my attention a long time ago. And here I am at my age still thinking about it and making sure that it doesn’t occur in my playing. Sometimes I have to point the finger right back at me!

Play through some of these slow pieces that you have, and think about all of your notes. Are you putting vibrato on everything? And if you're not, did you have a real reason? When I talk to my students about this, I ask them if they have a musical reason to not use vibrato on that particular note. If so, I ask them to convince me that the note shouldn’t have vibrato. But most of the time, they have no clue that they were leaving vibrato off some notes.

So, be sure to analyze whether you are choosing to put vibrato on each and every note.

Pet Peeve #2: Not Using Vibrato Through a Taper

Another vibrato problem is not carrying vibrato through to the end of a taper. This is when there is a long taper that you used vibrato on the beginning of the note, but as you taper, the vibrato just stops.

Perhaps at the very, very tip of that taper the vibrato can stop just before the note fades into obscurity. But the vibrato shouldn’t stop before then.

Now, there are definitely pieces I play such as Debussy’s Syrinx where I feel that vibrato at the very end is not musically appropriate. So, I choose to end the vibrato sooner. In those instances, it becomes a conscious decision exactly when to end the vibrato. The vibrato doesn’t end on its own without my knowledge. Even if, in the end you decided to use no vibrato, make sure there is no vibrato only when you've decided to not use vibrato.

Pet Peeve #3: Vibrato That Never Stops

The last pet peeve is the vibrato that never stops. I’m talking about a vibrato that you don't control and that never changes. We want vibrato that we control. If I play a Baroque solo, then I need vibrato that is adjusted for that style. I wouldn’t want a very present fast and obtrusive vibrato. Contrastingly, if I play a contemplative 21^st century piece, then I might not use any vibrato at all. The bottom line is I want to be in charge of how fast it goes and when I use it. Because sometimes the answer to not have vibrato at all. But I want to be in control of that decision. I’ve had and heard so many flutists that never change their vibrato. It just never varies. Let me tell you, it isn’t just me that finds that sort of “always on – never changing” vibrato will get on my nerves.

Vibrato has to change. It has to mold and grow based on the piece you are performing. If your vibrato stays at that fast-present level, then everything you play is going to basically sound the same.

Those are my 3 vibrato pet peeves. Work at your vibrato. Make it be alive and something that you practice daily.  Be able vary the speeds and the lightness or heaviness of it. If you've never done that, it's a discipline that you can learn. You can discipline yourself to control your vibrato. Slow it down, speed it up. Be able to maneuver your vibrato. I need to have all those tools of vibrato in my tool bucket so that I can use them for the pieces that I'm performing.

Vibrato pet peeves, something new to work on!

Have Fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this: 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:

FluteTips 71 Tapers

The post Vibrato Pet Peeves appeared first on DoctorFlute.

What is it that makes their sound so special? I can help you with one of the aspects.

It’s: liveliness!

A lively sound is what's going to make people stand up and take notice of your flute tone. If your tone is not lively meaning it doesn't have that element in it that makes it bounce, move and turn heads (because people want to know “who's got that sound?”), then it's generally just a nice sound.

Is that a bad thing, to have a nice tone? No… but don’t you want to take your sound out of the area of “nice” and move to the area of extraordinary? If we can have a phenomenal sound, then why do we just settle for a nice sound? There are plenty of nice sounds out there. But there's not as many phenomenal, lively sounds.

When I say a lively sound, I mean something that is within the sound that makes it come to life. A nice sound can be flat and dull. By flat I don’t mean lower in pitch. I mean a sound that is uninteresting. It is what my younger students do before they learn to improve their tone.

One of the things that makes your tone have liveliness is vibrato. We all do vibrato. So, what’s the big deal? Well, when you think about it, we do a measured medium speed vibrato which is usually on longer held notes. But what about when I play at a fast tempo with fast technique? I don't have time to put vibrato on those notes, what then?

Let’s borrow a word from the vocalists called spin. I used to hear sopranos talk about having spin on their notes. They didn’t use the term vibrato, just spin. I really like this term because I think it's more depictive of what we're trying to do in our fast, short flute tones. Nina Perlove calls this "pop" or putting "pop" on your tone. If you like that term, go ahead and use the term "pop". I think she likes this term because it makes your tone pop and come alive. I like the term spin because you are making your tone spin.

What does this all boil it down to? What is this spin? Well, I'd like to say it's really just a fast vibrato. It's a fast vibrato that can be heard on very fast, or short notes. My usual vibrato would not be heard on short tones because it is too slow to happen when the notes are going quickly or are short. By the time I have my vibrato going, I'm a measure past where it needs to be. So, I can't use vibrato. But I can use spin. Spin is playing a short or quick note with a fast vibrato.

Now, the best place where I really learned to put spin on is practicing Moyse's De La Sonorite, the exercise called "Short Tones." I have a video on how to work on short tones for this very thing. But it’s always different doing it in an exercise verses putting it in a piece of music. It's well worth your time practicing that Moyse exercise and then immediately coming over to your piece of music and trying to put that spin on the notes involved in the solo.

Sometimes I think of spin like one of those old Wurlitzer organs that were plugged in. Most of the time they were played with the vibrato stop on all the time. There was never a minute when a very fast vibrato wasn’t on. While I want to be able to control my vibrato more then that, I do feel like that once I put the flute up, that vibrato switch is flipped on, and it is going all the time. Now, that's the same thing with the spin, whether it's vibrato or spin, that switch is flipped, it's on all the time.

This will make your pieces of music that you play just rise to the next level. Your playing will go from amateur to professional in one fell swoop. Putting this liveliness on your tone, using it to make your tone send out to the audience is a game-changer for your performance.

Work on this. Take your Moyse exercise and work on them. Find where your spin is and start putting it on your short tones in your piece. It makes your piece rise to the next level of professionalism.

Spin your notes – those short tones!

Have Fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this:

Producing a Lively Sound on the Flute - FluteTips 115

Playing the First Notes of Your Solo – FluteTips 186

FluteTips 84 Adding Vibrancy to Your Tone on the Flute

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

Resonate to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 178

The post Producing a Lively Sound on the Flute appeared first on DoctorFlute.

When you’re doing any tonal practice, you need to concentrate on what your tone sounds like. However, that’s easier said then done. Because, well, what are you listening for?

Are You Thinking About Supper During Long Tones?

There were many times when I practiced my long tones and planned what I’d make for supper that night. What do you think, did I improve my tone during that practice? Maybe, but I need to be concentrating on the tone, or I am not getting the most our of my practice time. If I know what to listen for while I am practicing, then it is a whole lot easier to stay focused on the task at hand.

I remember way back in middle school when I decided to practice long tones because I heard that’s what flute players do. I went through these and thought “oh these are just plain boring” and I just moved on to other things. I didn’t have any teacher at that time that really told me what to do. After a few futile attempts, I didn’t do them again for a long time.

When practicing long tones there are a couple things to listen for to help give you direction.

To begin with you need a very nice initial note. If I begin with the middle register B, then I will experiment with that B until I like the tone, vibrancy and resonance. Then I begin the long tones usually starting with B-Bb and listening for a consistency of sound between notes. When you’re playing you ask yourself “can I keep the sound that I have on one note, and carry it through to the second note?”

Sometimes I can go 4 or 5 notes and all of a sudden somewhere in the middle like around E or Eb I realize the sound is not as consistent as when I began on the high B. When I realize that, I’ll back up a few notes until I find the last note that had the sound I am listening for. Then without changing my embouchure, I will slur down to that E or Eb (or where ever you were) and try to get back that perfect sound.

Often the inconsistency occurred because I let my mind wander which allowed a subtle embouchure shift to happen that was not beneficial to my tone.

Another aspect of tone that you really need to be taking stock of is consistent vibrato. Now I do like to play long tones at times without vibrato. Then again, I want to perform them with different speeds so that vibrato is under my control to change as the music warrants. Never keep your vibrato the same day in and day out. Keep it flexible.

Additionally, are you listening for resonance when you work on your long tones?

A good sound doesn’t always have resonance but a great sound does! Listen for your harmonics sounding in your tone. Keep those sinuses open to include as much resonance as possible and let that sound reverberate. This is more difficult to work on in the 3rd octave long tones but it can still be achieved.

Conservation of air usage is also something to work on in long tones. We all know that the less air you use the better the tone. Almost all the time we use to much air. Everyone can work on conserving air. Me too!

Try concentrating on these aspects of long tones. It does a body good!

Have fun!

DoctorFlute

Watch me demonstrate this: FluteTips 41 Long Tones Listen for a Better Tone

Similar Topics:

Concentrate on Long Tones

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