What do I mean?
When you have just purchased an open hole flute and now you are trying to figure out what to do with those plugs.
Do you take them out one-at-a-time?
Or, do you plunge in all-at-once, much like ripping off a band aid?
Here is what I do with my students in this position. This is in fact what my teacher did with me when I got my first open hole.
It’s the band aid folks. Rip it right off!
In other words, take them all out on the first day you get that new flute. Throw them away. You will never ever look back. I guarantee!
But, it’s hard. The first time you put the flute up and all this air is leaking out of the keys. Your fingers don’t know what to do. You might possibly cry into your sleeve:
“Oh! I’ve got to play something. I’ve got to have them in. I can’t play!”
However, I guarantee, if you will just do it, in 1 week you’ll be playing pretty well. In 2 weeks, you’ll never know that you didn’t know how to play an open hole flute, just 2 weeks earlier.
Take them out and throw them away!
Now, I know that some teachers think that it’s best to do 1 finger at a time.
Their process being:
- take one out and you adjust that finger
- take another out and adjust that finger
- repeat until you get them all
The idea is that you will then only have to adjust one finger at a time.
Let me tell you, that’s not really what’s happening.
Here is what’s really going on:
- take one out and that finger adjusts
- take another out and now you are adjusting the new finger but readjusting the first one
- repeat until you get them all, adjust all fingers each time
You never merely adjust one finger. There is always readjusting of the fingers that you have already done.
Two fingers are adjusting.
Then 3 fingers are adjusting.
See the pattern?
Why not just take them all out, get all 5 fingers adjusted, well, all of your fingers adjusted at the same time and be done with it?
That’s the quickest and best way to get used to playing with an open hole flute.
Try it. Get adjusted quicker. You’ll be glad you did!
Have fun!
Doctor Flute
Watch me demonstrate this: FluteTips 30 Plugged or NO Plugs
