We all want a bigger sound, a larger sound than what we think we can get with our current flute! Sometimes I think that if I just switched out to a gold headjoint, or I put platinum on the lip plate, that would just automatically give me a bigger sound!
Gold Will Improve My Sound!
But we can get a bigger sound with the flutes that we have! It doesn’t always have to be the grass is greener on the other side of the gold or platinum fence. You can do it yourself. It just takes a little bit of work!
I had a teacher that showed me how to use this exercise, which I call Flat Scales. In this exercise you play a regular scale slowly up one octave except when you get to the 7th you play a flat 7, and then regular 7th (for the key) on the way up. On the way down play the arpeggio with a flat 7. Those are the notes, but hang on because it’s how you play them that makes the difference.
Flat Scales Exercise
The idea here is to play it with as much power as you can. I mean really blow. When I have students do this, the difficultly is getting them away from thinking that they need to sound good. This is not an exercise where you’re looking for that beautiful sound. What you’re doing here is playing as large as you can. You’re going to the edge of cracking, even allowing it to crack if it needs to because you’re finding the edge!
Find the Edge
How big can you play? Push it! Only then will you discover your parameters. You’re going learn to play bigger than you thought you could. Plus, you’ll learn the point at which big becomes too big.
When you give this a try, don’t worry about producing an ugly sound! Don’t worry about getting a big vibrato! Focus on a couple of the aspects that will allow you to expand your sound. For example: make the inside of your mouth as big as you can and as open as you can. This will to allow more sound to come out. Also, fill up your cheeks with air. This air helps the big tone to resonate.
Work on These Things
It’s OK if you squeak. Experiment with what angle you need to blow that air in order for it to not squeak, or not to jump up the octave. Can you blow the air just a little bit more down? That might be the key to being able to still play big, but not jump the octave or squeak.
This is a great exercise for expanding your tone! But don’t go too far too fast. I have my students play all the scales from low C to middle C for a while. They play 1 scales for at least a week. But as long as a month. When you feel that you gotten a lot of benefit from the lower octaves, then play the flat scales from middle C to high C.
1 Octave Only
This is the way I work at expanding my sound. It works for me and my students and it will work for you too. It’s a great exercise that will produce big results.
Have fun doing flat scales to expand your tone!
DoctorFlute
Watch me demonstrate this: FluteTips 69 Playing Flat Scales to Expand Your Tone
Resonate to Improve Your Tone – FluteTips 178
