A Stupid Question

Irish Flute
1

Yes, I freely admit it. It also, probably, doesn’t matter. Except that there’s something niggling in the back of my mind that says it may matter after all …

I’ve just been practising my scales (infra dig, I know, but Grade VI looms in December, so I might as well be practising now). They’re coming along quite nicely, and they don’t 'arf 'elp with yer tone, like, innit.

Anyway, I started to notice the sound of the air as well as the note. (Honestly, on the flute I’ve just been playing, ca 1840 R&R, there really isn’t much of this ‘air’ sound, even with my playing, but I noticed it anyway.) In the lowest octave, and especially in the lowest notes, the sound is sort of like a deep, roaring noise. Like the sea, or something. (And before that shining wit from Worth Nales, Mr TheFlute chimes in, no, I wasn’t growling at the time. :slight_smile: ) In the upper octaves, and especially the higest notes, the air sound changes to, well, sort of like the wind through birch trees in summer. In other words, more hissy, higher pitched. (Not any louder though.)

It struck me that this was probably at least partly to do with the change in air direction, from down into the flute in the low octave, to right against the far edge in the upper reaches. But it also struck me that that should imply a sudden change in this air note. Shouldn’t it? I mean, a change when you change octaves or something? But it’s not happening like that. It seems to be changing gradually throughout the range of the flute.

The question is: should it change gradually as I am experiencing? Also, am I on the right lines in saying that it changes with the change in air direction? And, finally, does it matter? I.E. is there anything that it implies about my flute playing as it stands at the moment?

2

The best exercise to help eliminate the hiss is to play in the upper octave as softly as you can. Try to play the high notes, up to D’', as quietly as you can. When you can barely make a clean squeak, with hardly any air at all, you will have tightened up your embouchure muscles and will be able to play cleanly in the first octave as well.

3

Yeah. Recently, the tone has been getting much stronger. But I will try this, so thanks JD.

But surely, there’s still always some residual air noise, isn’t there? Or am I just not setting my sights high enough? It doesn’t bother me too much, but if it shouldn’t be there at all, then I’ve got even more work to do than I thought.

4

I think it depends on the flute as well as the player. Rudalls seem to have more extra air sound than Pratten type flutes. Many pro’s have a strong hiss in their tone, in fact perhaps most have at least some. Because of my classical training, I’m very aware of and try to get rid of hiss sound, but I’ve found that by doing that I lose some of the pop and bubble from my tone and ornaments. Right now I’m listening a lot to Michael McGoldrick–his tone, to my ear, has quite a bit of hiss/extra air (John Wynne is another of my favorites and his sound also has a good deal of hiss–BTW both are Rudall players). But what’s important is the overall tone and pop he gets: that’s what I’m shooting for as well. I’d say minimize it, but don’t worry about completely eliminating it.

The extra air sound, to my ear, seems more prominent in the lower register for good players (F# down to D), and in the middle of the flute, particularly middle e. I don’t think the upper notes should be too hissy in general.

PS–it’s not a stupid question. In fact, I find it a very interesting topic, one I’ve been working on and thinking about for years.

5

FWIW, I think that playing higher pitched flutes, like an A flute, greatly strengthens embouchure
and that, I suppose, enables one to minimize or eliminate hiss. I don’t seem to have a hiss,
though maybe I’m just not hearing it. Anyhow Sweetheart flutes in the higher keys are very good flutes, IMO,
and not terribly expensive, and an A flute gives you the key of D which is useful, not to mention A.
Great fun to play for its own sake. So is a G flute.
These are more demanding and, returning to the D flute, I believe one has more control over one’s sound.
Certainly can’t hurt.

6

Thanks Jason. Comforting words, to be honest.

And yes, Jim, can’t hurt. I don’t have an A or a G flute. But I do have one of Jem’s little piccs, and playing that for a while certainly tightens up the embouchure (and one or two other things. :slight_smile: ).

7

This may not be wasted air (too wide embouchure) noise at all. Of course, even with a perfectly focussed embouchure and no air-spill, there must necessarily be some air-rush noise from the air-jet perceptible at some level - probably only to the player or a very close microphone. However, I suspect what you’re hearing, Ben, is either or both of:

the “edge-tone” (or perhaps a “whistle tone”) resulting from the airstream splitting on the strike edge of the embouchure hole and having its own frequencies perhaps more to do with air-speed than with the tone-forming influences of the flute, hence changing when you alter jet-angle and intensity/speed;

or:

the lower partials, echoey sub-harmonics in the actual flute tone - which of course will not be the same when you overblow, but which would change within the octave in line with each note as you played a scale, probably varying in strength according to the overall influence (damping/resisting or enhancing) of their wavelength proportions versus those the flute body fundamentally wants to favour, and of course how compromised the tone-hole positions are in relation to their ideal locations affecting the partials etc. (which is partly why the tone-colour of different notes varies on a pre-Bohm flute).

8

Thanks Jem. That’s more along the lines I was thinking of. Not sure I understand those “sub-partials” though … (or whatever they are) … Are they like - you’re getting mainly the note you’re aiming at (say, in the second octave, with two waves fitted into the space between embouchure and hole) but you’re also getting the fundamental, an octave below that? (And more of those, the higher up you go, I guess.) See, these things don’t happen with stringy thingies …