Hi. I have two flutes (or fifes) that I discribed in the “flute of fife” thread earlier. I understand the basics of how to play them but really don’t know anything beyond that. So I have some questions:
embouchure. How do you figure out what is right? When I played concert flute, I had an odd one because I had an overbite and then braces which forced my top lip out, so I learned to compencate. Even though that was four years ago, I still have a screwed up embouchure (which may be one of the reasons I no longer play concert flute).
Third octive. My third octive sounds really bad. Any advice?
Forget about the third octave for a year. It’s seldom used
in ITM, it’s hard to get. Wait till you are more advanced.
As to embouchure, playing, exercises like long tones, and
so on, tend to work this out. It takes time. Lots of time. You can do
a search on ‘long tones,’ and other exercises.
A teacher is a good idea initially, you don’t necessarily
need lots of lessons, but something to get the
fundamentals, like holding and blowing the flute.
Somebody who does wooden flute is a good idea.
Also there are workshops at Festivals.
And don’t worry if you plateau for a while. I spent a fair amount of time thinking “I’ll never get this”, then (for a while) improved dramatically, then (just when I was getting cocky) hit another sticking point. Lather, rinse, repeat . . .
Just keep going, enjoy the journey, and you will get better. Learn from more experienced players when you have the chance, spend as much time listening to good players as you can, and don’t get discouraged if your progress sometimes slows. It’ll be a long time before I’m a good player myself, but I’ve made a lot of progress over the last 9 months, and - maybe the best indicator - I look forward to my playing time. And that’s a whole whack of a lot better than I’d have expected back during those first few weeks.
In theory I understand the technique for a decient embouchure–as I said, I used to play concert flute–but I’ve lost the physical skills. Saxophone (and tinewhistle, I guess) requires completely different use of facial muscles than teh flute.
I just try everything I can think of. If it works and sounds good, I leave it in. If not, I throw it out. Slow going, but it’s working out okay for me.
Concert Flute and Irish Flute use a drastically different embochure. What is good for one is not for the other. On Concert Flute you are looking for a pure warm sound, on Irish you want reedy and powerful. Terry McGee wrote a very good thread about it I will dig it up in a minute.
Feck the third octave I have never found a use above the E in traditional Irish, Scottish, and Galician music.
Practice everyday, I have been practicing religiously for close to a year and have improved way more than I did in my previous time playing Flute.
If you want a teacher, send me a PM and I will get you in touch with one as I know a couple in this area.
It’s right if it sounds like what you want. Listen to a variety of good flute, like Wooden Flute Obsession, and emulate that. Worry less about what your mouth looks like in the process. Nobody’s going to look that closely, anyway. You could play out of your left nostril and nobody would notice.
That’s not saying there isn’t any room for a nice embouchure, because there is, but it’s not the outward appearance of it. It’s the results you get. Focus on the results.
Enjoy your playing. I often think concert flutists sound like they’re working at an unpleasant job. They don’t just love to play the flute. Just play for the sake of playing.
Third octive. My third octive sounds really bad. Any advice?
Ignore this, too. That’s how they are, more or less. As everyone has said, you won’t really need it for trad music.
Remember that Boehm flutes were invented to correct the difficulties in playing wooden flutes. If wooden flutes hadn’t been difficult characters, nobody would have invented that metal thing.
You just have to approach it with love and a sense of humor.
I sympathize with you on the way changes in your mouth change your embouchure. The year after I started Boehm flute I knocked out one of my front teeth, and it was wired back in until my jaw finished growing (I was ten at the time). For the next six or seven years the shape of my front teeth was rearranged once or twice a year, until I finally got rid of the broken tooth and got a proper bridge. Highly frustrating…but with a bit of perseverence, not a total impediment. In fact, possibly an asset, since it meant that when I came back to the flute 30+ years later and picked up the irish flute (thank you Doug Tipple!), I had less of a memory of what a Boehm flute should sound like, and could restart with just enough memory to get a tone out of the beast, but not enough to shape that tone in any particular direction. But folks are right, perservering, experimenting and listening are the key. Listen to good irish flute players and then play long notes, especially in the lower register F# down to D, experimenting with your embouchure until you find that nice, reedy sound that is on the edge of popping the octave. Harmonic series, as recommended by Grey Larsen, are also a good exercise for embouchure control. It takes time, but it WILL come! Enjoy and welcome to the club! It’s always good to learn of another flute player in New Jersey.
I’ve given up on the tird octive entirely. I can get up into the third octive on the C flute, but it sounds rough and “brassy” which I think is a mix of my own lack of skill and the nature of the instrument itself–it doesn’t seem to “want” to play in the third octive.
I haven’t needed the third octive in any music I’ve seen so far and doubt I will need it. The only place it may come up is if I end up having to play fife tunes to amuse young children (as I almost had to do this winter), but they won’t know that I should be playing an octive up!
