Hi,
Do you have muddy tone days?
What do you do to improve it?
I stopped playing flute for some time. Now I don’t know why my tone is so muddy.
Here’s my low B flat flute demo which I just did. It’s not the flute’s fault as it has just come back from the luthier. I can’t seem to separate the notes. Third octave is awful so please ignore it.
Any advice welcome. Thanks!
Was not expecting to hear Bach. I think your tone is well on its way; it’s pretty good most of the time. But I hear what you’re saying, particularly when moving in between notes. My first thought: you just need to play a lot more and the tone will probably improve over time. Perhaps working on focusing your embouchure as much as possible, using the minimal amount of air to get the best tone you can. Maybe practicing each note slowly, as well as finding the places between notes you make a blip or have something “muddy” occur and just practice going between those two notes as slowly and carefully as necessary until the blip/muddiness goes away. I’m still slowly practicing my rolls and other ornaments as well as difficult phrases in tunes, 8 years of daily practice later.
It almost sounds like you might have a leak in the right-hand section somewhere… You might want to do a suck test. Aside from that, "Akiba"s advice is (as always) sound. We can ALL improve our tone with practice! As an aside, sometimes it’s kinda fun playing “other-than-Irish” stuff, too… I played for over an hour on Saturday with a non-Irish-music guitar player - we played everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Neil Diamond to the Beatles! I had to have him capo sometimes 'cause I was on my keyless flute…
Good luck in your journey!
Pat
P.S. If you have a “regular” flute (i.e. in D), you might want to work on that for a while before you graduate to the Bb - I find the low end of Bb flutes to be a little troublesome myself…
Hi Jason/Pat,
Many thanks for the pointers and advice!
I was surprised at how horrible the Samsung tablet recording made the flute (well, me) sound. When I’m playing it doesn’t sound half as terrible. Jason - that’s it. I can’t seem to move from a Dsharp to Fnat without some strange in between noises. Yes I’d love to master playing Bach’s sonata no.V on simple system eventually, and a low Bflat one at that 
I’ll try working on individual phrases again. Rhythm all over the place, but I suppose that’s what happens when not playing for so long.
You play classical on simple system too? I never know whether I should be tonguing, like in L’Art de la Traversiere for classical music? 8 years is a long time Jason! I think I’ve switched to other instruments instead of flute…consequently it sounds strange to me, picking it up again!
Pat - that’s a really good point. I’d forgotten too, that this is a pipers grip flute, and I’m more comfortable playing Siccama fingering so you’re right about the leak - I checked again, and that massive right hand middle finger hole is a really big cavity. I tried slapping hard on it, and that seems to seal it better, producing a more punchy belt, although it 's quite exhausting having to seal it so hard all the time. My regular flute is fully keyed, so no leak problems when playing. The Bflat is my preferred pitch, but the fingering challenge is quite something…! It’s getting more exciting as I find the finger stretch is less painful
Sounds like your embouchure may still be a bit weak, unfocused, or dialing in and out.
Try this exercise, for a few minutes each day, for a few weeks. Start on your lowest note, playing whole notes. Jump the octave, then to the third octave, and, if you can, overblow to find the higher harmonics. Then back down. Do that for each note up and down the first octave scale. Repeat using half notes, then, if you can eighth notes. Breath support from the diaphragm really helps!
The other thing that comes to mind is listen to a good player whose tone you would like to emulate, and attempt to match it by changing up your embouchure.
Thanks Hp -
yes I’ve neglected the flute for many months…and then switching over to a low Bb flute, it’s doing exactly that..dialling in and out but getting no ring tone!
The lowest note …is the biggest problem! I can’t get that blasted middle finger, ring finger of the right hand (R2,R3) covered and sealed without leaks. If I can, it doesn’t last as soon as I move my hands. Do flute makers market velcro pads for players with narrow fingers to wear lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IIm091p6MI
Still just messing around…yet to make it work. I’ll resolve to follow those exercises. I most definitely can’t either notes at all. After a few notes, I’m out of puff. Then the room starts to move and the floor seems to get closer as the stars move around. When I take another breathe, then it gets a bit better but then it’s gone all too soon. The challenges of learning low Bb…