I thought it would be fun to see how you align your head joint with the rest of the body, to see where you prefer to have your embouchure hole.
I have been experimenting with this for some time now, and I have on multiple occasions found an “ultimate” alignment
But now I feel confident that i have found a permanent spot.
I will post a picture of my embouchure alignment when I can get hold of a camera. In the mean time, post pictures of your preferred assembled flute, where we can see the head joint alignment relative to the rest of the body.
I line up. Other flute players roll in. Still others roll out. How you line up the embouchure hole and the finger holes doesn’t matter, though. What matters is how your lips and your airstream interact with the embouchure hole to produce your sound. Find the optimum spot for that, then if necessary change the relative positions of the finger holes and the embouchure hole to achieve ergonomic comfort as you play.
I can’t be arsed to set up the camera, so how about a good description:
I’ll describe it using the finger-holes, as opposed to the sounding-holes. I know, same holes, but in the interest of clarity I mean the hole you cover to produce the note referred to. Now, the inside edge of the B hole is my index (and no, I’m not a proctologist). I line up the inside edge, i.e. the me-side of the hole, with a) the center of the F# hole, and b) the blowing edge of the embouchure hole. Obviously this is a flute with a 2-piece center section. cheers,
FWIW, both Grey Larsen and Catherine McEvoy told us (either in lessons or a workshop) to line up the blow hole with the finger holes. Works fine for me.
I’m a newbie flute player. Until I went to Drumshanbo recently (Joe Mooney Summer School) I had the tone holes and embouchure exactly in line. But, while I was there, I noticed that a lot of the flute players whose playing I enjoyed had their embouchure holes rolled in. So I tried it. It’s working for me at the moment - much more tone. But I only have it rolled in a little bit - the inside edge of the B hole is in line with middle of the embouchure hole. All finger holes are in line, unlike Rob. I haven’t thought so far of aligning the finger/tone holes any other way …
I have always thought it a bit odd. The holes on one piece flutes are usually lined up, fifes, bamboo flutes, etc. The slides primary function being (to me) adjustable tuning. don’t get me wrong, it adjusting the head helps the ergonomics for a person, great.
I mean, do the notes on an ergonomic flute sound different when the finger holes are placed off center?
After reading this thread, I tried “lined up” again last night (I usually turn in so that the far edge of the embouchure hole is lined up close to the middle of the L1 hole) and found that I was able to get a better “honk” on the low-D. Guess I’ll stick with “lined up” for a while. I could never get the turn-in exactly the same every time anyway!
I’m interpreting johnkerr’s post to meant that the hole you blow into is positioned to suite the way your want to blow, the holes where your fingers go are positioned to suite the way you want to put your hands, and that the alignment of the holes makes no significant difference to what goes on inside the flute. Is that right ?
What I tell my students is, always begin by getting the hand position you like, then adjust the head so that the embouchure lines up to your liking. The idea is to resist the temptation to rotate the flute around with your hands while you’re playing, to the detriment of your fingers. Cheers,
It makes a difference if you are playing in a wind tunnel
That’s why my holes point towards the ceiling. Just in case I might play in one some day. 7 embouchure holes are too many! One embouchure hole is just about right!
Just trying to avoid any loose ends for people to play with and it was shorter than ‘any change in the movement of air molecules has no effect on the acoustic characteristics of the of the flute as perceived by the player or a listener’
… in still air
i tend to be able to make the best note when its lined up or toed in sliiiightly. My flute has a bit of a loos head joint anyway, so i may start with the best intentions and end up playing the damn thing from the bottom.
I just spent some days in workshops with John Skelton and noticed that his headjoint is drastically turned in. I also turn in my headjoint such that the edge of my emb. hole bisects the first finger hole.
I (a beginner) feel more comfortable playing with the headjoint slightly turned out; whenever I turn it in I keep jumping to the next octave or I’m unable to play low D (bad embouchure I suppose )
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