As a newby, I’ve been listening to a lot of different Irish flute musicians and watching music videos while trying to develop my ear for good tone. I also try to observe how they hold their flute, what their body position is, and, if I can see it, what their embouchure looks like. I love the comhaltaslive.com website and recently came across this jaw-dropping performance by Orlaith McAuliffe which just blew me away. I’m sure many of you have already seen it, but here is the link for those who haven’t:
She makes everything look so comfortable and relaxed while maintaining remarkable speed and beautiful tone throughout. She doesn’t appear to have very big hands, covers the right hand holes will back from the pads of her fingertips, and her right thumb is not under the flute for support. Although it is hard to her embouchure, her lips appear to maintain a very consistent form and position while quickly changing notes.
I’d be interested in anyone else’s observations, and if anyone knows what kind of flute she is playing.
Being able to play like that is the result of spending thousands of hours in the simulator. Seat time, lads! Practice! I hate it as much as anyone, but there’s no substitute. And honestly, with no offense intended, who cares what flute she’s playing? If you’re that good it doesn’t matter.
Yeah, Mr. Galway mentioned otherwise, in regard to moving the jaw, which perhaps better suited his audience at that time, but now you have seen for yourself that moving the jaw is not so true.
There are many “tricks” to playing a flute, and perhaps the first such trick is patience.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cork. I’m afraid patience isn’t my best virtue. I’m still learning to slow down and enjoy the ride.
Cathy wrote:
It’s hard to believe she’s been alive long enough to put in that many hours!
Astonishing, isn’t it…I mean…really. When I was about her age I flew through the equivalent of 3 years of music lessons in one year (on an instrument I didn’t really want to play at the time…long story…), but didn’t have the discipline to stay focused and continue in music at the time. Too many pretty girls, cool cars, and the lure of various taboos. Ah, if I could only take the wisdom I have now and go back and try it again…
That’s the key. As soon as you put any pressure in your playing, it will suffer. Don’t try to maintain a hell-freezing strong tone when you have to keep on applying pressure to your playing to do it. It will kill your music. It is far better to try to keep everything (your embouchure, your arms, your fingers and especially your mind!!!) relaxed, maybe produce a tone that’s a bit weaker than you’d like it to be, but keep the music flowing out. The tone will come by itself, with time.
For great exercises on embouchure and tone work, check this thread. They helped me a lot. Someone there said the key is to be focused and strong while being relaxed. Sounds paradox, but it can be done.
Same here. Crans are one of the things I think I’ll never ever manage. A hint Claus Steinort and Tom Aebi gave me is to avoid using the A finger for cutting since it kills the hard D on most flutes, causing it to jump to second octave A (second harmonic).
BTW, there is the “flute player’s cran” which works like this:
XXX|XXX
XXX|XOO
XXX|XXO
XXX|XXX
Executed in a fast way, that pretty much sounds like a cran. But a real cran is way cooler.
BTW Moritz, will you attend DUPG’s easter Tionol on Burg Fürsteneck? Would be nice to meet you there
I’ve read that adults have a real hard time learning musical instruments because they are so used to being good at the things they do.
You’re probably good at your job. When they hand you a challenging task you do it at a professional level the first time out. So we think we ought to be able to proceed faster at learning a musical instrument than we actually can, and that frustrates us.
It will take as long or longer than that girl has taken. You just have to accept that, not get frustrated, and enjoy yourself. Bite off only as much as you can chew. Push yourself only as much as stimulates your joy for learning. Eventually you will get it.
I’m at a soundless computer but I’m guessing this is the girl playing a version of the Moving Cloud that would make Molloy want to run home and practice, cry.
Rama’s guess on the cran is nearabouts what I would guess. What’s key is having that d vented. That forces and any cuts to sound in the lower register, making them pop.
How does she make it look so easy? Because she does it with ease, as Gabriel’s post discusses. She is relaxed and uses little more than the required amount of muscle tension to keep the flute in place, her embouchure in form, to blow into the flute and to move her fingers.
It’s normal for people to tense up when working hard at something. So we see flute players that are hunched over, clenching on with an iron grip and furrowing their brow and grimacing all in hopes to eke out a tune. Would doing the same make you play cards any better or make a sandwich any better?
I’m at a soundless computer but I’m guessing this is the girl playing a version of the Moving Cloud that would make Molloy want to run home and practice, cry.
That’s impressive that you identified the tune she starts off with without having a computer with sound. I hope you are able to hear it soon because it sounds right up there with Molloy to me…and to think that she was the Under 15 Ireland champion at the time it was recorded…
Playing the whistle & later the flute was the thing I learned to do to prove to myself that I was able to learn things that were hard–that I had very little natural capacity for. So much of what I did in school and later university came easily* that I got clean away with never actually doing the stuff that didn’t. Music was the thing I took up when I looked back as an adult and began to regret some of the things I’d avoided.
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