Um, you do have a warm-up routine, don’t you?
I start with the very, very first exercise Hammy Hamilton recommends. . .I play one note. The easiest note on your flute. Perhaps it is your first octave A, or the B, or in my case the G. Train yourself to always find the ‘target’ for that note. Concentrate on getting a nice, round sound on that one note. Fill it out, a little louder, diminish it, a little softer. Strive for a nice solid tone. Now the next lower note,
The thing is, if you can’t get that one note right, what would be the purpose to go on, and on, and learn bad habits, bad tone, bad everything?
Alright, you think you are having a ‘bad embouchure day’. But not really, if you can get that one first note, and then polish it up.
Always. And I mean always, start at the beginning. Then follow the same steps each day. Your warm up is training you to never
have a ‘bad day’. DON’T SKIP OVER IT.
In all honesty, I don’t think it’s possible to not have a day when things are off…but that applies to everything you do in life. However, the longer you play and the more you practice, the less “bad” those days are.
Sometimes I’ve found, too that it’s not what I think is really going on. I may think I sound like crap, but people will tell me I sound like I normally do. Stuffed up head/ears can make you think you’re playing isn’t up to snuff when in reality you’re not hearing yourself properly.
I definitely have bad days and it seems that no matter what I do, things don’t get better. I find it is usually from dry weather and my lip are chapped. I usually put the flute away for a day or so and pick up the pipes or whistle…
an interval scale (D, F, E, G, F, A, etc.) done slowly at first and then a bit faster
a couple of Carolan tunes
up and down the scale with rolls
On the bad days, however, even if these go well, after only a short bit the embouchure just craps out… I’m still not sure whether to just back off and play a whistle or to try to fight through it or go back to the exercises—or, as suggested, play a guitar.
Exercises vs. just playing tunes…whatever works for you, works. As in most things in life, this is no one answer.
The same is true of your original question - do whatever feels right to you. There are times I struggle through a less than promising start and all goes well after a certain random point. Other times, I switch to whistle or just play a video game instead.
The key thing is, I think, with daily practice (as in every day, faithfully), you have less bad days. There are days I practice where I feel my tone isn’t optimal, but I make good progress anyway with learning new tunes or nailing down older tunes I haven’t played in a bit. I really don’t have days anymore where I can’t make some kind of progress, but it took some time to get to that point. If you feel like throwing the flute out the window or knocking out the wall with your flute, I’d find something else to do that day.
Good that you have a warm up. Unfortunately, it takes time to develop a good embouchure. And it takes time to develop stamina for that embouchure.
My thought is, to fall back to playing the whistle at sessions when you haven’t ‘got it’. Sounding like a flatulent duck doesn’t sound like a fun thing. . .for you or your session mates
While this is very true of course, I don’t think that’s what Steve is getting at. As a beginner, I too have moments when I just can’t make the flute vibrate from the start (as opposed to losing focus after playing a while); but if it doesn’t get better after some warm-up exercises I wouldn’t put down the flute the whole day, or try to force it (which is bound to fail anyway IME). Just have a tea, relax, try again in 15 minutes or something… that usually helps me anyway. Kind of an embouchure-reboot.
PS: I find that another good exercise to overcome a bad embouchure is to play some scales while humming into the flute…
I believe the flute is a very physically and technically challenging instrument to play well. It has taken me well over two years of solid slog to be able pick this instrument up and have a good notion of the sounds I’m going to produce when I start playing.
This is in stark contrast to any stringed instrument I have played in the past, where after a few minutes or so, I usually get some sort of acceptable musical sound emitting. The flute is the first wind instrument I have attempted to play, and I have to admit, the degree of difficulty/mental/physical effort required came as an absolute shock. Suddenly, and for the first time, I had to THINK ABOUT & CONTROL BREATHING whilst learning to play a new instrument. And there I was up to this point thinking
" Thinking about breathing was something you don’t have to think about." ( unless you’re dead, and then it won’t matter). I’m sure experienced woodwind players will be thinking something to the tune of " Welcome To Our World." by now. I am lucky enough to have a gifted flute playing son, without who’s; advice, encouragement and sheer patience, I would probably just given up in complete surrender to the task.
As someone mentioned earlier, for us novices, forming a regular practice regime ( for me learning new tunes piecemeal seemed to do it) is a good place to start. Taking every opportunity to play with other musicians is highly recommended ( thank goodness we are mostly kind and forgiving crowd). Listening to really good players play. I for one hope that some of what I am hearing will register on a subliminal level and miraculously reappear when I pick up my instrument. One can live in hope.
Oh! And as another chiffer said earlier I can gladly concur those bad embouchure days whilst not entirely a thing of the past
have become less frequent as time goes on. I suppose you would call it a developmental stage. 2TOOTS.
Go PHBBBT (make the horse noise) to loosen up my lips.
Do some breathing exercises.
Play exercises aimed at other aspects of technique (scales, sightreading, etc.), that aren’t so embouchure-dependent.
If I get frustrated before my embouchure gets better, take a break. It’s usually better when I come back.
Play every day if possible, at least a little bit. If not possible, don’t skip more than one or two days in a row. Backsliding happens fast on the flute. If I take a week off, then I’ll spend the next week making up lost ground - and the first day or two I sound terrible.
As for chapped lips, that’s definitely a big contributor to bad embouchure days. Water and lip balm will go a long way to prevent them.
There are always bad days and I think is meaningless to seek explanation, but I have seen some of those bad days have a logical explanation.
For example.
-My embouchure is rubbish when I start to play just after stand up in the morning or after a siesta, probably becasue the face muscles lose tension.
-Avoid food that can dry your mouth and throat, you need a pretty well hydrated breathing machine.
Temperature fluctuations kill me. Here in Spain we can go from 10ºc to 30ºc in a single day, somtimes in a few hours, this affect to my embouchure and tone. This days I try to drink a lot of water.
Hear other flutists, I don´t know why but it works fine to me, when my embouchure is a nightmare sometimes I hear a recording of any big flutist, like Conal o Grada or Fintan Vallely, it helps to me.
And the most important is to play every day, even only five minutes.
