Beginner "Ah-Ha" Moments

Irish Flute
1

Hi All :slight_smile:


Don’t you love the “ah-ha” moment when something clicks?. It seems like some of the best posts I’ve read here arise from such moments – whether it be an actual beginner sharing his or her excitement about a breakthrough or an experienced player recalling one to pass down.

A great example of this (sorry, I can’t remember who posted it) was about taking breaths – the author had such an ah-ha moment upon realizing that in order to stay in rhythm, it’s helpful to control one’s breath independently of one’s fingers – that is, the fingers shouldn’t get tied up on account of a breath. This allows one to breath where musically appropriate rather than manually convenient. Simple, but very helpful and insightful.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful to start a thread for such ah-ha’s – I’m sure there must be more since, as beginners, we are all in a sense constantly beta testing our technique :slight_smile: So, to get the ball rolling, I thought I’d offer a couple I’ve stumbled on:

– Regarding the “standard grip.” I was cramping up in the ball of my left thumb. Even though I was using the “three point” (i.e., chin, L1 joint and RT) method to support the flute, I was was clamping LT on it for stability. Then it occured to me that since the standard grip anticipates LT operating a key, I should be able to waggle LT freely at any point, even on a keyless flute. With that in mind, I let my LT just hang free, totally relaxed. But in doing this it was more difficult to get the embouchure into position – the flute felt like it would squirt out from my fingers. I corrected this (ah-ha) by turning the head joint way in toward me (as I’d heard a lot of trad players do) and in one stroke, I had my thumb free and relaxed and my air stream zapping straight at the sounding edge for a bigger, reedier sound.

– Regarding rhythm. I realized that I couldn’t play with toe-tapping rhythm until I was able to tap my toe and play. Sounds simple, but for the first eight months or so, I could not tap my toe steadily (I mean steadily) for an entire tune. When I could, it transformed the way I play :slight_smile:


Anyone got more (fools?) gold nuggets? . . . Bueller? Bueller? . . .

Alan

2

Okay, I have to bite when the author has an Edward Gorey avatar.

Alan, I think your “Ah-ha” idea is a good one. Can we expand it to include “Ha-ha” moments as well? For example, I was talking to someone while assembling my flute before Sunday night’s gig. Well, ostensibly I was assembling my flute … yakking all the while (and not looking – I’ve been playing flute for 30 years, I know where the parts go, right?) and in some limbic portion of my brain thinking “something is really WRONG with the cork on this joint – it’s so loose!” I finally looked down and discovered I was trying to fit the foot joint into the head joint. :blush:

Seriously, though – five big epiphanies for me over the years:

  1. Pain = bad. If you’re hurting (beyond, of course, a certain “breaking-in-period” of daily playing over several weeks or so), you’re tense or positioning something wrong.

  2. Fingers stretch farther than you may think. Look at all those old ceili band pictures of little Irish kids with big flutes. Also, it also doesn’t hurt to practice on your biggest, ugliest, most difficult flute. It’s like wearing ankle weights while training; you’ll play your good flute so much better.

  3. Slow is good (bless you, John). You can ultimately play a tune faster, and better, by working it out slowly and rhythmically.

  4. Goof around with the thing. Like you did, Alan, experiment with turning the headjoint in toward you and out. Experiment with rolling the whole flute in and out while you play and see how this affects tuning in various octaves. Experiment with how ugly you can make it sound. Experiment with how hard you have to push to break notes, make it go out of tune, bring it back into tune, drop a note entirely, etc. It’s good to know where your flute’s limits are.

  5. If you can’t get a sound out of the thing … have you checked for leaks? Loose joints? Slightly floppy keys? It doesn’t take much to make a flute misbehave. If so, Teflon tape, rubber bands, beeswax, and a good woodwind repairer are your friends.

And extra bonus: 6) Look at your flute when you’re assembling it. :wink:

cat.

3

Hi Cathy :slight_smile:

Thanks for the reply . . . exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for :laughing: . I thought I was the only one who did that kind of thing.

Whew. Crickets were starting to chirp in the balconey of this thread :slight_smile: until you came along.

Alan

4

And they may be chirping again :roll: … I know I talk too much (there goes that New Year’s resolution!), but we’ve been slow at work and this board is fun and it’s so much more interesting than writing someone’s website! (And last but not least, you have an Edward Gorey avatar … :slight_smile: )

Good luck and have fun!
cat.

5

Oh, and DUH, only the most important ones …

  1. There is no substitute for playing a LOT.

And the big Number 8: It doesn’t matter how good your instrument is – expect it to be a long time before you really get to know it. My teacher, who has played all over the world for many, many years, says it took him two years’ solid playing to really get the most out of his uber-Olwell.

Okay. To work.

6

Having more than one flute is nice if you choose the flute for the day depending upon what sound/style/tone you’re looking for that day. BUT, when you feel the flute you started with TODAY lost its ability to respond and select another – and find it TOO has lost its ability to honk, and select another and - - - darn if that one went flat overnight too!

It was great when the supermarket only offered three kinds of cereal too.

BillG

7

Don’t know if it’s exactly an “Aha!” moment, but when soloing during a performance, I realized that a number of the audience were chair dancing, tapping the table, etc. Very satisfying to know that I was doing my job, and it let me know that I wasn’t on the wrong track, at least. Making 'em forget their troubles for just a little while: that’s what it’s all about.

Another was when the embouchure started coming together, and I found myself not so much blowing the flute as breathing it.

8

I’d have to say my “ah-ha” moment is similar to Nanohedrons. At some point I started breathing the flute instead of blowing it, and suddenly I could make it through a set easier, and my intonation was on. Now hopefully that will happen someday with the pipes :roll:

Corin

9

Well, Corin, first ya gotta get yer lips off of the dang chanter! :laughing:

10

Oh, is that what I’m doing wrong? :smiley: Actually, it just occured to me that the same thing could probably be said of the pipes. My friend who is teaching me said that playing becomes much easier when you sort of become integrated with the bag and bellows. Playing seems to go better when the motions aren’t forced and become more natural. I noticed the same thing with my fiddle playing a few years ago.

11

Yeah, it’s kind of like “grokking” the instrument: no longer “I’m playing the instrument”, but “playing is”.

You’d have to have read Stranger in a Strange Land to follow my above questionable take on it. :laughing:

12

The first exercise my teacher gave me (lo, these 4 days ago) was to start with relaxed lips and breathe at the flute, then begin shaping the lips, moving around the embouchure hole, etc., till I got a really good attack on the note with the minimal effort. Easy with G, not bad with C#, I still don’t get it with a low-D, though. That’s why it’s an exercise, I guess, and why it’s called practice, and why I have a teacher to begin with. . .

13

My biggest aha yet has been when I practice slurring between D to d, E to e, F# to f, G to g, and so on… That has taught me more about embouchure shape and control more than anything. Then taking that and practicing arpegios - tunes like Farewell to Erin (esp. the D section). Jumps like that force you to have proper embouchure rather than just blowing harder as you go up the scale in a linear fashion.

I’m now able to “whisper” the high octave and beyond (high cnat, c# and d). My tone still isnt killer like Shannon’s but it’s getting there!

Oh, while I’m at it… Practicing strong straight tones - weeding out the slight wobbles or vibrato helps a bunch. Also, I used to move the flute around a bunch with my hands to get the right attack. Now I just hold my flute stationary and adjust my lips instead.

Oh, and play a frikin’ lot!

:party:

14

Be the ball, be the ball… :wink:

I remember an interesting exercise my college flute teacher had us all doing (note deliberate choice of the word “interesting”, here): we were supposed to put a lit candle somewhere at or slightly above eye level and practice blowing it out with our airstreams while we played long notes across all the octaves. It did help us learn to aim air in different directions, I guess – although eventually the tops of the practice-room pianos started looking like props for “The Phantom of the Opera” …

15

My most recent ‘ah-HA’ moment came when I had a nice, long saturday morning/afternoon to practice. After a couple hours of constant playing I began to feel my tightness of grip lessen and my fingers realized a mobililty they hadn’t experienced before. Nice, taught embouchure + relaxed posture and fingers = best playing I’ve done yet, whohoo!

Now with that revelation, I can reach that state more and more quickly and it doesn’t require hours of playing to get to that ‘zone’.

Cheers,

  • Ryan
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Nothing wrong with that! :wink: Of course, I’m a crazy Phan-type person.

I should try that trick with the candle. I’m still having trouble aiming the air to the right place to get a decent tone. I can at least MAKE a tone (which is new for me on flute!) but I still struggle with it being even remotely decent and consistent.

~Crysania

17

It was pretty funny…although I suppose the music-school maintenance guys didn’t think so. :slight_smile:

But ultimately, what Blayne is doing with his “lipping” octaves up and down the scale is just about the best way on earth to improve your embouchure – and your ear as far as tuning goes. It does get easier over time … just start slowly, and go faster as your lip gets more agile. You can also experiment with aiming your airstream up & down & around while you do this. Over time, it will also help you find where your flute’s sweet spot is.

Good luck!

18

For the early beginners, when you can’t always get the flute to make a sound, I found the secret to positioning your embouchure (keeping it tight and the right shape is another story, but…), and it is this: Don’t just love your flute, -kiss- it. :wink: No, really. Put your lips together, put the embouchure-hole to your lips as centered as you can, and slowly roll the flute out, pivoting on the contact point on the lower lip. This point may not be exactly the best ‘sweet spot’ for playing, but it’s pretty well the average place, so for most styles and most flutes it should make -some- sound, - and it is a lot easier to do than staring at yourself in the mirror while twisting the flute around. :wink:

Then is ‘keep the flute up’ … the right arm tends to get tired and start drooping more easily than the left, and once that flute tilts by more than a couple degrees the sound starts going really wonky, and then away entirely. (The more consistent your embouchure, of course, the less angle it takes to throw the tone perceptibly off, but by the time your tone isn’t wobbling with your breath, you’ll probably have gotten over droopy-flute-syndrome. :wink:)

One that isn’t really an ah-ha, more of a continual speculation and adjustment, is the idea of how one changes pitch and octaves. Some people say it’s by tightening the lips together and making a faster airstream. Some say it’s by adjusting the airstream to point more up or down. But… tightening the lips changes the angle of the airstream, and moving the upper lip forward/backward changes the size of the opening. I’m not sure -anyone- knows exactly ‘how’ the sound changes, just how it feels to them… the changes are closely interlocked. Which reminds me of a possibly useful practice exercise… put a hand flat against your chin, somewhere between the point of it and the bottom of your lip, doesn’t matter too much, and blow as if playing the flute… try making a tight stream and a loose stream at exactly the same angle, a stream of the same tightness moving forward and back, etc. It’s not a very exciting exercise, but it can be performed on the bus, on lunch break, whatever, when you’re wishing you could be actually playing the flute, and later you can repeat it with the flute there instead of your hand and see what it does to the sound… but the airstream being invisible, I find at least some time spent feeling the airstream seems to help understand what these little changes in embouchure are -doing-. Anybody with clearer ideas here can feel free to speak up, but as far as I can tell, this is such a ‘by feel’ area of flute playing that the only way to get anywhere with it is by playing and experimenting.

–Chris

19

You should’ve posted this post before I purchased the bamboo flute (my first flute, bought about three months ago :wink:)!!! Just tried it on the newly received Dixon and it seems to work fine. Thanks!!

20

Um… one really serious problem I have is… mouth clogging. I build up.. yes, saliva, very quickly right behind my lips. This is getting in the way of the airstream, especially in the upper octave when the opening of the lips becomes narrower. This is when the tone starts to fail. Any suggestions to remedy that (sorry for uglying up this topic…)? :blush: