i notice that i don’t cover much of the embouchure hole at all while playing (just a tiny but usually), and this seems to give me the best volume and the flute actually feels easier to fill. anything wrong with this though? i know around 1/3 of the hole has to be covered to get that reedy sound, but when i try that, i seem to get this dirty, slightly buzzy tone on my tipple and its harder to get a sound.
when i try covering half of the hole, the flute sounds very very muted, so what i feel most comfortable with seems at odds with the conventional wisdom. does this have anything to do with the round embouchure hole that i have on my flute? or its just something that will vary from person to person? or perhaps i’m just doing it plain wrong
and on a side note… try as i might, i can’t really think of it as blowing down (i mean if you blow literally downwards you can’t make any sound that way, can you?) it certainly doesn’t feel as if i’m blowing straight across either, more like.. somewhere in between, diagonal, i guess..
I think that like you I probably cover less of the embouchure hole than usual (at least from what I read). I can go either way, but I’ve been told that my flute is supposed to play in tune (A220) with the headjoint pulled out about 2mm by the maker and the seller who I trust (not being an authority myself). So I found the position and the amount of embouchure hole coverage that makes it play in tune, and that’s the way I do it. Can’t even tell you how much of the hole is covered, I just adjusted for the intonation. If I cover more of the embouchure hole it goes flat.
Hello Sherly, how are things in Selangor? I think that my flutes play best and have the most volume when very little of the embouchure hole is covered with the lower lip, especially for the small round embouchure of 9.5 mm. At least, that is the way that I play them. For flutes in general there is a lot of variation in the size and shape of embouchure holes and how they are cut. Embouchure chimney depth and bore diameter also come into play. It is very hard, therefore, to give any firm rules about how much of the embouchure hole should or shouldn’t be covered to get the best performance from a flute.
just fine hot, sunny and humid as always. by the way, i also notice that, with the way i blow, the tuning behaves rather curiously depending on how far out i pull the headjoint. for example, when i pull headjoint further out (by 1 cm or so), i normally have the problem of blowing the high A and B too sharp (compared to the other notes)
but when i push the head joint further in (about half a cm),the higher notes sound in tune with the rest of the flute, any reason for this? as far as i can tell, i’m blowing the same way in both these cases..
how far out does your headjoint normally go?
When you pull the headjoint in or out, the notes get affected proportionately to their closeness to the headjoint. So if you have a G in tune with a flat piano, your upper notes will be sharper and lower ones flatter. A sharp accordeon - the reverse.
Say your headjoint extends ~60 cm, your bottom D will be in tune but all other notes will be horribly flat, like C# → G.
Theoretically there’s only one spot at which a flute is in tune with itself.
hot, sunny and humid as always. by the way, i also notice that, with the way i blow, the tuning behaves rather curiously depending on how far out i pull the headjoint. for example, when i pull headjoint further out (by 1 cm or so), i normally have the problem of blowing the high A and B too sharp (compared to the other notes)