I had been practicing a lot in the last year and i´m happy because I have improved a lot. Now I can get a nice tone and volume to my flute and I think that my rythm and articulation is better too.
But then here is my next wall to overcome, the endurance. I can´t hold the tone and the volume more than a couple of tunes, after that my embouchure progressively worsens and finally it sucks and I fall of the tune, my lips are dry and is impossible to do anything.
I´m trying to practice how to avoid it, running my tongue over my lips in breaths, but it doesn´t work fine at the moment.
I have found that some flutists mastered this technique, for example.
Hello sligofluter, I have been playing just over two years now, and like yourself with plenty of practice; the tone, volume, articulation and latterly the rhythm in my case are all improving. Again, I was having some problem with the endurance. In my case I felt literally " Blown Out " after a couple of tunes. I thought to myself, this will never do. How am I going to learn these tunes if I can’t get through them. I decided on a compromise. If I was going to extend the playing time - something would have to give. I concluded it would have to be the volume. Now that I’m not trying to lift the ceiling, I’ve managed to extend my playing time considerably. Another interesting development arose as a consequence, my embouchure improved as well. It seems not only was I tiring myself out quickly by blowing too hard, but it was also having a detrimental effect on my embouchure delivery. I read somewhere that “Playing the flute should require no more exertion than normal conversation.”
I don’t know how true this is, but is certainly an interesting concept that I try to keep at the back of my mind.
Above all, try and stay relaxed about it, and remind yourself how far you have come. Anytime I get; anxious,uptight, disappointed, and all those other negative things about my playing - the worse it gets!
P.S. I have often listened/watched to the youtube link put up. Simply Sublime.
Playing a flute, much like singing, is an athletic activity. Aerobic exercise, running, walking, swimming, help. I think sit-ups help. Of course one wants to strengthen one’s embouchure. Something that I think helps do that is playing higher pitched flutes/fifes, e.g. in Bb. These are more demanding embouchure-wise, and one isn’t limited to exercises. Simply playing tunes on them, for the joy of doing so, strengthens one’s embouchure and transfers positively to D flute.
I’ve been playing the flute for over twenty-five years now. Playing in a session for hours can be exhausting no matter what instrument you’re playing. As the man said: “Playing the flute should require no more exertion than normal conversation.” I don’t know how true this is… It is indeed very true. Try for a clear sound and the volume will come of its own. If you force the music, the the music you make will sound forced rather than lovely, full of air rather than melody.
Lots of good advice already, but the athletic comparisons are also true in the literal sense that you are progressively training your body to be a good flute player in the same way that you might train your body to be a good runner.
Whether taking bucket-loads of steroids works for flute-playing I’ve no idea, but I suspect that the basis of much of the more natural and ethical approach might.
One approach that might help would be to play until you hit the point that you feel you’re starting to drop off of peak performance; take a 10 / 15 minute break from practising; then go back and play again.
You may not feel any immediate improvement, but I would suspect that you will after a few weeks of this regime, in that both the individual playing sessions will get longer, and the recovery time between will be getting shorter.
And to extend the athletic analogy further, always remember that learning to be a good flute player is a marathon not a sprint …
My fitness is well above the average, I´m 34 and I was amateur cyclist some years ago, I have competed against people like Alberto Contador or Alejandro Valverde, now I don`t train five hours a day but my lungs and my heart still going strong.
Hello David, At your age and past levels of physical activity, I would imagine it to be highly unlikely that you will have any issues with fitness levels. From the sound of it, you are still looking for an embouchure that works for you. I initially tried the Thin Lipped Tense Smile ( the one that had me blown out after a couple of tunes ) and I have to admit I used it a lot longer than I should. The real breakthrough for me came, whilst watching my son Joseph playing. I noticed that he was generating a much clearer tone with just as much projection as myself without so much physical effort. His embouchure appeared to be much more relaxed/looser than mine. He seemed to be leaning in more to the head and his top lip just about covered the entire embouchure hole. So, getting nowhere, other than knackered fast, I shamelessly copied his style. It took a little bit of time to make the adjustment, but the improvement was remarkable. I am now able to play with a clearer tone for longer periods of time and simply haven’t looked back.
I came to the conclusion that the former style I had employed (The Sardonic Smile ) was basically very inefficient in my case. Most of the air was driven " ACROSS " the embouchure and being wasted. Big Effort = Poor Result. With the latter
( The Relaxed Hooded Cowl ) more of the air was being driven " Down " into the head resulting in a clearer, richer tone.
Less Effort = Better Result.
I have discovered, through trial and error, that the advice Julia Delaney gave you makes complete sense, and I for one intend to follow it. Owen.
I have to say that after some months of practice, my thoughts go in the same direction as yours. I could see that a relaxed and well covered embouchure is better and easier to maintain, maybe it’s harder to get a good tone and loud but I think that it will come with time and practice.
… the endurance. I can´t hold the tone and the volume more than a couple of tunes, after that my embouchure progressively worsens and finally it sucks and I fall of the tune,
I’m no flute player of any consequence, but I do like to dabble. I found, purely by accident, after taking up clarinet (to a similar standard), that my flute embouchure improved dramatically!
I’m guessing the extra lip muscle activity involved for the clarinet “toned up” my embouchure, allowing me to better control my flute.
So, just a suggestion, if you’re looking for a pleasureable way of tightening up your lip muscles, you could try a clarinet. I’d suggest one of the cheaper alternatives, a Hanson Chalumeau for example http://www.hansonclarinets.com/Hanson_Clarinet_Company._Making_Music_in_Great_Britain./Chalumeau.html though there are some very nice-looking (slightly more expensive) wooden versions available from several other manufacturers
I have no intention of buying a clarinet, mainly because I have not idea at all how to play it.
The chalumeau-type instruments are just (basically) 8-hole instruments, open each hole in turn for the next higher note, C up to D in the next octave. Primarily diatonic, some accidentals are available. If you can play an open-hole flute, whistle, or recorder, the fingering will be almost second nature. A bit of practice learning how to “blow” the thing is all it takes to get started
A “proper” clarinet is a whole different ball-game, with all those keys getting in the way and leaky pads and other awkward stuff!
breath support: aperture of lips should provide enough support to the air stream in direct opposition to the air pressure created as the stream hits the hole. at any point in time this relationship can go south and foul up everything for a few different reasons like the muscles losing not having endurance, inadvertently changing shape of the lips jostling around the flute etc. constant practice on the same flute allows you to become familiar with how much pressure each note requires on the particular flute.
finding the sweespot: unknowingly changing the angle of the lips to the embouchure hole during the course of playing, slight unintentional movements, may alter the airstreams from hitting the ‘sweetspot’
embouchure muscle exercises: by practicing forming the lips as if to sound each vowel you may improve control over of the embouchure muscles: “a”, “e” ,“i” ,“o”, “u” all create different apertures and tonal variations - good for flexible embouchure control.
breath control: practice long tones to teach yourself nice breath control
