I was just playing my flute when for some reason I decided not to lift my fingers up so much. All of a sudden everything felt easier and I was playing faster (wasn’t trying to). I never realised the difference it made.
The bad news - I have such a habit of raising my fingers high of the flute that I can’t seem to keep them low and take advantage of the improvement in ease of playing. Has anyone got any suggestions on how to train myself other than tie my fingers down?
If you’re using the piper’s grip, ya could tie fishing weights to the tips of yer fingers.javascript:emoticon(‘:)’)
play slowly enough that you can be sure you’re doing it right. and use a mirror.
I find the more relaxed I am, or rather that my fingers are, the less I move them. If I’m learning a chune, I’m stiffer and raise my fingers higher. Once I’m comfortable I relax and it’s hard for someone else to see what I’m fingering sometimes. Try being conscious of relaxing your fingers. And then just barely wiggle them to play. Works automatically for me.
Carey
monkey587 - I looked in a mirror as soon as I stumbled across my new discovery, it was then I realize just how much I lift my fingers! But yes I should keep looking.
Carey - you are absolutely right about being relaxed. I noticed that my fingers had relaxed and thought that may be the reason for them not moving too much. Intresting what you said about people not being able to see what you are playing. Perhaps I could make a conscious effort to acheive that.
jtrout - unfortunately I don’t use pipers grip so I can’t try out the weights!
Karl,
Buy heavy gold rings, or platinum if you prefer a white metal javascript:emoticon(‘:D’)
I can help!javascript:emoticon(‘:twisted:’)
Tjones
The “correct” way to play a flute is just as what you’ve done, to lift the fingers no more than is necessary to fully vent the tone holes.
ITM technique, however, sometimes does have the fingers flying way up in the air, if only to prepare for the next tone. Basically, it’s an ITM sort of thing.
Now that you know the difference, the difference is yours to choose, and congratulations!
This is a great flute topic.
After reading Terry McGee’s article on his website about the Rockstro grip, I decided to try moving my right thumb from the bottom of the flute to the side of the flute (if looking down the barrel from the headjoint, it’s like moving from 6 o’clock on the botton to 3 o’clock on the side) to help push/creat leverage with the left index being the fulcrum. What I found was that the best consequence of doing this was that my right hand fingers were lower, something I’ve been concerned about for a long time. Still working on it; thanks for the reminder.
Jason
While we’re talking about relaxed fingers, the next thing you will encounter if you have not already, is that you don’t have to move all your fingers all the time. Well, I mean all the ones that have open holes on the fingering charts. Each instrument is different in how it tolerates lazy fingering, so you’ll have to experiment but many times when moving thru a note on the way to a third note you can just vent one or two holes and leave the balance in place. This provides better stability as well as speeding up the process. It sounds funny saying its quicker to lift only two fingers rather than four when you lift them all at once, but it is easier and is somehow less distracting or more enjoyable.
You might find higher finger clearance produces snappier ornaments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu26Y0DXyT8
Avoid tensing up. Slow down and strive for accurate finger placement and timing.