First Thing's First!

Irish Flute
1

Today I spent a wonderful day with a relatively “newbie” flute player.
And doing a few tunes together it struck me, as it has in the past with other new players, that far too much attention is being paid to finger work and little or no attention to the quality of tone and note production.

I’ve probably said this many many times before, but the best flute players in the world are not those whose finger trickery is fastest or whose cuts/taps/rolls are cleanest. The best players are those whose tone is smoothest, clearest and fullest.

Simply said, there is absolutely no substitution, in my opinion, for a good quality tone. And that can come from the weakest of German-made flutes to the finest name-brand antique or newly-made reproduction. Truly, it is the player, not the flute, all things being equal.

As I noted to this player today, who has the basic skills to be a very fine flute player, take the time to work on tone and intonation. The caliber of the sound you produce on your flute will go a long way to helping your confidence as a player and entertain your listeners. Too many players want to do the fancy stuff without first having the basic of good sound.

Good tone will help listeners overlook your simple form of play or muffed ornaments. But the converse is not true. In fact, it will only accentuate your shortcomings.

For what it’s worth. Putting in 10 mins each day, or certainly before your normal practice session, working on the basics of tone production – long notes, pulsing notes, arpeggios, taps, octaves, whatever – will help immeasurably in making you a better player.

It’s very much like a marathon runner. Training requires building up to the distance. Your muscles, your wind, etc. Once there, and once that you can do the distance, you work on besting your time. The analogy works for flute playing.

I hope this helps get a few players, even experienced ones, back to exercising their flutes and not forgetting that we all want to listen to you play…and want you to be happy and confident that we are!

dm

2

Hear, Hear! This is good stuff. David, I agree tone is the foundation to good flute-playing. All the fancy fingers in the world can’t make up for a solid, clear sound. IMHO, the ability to express yourself through shaping that sound is what music is all about.

There’s no substitute for a great teacher for learning tone. Even a Boehm-teacher can help with this in a pinch, should there be no good Irish flute teachers in your area.

Dana

3

This is an interesting topic. As a newcomer to Irish flute, with 20+ years on the Boehm flute, I’m wondering if either of you (or someone else) can address the embouchure differences between Irish trad flute playing and Boehm.

I have no trouble getting a sound on my Irish flute, no trouble with octaves, etc. I practice long tones, harmonics, etc. I’ve been doing a lot of listening to quite a few traditional recordings (Hammy Hamilton, Conal O’Grada, John Skelton, Paddy Cardy) to get a better sound concept of the Irish flute tone possibilities. I have to say that my favorites, though, are Chris Norman–who has a strong background in Baroque, etc. flute–and Jean-Michel Veillon. Am I correct in thinking that these two artists are not strictly “Irish trad” prototypes? (If there is such a thing?)

Tone IS certainly important.

4

I am a beginner to flute playing period, so with a grain of salt…

I have read on some website, sorry that I can’t remember where, that for Boehm flutes they are blown more across the top of the embouchure, and for traditional, aka pre-Boehm, they are blown more directly into the embouchure.

YMMV,
Tony

5

When I started lessons, it was all about embouchure, tone, breath, etc., not at all about mechanics. Actually, it still is. All that work is paying huge dividends. Next step is interpretation. I suspect mechanics will only be discussed in relation to interpretation.

6

Not surprisingly, you’re absolutely right, David. :wink:

I get crazy (or crazier) when people go on about ornaments and speed, or which flute will make you sound better than which, when little attention is paid to making the music sound good, tone being a major piece of this.

But I also think it’s more than purely playing your tones well, although to get there, you’re right; good embouchure tone must be at the center of it all. But every music, particularly ITM, needs to feel right in order to sound right. What’s most important is that the music is approached in a, well, musical way – that is, lyrically and naturally. That’s why flutes that are truly inferior (technically) can be played well by a good player and still sound good - the music, the rhythm, the speed chosen, feels good, and so it sounds good. Playing the music with an authoritative tone and a natural conviction is what must be worked towards; all the rest is icing, and bad icing at that, if it only adorns a tasteless and badly made cake.

I just realized I’m hungry..

Gordon

7

David - Right on with your post! We both share a background in fife playing and I found the following on the fifeanddrum.org Company web site - ordered it and am using it:

“better stronger and faster exercises for fife” by bill Hart. It has all you recommend and then some for pre-play warm up type exercises. I was just working on arpeggios when I took a break to check out C&F.

Thanx for the post.

BillG

8

That’s good to know, Bill.

Seeing as Bill Hart and I are old friends and not only jammed together on many a night – we used to grab old manuscripts of flute music of Quantz, Devienne and Telemann and just sight read the duets/quartets for the fun of it – but Bill and I competed against each other as soloists for many a year. He’s a terrific guitarist as well!
If you run into him ever, please give him my best. All we seem to do these days is exchange Christmas cards. By the way, he married to a young lady named Tishka who is one of the finest fifers you’ll ever hear. She’s also a doll of a woman.

To that end…

gordon, you’re right, but while the musicality, the style, cannot be overstated for its importance, you cannot – you MUST not, I feel – overlook the caliber of tone as the basic foundation. That’s why this post was titled “First Thing’s First.” I’ve taught fife and flute for many, many years. The trickiest thing is always tone and breathing. Once you have good control, not expert control, but good control, the rest is easily possible. But like the fingers, embouchure is good muscle memory.

I watch some flute players and they actually look like they’re in pain. Their faces are all scrunched, or pulled taught enough to snap! It’s awful. The flute is to be very relaxed. No puffed cheeks (although I’ve seen this, too!), arms comfortably aligned with shoulders, elbows down (although the military style is to have the left elbow (for righties) up and out) and relaxed. Sometimes the flute should be on an angle (but not your head!) to drain.

The key to good tone on wood flute is a directed blow that is relaxed, yet firm. Blowing across the tone hole is fine, but will result in thin sounds. Quiet and sweet if needed. Downward blowing is much more gruff and attacked. Aggressive and dark.
Somewhere between these options is perfect tone. And that varies with the flute head.

Anyway…these are instructions best left for other materials, classes, research, etc. My point is, pay attention to the smallest of details in your playing and practice and you wil reap the rewards in happiness.

dm

9

That’s good to know, Bill.

Seeing as Bill Hart and I are old friends and not only jammed together on many a night – we used to grab old manuscripts of flute music of Quantz, Devienne and Telemann and just sight read the duets/quartets for the fun of it – but Bill and I competed against each other as soloists for many a year. He’s a terrific guitarist as well!
If you run into him ever, please give him my best. All we seem to do these days is exchange Christmas cards. By the way, he married to a young lady named Tishka who is one of the finest fifers you’ll ever hear. She’s also a doll of a woman.

To that end…

gordon, you’re right, but while the musicality, the style, cannot be overstated for its importance, you cannot – you MUST not, I feel – overlook the caliber of tone as the basic foundation. That’s why this post was titled “First Thing’s First.” I’ve taught fife and flute for many, many years. The trickiest thing is always tone and breathing. Once you have good control, not expert control, but good control, the rest is easily possible. But like the fingers, embouchure is good muscle memory.

I watch some flute players and they actually look like they’re in pain. Their faces are all scrunched, or pulled taught enough to snap! It’s awful. The flute is to be very relaxed. No puffed cheeks (although I’ve seen this, too!), arms comfortably aligned with shoulders, elbows down (although the military style is to have the left elbow (for righties) up and out) and relaxed. Sometimes the flute should be on an angle (but not your head!) to drain.

The key to good tone on wood flute is a directed blow that is relaxed, yet firm. Blowing across the tone hole is fine, but will result in thin sounds. Quiet and sweet if needed. Downward blowing is much more gruff and attacked. Aggressive and dark.
Somewhere between these options is perfect tone. And that varies with the flute head.

Anyway…these are instructions best left for other materials, classes, research, etc. My point is, pay attention to the smallest of details in your playing and practice and you wil reap the rewards in happiness.

dm

10

i would say that tone would be just one facet of good fluting. other things like clean fingering, rhythm, phrasing, playing in tune and within one’s own capabilities and limits etc. all contribute equally as well. true, in some cases tone production is the lagging thing and needs to be developed before moving on.

above all, the first thing is the love of the music. someone who can impart that in their playing has the key. it’s great to see a beginner grow in their appreciation and love of the music, regardless of their abilities. everything else comes thru practice.

(btw,rockstro’s treatise has a section in it that covers tone quite well and has a chart on the constituents of tone which is quite helpful in what to look for in tone (hollow vs. full, etc.) unfortunately i do not have a copy of it has it is a difficult book to acquire)

11

David,
Thanks for the excellent post. This is good topic for discussion.
I’ve been playing the flute for about 3 and half years now, pretty fanatically, and I just, about 3 weeks ago, started to really feel like I locked my tone in (more or less). The honest truth is that without proper embouchure, tone and breathing, the flute doesn’t respond properly to ornaments, making them sound sloppy whether the fingering is good or not. For a long time I played with horrible tone and breathing, but decent fingering, and the ornaments sounded pretty darn bad on the flute though I had them locked in on the whiste.
I think one challenge is that many of us come to flute from the whistle, where we’re already established decent fingering techniques. We expect that we can just pick up the flute and play it with the ease that we play the whistle. The truth, however, is that the flute responds quite differently than the whistle, and if embouchure, tone and breathing are not good the fingering won’t respond well at all.
My lower octave has been pretty decent for a year or so, but I’ve had real trouble getting a nice, sweet, but crisp and strong upper octave that was consistant with the lower octave. Recently I started practicing playing the harmonics, as detailed in Grey’s book, and it has been amazingly effective. Now that I can play the fifth harmonic it makes the second octave seem like no effort at all… I recommend it to everyone.
A nice way to really work on solid tone is to play along with slow reels or jigs on CD, working really hard to match the tone on the album. I particularly like playing with the slower tunes on Larry Nugent’s “The Windy Gap” and with some of the tunes on Marcus O’Murchu’s CD. When playing along with a fast tune you can kind of ignore the fact that your tone is crap, but when the tune is at a good, stately pace you simply can not pretend your tone is good when it’s not.
Best,
Chris

12

I’m the newbie player Dave was helping on Saturday.

I’ll tell you that it was simply the best to visit with Dave and get some really good pointers. I know that my tone has a lot to be desired right now, and I think that some of it comes back to what Chris was saying about the whistle. I have a lot of the finger technique down, but without tone I’ve got nothing. I have the Grey Larsen book, but I haven’t picked it up much. I’ll check into those harmonic exercises. Definitely the second octave is the roughest. High A and B are just a killer for me. Dave told me that one winter to improve his golf game that he just practiced putting in his basement each morning for a little while. By the springtime just that little bit of practice each day had paid off. He said that’s what I need to do with tone. Don’t start off right into tune practice. Just spend 5-10 minutes on arpeggios(sp?) or the like and concentrate on tone only.

At the session last night Dave played an incredible air. He was going from the lower octave up the the third octave with no trouble at all. He just has complete command of the instrument. I read somewhere in some liner notes that slow airs are what separates the men from the boys. Hearing Dave play that tune I understood what that meant.

As an aside. It was very cool to check out the flutes in Dave’s collection and the ones he’s restoring. Being able to hold and play flutes that are in museums elsewhere is really invaluable. Comparing the instruments to each other and having Dave there to fill in the history was great.

13

i think you’re dead on, david. tone on the flute is the basic building block upon which good flute playing stands or falls. although i also agree with rama that perhaps even more fundamental is love for the music/instrument. so first comes love, then tone and then everything else follows.

14

Let’s not forget LOVE of flute should be first… :wink:

Don, you’ve been listening! :party:

That air is actually a Scottish lamentation. A tad different, but not a lot. In one spot it runs from mid-G (or g’’ if you like) to high E (or e’‘’) in one move, an interesting use of embouchure only, especially if you want to control pitch and volume. Many people mistake volume for pitch…in other words, if it’s a higher note you must blow harder. :sniffle:

And I played it on the Eb flute, so it seems even brighter. That was the first time I tried that tune on the Eb and I really liked it. Especially keeping d’‘’ so tight, sweet and barely discernable in volume. Great tune.

dm

15

“wuv, sweet wuv”…

(name that movie and i’ll give you my keyed olwell when it arrives this summer)

16

The Princess Bride??

When will it be coming?? :laughing:

17

Doh. Uh, yeah, real soon. real real soon. :astonished:

18

I’m working a lot on tone right now because I have a new flute and am getting to know it. This is a Bryan Byrne 6-key, a design based partly on a Rudall Carte with medium-sized bore and tone holes, but when you get into the zone the sound penetrates like almost no other flute I’ve played. I was sitting in the kitchen playing tunes during my lunch break today, and the crystal wine glasses in the cabinet on the far side of the room were all ringing. And that was with the cabinet door closed.

One key word to keep in mind when developing your tone is focus. When your tone is focused, the flute plays in tune and is more responsive, and the sound really carries. A focused tone on a German student flute will sound much stronger and more penetrating than a fluffy tone on the finest Pratten. You’ll also be able to take longer phrases between breaths because your air isn’t being wasted. The sound of your flute will cut through the noisiest session, yet you won’t be using much more air than you would on a tin whistle.

Another key word is consistency. One you discover how to get into the “zone” on a flute, you want to be able to stay there. Line up the embouchure hole the same way each time so you know where you are, and so you can use muscle memory to help you get the particular tone you want. Keep your fingers fairly close to the flute and relax so you avoid hitting the tone holes so hard that you jostle the headjoint and spoil the airflow.

19

There’s the rub – the “locked” part. I’ve gotten so that I can make the good tone (actually, a few – pure, round, reedy, and occasionally even dirty), but not consistently. Sometimes I’ll have it for an hour or two, sometimes I’ll get it, then lose it the first time I take a breath.

I think one challenge is that many of us come to flute from the whistle, where we’re already established decent fingering techniques. We expect that we can just pick up the flute and play it with the ease that we play the whistle.

Fortunately, there’s this thing that happens to many of us the first few times we play the flute called “dizziness” or “passing out”, which puts to rest any notions that we’ll just be able to play the flute right off. :wink:

20

verwy verwy interesting. all of what you’ve said, but particularly this. this seems, at least to me, to be one of the superb suprises about flute playing. that the wonderful bold flute tone comes not from pounding the flute in the general vicinity of the embochure hole with a hurricane force airstream, but with a very small but precisely focused airstream…

the better i get at flute, the more it strikes as not that different from the playing the whistle in many respects…