Advice please. I’m playing my
lovely bamboo low D by P. Olwell
and at last I’m playing with
other instruments and a tuner. Well, the
bottom three notes or so are pretty flat.
There is no tuning slide, of
course. I think the player
has some control over
flat notes, and I’m trying to
compensate by rolling the
the flute away from my mouth, etc.
Is this me, the flute, flutes
in general? The low D is flat,
the high D is on target, the
upper register is generally
on target. What to do? Thanks
I empathize! I spent the first few years on the flute wondering how the hell I was ever going to the friggin’ thing to play in tune - no matter what flute I played, I always played ridiculously flat.
What I eventually found to be a large part of the problem was a combo of two things. First, what is both a common rookie mistake and a habit even of advanced players is the tendency to “pucker up” to the flute, especially after you’ve been playing for a while and are starting to strain. The result is that the embrochure is forced away from the air source, both making it harder to sound the bottom notes and flatteing them considerably if you hit them at all. So, try to maintain a relaxed, but firm and restrained embrochure.
Also, those bottom holes are simply by nature harder than the rest to hit with enough air to bring the notes up to pitch. To a point, stronger blow = sharper pitch, so with a bit of practice and some lung development (experienced tip: the highland pipes are not, repeat not a good option in this pursuit), and you can hit the bottom three notes with sufficient force and consistency to sound them in pitch. Took me almost two years to get it right.
And have faith in your Olwell - a friend of mine took second at the Midwest Fleadh on one of those things, so rest assured they work!
On 2002-12-03 18:02, JamieHamilton wrote:
First, what is both a common rookie mistake and a habit even of advanced players is the tendency to “pucker up” to the flute, especially after you’ve been playing for a while and are starting to strain. The result is that the embrochure is forced away from the air source, both making it harder to sound the bottom notes and flatteing them considerably if you hit them at all. So, try to maintain a relaxed, but firm and restrained embrochure.
Yes exactly! A common myth with persuing the tight embouchure is that the mouth/jaw is tight all over, which doesn’t really work and makes one’s tone sound weak (or flatten the notes). This also happens when you’re tensing up because you’ve been playing for a while or nervous. A tight embouchure only means that the lips are firm/tight in the right places and only the right places. The rest of the mouth should not be tense.
The bottom notes of the flute’s range should be blown the hardest. If the notes are flat, my intuition is that you’re not giving them enough juice! I’ve got some tips on blowing and intonation on my website at http://www.geocities.com/feadanach/tuning.html. The current issue of Skip Healy’s “Skip’s Tips” deals with this too.
On 2002-12-05 14:18, Ro3b wrote:
The bottom notes of the flute’s range should be blown the hardest. If the notes are flat, my intuition is that you’re not giving them enough juice! I’ve got some tips on blowing and intonation on my website at > http://www.geocities.com/feadanach/tuning.html> . The current issue of Skip Healy’s “Skip’s Tips” deals with this too.
Hmm, I get a page not found message for your link…
Thanks to all. I have not bad
control and wind power by now, I
can get all the notes on the
flute into the third octave.
Also I seem not to be having this problem
on other flutes I’ve played recently,
e.g. Sweet flutes. What are
other’s experiences with Olwell
bamboo flutes in D?
I got an Olwell bamboo low D for a friend a couple of years ago and if I recall correctly, it was almost perfectly spot-on with a tuner for almost 2 octaves, and then got off. I have an Olwell bamboo low C, and it’s very well-in-tune for maybe 1 1/2 octaves and then gets a little flat, but you can bring it up.
Any strictly-cylindrical flute is going to be a little off, I think, but Pat does a good job of making concessions to the bore and coming off with nice, round tuning on the whole.
Speaking of bamboo flutes, anyone play a Dawson/Rhiannon flute? I’ve always been intrigued by them but never have played one.