I’ve vary rarely posted here but have recently started another attempt to get somewhere with the wooden flute.
I gave my flute to a very very good player and was really taken aback at how loud it was capable of sounding and wondered if anyone has ever measured the volume you can get from a wooden flute. Maybe some flutes are built for volume or maybe it’s the embouchure or maybe both.
For me this is the most important thing right now. I’d like to eventually develop a good style but at the moment volume and tone is what I’m trying to work on.
Here’s an exercise from my old wind instructor: First try to achieve the fullest, most resonant, pleasing tone you can. Make no attempt to play loud. Concentrate on quality of sound. Now, play as quietly as you can and still maintain the same quality of tonal production. Now increase the volume maintaining the quality of your sound. This is a good exercise for long tones-scales-chordal practice. Never sacrifice tonal production for volume.
Right, you need to be able to play quietly to be able to play loudly. And strive for quality of tone first and foremost–quantity (volume) will follow almost as a side effect.
Hello John. Flute maker and enthusiast Terry McGee has done such tests on the volume that wooden flutes can be played at in the following link. http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Grey.htm
During his collaboration with traditional flute player Grey Larsen, McGee compared the volume of three flutes; a Rudall & Rose copy with medium holes, a Pratten copy with large holes and a small holed antique flute made by the American firm of Firth, Pond & Co. The results from this experiment were quite surprising, as the Firth, Pond & Co. could compete quite comfortably with the two modern replicas. Popular public opinion generally has it that the modern large holed Irish flutes are louder. Out of curiosity John, what instrument do you play? I have found that good embouchure control can improve volume and tone on any flute.
Joseph.
You know that little knob on the closed-off end of the flute? The one they usually tell you not to fiddle with unless you really know what you’re doing? Well,
i just came back to this thread as i don’t usually look at the flute forum
i’m fortunate enough to have a doyle concert flute
i moved the embouchure hole just a fraction towards my mouth and it seems to have made volume louder - i’ve also noticed that if i move it much further it doesn’t seem to be any more beneficial and actually seems to deteriorate
it would be interesting if you could use coloured powdered air (i’m not sure what the right terms are) to visualise airflow as it hits the flute the way they measure air as it interacts with an airplane wing - i’m sure someone will now say that this has already been done
I’ve had the opportunity to own quite a few outstanding flutes at one time or another, and to play a lot more. The flutes I’ve kept at this point are my Olwells (keyed, unkeyed, and bamboo), a Grinter (keyed), a Copley (unkeyed delrin), and a Doyle (unkeyed with no tuning slide).
Out of these my two favorites to play are the unkeyed Olwell and the Doyle (the others are also excellent). In comparing them, I find them both very easy to play and quite similar in embouchure demands. In general I have a very strong tone and volume, and this is true when playing both flutes. With the Olwell I feel I am able to play a little bit louder and really push the flute a bit harder, but I have a bit harder time getting the high notes to be as sweet as I’d like them. With the Doyle, I get a very strong, satisfying tone, find the flute to be very, very playable and love the woodiness of it, but do find it significantly quieter than the Olwell, which is not a problem unless I’m playing in a big session. Both flutes are superb and really I don’t think you can wrong with a Doyle. I’m at work now (yes, reading the Chiffboard), but I’ll try to record some comparisons and post them in the next several days.
To add a wrinkle, there are flutes with about the same volume, but one projects better. Volume is one thing, projection another–the latter is the power to ‘cut through’ sound and to be heard at a distance. IMO, flutes with a fully metal lined headjoint tend to have better projection than THAT flute would have with an all wood or partially lined head joint. Please note this is not to say that no all wood or partially lined flute projects better than any flute with a fully lined headjoint. It’s just one factor among many, but it can help give a flute an edge.
Hello John, I believe Martin Doyle makes excellent flutes ( lucky you ). I’ve heard nothing but good things about this man’s instruments and shall have to try one out myself. How long have you been playing ? Trying to find the " Sweet Spot " on a flute’s embouchure is always a worthwhile endeavour. Can I suggest you stand in front of a large mirror when you are playing your flute and make close observations regarding your embouchure, making a mental note of your position when the sound is clearest with good tone ( " Sweet Spot " ). Standing fairly close to the mirror will also bounce back the sound you are making very effectively. Once you have found it, with plenty of practice, muscle memory and your ears should do the rest.
I would not be preoccupied with volume - if you try for the clearest/richest sound you can manage on each note your embouchure will improve over time and so will your projection.
Have Fun Owen.
i’m still trying to achieve the big sound, hard d etc. - ‘back’ d is a great note - broad, strident and perfect for crans
but tonight it felt like i’d regressed - i couldn’t settle on an embouchure position and the tone was weedy and watery
a great thing about the flute is that you can carry it in a shoulder bag so you can find on the fly practicing opportunities at bus stops, railway waiting rooms (if there’s no one else there), public parks, unoccupied carriages on trains, subways and church yards (i’ve sometimes been offered money because people think i’m busking) - i particularly enjoy playing where i’m audible but passers by can’t easily see me and aren’t sure if they might be having auditory hallucinations
there’s a bus station i use at night that’s crawling with rats - i wonder if there’s a tone on the flute so piercing and painful to rodent ears that it would make them flee, like the opposite of the pied piper? i’m being semi serious
John: “I particularly enjoy playing where i’m audible but passers by can’t easily see me and aren’t sure if they might be having auditory hallucinations.” the phantom fluter
This might sound odd, but sometimes when I need more volume I direct my wind flow a little more to the left, back up into the flute head towards the set cork. But not too drastically. FWIW.
) Mind you, if you twist it, it does have an effect on volume.
)
the phantom fluter 