Help! I cannot get a consistent tone out of my flute. It’s too quiet, it’s too soft, and I run out of breath real fast. What am I doing wrong!? Can somebody please help me by giving me some tips for forming a good embouchure? I just can’t seem to get it. Somebody suggested rolling the flute head in towards me, but that hasn’t helped so far. Is that a good idea?
Thanks.
Max
i got myself a flute teacher to teach me embouchure for 3 weeks. after that, i was able to play on my own. look in the mirror while playing so you can see your lip formation and remember how they look like when you get a good consistent tone. the breathing for me took longer. take deep breaths in your stomach. i suppose the only thing that can be done is practice. after a while, things will begin to flow and make sense…after your lips and lungs get used to the flute. btw, i roll the flute head in.
Robespierre used to recommend rolling the head forward, but went off the idea towards the end !
I have had to re-enrol as someone else as my name is in use - by me !
I tried Andrea, but that is taken .Failure again.Lucky there is a Frustration thread here. Even better than a political thread !
max, stop by next time you’re getting a violin class, were only 3 blocks from there, bring the flute, and we’ll check it out.
our number 646-6227.
eilam.
Good to see you back, Andrew. Wondered where you’d got to.
LOL
Oh Max. Thankx for this thread. I haven`t smiled in such a long time. Black is the color of the world I live in now. But be that as it may, your frustration so reminded me of my own crys for mercy I just had to chuckle. First of all EMBOSURE can be just about the most unachievable physical undertaking required of our presious instruments. Of course, once achieved it takes its place amoung to more mundane such as how to hold the stupid thing and which end to blow in and such. Here are a few things that helped me:
First you must have a flute that can penatrate regular half inch wall board
(thank you Allen)
Second you must practice in at atmosphere that allows insanely loud bursts of the worst kind of profanity to go unnoticed.
Third you must have the self punishment mantality only achieved through
years of membership in some christian faith. (thankyou catholics everywhere)
Fourth everyday must be a new beggining. You must except the fact that an inatament object has just humbled you to tears. Tears which you can only hope nobody has seen.
Fifth and a point that I feel is most important, when that little devil accidently pours forth a tone of reasonable quality(that it is a note on a scale of some sort) you must not disect what just happened. Rather injoy the moment so that you can remember why you started this self abuse in the first place.
Sixth don`t worry. The stupid lip thing will end when it is good and ready and there is nothing you can do about it. 
You will just all of a sudden be playing the damn thing and woundering why it was such a problem.
Now Max there you go. Keep a stiff lower lip and press on. If the flute is in your blood it will take over and there will be nothing you can do about that either 
Take care;
Tom
Thanks for the words of encouragment!
everyday must be a new beggining.
Yes, it couldn’t be more true. One night, I’ll be playing along happily, and wondering why things are sounding good all of a sudden, and the next morning I try to play and can’t get anything out of it for the next several days.
Eilam, sorry I didn’t take up your earlier invitation, but I’d still love to stop by. I could probably come next Wednesday. I’ll give you a call soon.
Thanks all!
Max
Thank you Nanohedron.
While being banned for touselling the sensibilities of what I suspect is some coven of primative flute worshippers who lurk somewhere in the mountains of the southern United States ( in an area they probably share with the Bigfoot, and the Littlebrain ) I have been buying flutes I really don’t need. A boxwood and ivory Rudall and Rose tomorrow ! ( I do need that ) and a Rosewood Sweet, and an end blown Georgi flute this week. I must sell some duplicate to fund these extravagances,'cos it looks like there are more on the way ! One of my very fine Hudson Siccamas ( Wilkes restored ) perhaps , ( who needs two ? ) or a fully Wilkes restored Prowse, or what is probably Wylde, with a Wilkes headjoint & barrel.
In case there is anybody who has forgotten Robespierre, he was the prototype Bush, in that he initiated a reign of terror, only in France rather than Iraq.Having set the guillotine in motion he was guillotined himself . ( Try not to warn Bush what happens to mass murderers ).
welcome back Andrew!
show us pictures of the ones you want to sell, OK.
Tom – Great to hear from you. How the hell’s it going, man? Are you back in the lower 48?
Max, I’ll bet you got some pretty awful sounds out of the fiddle when you took it up. But you probably never passed out from playing it. Listen to Blackbeer – the flute will knock you out, embarrass you, and frustrate you. But in the first month, you’ll have a day when it all seems worth it. A good flute day. Then you’ll spend a few weeks wondering what on earth you did that day. The good days will become more frequent if the flute bug bites you. JFK said, “We do not do these things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard.” Works as well for playing the flute as it does for going to the moon, at least to me.
Holy smokes Alan, how could I miss spell your name so bad. Sorry about that but I cant figure out how to edit it. By the way I put a nickle in your flute and it now plays itself, and I cant get the nickle back out. I mean day in and day out grandfathers clock, I may have to send it back to ya.
Hi Charlie, no I am still up here in Ketchikan. Way to many fascist warmongers down there. Not good for someone like me. I just can`t be “PC” enough if you know what I mean.
Take care;
Tom
Hi, Max, glad you’re back!
I think this is normal. I’ll be playing along happily and stop for a minute, only to be unable to get any sound of the flute when I go back to it! It just seems to be a coordination thing.
Let us know what wisdom Eilam imparts! We can all use it!
<<Let us know what wisdom Eilam imparts! We can all use it>>
here are some words of wisdom:
got in the mail today my ebay #3762008345 $13 flute, cleaned the bore, new cork, oiled it, and after all this, I still think it was not worth the money. 
Hi Eilam,
Let me know when you want me to send you the lamp parts to make a Pakistani flute lamp. The whole in the middle is already drilled for the wiring…
Jon
hey, stop putting my lamp posts dawn, there made from “cocus” wood, really, the guy told me, and it’s just like a real R&R, LH section, and RH section.
Hey - maybe they get Rudalls and sand the makers mark off, and make them sound like shit, so no one will know?
Hey, Peggy – you probably already know this, but just in case … if your playing session has been going on for a while, say, 15 minutes or more and then your flute just seems to up and quit when you come back to it, sometimes it could be moisture/condensation settling in places like the fingerholes, etc. If that’s the case … try holding it vertically and giving it a gentle shake or a bounce on your knee; you can also roll it in and give a good blow directly into the blowhole – just in case you have any moisture clogging things up. And of course, you can also swab it out.
Only a FWIW, but that’s turned out to be the answer for me more than a few times!
… if your playing session has been going on for a while, say, 15 minutes or more and then your flute just seems to up and quit when you come back to it, sometimes it could be moisture/condensation settling in places like the fingerholes, etc.
Well, hmmm, I hadn’t really considered that. Thanks, Cathy!
I had discovered the moisture problem early on when I was playing along one fine evening and . . . kept feeling something running down my leg.
That was with a polymer. The boxwood Rudall has a partially lined headjoint and it’s not so bad . . . damp, but not as bad. I mop it out periodically.
Come to think of it, I had a problem similar to Fiddlecrazy’s. Playing fine for days, then suddenly no sound or muffly sound, often accompanied by a sensation that I was trying to blow up a leaky tire. That would go on for days. Incredibly frustrating!
Someone mentioned that it might be a problem with grease (or lack of it) on the threads. That turned out to be the issue. If the threads weren’t nicely gooey, the sound just didn’t happen. Apply grease, and the sound springs right back up.
Someone should make up a FAQ of frequently encountered beginner flute issues.