I have a Seery keyless delrin flute. When I first start playing the sound is nice and clear but the more I play it seems there is a gradual loss in the initial clarity of the instrument. It is really quite frustrating and disappointing.
Is it caused by my weakening embouchure (after playing for a while - I’m new at this) or is this typical of the delrin flutes due to moisture, warming up, etc???
I suspect that just about every flute player has run into the same problem at one time or another, whether they play a wood flute or a delrin one. You can clear the condensed water out of the flute by closing all of the tone holes with your fingers, then blowing hard into the embouchure with your mouth sealed over it. Do this with the foot of the flute pointed downward.
Fatigue of your facial muscles probably contributes to the loss of tone. That aspect should improve with more playing, though even experienced players can be afflicted periodically with embouchure problems.
Dave Copley
Loveland, Ohio
[ This Message was edited by: dcopley on 2002-02-02 22:33 ]
I have some experience of this problem. In my case it was caused by too tightly focussed a stream of air into the flute. Don’t know if this applies to you but holding the lips too tightly in a “smile” is a bad idea and is very common. You should try to push out the gap between your lips to a rounder shape. It won’t be round, of course, but that’s what it feels like and what’s the point of a round hole blown by a slit between your lips! If you haven’t already then you should observe your lips while you’re playing. This is because a further problem that I’ve seen is that people don’t appreciate how one-sided the embouchure can be (The Larry Krantz site has a great set of images for this point). You can set your lips to open in the middle before you blow the flute but then placing the flute on your lip pushes the opening to one side. It’ important to make sure that the flute is adjusted so that the stream of air is making a “straight” entry. It’s way easier to adjust the flute position than to change your lip position. A relaxed embouchure is crucial in flute playing and pushing your lips around where they don’t want to be is a sure source of tension and then fatigue.
[ This Message was edited by: JGrant-Skerries on 2002-08-12 05:49 ]