I believe that this topic was discussed several times on the board. Please be patient wih me.
I am a beginner. Luckly, I borrowed an Erik bamboo flute (Erik 93) from a friend last week. The length of the flute is approximate 16.5 inch. I guess it is a G key flute. It took me one day to make sound and two days to play songs on flute. But I made lots of “sa sa” breath (air) noise when I played songs. I cannot make pure sound when I play. I guess that my mouth shape and/or my air blowing technique might be incorrect. Please help me to solve this problem. Thanks.
Make a BIG smile with your lips and then curl them over your teeth. This is called the flute players “smile”. If you wish a wispery “flute tone”, you must roll the embouchure hole away from your lips. If you want a “reedy tone”, roll the embouchure hole towards your lips.
Once you find the “Tone Color Position” you desire, you can then adjust the tuning slide for proper pitch. This isn’t a “perfect” explanation, but I hope it helps.
I’m struggling with the SAME THING and it certainly helped me. I got a better sound immediately.
Of course, the sound also deteriorated right away. I can get a good sound for about a minute every time I play, when I hit that sweet spot. And then it goes away and I can’t get it back.
I’m a real real beginner (whistle player that wants to flute) and so I only “play” about 5 min a day. I’m just trying to get a tone!
It’s tricky stuff. Embouchure style can depend on facial construction, but not always. I used to do the “smile” style, but the sides of my mouth are much less drawn taut now, and the airway, although focused, is rather more relaxed than in the past. What seems to be the determining factor for eliminating breath noise in my own case is a feeling of not so much blowing the note, but rather breathing it. You can still get mucho volume this way.
Funny, but all my flute teachers and most of the accomplished players I’ve talked to agree not to concentrate to much on getting rid of the airy sound but rather on getting the tone to ring or resonate. Some even talked of an “air cushion” around the central tone to give it projection. Others called it a “cover” over the sound. I guess you need that airy sound to give the sound its character. I would do long tones to get the air stream directed right and get as much overtones in the sound to get resonance.
Play some long tones. Even for just a few minutes every day. They are
boring but I’ve found it gets the quickest results for improving tone
generally. Listen for the best tone you can get on each note. I’m sure
someone else here probably has the details on how to do them. I’ll look
for a link that explains how to do it if no one chimes in. But meanwhile
just, play an A and count to 6 and then (no tonguing or breath) move to
B and count to 6 and then take a breath. Then start on B and go up.. etc..
breath - A(23456)B(23456) - breath - B(23456)c(23456) - breath -
c(23456)c# (23456) - breath - d etc. as high as you can go comfortably,
then go backwards down, 2 notes on a breath, all the way to low D or
however far you can get comfortably.
When you get a sound you like, hold it a sec and think about the position
of your mouth and arms and head, which will help you remember how
you made the good tone.
Some people (Seámus Egan for example) use the “pouting fish” embouchure where the upper lip juts out further than the bottom and the air stream comes from the left side of his lips and it appears to be directed almost straight down. His lip opening is very close to the opposite edge of the blow hole.
Kieran O’Hare uses the center of his lips and if you stand in fron of him and look straight at him, you can’t see the blow hole. He gets the loudest, reediest tone I have ever heard. Much louder than his bagpipes!
