Though I’ve played flute a long time I’ve never been happy with my tone. To my ears I always sound just a slight bit windy. Even after extended periods of practice when my lip is in real good shape.
I’d probably be better but I never took lessons so I’m sure there are little tricks I never learned. When I hear some flute players I am agog with admiration for their sweet tone.
Does anyone have any suggested excercises that will help make the tone louder and clear?
Not knowing what type of flute you’ve played for years, take or leave the following advise as needed:
Rotate the head joint so the embouchure hole is facing towards you. You’ll need to experiment to get it right.
The Dixon requires a focused emouchure to get a really clear tone. Blow towards the bottom edge of the embouchure hole not across it as you would with a silver/boehm flute.
Push out a bit with your right arm so you’re blowing more towards the end of the flute than straight at the far side of the embouchure hole.
Practice, practice, practice. I’d played off and on with a Hall Crystal flute and some cheap bamboo flutes for about 10 years, but my 3 months of serious practice with the Dixon has done more for me than the prior 10 years.
Eric
G4M, the best advice I ever got was here at C&F. Try a focused embouchure with the sense of blowing down the chin. Unlike the Boehm flute, the trad flute is best played by covering part of the hole with the lower lip and blowing more into the embouchure hole than across, and somewhat overblowing bottom D to bring it into tune w/ A which is not infrequently sharper otherwise. When it all falls together, that wonderful dry reedy tone happens in the lower register. I find in my case that the upper register requires me to change the embouchure, however. From abt. middle D on up, my embouchure changes to a more pursed, “kiss-like” form to get the best tone without having to increase volume to get to the upper register.
That being said, I hope that my idea of reediness as an ideal is what you meant by a sweet tone. 
Best,
N
Good advice.
I’ll add some of my own:
Breathe like a baby: Breathe from the belly to get the most air, not with the shoulders.
Stay uptight: try to make the hole in your lips a very flat oval, very small, for a tightly focused sound. Keep the lower lip pulled very tight.
Stay well-supported: use your abdominal muscles to keep constant pressure in your airstream.
Be a blow-hard: the idea is to use a small amount of very well-supported, fast-moving air. The combination of hard blowing and a very small, tightly focused embouchure will produce a nice “buzz.”
To play like you’re proud, stand (or sit) like you’re proud: keep your arms away from your body with the wrists straight. Keep the right arm up. Balance the flute–no one set of muscles should have to work very
hard at all to hold the flute up.
Play dirty: as a contrasting effect, try making the hole in your lips too large on purpose, and play with heavy breath accents. This is playing “dirty,” and it makes a nice contrast–as with any ornamentation, though, don’t overdo it or it looses its shock value.
Let Conal help: get’cha a Scoiltrad lesson, and when you send in the assessment tune, add a note that you are working on tone in particular.
These work well for me; your results may vary, and your results from flute to flute may vary as well.
Best wishes,
–James
There’s actually a few Skip’s Tips that deal with tone:
http://www.skiphealy.com/frames/fr_tips.htm
John Harvey
There is some really good advice so far…
I have been playing fife for many years and used the technique described above for covering a portion of the embouchure hole to clear the tone. After reading one of Skip’s tips (mentioned above) I have abandoned this. If the hole is not covered by the lip, with a little practice the volume increases and the tone is much easier to control. I have found in the short time that I have been playing flute that my tone and volume have increased.
That windy sound can be from an off center embouchure. I always “kiss” the embouchure hole and roll down the flute to center before playing. In the years that I have taught fife, this was the most successful tip for my students for producing a clear tone.
I have a few flutes that have very large embouchures or a large bore in the headjoint that also sound windy. Has anyone had this experience? Can this also be corrected with technique or is the flute to blame?
I would add a couple of thoughts.
While your embouchure should be tight and controlled, the flute should not be tight against your face. This can cause extra noise. It should rest there such that someone gently nudging the end of it could knock it out of place. Along the same lines, your grip should not be a death grip either. I mention this because there is a tendancy when working to tighten ones embouchure to tighten everything. Lips should be tight. Fingers, Arms, Throat, and Flute at lips, should all be loose. Also, the lower jaw should be extending toward the flute. It should not feel like your jutting your maxilla out as you would to blow a pop bottle.
Best,
Erik
I would second belteshazzar’s advice on not covering the embouchure hole – I play with the embouchure hole about lined up with the tone holes, or turned out slightly. Turned in slightly is also ok – experiment to see what gives you the best tone.
Another thing to remember is that tone doesn’t just come from the lips – it’s important to have a smooth, strong air stream all the way from the diaphragm up. To do this, you need to keep you chest and throat relaxed and “open” (which is always one of the hardest things for me)
Pay attention to the position of the flute on your lip – there is a tendency for the flute to slide down the chin a bit as one plays, which can hurt the tone.
Here are two exercises you can try:
The first are “long tones” – just pick a note and hold it as long as you can, trying to adjust the tone until it is perfect, and keep it that way. This also helps you to go longer without breathing.
Second, pick a note with good tone (the first octave B is pretty good), and play a long tone until you are happy with it. Then, play the note and hold it for about 3 (slow) beats, then go down by one note. Hold both notes long enough to really hear them. Try to make the tone of the second note match the tone of the first. Stop and breathe for a second, now repeat one note lower. (So you do BA breath, AG breath etc..) You can also do the same thing going up, or going by thirds.
Finally, I would really recommend finding a teacher if at all possible. Tone is one of the hardest things to develop on your own, and a good teacher will make a vast difference. It might even be worthwhile to seek out an open-minded classical flute teacher if no Irish flute teacher is available.
Good luck
Scales, very slowly, up and then down, in
D, then G, then A…
Thanks for the tips everyone!
I spent a great deal of time this weekend just working on tone. I must admit that up until my Dixon came in 2 weeks ago I had been practicine whistle and hammered dulcimer and had not played a flute since December. I realized that I was going to have some poor sound until my lip got back into shape.
However I spent a great deal of time with all my flutes (Boehm, Dixon, Bamboo) and did something I had not done before. I stood in front of a mirror!
I noticed that on the Dixon and bamboo flutes I blew more into the hole then across it. I also was able to correct some slackness in the posture.
I think the greatest problem I have had is not breathing properly.
I’ve seen vast improvement in a couple days with better posture which leads to better breath control.
I’ve also been working on the looonnng notes and scales.
Marathon playing has helped too. That is, play a tune over and over non stop until the lip can’t take it any more. Then rest for 15 to 20 minutes and do it again.
Thanks again. I’ll continue to try all of the tips.
Rick