I was playing my sweetheart fife, making wonderful sounding second and third register notes. I felt connected to the instrument.
Now, this morning, I give it a go, and everything sounds raspy. Bah!
Tell me about it. Played for some dancers yesterday as part of a little show for some folks on assisted living, and it was some of the worst tone and fingering I’d ever had the pleasure to die onstage by. I was in Flute Hell.
Some days you just wonder if you’ve been imagining it all.
I certainly can identify with that feeling. Until a few months ago, my connection to my simple-system wooden D flute was sort of hit and miss: one day good, the next day not. Now, I believe my connection is consistantly good thanks to one simple hint (via Paul Mulvaney). The next time you’re playing and sounding good, take a complete mental snapshot of yourself…lips to blowhole, teeth (with an unusual underbite or overbite?), tongue, facial twist, flute shaft (dipped up, down, parallel to floor, whatever works). Everything. Freezeframe yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror during that great connection. Make a mental picture of that and remember it. And the next time you pick up your flute, reproduce that “everything.” That worked for me. That good connection is there for me almost every time, now. Good luck…
Good post, Jack. Very true.
After about a dozen years or so at it, I’m consistent enough, but it’s the “almost” that kills ya some days…
More time, more practice.
…but without the a_lmost times_ would you still have the times when you are just feckin’ brilliant?
Sure, I think so. But brilliant, no. That’s for the luminaries. I’m satisfied with just doing a decent job and hopefully advancing from there. Backsliding sux out loud.
It has happened to everyone.
Am I annoying you! 
'course it sux out loud.,be quieter if you were a painter.
Yeah, I know, thanks. Cold comfort all the same when it’s yourself in front of others and there’s no taking it back. I knew there was gonna be trouble when I was warming up, and I had only hope to cling to amid the lurking dread. Probably would’ve been better if I’d taken maybe a half hour to sort things out, but I only had a few minutes to test my blow.
If only that sort of thing’d confine itself to the walls of my home when it does happen! Argh.
No more than the usual. 
At least you can do do-overs where a canvas is concerned. Hmm. I’ve still got a big old roll of the stuff sitting in the corner looking at me…
My “cold comfort” was meant towards Blackout. It really has happened to all of us, Flutes have good and bad days and so do the players. I do hate when a gig (or even a session) happens to be on one of those bad days.
I’ll just move the horses then…
…stall mucking! My favorite! 
I don’t suppose ya want to hear about the swollen lip cure that involves Preperation H, eh?
Aha. Yes, Blackout, as you can see, it happens to everyone.
Just so long as the application of it involves fingers only. 
Argh, thanks guys for placing a most unpleasant image in my head forever…
Eric
We are, as ever, humbly at your service.
Embouchure! 
I try and try and try - on several different flutes and fifes - with little to marginal success.
Until my friend returns from Vietnam with a rough bamboo flute she found in a little shop in Saigon for about US$6.
Damned if I didn’t pick it up and play it well for a good 5 minutes as soon as she gave it to me.
Embouchure!
This thread reminds me of the many times that I have performed for nursing homes. I usually played the guitar and sang well-known songs from the Americana tunebook. Sometimes I played the guitar and harmonica and occasionally the flute or recorder. I remember the last time that I played at a nursing home in Tucson, AZ. The old folk were wheeled down to the activity room in their wheel chairs. However, on this occasion the people who were supposed to be listening were doing more talking and moaning. I got distracted and had a hard time getting through my program. It is just like romance. If your partner tells you that you are a wonderful lover, well, that brings out the best in you. However, if she acts disinterested, what can I say, I would rather be playing my ukelele in my garage.
In the situation I described, about the same percentage were paying any attention as you’d get on average in pubs I’ve played in. I’m used to being ignored; I think it’s safe to say that that wasn’t a factor. You play for those who are listening, after all, and you’re a subliminal sort of thing for the rest, and that’s okay. Yes, sometimes you can really grab everyone’s attention, but at those times you may not be actually at your best, either. It’s happened to me that way, and it’s a mystery. I’ve also seen brilliant recording artists playing fabulously to crowds who might as well have been a pen full of chickens for all they got out of it.
I might have had an easier time of it if I had been playing “plugged in” and not had the sense of trying to fight the acoustics of the room, but the acoustics weren’t really that bad! It was just a bad day from the start, is all.
Blackout wrote I was so pleased with myself last night…
Im so glad to hear that you can keep yourself so aroused and happy.