Well, it has happend before but never for as long as this. Took part in a great weekend at the beginning of Feb with J. Skelton as teacher on flute and all was well, and then after recieving his advise (that I asked for) regarding my high notes in the 2nd octave, I have now ‘lost my blow’.
For 2 weeks now, I am constantly trying to improve my tone thru extreme concientiousness of my emboucher and in the process of being perplexed and frustrated, it doesnt seem to get better. He wisely suggested that I try to use less air because it sounded as if I were trying to play too hard/loud and to try to back off so as to reduce hiss and ‘phhhh’ sound (especially in the notes past 2nd octave E) and now I either over-notice it or it’s gotten worse as I tried to follow his suggestions. I even let him at my flute, and he was able to sound just like me, and then was able to pull back a bit and tone the ‘phhhh’ sound down quite a bit.
What to do??? I feel like pulling every last hair out now.
The exact same thing happened to me. Came back from a lesson a month ago determined to work on embouchure and air management until I got it. That lasted five days, and things seemed to do nothing but get worse. I switched flutes a couple of times and was back to where I started. Then I was on travel for five days, and suddenly everything’s falling together. This is only for three days, but I think I’ve really had an epiphany.
I wish I could tell you what I’m doing differently, but I don’t know. I suspect the lessons and focused practicing definitely had a positive effect, but it took awhile for it to set in.
One thing my teacher suggested, that I tried a few times, is rice spitting. Put a grain of rice in your mouth and try to spit it as far as possible. The shape you make with your mouth when you spit the rice really far is the shape you need blowing the flute.
I think that whenever one learns something new (eg. at a workshop) - particularly if it requires that one un-learns something in the process - there will be a period afterwards where it feels like things are regressing. I suspect that often that period will be followed by a “ah, that’s what was meant!” enlightenment.
Different cause, but same effect: there is a hormone called relaxin that fluctuates during pregnancy. Its purpose is to relax the muscles in preparation for birth. Well, it relaxes ALL the muscles, including the embouchure muscles, and when this relaxin is in high concentration in my body, I can’t get a good tone to save myself. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!
It can also loosen up ligaments if my memory of a 10 year old anatomy class is correct. I remember a reading about a woman who pitched competitive softball and continued to practice her pitching during her pregnancy. She dislocated her shoulder with one pitch because she pushed herself too hard.
Yes, well, in an effort to preserve my body, I try to make sure that the only exercise I get involves walking from the kitchen to the couch, and from the bathroom to the bedroom, or vice versa.
That’s my favorite thing about this board. The flute is a really hard instrument to play, and it seems that none of the more experienced players have forgotten this, nor do they make light of the problems we beginners have.
yeah, but even though it’s common, I just wish I could get it back. Right now, I am just overwhelmed, especially since I will be going to Clare this summer to take instruction for a week (tradweek.com) and I hope this doesnt happen then.
I dont know if I have talked myself out of being able to play, or just have had a bad two weeks, or just over sensitive now to the ‘phhh’ sounds of too much air, especially when I thought I had over come that part of learning. Oh well…
I have gone through what you are describing more than once. Including
being really depressed about it and impatient, you name it. In fact its
likely to start up again at any time .. ..
When you don’t yet have a particular embouchure, what is happening is
that every time you sit down to play you experiment and try different
things, so your mouth is just not yet remembering the “right” position yet.
I think that when we blow really hard it causes the mouth muscles to
angle the air different than when you play quieter. So now you are
changing that and it’s just going to sound different.
The main thing that helps me, which I don’t do enough of, is the long
tones. Somehow if you keep doing them while trying to get the nicest
sound, it helps your mouth with the muscle memory. I’d rather play
tunes, but when I did them every morning for 2 weeks it helped.
I think Lesl’s got the right of it: long tones will help.
One catch on long-tone practice: never start on low D. A good note to start on is low G, work up and down from there.
Another thing that helps is to start on a low note, hold it for a sec, then jump to the next octave, hold that for a sec, then jump up again to the 5th, etc… as far up the harmonic series as you can go.
This is good for centering the embouchure and helping with the efficient use of air.
Another warning, then I’ll quit bugging you–you don’t want to remove all of the nonmusical sounds from your playing. Playing flute involves balancing elegance against power, and especially in the 2nd octave the little nonmusical sounds at the start of a note can add a great deal to the elegance of the sound.
If you can, listen to Brad Hurley play, and you’ll understand.
Thanks again for your input and reminding me that Im not crazy or suck. I have played a several sessions and this is the first time this has happened-it’s like when I questioned my embouchure is when I lost it.
eric,
you might want to seriously consider laying off the sessions for a while. yeah, sessions are great, but if you are going thru some serious adjustments in your playing, sessions will often lead to frustration and reinforce less-then-optimal habits–like, stepping onto contrete before it’s dry. perhaps a compromise: simply take a back seat at the session and casually play one or two phrases per tune; keep the guinness around for the in-between…
Yeah, one of the problems inherent in session-playing is that you can’t hear yourself well. If you’re trying to make embouchure adjustments you really need to hear yourself clearly, to be able to tell if what you’re changing is producing the desired effect. Long slow notes (by yourself) is the best way to encourage embouchure “growth”. I also recommend playing in front of a mirror.
Also, regarding losing one’s blow, we all (professional players included) have “off days” and even “off weeks”. So don’t be too hard on yourself.
I didn’t know what you guys were talking about and now it’s happened twice. The first time I just thought I was tired but now…
I got home from work tonight, let the dogs out, and got my Seery. I started to play and everything was fine. I played for about an hour or so going over the tunes I know and the one I’m working on in my scoiltrad course. Anyway, I eat dinner, watch a little TV then go to practice and all of a sudden I can’t even play scales. And I just noticed that the lower part of my face feels weak. I dont know if that was the cause of effect of trying to blow through it. Anyway now I’m sitting here wondering if the whole night is shot…
This stinks and I can’t figure out what I’m doing differently from a little while ago. I was just going to sit down and start learning my next tune and I can’t do anything…
I suppose everybody’s a bit different, but here’s something I do; it may be more work than really needed, but it keeps my embouchure from tiring: I engage the muscles around my cheekbones just a bit, similar to what you feel there when you smile enough to crinkle your eyes, just less so. It feels more like a bracing or support than a tenseness, and allows me to stay more relaxed in the mouth parts.
Or maybe it’s just a way of redirecting unproductive energy; either way, it seems to help, and it keeps my aging facial muscles nicely toned so that my raffish good looks don’t go all saggy.
I just thought of La Giaconda! The Mona Lisa smile dynamic is what I’ve been talking about: barely there, and the muscles below the eyes are key. Take a look; da Vinci was a genius.
Just caught up with this thread … hey, I’m going to Meitheal, too! And if it helps, the same stuff happens to me over and over again. It happens to all of us. And the more we worry about it … Anyway, in my experience all I can do is try to be sort of Zen about it. If it happens over there, as frustrating as it may be, at least we’ll have a FABULOUS opportunity to get insights from others who’ve been to the same rodeo, too.
And don’t forget … part of what might be happening is what a great dressage (horsey ballet) instructor calls “Conscious Incompetence.” Over and over again we reach phases where our consciousness of what we want to achieve grows faster than our ability. It’s enormously frustrating, but think of it this way … your ear is getting better (and unfortunately also getting more critical), and it’s just going to take some time for playing to catch up.
(and then the whole process can start over again )
So now. When I fall apart in Ennis, will you remind me of all this?
If you’re losing your blow, you might look at your coverage of the E hole. I had it happen a couple of times, and then I noticed that my coverage of the E hole wasn’t complete. Which, then got me trying ‘weird’ stuff and I couldn’t get sound pretty much no matter what. So now if I’m careful to make sure that my fingers are where they are suppose to be, it doesn’t happen. Just a thought.
Well, Cathy Im glad to hear that your going! I got the letter last week, and now it’s time to get my pass port ordered. I am looking forward to it. Anyone else going?
