So … apols if this is a frquently recurring theme - I have done a search but couldn’t find what I wanted.
I’ve been working hard on my flute playing lately. Took the classes in Drumshanbo a couple of weeks back as well. Brilliant teacher by name of Finbar McGreevy. Then had a week in Scotland where I didn’t play the flute and struggled to get my embouchure back just a little after that. Got it back, and was pretty pleased with the tone this last weekend. I thought to myself “Finally, I’m getting somewhere on this blasted thing”.
Then, last night, and also this morning, it didn’t matter what I did I just couldn’t get any tone. I did notice just at the back end of my practice sessions yesterday evening that my right arm had got a bit lazy and the fingers were sort of perched on top from a right arm that was hanging a bit limply down from where it should be. But I’m confident that there was no leakage of air because of that. I consciously corrected it and it helped a little, though I can’t see why on earth it should, especially as the tone problem was happening even on higher notes, where all right hand fingers were lifted.
I need my tone back. Now! I mean, for heaven’s sake, it wasn’t that great to start with.
Not to worry, Ben, this is par for the course. Flute is an instrument that, if you’ll pardon the expression, blows hot and cold. We all have those Bad Tone Days; I talk to my students about improving consistency as a way to limit their frequency. By consistency, I mean trying to do everything exactly the same way for your practice sessions - sit the same way in the same chair, plug the flute together exactly the same way, develop a routine to start your session, etc. Flute is a game of fractions of a millimeter, which is why a small deviation can have some dire consequences. Hang in there, you’ll get it!
Rob
p.s. As a “hot tip,” make sure you’re not tensing up your right arm and pushing the embouchure hole past your blow.
Thanks Rob. It’s just SO frustrating, because I just can’t see what is different. But it must be as you say, something tiny that I’m doing differently. I’m already doing (or trying to do) the thing with starting my practice sessions with the same sets of exercises. And I’m trying to set the flute up the same way every time. I’m not sitting in the same chair every time, and there are other things in which I could be more ‘consistent’. I just wish I could remember how I was doing it when I was happier with the result, at the weekend …
I’ll check the right arm thing later. I’m planning to have a BIG practice tonight when I get home from work. I’m even missing a session to stay home and do it. I really want to play this thing …
Maybe relax a little and don’t force it?
I tend to notice a little circle - you think, that’s a nice tone, let’s push it a bit more, great .. then ‘that’s s**t’!
So you back off, come back to it etc.
Interesting that I haven’t seen this mentioned before. I’ll often have this problem when I’m feeling stressed, as in at the end of a long and difficult work day.
Particularly on my blackwood flute, with its mirror-smooth surface, it’s easy to slide off to one side of the embouchure hole. And, as mentioned, it only takes a hair-breadth of change to affect the tone. Maintaining the right position and angle requires constant recalibration. And there’s always that odd day when you just can’t win, no matter what you do.
I’ve always considered the flute and fiddle both to be excellent “mood barometers”!
All part of the friendly service! It’s one of the best things about having a teacher; chances are he or she has made all of the mistakes for you, and can either warn you off ahead of time or point out what you’re doing wrong. Little tips like this can be life-savers.
This is probably off the wall, but if it’s a keyed flute this might apply… I went to a session and tried to play and it was just as you say - total crap! I found that something (a hair or something really small) must have been causing the G# key to leak EVER so slightly. So, my advice is to first do a “suck test” before you start messing with your embouchure!
The G# key! I hadn’t thought of that. I’m not with the flute right now, but I will definitely check. Now, funnily enough, a while ago I was having a problem with my left thumb just touching that key and causing that sort of issue. I wonder if that’s what I was doing? Hmmm … if so, of course, Rob’s ‘consistency’ approach should sort that kind of thing out …
Do you know how to do the “suck test”? You take the flute apart, put your thumb over one end of the section you’re testing, then put your fingers over the three holes, and suck in the open end. If you lose suction, you’ve got a leak.
Thanks for explaining that. I didn’t know how to do it … but thought it would be really annoying to ask, as it must have come up about a gazillion times before … I will try it.
I’m starting to lay the blame on my left thumb now, though … that and the Bb key …
We think we have it bad–I just saw an incredible young piper using the drones AND regulators, the whole shebang. Amazing sound, but imagine having to get all that working at the same time–the horror of reeds and pads and bellows, tubing, bags, plus he had keys on his chanter
Not sure if you’ve solved the problem or not but here are my two penneth…
Are you more dehydrated now? (it’s been hot this week in england … if that’s where you are) I find that drinking a glass of water can open up the tongue, palatte and throat which make a huge resonating chamber which afffects tone.. If your tongue is dehydrated it can swell a tiny bit which can make flute playing a bit ‘thicker’. Nettle tea is good get getting all the gunk out of your mouth and throat.
Try moving your soft palatte and throat around and see if that makes a difference, take a deep breathe in the push it out in a big sigh so your lungs and shoulders are not tense…
maybe this mystical madness will help.
btw - fiddle easy? i need to borrow your brain, it’s a nightmare, all that sawing up and down…
But fiddle’s easy! 
