New Here - pointers?

Irish Flute
1

Hi, just joined. I’m going to start learning flute soon (I got a cheap silver plated flute from Ebay just in case I don’t really like it), and I have a few questions:

1) How do you play on different octaves?

The flute I bought has 16 holes, a split E mechanism, and a range to low C. I was reading a few books on the flute, and one of them said you change octaves by blowing harder. I don’t see how you can get the right pitch all the time, but if that’s how you do it, please explain.

2) Can I tune it using my piano?

My piano is out of tune, but I plan on tuning it so it actually sounds right. Flute is in treble cleft right?

3) Should I take private lessons or learn by myself?

I don’t really like private lessons because I feel like I’m wasting so much money if I go and I don’t get to practice that much and the teacher yells at me >.< My piano teacher made me cry at least 5 times before I quit (I was 10 or 11 and really touchy.)

If I learn by myself and use books and internet sources I think I can learn to play decently well. Also, there won’t be anyone hassling me to practice if I have too much homework or I’m not in the mood. I do plan on going to a music school if I really like it and feel that I should get a better understanding of it by getting a teacher. Has anyone heard of the Brooklyn-Queens Music Conservatory or the Amadeus Music Center (both in NYC)? How are they?

Also, how hard do you think it is to learn? I think I’ve got some grasp of the embourchure since my friend says if you’re able to make a “note” when you blow into a pen, then you just do the same for flutes. I don’t know where she heard this from, but I kept trying to blow into it, and I couldn’t, then I tried making a flute embourchure, and i made the note =D

Sorry for the really long post, thanks to anyone who responds!

2

Hi there, and welcome to the forum. I’m relatively new to flutes myself but I’ll see if I can assist you at all. I’ll address your questions as you asked them, by number:
1- I have never tried a silver boehm style flute like the one you said you bought, (this forum generally sticks to wooden flutes played in the Irish tradition) but I found that simply blowing harder will not suffice. One of the things I like about the flute is that you can play louder in the first octave than in the second if you want to. This is done by controlling the focus, intensity, and angle of the airstream. I consider the focus to be the width of the airstream. Picture the beam of a flashlight going from a spot to a wide angle as you turn the head. A tighter focus might be more efficient and cleaner, but a wider focus can give you a different tone. The intensity is how hard you are blowing. In my experience this is the best way to affect the volume. The angle I refer to is between your embouchure and the far edge of the embouchure hole on the flute. Higher and flatter angles will have an effect on the intonation of the notes. All of these parameters will play into what kind of tones you get when you play. To get to the second octave, try to tighten the focus as you increase the intensity and let your ears guide you to the right angle.

2- I have a tuning slide on my flute and I will usually adjust it to accomodate whoever I am playing with, (assuming they’re in tune). I also have a tuning fork at A440 that I can use if I feel so inclined.

3-So far, I am learning by myself and using internet resources, (like this forum) and I tried to contact a few teachers from the Woodenflute.com list but was unsuccessful. I don’t know any teachers around here, (Toronto) but I want to find one.

Some of the information I am giving you could be a case of the blind leading the blind, so if anyone who knows better can jump in and add or correct something, go nuts! Hope this helps.

3

Good advice OLB, I’d like to ad that if you practise that D you got all by yourself, you’ll figure it out from there. It’s like blowing across the top of a bottle, you’ll figure it out. Blowing harder doesn’t always help.

It would help to have lessons, but barring that I would do what you are doing, look for advice on the internet. Go through the many threads on this site, there is great advice here.

One thing I would meantion is the flute you have. you say yourself it is “cheap” so you may be a little dissapointed with your sound, our your ability to play. That’s OK as long as you realise your limitations. I too played alot of “junk” when I was young before I could invest in a proper instrument, just keep in mind when your results are poor, it may be the flutes fault. On the other hand you might be lucky and have a playable flute. Look up your type of flute by the type, key and number of keys on it on the net, learn as much as you can about the type of flute you have.

You also meantion tuning your piano, it sounds like it isn’t being played much, for the money, find some lessons, or buy a better flute. Tuning a piano is expensive. Unless you plan on playing it alot, you could even sell the piano and buying a quality flute. It sounds like your pretty committed to this instrument reaching out like you are and doggedly trying to get sound out of that darn thing. We’ve all been through it. Don’t give up!

Are you an ear player or do you learn by written music? You must be able to read a little seeing you’ve had lessons, but you can also learn by finding the basic scale on your flute and then just playing songs you know within that scale.

There are many ways to learn, the first is asking for help which you have done. Keep trying and let us know how your doing!

terri

I edited this to also say I know of a great site for fluteplayers your age, these young flute players have thier own forum and play flutes just like yours, they have alot of fun helping each other learn, I found it in a flute forum search once, but I bookmarked the site at work and am home for the weekend. I will post the site on Monday when I go to work. You will just love it!

I’m editing this post to include the address of the young flute player site:

http://www.8notes.com/f/forum25.asp

Good luck & Have fun!