For the last month or so I’ve been noticing a leak in my upper lip just right of center. Began to hear some hiss and looked at the blow hole to see moisture on the upper right of it where it should not have been. Perhaps I was getting and tired so I rested a bit. There it was, back again. And I’m having a hard time closing it up.
Anyone with similar experience or sensible advice - gladly accepted.
Oh, I’ve been playing Irish flute now for about four years so I’m not a pro but not newbie either.
Jeezum, I’ve had something similar. I get condensation on the blowedge, leading to a hissing. This is worse on flutes that don’t absorb moisture (sealed or stuff like cocobolo), but even happens on the occasional boxwood flute. I’m not entirely certain it’s condensation, though, I’m thinking it might be spittle from my lips. This started about a year ago, and has been getting steadily worse. I’m playing with more power, and may be moving more air, so that may be what’s happening. But then it might be something totally unrelated.
My Economics professor in college warned us of when we’d get old and drooling. May be happening to me.
Somepeoples mouths are far bigger than others, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself “do i have a big mouth” if this is so then you have to work on your embouchure, start by tightening up the embouchure, pulling the corners of the lips up as if in a laughing stage, do this while playing scales,
even if you are an advanced player, playing scales etc while looking at your embouchure and posture etc in the mirror will eventually help you tremendiously, try to keep your flute in a horozontial position while playing,
actually people with large mouths make very good flute players.
if you are noticing condensation / spittle, did you ever think that maybe you’re not pulling the moisture back? make your tongue as if to say the sound of “L” and then suck in, no need to swallow. do this periodically when you’re playing, see if it helps. eventually, you will learn how to manage your moisture and not need to do that. although, some days your mouth will just feel like keeping the faucet on a bit too long.
there are just some times when you need to wipe off your flute on your shirt or pant.
also, when you play, moisture should condensate directly accross the embouchure hole. try and slobber in the other direction!
i dont know anything about mouths, but i do know that you should play in the mirror to work on tone and posture. there is simply no excuse not to! you will notice how you slouch, hold your elbows the wrong way, etc. its also easier to correct your embouchure in a mirror, even if you dont know whats good, because you can watch your mouth change. once i started working in a mirror, i had to have it in front of me to get a certain tone, but now i have learned to get by without it for the same effect, by picturing my embouchure in my head. however, i still prefer to practice in front of a mirror whenever possible.
when my new concertina and flute come in and are paid for, i will be investing in a nice, long, wall mirror for my room.
a metronome, a mirror, and patience will take you far in practicing.
Perhaps I have found the answer to the problem. I know only a few of you responded but for YOU:
Embouchures change, we all know that. I was trying real hard to keep the center of my lips as the center of the embouchure but, apparently, the lips were not in agreement. I angled the flute slightly down, rolled the blow hole even with the finger holes, as opposed to the blow hole being rolled in, and let the flute slide ever so slightly right, placing the blow hole directly under the leaky lip. This put the embouchure air stream slightly to the righ of my lip center but it worked!
Moral: embouchures change and we should adjust with it.
And the beat - leak? - goes on BUT, I think, SOLVED. I found that by tightening up on the left portion of my lip it went well. I tried feverishly to stick to blowing out of the center of the lips - like the “books” recommend - but it wouldn’t happen. Tightening the left side slightly brought it in. Even to the point of now being able to make my Healy flute sing - took a long time!
Again, moral? – embouchures DO change - so don’t fignt it but flow (blow?) with it.
Way to go Bill! Problem solved in less than an hour! I wish I could solve mine as quickly. Been playing that recently aquired Seery for the last few weeks and ignoring the Hamilton. Now I can’t play the Hammy. I think I will take cocusflute and Lorens advice from another thread, and put the Seery away for a while. Damn, it was so convenient too, always assembled and all.