I thought I’d post my question before I go to bed and read all the wonderful help and advice in the morning …
My embouchure really seems to have picked up over the last couple of weeks, after 8 and a bit months of playing this darned instrument.
But … now that my tone is louder, it also seems to have got less stable. (As if that were possible, I hear from those of you who listened to my last posted feeble efforts.) There are squeaks and squawks all over the place. It isn’t so much keeping the thing in one octave - in fact, in the lower octave, it seems more stable now, except on bottom D which I still struggle with … But in the second octave, it’s dreadful. Especially, it seems, around the e and f. I have done all the suck tests etc - it’s me, not the flute. I knew it was in any case.
What am I doing wrong and how do I get over this week’s traumatic little hill?
[Info note - flute is 19c 8-key bought from Jem, and it’s great.]
[Sheesh! There’s going to be another one of these problems every week, isn’t there? ]
What is it the British say? Keep a stiff upper lip?
Well, all I can suggest is that you hang in there. Progress doesn’t happen in a straight line. I’m a few years in, and play an hour or more daily. Some days are great, some mixed, and others awful. Fortunately the overall trend is upward.
Also, as others will tell you, spend a lot of time playing looong notes, particularly those that give you trouble. You’ll be strengthening the right muscles and building muscle-memory. It’s all about practice, patience and structured study ---- at least that’s what I’m banking on!
IMO,one thing that sure makes embouchure improve quickly is playing a
Sweetheart A flute. Or something else high. These are demanding embouchure-wise,
like overtone exercises, except you can play tunes, which is a lot more satisfying.
Worth playing these for their own sake. We can be too fixated on D flutes.
For not so much money you can
get a high pitched flute that is as good as a very expensive
D flute. And then, when you play D flute, you are a lot stronger, more in
control, and that makes
a big difference.
Yeah, slurred octaves I’m doing. I’m really bad at making myself do long notes, though. I started off having fun doing that, and seeing how long I could hold them. I reckon it would do me good now … but I get B O R E D doing it. Oh dear, I’m getting like a whingey child being made to do his practice …
I’m gonna try the advice of playing Small for 20 mins before picking up Woody, and see how we go …
Ho hum … and all want is to sound like Harry B. NOW. Is that SO much to ask? Hmmm?
Yes, and even if you pick up the lower flute the next day, you will become stronger.
I honestly think getting the hang of a higher flute, not merely as exercise for the
D flute, but for it’s own sake, is a big help over all. I mean, these things are beautiful.
Above all, these issues will sort themselves out in a few months.
You need a focused airstream to make a good tone on the flute. If you haven’t got one, a way to get some (unpleasant) sound out of the flute is to generate a large, unfocused stream of air which you then “peel” with the blowing-edge. Sounds like this might be what you’re at. Cheers,
You could well be right, Rob. This evening, I’ve gone back to practising some tues really slowly, and the tone is much more focussed and much more stable. So maybe it’s a holistic coordination sort of thing …
I feel your pain. I’ve been playing my Forbes for about a month now and in the past week I’ve been getting really good tone out of it. Damn near every day consistentely. Today it’s raining and muggy (not that this would have anything to do with it) and I can’t get a good tone out to save my arse. Damn temperamental things, flutes.
I’ve finally gotten to the point I can play good, consistant notes in the upper 2nd octave only to find that now some days, I sound like an asthmatic trying to play a Coke bottle!
Long tones make all the difference. By working on those I found that my embouchure was ever so slightly slipping after a few minutes, hence the overly breathy, weak sound.
Having said that, neither my wife nor our cat really cares for me practicing long tones.
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