6/11/04
A friend gave me an excellent used fife in good repair. I know that (if it’s a “D” fife), the fingering is just the same as for my Pennywhistle, which is a typical brass Irish one, tuned to “D.” But my problem is that I can just barely get decent sounds out of it. (Most of the time, I can’t.) Can any good fife-player enlighten me?
Thanks in advance,
Dan (“docrrnmwp”)
Hello and welcome doc.
Check out the flute forum. http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewforum.php?f=2
Maybe do a search for fife and embouchure. I’m not a fife player, so I can’t offer any immediate advise.
I asked the same question a while back. Here are some good suggestions.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=234&highlight=
You should get a hold of Dave Migoya on the flute forum. He’s a 13 time national fife champion and the only person to ever get a perfect score in competition. He doesn’t really play fife anymore, (I guess he’s done it all)but he’s definitley the man when it comes to fife. I’m sure he could point you in the right direction.
Dear All: Thanks for much good advice. I was talking with my youngest son (an accomplished fife player & the Principal Scientist with his company) & was strangely comforted by his telling me that learning to play a Fife was one of the hardest things he ever did in his life (& he has a Ph. D. in Immunology).
I’m still trying & I’m determined to “make it.” One surprising thing I learned is that if you have a slightly crooked smile (as I do), you may have to hold the Fife at a lighted “crooked” angle rather than “straight out” (e.g., at right angles to an imaginary line bisecting one’s head. I have gotten so I can play a scale now except for the high “D” &, in any case, it’s a bit squeaky.
I think I’ll get there eventually. Thanks for all the good suggestions.
P.S. I have a slightly “crooked” smile due a Stroke 8 years ago!
Cheers, Daniel
Don’t your children just delight and infuriate you at the same time 
Good on yer, Daniel. Wish I could follow your example but find it much easier to yield to that old adage “If at first you don’t succeed, give up and do something you’re good at”.
Good luck with your fifing, I’m sure you WILL get there.
If that crookedness is due to some weakness in the muscles around your mouth due to the stroke, you may have difficulty in getting a good fife embouchure. Might be easier to start off with a flute, which requires a less restrictive embouchure, and then as the muscles around your mouth strengthen, switch to the fife.
I have heard this advice before and have taken it. This is what I have found.
I wanted to play the fife and purchased a flute to help with my
embouchure I did not like the flute and it sat off to the side as I made
horrible sounds with the fife.
But I liked the fife so I practiced and I got better.
If you like the flute and the fife then go ahead. Just remember that for
the price of a low end flute that you can buy one great fife that will help
your playing more than acquiring a lot of instruments of low quality. If it
were me I would spend money on lessons.
I do not want to play the flute, the pan flute, or a whiskey jug. If I were a
whistler I think I would never practice if some one suggested that I play
the recorder first. (Sorry for the curse word) Some people just want to go
deaf, annoy dogs, and make bag pipers complain about the noise. A flute
dosen’t do that.
Definitely a good call, I looked up the link, and found that ErikT’s description of how to form an embouchure the “pucker up like youre going to kiss your granny,” explanation very helpful. here it is.
Without the flute at your lips, pucker up like you’re about to kiss your grandmother. Now soften the kiss a little and make a quiet ‘p’ sound as in the word, “Pop”. Quickly repeat the sound about 10 times.
The last time, make the ‘p’ sound followed by exhaling an entire breath. ‘p…’. The stream of air should be tight and without a lot of hissing air noise and no sound from your throat. The shape and feel of your lips on that last puff is approximately how your lips should be positioned on the flute.
Now take the flute and kiss the hole. Then roll the flute down until it rests under your lower lip. DON’T stick your upper lip out trying to reach for the hole! Try the above technique again.
If you look in a mirror the opening in you lips should be less than a centimeter wide about a millimeter tall and centered on your mouth.
I have been attempting to play the flute without a teacher, for about six weeks. This explanation rocketed my flute playing to the next level. I can now play almost two octaves with for the most part good tone, and intonation has been improved considerably. Before I read this explanation it was dragsville man.
Now someone tell me, “But he was talking about the fife”! 