OK. The title is a bit like a newspaper headline. The story following doesn’t really live up …
All it is is this:
I’ve been practising my flute, which I only got at the New Year, from jemtheflute, who did it up and sold it to me, and I love it. (He does a cracking job on old flutes, btw, if anyone’s interested.) I’ve particularly been practising my long notes. I do this, as near as I can manage, every day. So now, and Jimmy (Troy, that is) you’d be proud of me - I can do a long held G (first or second octave, doesn’t seem to matter for these purposes) for 45 seconds! With good, strong tone throughout. Now, I realise that might not seem very much to you guys out there, but it’s a lot for me, when for the first couple of months I could only manage about 7 seconds, and that was on a feeble note. (I owe the improvement entirely to Mr Troy, btw, though I’ve had very useful internet help from certain other quarters as well.)
The thing is, now that I’ve got so much breath on flute … it’s too much (!) when I go back to whistle.
I know the thing will sort itself out in time, but is there a quick way? Please tell me there’s a quick way …
Funny, I used to have the same problem but never really thought about it.
It occured when I was doing gigs with the band where I used to play both flute and whistle. Lets say we started out with a few hammering sets where I played the flute, and I really pushed it. Then it jumped over to a set on the whistles and I constantly had too much air in my lungs and wanted to push more through the whistle than it could handle. So instead of doing normal breath pauses, I almost had to pause here and there to exhale.
The quick solution is to switch to Shaw whistles
Or maybe start enjoying some smoke besides the one in your
whisky
but that would make it problematic to play the flute then wouldn’t it?
As a flute player, I’ve found playing recorders and whistles to be like an exercise in holding my breath. I like listening to them, but not playing them.
The curious thing is that leaking air through the nose was regarded as standard beginners technique but is rarely mentioned elsewehere.
In 1969 it had (in various keys for the range of whistles - unhelpful I thought):
For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
Good King Wenceslas
Auld lang Syne
The Church’s One Foundation
All Through the Night
Come Lasses and Lads
The Minstrel Boy
Loch Lomond
Men of Harlech
Villikins and His Dynah
The British Grenadiers
The Lass of Richmond Hill
“Figures indicating the number of stopped holes, corresponding to those of the tablature, are placed over the notes - follow these and the ‘ear’ will do the rest.”
The ear will do the rest… Hmm. Glossing over the hard bit maybe ?
Is suppose that might be what they meant (for the rhythm maybe). But coming to that leaflet with no musical experience it took a long time to work out the difference between getting the right note and getting it in tune.
I have just noticed that the Minstrel Boy is quite tricky. The have it with key signature C, several g# and several c’ (top of second octave). Bet that was popular with the neighbours.
Edit: trying that a fourth down (says he to avoid having to work out what key that is) I have remembered that it was the first ‘tune in my head’ where I realised that an unkeyed flute couldn’t do Eb.
Edit again to clarify without messing up Ben’s any discussion further. The bit of the tune that goes with the words “Though all the world betrays thee” which, in G, is usually given …d|e3 b b2 d2| e3 f g… has the d’s sharpened, which is what we sung at school (so probably ‘not traditional’).
Could do. Probably I should probably check they are not still producing it first. I have two. One is for “Generation British Made Flageolets” but does not mention Barnes and Mullins, the other is from Barnes and Mullins but does not mention the Generation brand. But they both say that it is “The Sweetest Toned of all Instruments”.
Back to flutes. I can only manage 30 seconds (but am the sort of guy who freewheels on a bike wherever possible) After about 20 seconds I want to start leaking through my nose and when playing probably would do sometimes.
(I just added a bit to the post about The Minstrel Boy)
Well, I’ve never seen a Gen leaflet either! By the time I came to whistles in about 1975 I don’t think they supplied such any more…
It’s a very long time since I even thought to time how long I could sustain a note on flute (and as I’m in the imitation waterfall stage of a cold I ain’t doing it now!), but I do waste air on flute by nostril leaking when ideally I probably shouldn’t. I certainly pressure-equalise/avoid anoxia when whistle playing by doing just that. Taking a less deep lungful for whistles also helps, as well as playing whistles whose air-requirements suit you…my flutey tendencies may have something to do with my not getting on well with Overtons etc. and preferring whistles I can “lean into” a bit breath-wise. As soon as I read Ben’s OP, before seeing the stuff about Gen, I was going to respond by saying “nose-leak”, (and not the kind I’m experiencing right now!)
Also, reminding folks of another recent thread about breathing, I said there to “Stop it at once”! See… you should have heeded me!
You’ve confused me now, Jem. What are you telling me to do? “Nose-leak” on whistle and not on flute? (Until I need to do it on flute too because I’ve suddenly got to be brilliant, that is. )
I’m not sure I can do the “nose-leak” thing … I can do a sort of leak around the mouthpiece of the whistle, just by not closing off the mouthpiece fully - would that work?
Nose leaking’s unlikely ever to be a good thing on flute - one rarely has enough wind for that, however good one gets! As for whistle, just try putting it in your mouth, not blowing it and breathing out gently through your nose…then start to blow the whistle too. You’ll soon get it. I don’t remember ever consciously intending/starting to do it - I just realised one day that I was doing it…
I had/still-too-frequently have – those episodes. I’m fortunate my main gig whistle is very hard to overdrive, so until I “cool my jets” so to speak, it’ll take the abuse (tho’ it sounds cruddy), but basically, I do the same as Henke – think about it and remember to exhale. And like so much else, I try to think of switching back and forth as something that needs to be practiced, too!
Congrats on your long notes. That’s a major achievement!
Thanks. Trouble is, as soon as I try to play a tune, the tone just sort of … fades in and out. I can play a tune slowly, mind, but put any speed into it at all, and I get the fading-in-and-out thing. Grrr!
Snort! Or, in my present state, sniff! Be careful, or I’ll tell 'em about the gooseberry!
MTGuru, we’re only talking gentle pressure release exhalation, here, not vigorous snorking!
No danger of snot-spray, even if doing waterfall impressions like I am at the moment (blasted viruses!).
I ain’t doing it now!), but I do waste air on flute by nostril leaking when ideally I probably shouldn’t. I certainly pressure-equalise/avoid anoxia when whistle playing by doing just that. Taking a less deep lungful for whistles also helps, as well as playing whistles whose air-requirements suit you…my flutey tendencies may have something to do with my not getting on well with Overtons etc. and preferring whistles I can “lean into” a bit breath-wise. As soon as I read Ben’s OP, before seeing the stuff about Gen, I was going to respond by saying “nose-leak”, (and not the kind I’m experiencing right now!)
