For a little over 3 months now I have been ingaged in a monumental struggle with this devils instrument. The flute. How to turn my lips into a fipple of sorts and make music. Three weeks ago I declared war between my lips and the flute. Three hours a day every day. I can no longer say B words or F words or M words or P words or W words. But I am for the first time starting to understand what embouchure is. I have the flute tutorial on CDrom and it spends about 3 secounds on embouchure. I have a video tutorial also. Same thing. It would seem that if one is to attempt to play Irish flute one must already posses an embouchre. Nobody told me it was going to be this hard. The real curse of this weapon of the banshee is that on those rare occations when things work right there is just nothing like it. I have only 6 months to get this together before my Lehart gets here. A month ago I was almost ready to give up and just stick to my whistles. Now I think I might be able to pull this off. Its been so weird because I can play tunes on my whistles no sweat but playing “air flute” was way to demoralizing. The best thing I did for myself was to get this rosewood Dixon. I love the feel and the looks of it. And I love taking care of it. And I think in a couple of weeks I will love playing it. There is light at the end of the tunnel. But damn, it was sure touch and go there for a while.
I hear you. I did have a basic embouchure before getting an Irish flute. However, I think the Dixon is a difficult flute to get a really good sound on. To really make it sing, you need a very focused stream of air. Now that I’ve had mine nearly 4 months, I’m getting better at it, and I can get a good tone 75% of the time, a great tone about 20% of the time, but I still get a terrible tone the other 5% (these are serious estimates and are all IMHO ).
Have you tried practicing in front of a mirror when you’ve got that tone just right? This really helped me, because I could see just how I had my lips shaped when I was sounding good. I think I did that just 3-4 weeks ago, and that’s when my embouchure really took off.
Keep plugging away, don’t give up hope. I promise you, one day you’ll turn a corner and the bad embouchure days become the rarities instead of the norm!
So, lackeer, you are having troule laying the lute? And only six onths to get it right. I’ glad you’re orking hard at it and there is light at the end o the tunnel or you! Nothing like ractice to get things oving the right ay! No i only the letters ill coe ack to you. I do eel ad aout that art.
Susan
I did the mirror thing Eric just before the decleration of war. It was very scary. To many crooked stiches on the old lips. 9 years of full contact martial arts has reshapen these things and they don`t do flat. But it did show me what was happanin and what I had to do.
I also remember back when I was about 40 something and finaly reliezed that after knowing everything for so long that I realy didnt know anything about anything and that is when I started learning. It would seem to hold true for the flute. When I first started messing around with it I could play some scales and what not but it wasnt until I realy started to work at it that it got realy bad. Couldn`t even make a squeek. What a nightmare. Now I can. And now the real work begins.
I feel for you with beaten up lips. My lips were first damaged the first time a young lady made contact with them (unfortunately, she made contact with a wrought iron fire hydrant cap - we were only 6, and it was a bizarre accident which spared my teeth but ripped my upper lip in half).
Anyway, I’m really goofy looking when I play - off center with a half smile; even I think I’m demented looking when playing. Perhaps your embouchure will lead to the ultimate compliment my wife gave me “now you look weird enough to be a real Irish folk musician.” She should talk, she sings pub songs…then again, she does look normal when she plays.
Tom, I just went through your situation about six months ago, declaring all out war on my flute. I practice one hour before work, and any chance I get after that. It has gotten better. This is the hardest thing in fifty-six years that I have had to learn. And I did to myself
But it is getting better everyday. It seems that everyday something gives that I fought with – breathing, diaphram, holding, and that em word, then trying to play a tune. But slowly it’s coming and now can manage slow tunes at sessions with some confidence.
Hang in there! If you are feeling frustrated while practicing, put the flute down, don’t struggle. I believe that ten minutes of a good practice is better than one hour of frustration where nothing goes the way you want it.
Thanks everyone. It is nice to know that others have struggled and are struggling also. I sure can`t quit now when things are finaly starting to happen in a positive way. Very humbling though.
Blackbeer said: I did the mirror thing Eric just before the decleration of war. (How do you do this “quote” thing anyway?)
I confess to standing in front of the mirror many times - to little avail! I can NOT see the flute blow hole - Blackwood - and where my lips are in relation to it. I asked my son, one day, to stand over my shoulder and shine a flash light onto the blow hole – nada! Am I doing something wrong? True I can see the all of the other things: angle of the flute, angle of the head, shape of the lips. BUT where are the lips over/under/around the blow hole?
My tone and overall sound is coming along fine in spite of it all.
I can’t remember where or how but I had seen a website that gave very visual descriptions of how to form embouchure and blow a flute (it was on a Boehm site for playing Jazz maybe?) and that made it really easy for me. Part of the description said it was like blowing on a bottle only you pull the corners of your mouth tightly and blow a tightly focused stream of air. Armed with that I could get consistent tone out of my Dixon PVC “Low D Duo” flute after a month and when I got my 3-piece polymer it was pie. When I got my vintage German flute I almost had to relearn (listen to The Fisherman’s on that flute). I could get consistent tone except for the bottom D. Now I can nail it pretty well so I’m down to working on a good, hard D and full, round tone. I’ve been at it for close to a year. It just came down to persistence and visualization.
Keep puckering!
Aaron
Eric, thanks for posting your hints on playing the Dixon polymer. I just got mine, and knowing that it needs a more focused embouchure will be helpful. I also keep a little mirror on my music stand when I’m practicing long tones, so I can see how my embouchure looks, and how doofy I look when I play. But I don’t look as doofy now as I did when I played the oboe.
A few years ago when I visited Glen Schultz, I tried a flute and to my dismay couldn’t get even something remotely like a noise out of it. He gave me an old surplus cracked headjoint and told me to just practice on that, making a tooting noise on it. It worked, and I recommend it… detach the head and just walk around, doing chores and making tootie noises…don’t give up, it comes eventually!
cheers
Dave
Hi Tom,
Someone on the board recently suggested blowing at an oblique angle to the emb. hole,by pushing your right arm (and the bottom of the flute) away from your body,so some of your airstream is going more ‘down’ the flute rather than just straight across-it doesn’t have to be at some mad angle,just a slight adjustment-try it,experiment. hope I,ve explained this right!
Anyway,it seems to work!
Stick with it Tom! Like you said, when it works, there’s nothing like it. And just think of the satisfaction you’ll get from having worked so hard to achieve it!
By the way, if your experience is anything like mine (I got a Copley, not a Lehart, but I’m just talking about when you move to a top-quality instrument), when you get that Lehart it’ll be the easiest thing in the world! All your work on the other flutes will make it seem like you get a great tone just by thinking about it. The first time I tried my Copley my knees almost buckled. It was that good. So that’s what you have to look forward to if you keep at it.
I’ve always found it easier when I touch the opposite end of the hole with my tongue so that I can find where to aim my airstream. It then usually comes through clearly.
Also, I once posted a thread called “smash your lip” or something like that (sorry, can’t get the search engine to work) anyway it contained a tip from Master-Tooter Healy specifically on embouchre.
Don’t dispair, sounds like you’ve got sufficient determination to master it.
Also remember: Anyone that can learn to spell “embouchre” is plenty smart enough to develop a good one
A teacher is a wonderful thing for getting started. How’s it going? I guess it’s been nearly a month since this thread started.
I got my first sound out of a flute by relaxing my lips - a lot, then just blow a little. Don’t force it, and don’t try to hold the air in with your lips either. Let the air blow your lips into the right shape. Once you have a nice steady stream here, you might need to roll the flute around some to get a good sound. Keep at it. It will happen.
Guess I´m the lucky one here With only some minor Panpipes practising ten years ago I was able to hit 2.5 octaves and play those tunes I could on whistle, on the Euro RAF I had for a week two months ago.
Oh god what a lousy writer I am Anyway, after a couple of hours with the RAF I could play anything that I also managed with my Copeland Low D which I have had for a year or so.
Sooo tired shouldn´t write this post now in the first place.. he he!
Good night
).
She should talk, she sings pub songs…then again, she does look normal when she plays.
Very humbling though.
With only some minor Panpipes practising ten years ago I was able to hit 2.5 octaves and play those tunes I could on whistle, on the Euro RAF I had for a week two months ago.
Anyway, after a couple of hours with the RAF I could play anything that I also managed with my Copeland Low D which I have had for a year or so.