I know people will say “focus your embouchure.” Duly noted. But it seems to me there must be more to it than that.
Sometimes, with what feels like the same old embouchure I normally use, I get dramatically increased levels of white noise.
It’s happening today. I think it’s because I’ve had a cold for the past few days. Nose is clogged up so my lips are really, really dry. I was getting pretty good, hissless tone just three days ago, before the onset of gunksville.
My other theory is that, for some reason I am hearing the same tone I always do, but perceiging more of it because my ears are for some reason less clogged at the moment. But it doesn;t fell like that’s the case.
Any theories?
Having been through this many times in the past, it is safe to say that it’s a temporary condition.
Personally, I think when your head is all stuffed up, you don’t hear your tone as well, so you subtly overcompensate in an attempt to “sound right” to yourself. The embouchure process is so complex, and as flute players we’re always listening and adjusting in very subtle ways…so if we can’t hear as well with stuffy ears, I think our lips try to adjust to make us sound like our ears think we should which doens’t work very well.
Did that make any sense at all? Even if it didn’t, it’s purely my own theory…so take it for what it’s worth.
Everyone has different lips and one embouchure hole might fit your lip better than mine and vice versa. The embouchure hole of my Aebi pratten causes nearly any hiss with me playing, while my Reviol is hissing a bit, but other players produce lots of hissing on the Aebi and a clean, hiss-less tone on my Reviol.
On the other hand (and to a much bigger amount IMHO), it also depends on if you have a good fluting day or not…a very wise man ( @ onkel) once told me that I shouldn’t pay attention to the tone on “bad embouchure days” and try to stay in tune and play the music well, and the problem eventually might solve itself sooner or later. And better fluting days will come, anyway.
If the hissing comes and goes, then it may be more a matter of your lip condition than focus – you say you’ve a cold, then chances are your lips are dry and/or cracked. Or they just aren’t as flexible as usual.
Focusing your embouchure is the key, but - like a leaky flute - your technique won’t matter much if your lips are not pliable. Try drinking more liquids, use chapstick, add humidity to the room, etc, and generally try to recreate conditions that are best for your embouchure. And then focus.
My primary cause of hiss is condensation on the embouchure hole. I’m not sure of all the causes, but it’s definitely worse in the winter – we keep the house at 66 in the winter and ambient or 78 in the summer. Overblowing, as alluded to by another poster, is definitely a factor. It took me ages to figure out just how much I need to back off playing the traverso.
Check for an irritated snake in the bore! To remove, play a lullaby first, then tilt the flute to allow snake to slide out. Larger reptiles may require removal of the headjoint/adjustment of cork position. Cheers,
I find a similar problem. If I have been playing for a while, the hissing gets worse. I can wipe the flute out and remove excess moisture, but the flute still hisses. I find once the flute has got so wet, it needs to be rested and dried out before it will play well again.
I find this happens to me in winter mostly. My lips get chapped and i get a bad tone. I have avoided chap sticks because my lips get soft and I find it hard to play. However I’m sure with a a little practise I should be able to adjust. Anyone reccomend a good cure for the lips in winter
dry lips shouldnt be an issue, unless they are cracked. i’m not sure about the cold, but i think two things could be going on:
your ear has progressed and you can now here your tone better
you are not actually using the same embouchure. there is often a huge disconnect between what you are doing and what you perceive you are doing when it comes to kinesthetically learning something.
the problem comes after you learn to do something physically, instead of relying solely on your kinesthetic memory (muscle memory), you get complacent and use your episodic memory. so, although you’ll tell yourself, “ok, use this muscle and this muscle to make that shape,” that wasnt how you thought about it when you actually made that shape in the first place, so it’s like starting at square one.
the key is to always have a fresh eye with your embouchure. make no assumptions. never “memorize” how you did it before, or become complacent and just do it. always search it… feel it out, listen and feel how the flute reacts. that way, you will always improve and you will never get stuck in ruts or go backwards for more than a moment at a time.
I’m supposing that by “hissing” you mean that the tone is breathy. I can cure, or at least diminish, the hissing/breathiness by consciously making the lip opening as thin as possible. If it rounds out, I am wasting a lot of air, and the hissing increases. I’m not flawless yet, but I’m getting there.
@ onkel) once told me that I shouldn’t pay attention to the tone on “bad embouchure days” and try to stay in tune and play the music well, and the problem eventually might solve itself sooner or later. And better fluting days will come, anyway.
