I’ve been recording myself and my tone is
wobbling on slow stuff, like the Water is Wide.
I’ve been working for a couple of months to
get the tremelo out, but I’m not quite in
control. It isn’t merely tremelo,
I’m having trouble holding
notes steady. Any suggestions?
I suppose playing scales slowly? Gee, this
flute thing, I really got in over my head,
didn’t I?
Many years ago I took singing lessons,
and my teacher told me to tense my
belly when producing a tone.
Basically to keep some muscle
tension always. Anybody do this?
Well I sure aint the guy to give advice on the flute but I do tense my belly while playing, a habit I got into back when I was singing for a living. As for the tremol maybe you need to start relaxing your Mbowshure. I know we work on a firm one to get that what ever sound but I find when I am playing my old 8 key I can ease up on the lip muscles and realy get more control over sustained notes. I also practice playing as softly as I can during part of my practice session. That also requires a little less tension in the lips. But these are just things I play with while I`m trying to learn this beast and I have no credable reason for doing it. :roll:
Hi---- Tense does not sound good I’m just guessing here, but it sounds like the issue might be breath support. This would be most noticeable on sustained notes. Do you have access to an IR trad flute teacher? If not, you might want to consider a lesson with a Boehm teacher who could see, in person, what you are doing that might be causing this. If you are near a university, often the music majors (a flute player, of course) will gladly give lessons for a very reasonable cost. They’d probably end up learning a lot from you too and having fun at it.
Jim, sometimes that wobble can be in your throat. Your idea of keeping your abdominal muscles tense is a good one. You do, however have to remember to keep your throat loose and open (like with a yawn).
Good support from the abdomen, and an open throat is a good way to approach playing. I’m all for keeping too much tension out of the embouchure, but some trad players would certainly disagree with me. The new book by Grey Larsen has a good section on how to approach embouchure on the flute. If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend it!
Thanks to all. I’m still learning. Recording myself
is helpful, because I can hear stuff that otherwise
I wouldn’t. Will yawn and tense abdomen.
Alos long slow scales. Thanks again
I’m just guessing here, but it sounds like the issue might be breath support. This would be most noticeable on sustained notes. Do you have access to an IR trad flute teacher? If not, you might want to consider a lesson with a Boehm teacher who could see, in person, what you are doing that might be causing this. If you are near a university, often the music majors (a flute player, of course) will gladly give lessons for a very reasonable cost. They’d probably end up learning a lot from you too 
and having fun at it.
The new book by Grey Larsen has a good section on how to approach embouchure on the flute. If you don’t have it yet, I highly recommend it!