Question

Flute Tips for Music Teachers and EVERYONE!

This is for @jigglypuff314 I hope you liked it! ^_^

Sources: http://www.flutediva.com/flute-tips-for-everyone.html

Answer 1

\[Embouchure ~~and~~Tone ~~Production\]

1.Don’t smile, FROWN! The bottom lip should be relaxed and flat or curved into a frown. The bottom lip is like a reed for the clarinet, it just sits there. The top lip should do all the work.
2.When you place the embouchure plate on a student’s lips take into consideration the following:
1.Do they have a thick bottom lip? If it is thick place the embouchure plate on the red part of the lip so that they don’t have to struggle to move their bottom lip out of the way of their embouchure hole. You might have to roll in a little if this is the case.
2.Do they have a thin bottom lip? Then place the lip plate under the lip, in the curve of the chin. You might have to roll out a little if this is the case.
3.Does the air come out of the center or to the side? Do they have a tear-drop upper lip? Don’t have students struggle to blow directly down the center. Work with what they’ve got; place it wherever the air stream tells you to by checking the condensation on the lip plate. Sometimes muscles on one side of the face develop faster or more than the other side, its too hard and not worth it to have them try to change that. Also, they will have to move the tear-drop over to one side or the other to get it out of the way. Many famous players play off to one side or the other.
4.Do they have crooked bottom teeth? It might be necessary to angle the flute to accommodate their bottom teeth, out with the right arm or further in with the right arm.
5.Do they have braces? A prominent lower jaw? A short upper lip? You might need to position the flute higher up on the lower lip and roll in. Tell them to really pull their top lip over their front teeth in order to angle their air into the instrument. You can also try the tape trick, you take peices of electrical tape and put between 2-7 layers on the embouchure plate were it rests on the lip/chin. You will have to experiment with all of these to see what works. If they have an overbite as long as it’s not to extreme it is ideal for playing the flute.
6.Do they have a Herbst appliance (used with braces to move the bottom jaw forward and correct over bite). This changes the angle of the airstream so that the air stream is aimed higher than before. You will probably need to place the flute higher on the lower lip and roll in. Sometimes though, you will have to experiment with placing the embouchure plate below the braces, above the braces or right on the braces. Tell them to really pull their top lip over their front teeth in order to angle their air into the instrument. You can also try the tape trick, you take pieces of electrical tape and put between 2-7 layers on the embouchure plate were it rests on the lip/chin. You will have to experiment with all of these to see what works

Answer 2

1. The single most detrimental thing that a director can do is to force young inexperienced players to play softly before they are ready! Especially in the high register. They don’t know how to do this yet and they don’t have the control yet. They’ll end up with pinched, tight, out-of-tune sounds that you won’t like. Some will be super flat and others super sharp. If you were teaching trumpets to play “C” above the staff you wouldn’t also be trying to make them play it as soft as possible. None of them would learn to play the upper register. Unfortunately, very few students have the control that is needed to play in the upper register softly until they are in college. Have 90% of the section play down an octave. Chose only 1 or 2 players to play the higher register. Thin the section when it is pp. Make them play soft before they are ready (especially in the upper octave) they will be horribly out of tune and they will develop horrible habits.

2. Relax! This is related to #3. They won’t learn to do this if you try to make them play soft before they are ready. One of the biggest problems students have is maintaining a relaxed embouchure. If the embouchure is too tight the sound is pinched, small and flat. If the embouchure is too loose (generally not the problem, and don’t worry about beginners) the sound is hollow, small and flat. Allow, even make, your flute students puff their cheeks and play loudly at first. It is much easier to refine their tone when they have some experience than to open up their sound after years of a tense embouchure. Many students who do not relax will develop uncontrollable lip quivers. Also there has been some speculation that a tense embouchure might contribute to muscle dystonia concentrated in the lip area.

Answer 3

\[Playing~~i n~~all~~the~~registers \]

1.If a student has a relaxed embouchure the high register should not be a problem. To get to the high register the air has to be going at a higher velocity. A lot of people believe that you just have to make the embouchure tighter or smaller in order to go higher. For the beginner and intermediate student this is a bad approach, encourage the student to use more air a faster speed so that they feel like they are doing sit-ups or “yelling” at someone with their flute. They should also picture aiming their air higher on the flute or moving their lips forward into a “kiss”. Have the student bring their bottom lip forward or bottom jaw forward, lip flat or squished against the lip plate. By starting them out this way they might at first have to play the upper register loudly but they will be developing a better method of support for the air column and they won’t be developing bad habits such as pinching the notes out, or even worse, pinching the notes and rolling the flute in at the same time. You can also liken air speed and aperture to a garden hose and watering a garden. Most students have done this or at least messed around with a hose...lol. You have too big of an aperture even if the hose is turned on fully the water will land at your feet. With the same water pressure if you cover too fully you end up watering the next door neighbors' grass. There are so many different combinations to work with experimentation is key!

1.If when they are first playing these notes they sound sharp (they will) have the students pretend they have really bad buck teeth and to stick their top lip out and over the teeth to aim the air column down, this will usually correct the intonation. Puffing, or allowing the cheeks to inflate, will instantly lower the pitch and allow for a fuller tone as well. Some students will have the opposite problem of playing too flat in the upper register, they are probably not supporting and not using enough air or their air column is aimed too low. If it’s the air column have them pretend that they are with their friends and something really disgusting just happened and make them say “eeeww” scrunching up their top lip and their nose. This will help them get the feel for lifting their top lip and help them develop the muscles of their upper lip. Tell them that if it’s too embarrassing to do in front of other people to do it when they are alone at home.

Answer 4

1.Low notes generally sound unsupported and hollow in young players.

1.Have the students make the opening smallest for the low register and biggest for the high register; they might not actually do this but they will psychologically avoid the overly large opening in the low register and the pinched one in the upper register. Also have them make their lips firmer for the low register and very relaxed for the high register. They will develop a more even tone in all the registers this way so they won’t sound like different flute players depending on what octave they are playing.
2.Have the students aim for the opposite edge of the embouchure hole and pretend they are cutting the air stream to get those lower notes…which they are. You can also have them pretend that their air is like a laser that has to travel all the way across the room when they are playing in the low register (or any register).
3.Tell them to practice cracking the low notes so they know exactly how much air and speed it will take them to do it. Tell them that playing the flute in any register should feel like they are walking close to the edge of a cliff, always just one step away from cracking a low note or breaking a high note down. They’ll have more energy and better tone when they are thinking this.

Answer 5

1.After adjusting the head joint by pulling in or out, intonation in general should be controlled by the upper lip. Further over and focusing the air down into the flute will lower the pitch, and air that is aimed higher by lifting the upper lip, pushing the bottom lip forward and focusing the air higher will raise the pitch.


2.At the ends of phrases when flutists tend to go flat…sustained long notes etc… Try having your whole section raise their chins (this effectively rolls out). You can watch the section correct the pitch this way and it works.

Answer 6

\[Playing~~Softly~~ i n~~Tune!!\]

1.Students need to first aim their air higher by lifting their upper lip and pulling their bottom jaw forward and out. Both lips go forward into the kissing your mom position. Have them make their opening smaller, firmer, and decrease the amount of air.

1.You can do an exercise were the students start playing loudly and relaxed, have them slowly bring their jaw or bottom lip forward, reduce their air and close their opening until they are playing so softly that no sound is coming out anymore. This will help them gain the control they need for soft playing.

2.You can also have them purse their lips like they are about to kiss their flute. This forward embouchure raises the air stream and also makes it smaller.

3.You can also do a pitch bending exercise just using lips and not rolling in and out. Good for improving lip flexibility.

Answer 7

\[[ Will~~be~~back~~\to~~Food~~comes~~first~~:3]\]

Answer 8

you made me read ALL of that?! ;-;

my personal notes:
/whack! don't roll in! you flutelings roll in too much anyways
rolling in is too much of a problem for sooo many beginning flute players
it covers up the tone and ugh

the rest is pretty good
the pursing lips thing is correct, but don't be puckering too much
Something fluties can learn from brass players is to DROP OR JAW
it opens up sooo much more space in the mouth which gives a much better sound!

puffing cheeks is a person's personal thing, you don't have to
but it helps to check if you are using unnecessary mucles

Answer 9

*DROP YOUR JAW
lel

Answer 10

I gtg to class will add some more latter about finger breathing
and manipulating air stream

Answer 11

ok :3

Answer 12

Basic Flute Tips

@Joel_the_boss you've basically copy pasted the entire thing ;-; isn't that like a copyright problem right there???

anyways, here's how I would phrase it

- A Flute player is not supposed to look pretty while playing the flute.
- If you look pretty playing flute, you're not doing something you're supposed to

- If you have not been told this already, put the flute plate lower on your chin into the dip, then roll out a uncomfortable amount, and drop your jaw. It will feel awkward for a while but my tone improved a lot when I did it. :)
- putting it lower and rolling out fixes the beginner's problem of
covering too much of the hole and making thin sounds
- dropping your jaw gives the overall tone more fullness
and try to keep your teeth apart at about thumb's width
- try to make it a habit from the beginning of keeping your
mouth shape centered, it will give you a better tone in
the long run (I personally have trouble with this one :P)

- Flute players always seem sooo shy
the truth is that the louder you can play, the better of a chance you will have in any audition
- push air and play loud :) once you can play loud, it becomes easier to play softer
- tip for air: try to envision 60% of air going into the flute while 40% goes across.
- many of us tend to over or under shoot this ideal

- RELAX, imagine yourself in a comfortable hot tub when playing.
- we would do this because for example, if you were to try to
run a race, you wouldn't want to make yourself as stiff as a
statue to go as fast as you can, you'd pull a muscle.
- that'll be the same idea for flute, if you see a difficult passage,
do your best to not tense up :)
- high notes: don't squeeze, instead press your lips out a little more
octaves are based on the distance of the air source to the other side of the flute plate

- tuning: Do Not Roll!
it would mess up the tone
try to experiment with your lips to aim up or down to tune
- create a personal tuning chart for your instrument
not all instruments are the same, and everyone's mouths are different too so make a personalized tuning chart of your tendencies
- play each note with a tuner and compare how sharp or flat
they are in comparison to each other
just knowing your tendencies will improve your overall tuning
in the long run


I hope these tips help ^_^

Answer 13

Um not if you cit your sources. :P Which I did if you look at the question box xD