Speeding up flute warmup
-
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:07 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Learning more about flutes here, and looking for good makers. Also used instrument exchange is very convenient.
- Location: CA
Speeding up flute warmup
Hi All,
I noticed the tone on my flute gets much nicer after about 1/2 hr of playing. Is there a way to accelerate this or make a better maintenance routine for it?
Thanks!
I noticed the tone on my flute gets much nicer after about 1/2 hr of playing. Is there a way to accelerate this or make a better maintenance routine for it?
Thanks!
-
- Posts: 731
- Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2003 8:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
How new/old is your flute? Newer flutes may still be absorbing moisture. That would argue for an oiling schedule. Well oiled older flutes may not. Are you playing in an extremely cold or warm room? Just curious.
- Conical bore
- Posts: 507
- Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2012 7:12 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Pacific Northwest USA
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
There is a recurring theme in fretted instrument forums about whether it's the instrument that "wakes up" or the player "waking up," that results in a better sound after a few minutes or a half hour in a practice session. It could be the player getting more comfortable with what the instrument wants for best results, which may take a little while to get dialed in during a daily practice session.
I'm sure there are other things going on especially with a wooden flute, involving temperature and humidity. I just don't know how to separate the possibility that it's me "finding my embouchure," or my fingers warming up and being more flexible after a certain period of time.
I'm sure there are other things going on especially with a wooden flute, involving temperature and humidity. I just don't know how to separate the possibility that it's me "finding my embouchure," or my fingers warming up and being more flexible after a certain period of time.
-
- Posts: 1149
- Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:47 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Kickbiker - at over 70!
:lol:
....................................................................
....................................................................
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
We play our instruments using our breath, & until our instruments are at the same temperature, they can sound a bit off.
I usually blow gently through my flutes/whistles, to warm them up slightly before playing.
With harmonicas too, especially valved chromatics, whose valves can stick, our breath contains moisture which will condense on, or inside, a colder instrument.
I usually blow gently through my flutes/whistles, to warm them up slightly before playing.
With harmonicas too, especially valved chromatics, whose valves can stick, our breath contains moisture which will condense on, or inside, a colder instrument.
Keith.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.
-
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:07 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Learning more about flutes here, and looking for good makers. Also used instrument exchange is very convenient.
- Location: CA
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
It’s about 9 months old, so you may be right. Do you think it needs less oil or more?busterbill wrote:How new/old is your flute? Newer flutes may still be absorbing moisture. That would argue for an oiling schedule. Well oiled older flutes may not. Are you playing in an extremely cold or warm room? Just curious.
Also it maybe me waking up rather than the flute, quite likely
-
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2019 9:38 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I play whistle and flute. I started learning 3 years ago. I like this website and TheSession too. This should be enought for you to know I am not a weirdo spammer.
- Location: Co. Kildare - NAAS
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
I noticed this too... but I think it's the player is warmed up moreso than the instrument. Flute always a bit rough for the first 5 minutes while it acclimatises to the environment.
-
- Posts: 731
- Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2003 8:06 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
tradlad123 wrote:It’s about 9 months old, so you may be right. Do you think it needs less oil or more?busterbill wrote:How new/old is your flute? Newer flutes may still be absorbing moisture. That would argue for an oiling schedule. Well oiled older flutes may not. Are you playing in an extremely cold or warm room? Just curious.
Also it maybe me waking up rather than the flute, quite likely
It may be you waking up, haha, the flute acclimating to your breath, or anything mentioned in the other posts. I'd recommend you contact the flute's maker and see what they recommend. You likely got a schedule of sorts from the maker when you got it. At nine months it is likely pretty stable, but I don't know how often you have oiled it over the time you've had it, or how often you play etc. So any advice I might give would likely be irrelevant.
- Nanohedron
- Moderatorer
- Posts: 38224
- Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Been a fluter, citternist, and uilleann piper; committed now to the way of the harp.
Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
I've always assumed that ambient temperature aside, I was always the one warming up, never the flute. I still think it's true, by and large.
I've played outdoors in the cold and snow - not happily, either, for my mind was more on that poor wooden flute than anything else - but it seemed to go well enough. The timbre wasn't quite ideal, IIRC, but it served. What concerned me most was that while the flute's interior might be warmed at least in part, the exterior couldn't be, and not caring to tempt fate, I swore off being a part of quaint winter atmospheres after that. My fingers thanked me, too.
I've played outdoors in the cold and snow - not happily, either, for my mind was more on that poor wooden flute than anything else - but it seemed to go well enough. The timbre wasn't quite ideal, IIRC, but it served. What concerned me most was that while the flute's interior might be warmed at least in part, the exterior couldn't be, and not caring to tempt fate, I swore off being a part of quaint winter atmospheres after that. My fingers thanked me, too.
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician
-
- Posts: 418
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:05 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Contact:
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
The only real thing that I notice with a flute warming up is that the tone becomes more stable. I am firmly convinced, that, for me, it is the player that warms up. I can see this when I play for a while until I feel the warmed up performance and then switch to a different flute on which I can then, within 1 or 2 minutes, play with that same dialed-in, warmed up feeling, even though they may be substantially different instruments, e.g. Windward keyed Pratten <-> Metal Boehm Flute.
If you have more than one flute available, then try that test yourselves and let me know how it goes.
Outdoor playing is always challenging, but in ice or snow it is my fingers that I worry about most. I believe that indoor central heating in winter is much worse for a wooden flute.
(BTW - I know from checking, that none of my flutes leak out of the case, but that can be a problem that goes away with extended playing due to swelling of pads/joints... Check your flutes for this too.)
If you have more than one flute available, then try that test yourselves and let me know how it goes.
Outdoor playing is always challenging, but in ice or snow it is my fingers that I worry about most. I believe that indoor central heating in winter is much worse for a wooden flute.
(BTW - I know from checking, that none of my flutes leak out of the case, but that can be a problem that goes away with extended playing due to swelling of pads/joints... Check your flutes for this too.)
19th October, 2012:
Flute: Rookery
Flute: Musical Priest
Flute: Swinging on the Gate
Flute: Sally Gardens
4th June 2012:
Flute: Rolling in the Ryegrass, Green Gates
2 April, 2012:
Smallpipes: The Meeting of the Waters. Corn Riggs
Smallpipes: Mrs Hamilton of Pithcaithland
Flute: Rookery
Flute: Musical Priest
Flute: Swinging on the Gate
Flute: Sally Gardens
4th June 2012:
Flute: Rolling in the Ryegrass, Green Gates
2 April, 2012:
Smallpipes: The Meeting of the Waters. Corn Riggs
Smallpipes: Mrs Hamilton of Pithcaithland
- Juan Pablo Plata
- Posts: 224
- Joined: Sun Jul 14, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Granada
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
Considering that ambient temperature is not cold, play ten minutes in the upper second octave. That is the best you can do.
-
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:47 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Own and play RC 6950, made around 1888 and Boosey Pratten 14901 ( 1890 ). After three decades I am still devoted to the flute and Irish traditional music on the flute.
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
Try a cup of tea.
Pat
Pat
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
Scales, arpeggios, long tones.....for at least five minutes.
- ecadre
- Posts: 274
- Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:59 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Location: Coventry, England
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
Musician or instrument?RudallCarte6950 wrote:Try a cup of tea.
Pat
Andrew Wigglesworth
http://www.greenmanrising.co.uk
http://www.greenmanrising.co.uk
-
- Posts: 60
- Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:05 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Re: Speeding up flute warmup
http://staging.forums.chiffandfipple.co ... 06&start=0
I think the above link is relevant to this discussion and could explain some of the nuances felt and heard by various players.
I think the above link is relevant to this discussion and could explain some of the nuances felt and heard by various players.