I have a number of bamboo transverse flutes that I bought as a set from Erik the Flutemaker. I also have a flute head for my Dixon low D whistle.
I understand the principle of the flute embouchure and I can get good tone through at least one octave on my flutes, but it is really hard work. They take a LOT of air and I get out of puff. On the second octave I have no real control.
I think this is down to my technique, but I feel like I have plateaued.
It is so easy on my whistles that it is tempting just to put the flutes down. I would like to master them however.
Is there anything special I should be practising or is it just a case of making time for playing my flutes?
Yes to your last point - both parts of it. Your chief problem will be “focus”, and to get the 2nd 8ve you have to reduce the size of the lip aperture and change the angle of blowing - not blow harder as on whistle - so you do have something to work on there!
Some lessons, even from a mainstream classical flute teacher if you can’t find a suitable folkie, would be beneficial. Failing that, work on slurred octaves - play a long note on say, an A, then try to get it to move up the octave by maintaining the same breath pressure/blow rate but kinda squeezing (but don’t let that be a rock-hard, over-tense kind of squeeze - keep an overall sense of relaxation and flexibility) your lips - keep the centre of the hole between them arched but reduce its size laterally (in physics terms, its like a thumb over the end of a hose - same pressure through smaller aperture increases output speed/force); also try protruding your top lip further or less/ditto your chin to change the angle the airstream hits the working edge of the embouchure hole to achieve the octave shift in either direction. (But don’t tongue/glottal at this stage - you can add that later: tonguing/glottalling make the jump easier to achieve because of the little plosive release of air entailed, but mask the lip control, to which you need to pay primary attention. First get a perfectly controlled break from one octave to the other by air-steam control, then co-ordinate stops to that timing, not vice-versa.)
Do all the above in front of a mirror, maybe observing a tuner to see that you keep the octaves in tune. Ultimately it needs to be a combination of angle, aperture size and input air-pressure. When you can switch up and down by lip-manipulation fairly reliably and swiftly, go to work on another note. Work at it until you can do scales of slurred octaves at a fair pace. Apply what you are achieving to tunes that stretch your range as well.
With time and practice the lip-control will become unthinking and automatic, but starting from whistle where you have to blow harder to lift the octave, you will have a tendency to do that which will also tend to make your undisciplined lips blow out, enlarging the aperture unhelpfully. So muscle tone and fine, detailed muscle control of the lips are things which have to be learnt in the usual way.
Edited for Rob’s and the nit-picker’s benefit… - and a couple of extra thoughts. You’ll have to continue to put up with my stream-of-thought multi-sub-clause, poly-parenthetical “sentences”, though.
I think Jem probably covered all the bases. I can’t know for sure, though, because my eyes cannot penetrate this dense block of text. Paragraphs, Jem, paragraphs! That’s unreadable.
Seriously, though, I’m sure it’s all in there. Keep in mind that playing flute should take no more air than talking, less even. Be thrifty with your air.
Something my first flute teacher suggested was rice spitting. Put a grain of rice in your mouth and blow it out your lips. The farther you can spit it, the smaller the aperture in your lips. This is about both being able to make the small aperture and strengthening the muscles in your lips so that you can make the embouchure and maintain it for some period of time. Sounds silly, but it works.
As an aside, I bought a Hohner chalumeau (clarineau/pocket clarinet) a couple of weeks ago, after blowing on that for a couple of hours I found my flute embouchre tightened up significantly … less air, better second octave etc etc
Seems like a bit of physical exercise was all that was needed … just got to get the fingers to work properly now
Yes, I like Jem’s posts but paragraphs would help. This may be repetitive.
The main thing is to strengthen one’s embouchure. Time and practice will do it.
It’s helpful, IMO, to play higher pitched flutes occasionally, because they require more focus.
This speeds the process, IMO. Also to practice playing the flute softly.
When you get the upper octave, play it softly too.
Long tones are traditional and so is blowing overtones, e.g. blow the low D in the second and third octaves
and hold the tones.
Ultimately flute takes less air than whistle, because you can focus your embouchure to use less air
than a whistle does.
finally, as ever, patience. There is probably no quick fix, but this does sort itself out in time
and it’s worth the trouble. Once your embouchure comes online it improves indefinitely.
Thanks for the input. I didn’t know you needed a tighter embouchure on the 2nd octave with a flute - I just went up by overblowing. So right away that’s a big help. I’ve been trying to play them in more or less the exact same was as my whistles.
I also didn’t realise that higher flutes are more challenging - I thought that was just me. Again I’d been working by analogy with the whistle where it is the other way round.
I’m completely unschooled I’m afraid, just teaching myself. I might look at lessons at some point - although I can’t imagine what a teacher would say when they saw me playing In particular I don’t read music so I don’t know if that would interfere with lessons.
This was a deliberate choice when starting the whistle since I thought it foolish to learn to read before I could “talk” - also I was of the view that celtic music is meant to be taught in its “living” form i.e. by listening and playing.
You’re welcome. Not so much “tighter”, though - smaller, yes, and different in other respects. Try not to get tighter or you’ll just end up with face-ache and less than optimum control. That said, until your lip-muscle tone and control develop, you can’t entirely avoid tension. You’ll probably have noticed that simply blowing harder to overblow (it is still called that when achieved properly) on transverse flute makes for a harsh and usually sharp sound, if you can get the harmonic to come out at all (let alone the higher harmonics Jim mentioned).
One of the things you do by moving the top lip forward or the chin back (when going up the octave - vice-versa when dropping) is to shorten the distance from lip to strike-edge, which also has an effect and gives control in addition to the other aspects already mentioned. These things (among others) are what give the transverse flute and its player the greater control of dynamics and intonation which make it more versatile (but also more complex to learn) than fipple flutes. Understanding how it all works is a great aid to learning the techniques you need, IMO - check out this series of articles (link is to first of 5 - 2 & 3 are through-linked and here are 4 and 5). Understanding won’t obviate the need for a bit of hard work and self examination, though. But I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly a moderate amount of appropriate work will start to pay off.
just my two cents.. i always found that moving the chin back to protrude the top lip, does lift the octave quite effortlessly (no need what so ever to blow harder) but i find that this also flattens the pitch considerably, i find that it can’t be done without narrowing the air stream to make it faster, compensating for the flattened effect. i can’t do this with much consistency yet though, so I tend to aim the air stream higher, instead of lower to go up the octave
I just want to thank Jem for his explanation on how to get to the second octave on the flute. Like the Abrasive Scot, I’m also new to the flute - and like him, I can play the whistle. Just blowing harder to get there never really accomplished much of anything. With his explanation, though, I’ve been able to get it sorted out. It works just like he said.
It will still take a lot of practice to get things to work automatically, but that light I see is now the end of the tunnel, and not the headlamp of an oncoming train.
Notes from my first flute lesson (just last week):
Take comfortable, deep low breaths (expand the abdomen not high in the chest)
Play long tones on just the head joint. Hold it with both hands with the end covered in the palm of one hand.
Keep your teeth separated (no clinching) and close your lips comfortably.
Keep your lips in a straight line, parallel and level with the instrument (no smiling or pinching)
Let your lower lip extend over about 1/4 the hole opening
Create an oval shaped opening in your lips as small as possible that can create a tone.
The lower the note the larger the opening in your lips, the higher the note the smaller (but never larger than the tone hole)
Change the opening size with just the center lip muscles - with just a little relaxed puckering (not by smiling or tensing the lips)
With only the head joint - create a nice tone, then pucker a little making the opening a little smaller and blow the second octave
Maybe some of these will make sense to you. (Maybe not?) They were a great help to me.
Tom - proud owner of a brand new Casey Burns Boxwood FolkFlute
- and a couple of extra thoughts. You’ll have to continue to put up with my stream-of-thought multi-sub-clause, poly-parenthetical “sentences”, though.
(Or is it pale blue?)