Still struggling with the low notes on the flute. I can’t get anywhere near to playing a hard d like you get on the pipes. Most noticeable when playing tunes like Fara Gara, Lucy Campbell etc where the bottom d is prominent. I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if I just have to be patient and it will eventually come.
Practice using long, held out notes until you get the sound you want. Start somewhere around G, and go down to that low D. That is what we do sometimes in band.
Try pulling the corners of your mouth back and directing the air a bit downwards. What works for me is a fairly wide flat mouthshape and the bottom D needs a fair bit of air. I found it very frustrating at first and I still find it hard to hit if coming to it from a second octave note!
First, as suggested by Chas’ flute teacher in another post, bring the flute up to your mouth, not your mouth to the flute. This means you will be sitting straight up, and your wind way in your body will not be obstructed. You will have more power. Push the air out from your diaphragm (breath support) and you will have more volume.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=30836&highlight=teacher
Also, there is a difference in the direction of the airstream you blow to make a higher note (more straight across the embouchure hole), and the low notes generally require you to blow more downward into the flute to make them sound the strongest. This was suggested above by Treeshark, and as “frown and down” by Cathy Wilde in this post about making the hard D here :
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=27041&highlight=frown
Your lips and facial muscles change slightly also when you do this, and when you blow down into the flute for the low notes, the lips will be formed into a frown, where the corners of the lips will be pulled downwards.
If you practice with these tips in mind, it should eventually become second nature to you. Good luck!
That is what I do.
Yes indeed, before long it will be second-nature and you’ll be pushing those notes around without mercy (instead of the opposite now 
). At first it seems bewildering the slight changes that are required to sound a note to it’s fullness. I’m amazed now, a few years into this flute-thing to watch my embouchure closely in the mirror through the course of playing a single tune. So many little things are happening physically that I was only peripherally aware in simply ‘listening’ the for melody and the tone to sound how I wanted.
Cheers,
- Ryan
thanks for all the advice - am trying to practice stretching my mouth further apart , i’ve realised there’s still space for development in this area, and have been concentrating on tunes that hang on the low notes like f# and e such as the wise maid
Still struggling and finding it very frustrating. There have been a couple of occasions in the last few months when I’ve felt as though I was playing 10 times better than I used to because I’d managed to address some weakness in my embouchure. The blow is that I’ve been unable to maintain this progress and am at a loss to understand what I was doing differently that was making such a difference.
I’ve been unable to find a wooden flute tecaher in my area, and was thinking of getting a lesson from a classical player. Would the techniques they teach for getting a good tone be transferrable to the wooden flute?
Are you certain that A) Your instrument is one of good quality (no defects in the design and it is well made), and B) The instrument is in good condition with no leaks? Even a very small leak, anywhere in the flute, can cause the bottom (as well as other notes) to drop out, play weakly, etc. Often this will only happen intermittently, which is all the more frustrating as it can cause one to believe it the player, and not the flute, having problems.
Loren
Ditto what Loren said. I also find that after playing for about 15-30 minutes my low D comes out with more of a bark and with greater ease. Some say its because the embochure has adjusted itself by that time, others say its because the flute is warmed up.
I would add C) that the cork is in the right place. I once had a flute (which Loren had subsequently for a few months) on which I couldn’t get a decent low-D. Loren discovered that the cork was way too close to the embouchure hole. I dunno that that was the whole problem, but it sure contributed to it.
To partially address B) in Loren’s post, how is the middle D? Especially played without venting, that is, with all the fingers down rather than with LH1 up. If the middle D is strong, I’d suspect that the (primary) problem isn’t a leak.
Also, do you care to tell us what type of flute you play? I still have problems getting a good low-D on Pratten-type flutes. Probably because I cut my teeth on Rudall-type flutes. I know it’s not universal, possibly not common, but I just get a lot of octave jumping on big-bore flutes. You may just have a flute that’s just not suited to your approach.
I made a similar “frustrated with lack of progress” post a while back, on the same topic (low notes). I can’t add much to the above advice, but I can add encouragement - it does gradually improve. I don’t have a teacher at this stage, and I did consider a classical teacher. Could still be useful.
A couple of things that helped for me:
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I kept (keep!) working on the Lonesome Jig, because it is nearly all down around D and E. I really notice the improvement in that one tune alone.
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For me, I have to kind of pull in the muscles in my upper lip either side of my nose (hard to describe) to narrow my embouchure. I also found it helps if I can get air in between my upper lip and teeth (even harder to describe!).
Also, I lose the low notes after a hard workout on the flute. When that happens, I just have to stop for a while. As time goes by, I should be able to keep it going for longer.
Anyway, keep at it. Improvement is slow, but it does come gradually!
A classical flute teacher can be a very good option (if no trad players are around)–but ask around for someone who plays Baroque flute–the techniques and mindset–for things like embouchure and breathing–are essentially what you want to have on an Irish flute.
Ditto everybody else. Check for cracks/leaks/etc., especially now that it’s winter and your heat is on (assuming you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, etc.). Then get thee to a classical teacher. In fact, I learned the whole “frown and down” thing from a classical player lo way too many years ago – but a good embouchure is a good embouchure no matter what stick you’re using it on.
Good luck! 
Meanwhile, two quickie exercises …
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Starting on a low G, simply play a G-Fsharp-D sequence over and over again, as smoothly as possible, increasing the volume as you go down, and holding the bottom D just a bit. You may have heard live Irish flute players do this before they start a tune sometimes; it’s a good “system check” for both the flute and the player as well as a good embouchure/fingerhole-finding warmup.
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Starting on a low B, try this sequence: B-G, A-Fsharp, G-E, F-sharp-D; D-Fsharp, E-G, Fsharp-A, G-B (i.e, down to bottom D and the back up the scale). After a few tries, begin alternately slurring and tonguing between the notes, increasing and decreasing volume, etc. as you go up and down the scale … The goal here is to find your weak spots, learn where your breaking points are – and go ahead! Bust a bunch of notes wide open just to learn how “wrong” feels, too! – and then slowly build a relatively unbreakable low register no matter how much you change your volume or air pressure.
This “intervals” approach is also a very good exercise for your embouchure in any part of the scale, in any register – i.e., try it in the upper octaves, too. It’s like Flute Players’ Wheaties
FWIW, don’t feel too bad about The Wise Maid. That’s a tough one because you go at it with lots of energy, sort of like the B part of Foxhunters; lots of folks break the Ds on both those tunes … tho’ sometimes to kind of a cool effect! 
Another piece of advice that helped me for all wind instruments:
The instrument doesn’t start at the mouthpiece. It doesn’t start with the embouchure. It starts at the bottom of your air column, somewhere behind your navel, and extends to the back of the room you’re playing in.
Using this mental image, bell tones come out strong, and throat tones (b, c, c#) that can be thin will project.
I’m a pretty jaded sort, so visualisation and touchy-feely stuff isn’t usually in my pedagogy. This ‘big instrument’ theory, however, does better things for my tone and projection than any amount of mechanicspeak.
New name for my band: Big Instrument Theory
I’ve been playing the Irish flute for 5 months or so (a Rudall copy) and have found the low D elusive. Once in a while powerful tone reveals itself, and then runs away and hides. Last night I reminded myself of the importance of breath support (you can get the feeling by tightening your abdominal muscles while blowing, and noticing the increase in velocity of the airstream while you are doing it), and obtained quite good low notes for quite a while. I find that one needs much more breath support for the low notes, and much less for the high notes (for most beginners, it feels like one has to “blow harder” to get the high notes).
One generic hint for all tone production is to change the direction of the airstream. Sometimes this is hard to imagine or achieve, or to understand how small the differences that are effective really are. If you tip your chin towards your neck to bring your head down a little, or tip your chin away from your neck to put your head back a little you can change the direction of the airstream without changing the position of your lips. I find moving my head easier to do and control than moving lips. It’s easy to overtire the lips, or force (bad), but if one just moves the head, it is easier to change the direction without inadvertently changing a bunch of other things at the same time. (Alternatively you can keep your head still and roll the flute away from you or towards you-perhaps more pleasing to look at than head bobbing). The object is to find the position of the airstream that gives a better low tone. For me, I find moving my chin away from my neck a little helps tone production for low notes. In any case the exercise makes you aware of how small changes in the direction of the air can have big effects on tone. One can also just imagine the desired result. If the centre of the embouchure hole is 12 o’clock, and the other side of the flute is 6 o’clock, then you can just imagine blowing towards 4 o’clock, or 5’oclock (or whatever), and you will notice changes in the tone as the direction of the airstream changes.
Another generic hint concerns the size of the hole in your lips. A lot depends on your teeth, jaw, and lips, but try changing the size of the hole. Smaller is usually better. More rounded, or more slit-like may be better. I usually find that when I imagine myself changing the size of the hole, that to achieve this my lips are either flattening (slit-like hole) or moving forward (rounder hole). This seems counter-intuitive, but playing high notes quietly is a very effective exercise in getting the feel for the smaller hole that produces a better tone on every note.
As others have advised, if pay attention to tone, it will come, even if it comes slowly. The trick is to create a physical memory of what the right position is for a given note, and to realize that this will change for different notes. One embouchure does not fit all.
Best,
Hugh
Anyone know of a good teacher in the Orange County/Southern California area? I don’t want to start my learning by building bad habits - know what I mean?
I have the same sort of problems. I rapidly become fatigued when I practice, the 'ol lips go numb, and I loose everything below F#. 
Now, I’ve only been playing flute (and whistle!) since the end of last year, so I’m hoping things will come along in the low “D” department! 
I have been working on the long, extended notes–been using this as a conditioning exercise–but until I’m able to push the low “D” and “E” around with regularity, I’m finding my ability to learn tunes is being hampered… 
…And practicing scales just blows (if you’ll all pardon the pun)! 
Try Nicolas Buckmelter of Ciunas. They all live together in an old house in Fullerton and he’s a very good flute player. I think he does give lessons.
http://www.ciunas.net/bandbiosnic.htm