Hi Flute Players. I have a question. What would be the best exercises for improving power on Low D (on a D flute) I tend to need to tongue (t) or (k) to get a stronger low D. I try to get it with a glottal articulation too. I am currently doing the following:
Normal Scales
Long tones.Scales while humming with open throat (suggested on this forum by a flute player called Daiv, thanks for that Daiv.
Harmonics/Overtones
Tunes
Mirror work for embouchure
I have a feeling it will be a matter of time to develop a real honk on the Low D but any advice would be welcome.
That’s useful Gromit thanks. I have been kind of doing this. I turn my head joint in a bit and I am blowing down. I will experiment further, at the moment I just don’t seem to get enough power. If I descend from, for example, F# through E to D it is quite a bit better than if I just hit the D.
How does it sound when you do the ‘abdominal punch’?
Inhale deep, and the punch the air out from your lower abdomen outwards in a sharp cough like gesture through the embouchure.
The times I have low D problems tend to be from octave leaps (my poor embouchure leap from upper to lower octave); incomplete sealing of the tone holes (forever problems : ( ) or from leaking keypads.
The worse is with keyed Boehm flutes, where I have to physically hold the Gsharp key down in order to get the low D, that is, if I can work out that it is this key and it usually is which leaks. Hate typewriter key flutes
It also depends on what kind of flute you’re playing. On a Rudall-style flute, turning your head joint in and blowing down may get you a flat and pinched bottom D; to make it sing you can try blowing more across the embouchure hole while simultaneously blowing harder and with maximum focus (you can pretend you’re blowing the highest note in the second octave). A friend of mine who’s a very good flute player had an early Michael Grinter flute and he was always complaining that it had a weak bottom D. But when I tried it, it had a remarkably powerful, rich bottom D. That’s not because I’m a better flute player but because he was unaware that by blowing down into the hole rather than across it he was making the D weak and flat.
Thanks guys. I’ll try the abdominal punch thing and also see if I can get more depth by blowing across.. I have been playing a tipple cylindrical PVC but just got a Garry Somers pratten 5 PC delrin. The low D is there on both. It’s my embouchure that isn’t quite making it. Work to do.
In a workshop a few years ago, we were taught to practice getting a richer bottom D by doing the following exercise, daily:
Blow the bottom D hard and hold it.
Blow the E then sort lo “bump” onto the bottom D, ie when you move from the E to the D give the D an extra push. When you arrive on that bottom D, hold it.
Blow the F# then bump onto the bottom D and hold it.
Continue doing this right the way through two octaves, ie when you get up to the second octave notes, play them and then also bump down onto the bottom D.
Then come back down the scale.
This exercise shouldn’t take long, but if you do it daily it does have a remarkable effect on overall tone. Of course, I’m too lazy to keep doing it … [sigh]
A push from the diaphragm as you play the bottom D. More air, effectively.
Interestingly, I have tried slapping fingers down to create a more distinctly articulated note; I’m not sure it makes much difference provided finger articulation is reasonably positive, ie not too lazy.
A bit of an air push just before the note, however you want to do it (from the diaphragm, huffing, glottal, roof of the mouth) but just a moment before you bring down the right hand finger(s) sharply to close the D (the latter two thirds of a cut really). See if you can get a really ‘hard’ D this way (from G to D, or F# to D, or E to D) even if you split into the higher d octave, over exaggerate, see how hard you can hit it, then gradually pull back and soften the movements (the air and finger movements) til you have a result that you like.
For practice, try phrases from a simple tune like the Kilmaley reel where you can alternate and punch out lower notes by moving from higher notes
G2 DG EG D(breath) GA BG AG EG
A2 EA FA E(breath) AB Cd ed BA
etc… (if you can keep going without the breath in the middle then fine but see if you can cycle back from the end of the line to the beginning without breathing so it rolls along)
Think about ‘hitting’ the right hand notes quite hard so they jump out of the tune at a higher volume than the other notes while keeping the flow going.
Cheers, hope it works for you! If I analyse what I think I’m doing there then it’s a sort of soft version of a glottal stop, more of a ‘haa’ than a cough, if that helps? It will depend a lot on your flute though, as Brad says (and I’m a Rudally kind of guy who might have more difficulty filling the D on a Pratten)
The thing I found most helpful was short tones. It’s kind of like interrupted long tones. Just give a quick puff, no tonguing or glottal, and try to get a good tone as quickly as possible. As with long tones, move the flute around and experiment with your embouchure to get the strongest immediate tone.
Well, to be perfectly honest, not all players have the embouchure capacity for a strong (Low D), despite all their efforts.
With a well known maker, the problem usually lies with the player, and not the flute, unless there is an air leak from either a tenon, key, or crack. It takes a while for some to achieve the ability to blow a hard low D, and for others it is nearly a futile pursuit on some flutes especially, which require more focus than they are capable of doing.
Keep at it, and magically it just may happen for you when you least expect it.
PS Do a search here-there has been much written before about this.
