I have a question about “windy” sounds. I have a Tipple flute and have had it for a little over a week. Love it! Besides the flute being new, however, I am too. So I absolutely do not expect that I should sound like Seamus Egan overnight. I know it is going to take a lot of time and hard work to sound ½ way decent, let alone like someone who has been at it for years. That being said, I have, nevertheless, been doing ok. I can play a good number of the songs that I play on my whistles (though most of them are at ½ speed with lots of squeaks and squawks), so it has been encouraging. I also have the Mad For Trad tutorial that I’m working through, and I’ve begun messing around with Grey Larsen’s book too (though it is too advanced for me at this point I fear).
But, in all of the tutorials that I’ve seen and everything I’ve read, I’ve yet to run across a way to deal with this sort of excess air that I hear blowing through the flute – especially in the upper registry. Maybe it is totally normal and that’s why nothing is written about it? – though I have my doubts about that. Is it purely an embouchure issue? Am I blowing too hard from the lungs and not the diaphragm? Is it the flute (yeah, right!!) All of the above? None of the above? I know this might be tough to diagnose without hearing or playing the flute, as each one is different, and everyone plays differently too, but I’m absolutely clueless! I’ve tried a bunch of different things and nothing really seems to work. I probably just need to keep at it, but if I am doing something seriously off beam I’d like to correct it before it becomes a really bad habit.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Odds are since you’re new it’s simply that your embouchure isn’t developed well enough yet (give it a year or so ). However, you can test this by recording yourself (on tape or your computer) and playing it back - we often sound much different to ourself than we really sound to others.
Yeah, I bet that is it. Be sure to practice long tones to warm up every time you practice. Just spend five or ten minutes every time you practice. It’s kind of Zen-like. Just play a note as long as you can and listen and notice everything you can about the note – its dynamic level, pitch, airiness (or lack thereof), whatever you hear. Don’t criticize, because you are just gathering information: “oh, my lips felt like this, and the note sounded fuller,” stuff like that. With time, you will notice yourself sounding better and better. An added benefit is that this helps to loosen up your breathing muscles for the rest of your playing session, and helps to build endurance over the long run.
I will add here that the Tipple actually is an especially “breathy” flute, I believe due to lack of compression either by conical bore toward the foot or in the headjoint. Others have noted that this makes the Tipple sound much like a low whistle (assuming you have the low-D model), which I feel has a very breathy, airy sound anyway, much of which is due to the acoustic properties of the cylindrical bore of the instrument.
You won’t sound like you’re playing some tight wooden flute, if that’s the sound you’re looking for, but I think you’ll get an appreciation for the expressive possibilities of that “Tipple” sound once you get used to it.
Have you listened to any of the sound samples on Doug’s website? I think if you check those out you’ll get an idea of what a Tipple should or could sound like, but as with all flutes, is as much the player as the flute.
I picked up my Tipple D after reading this thread.
It plays as sweetly as ever. “I” didn’t notice a breathy sound at all.
If I want to, though, I “can” make it sound that way.
Sometimes my other flutes can sound breathy. It depends on whether or not I am having a bad emboucher day. Once I play for awhile, it usually sorts itself out. Sometimes it doesn’t, for whatever reason that day.
What I guess this means, is that practice is going to take care of a lot of these issues. Others have volunteered the same thought.
Doug’s flutes are extremely good instruments, great value, and you will sound great on them, if you just keep on playing.
M
I will also add that I think Eric is right ~ I recorded myself playing a flute that I had found to be especially “hissy”, and guess what? The hiss didn’t come through in the recording at all. In fact, the flute sounded better than I thought.
). However, you can test this by recording yourself (on tape or your computer) and playing it back - we often sound much different to ourself than we really sound to others.