6th Month Anniversary and Sobering Experience

[treesong]

Good evening all!

Six months ago I recevied (after mucho anticipation) my beautiful Casey Burns Folk Flute! I had never played any flute before and I have been enjoying learning how to play it.

I have been recording myself during practice at least once every other week. Oh my, talk about a sobering experience Still, I think very important. Nothing like a recording to reveal issues that just do not seem to make their way to my ears while playing.

To celebrate six full months of learning and loving my new flute (sprinkled with fits of frustration) I have posted one of my recordings on Clips and Snips, which can be heard here: http://tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/Au ... eesong.mp3

I'd appreciate any feedback you all would like to share. Currently, I am mostly focusing on my tone and emobouchure, with my eyes glancing towards phrasing/aka not gasping for breath

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a traditional flute teacher near enough to our place. I'm still searching for a nearby session to at least listen at for now = ]

[crookedtune]

Hello Treesong! First of all, I like that you were willing to go out on a limb and post a link to an audio clip. It's not only sobering, but also intimidating, knowing how many truly accomplished players frequent this site. To me, your clip sounds very good for someone who's been at it for such a short time. You're playing strong, clear notes, and have a good sense of how to project through your instrument. You need to be striving for longer phrases, with less space between, in order to achieve a graceful, flowing sound. I'm sure you already know that, and it will come.

I'm also a relatively new flute player, and I'm learning a tremendous amount by hanging around here and picking up tidbits from the others. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for putting yourself "out there" and sharing your experiences. Enjoy, and keep us posted!

[Il Friscaletto]

Cool! Thanks for posting that clip. Sounds like you're doing well! I'm pretty new the flute also (1 year this month)! Now I feel bad for not recording myself more (or rather, avoiding recording myself!) I'm going to run out and get some AAA batteries for my digital recorder now.


:)

[Sillydill]

Hey Treesong!

Your doing well, it took me 6 months to just be able to get to the top of the 2nd octave!

I did a post with a sound clip for my 1-year Anniversary and I've posted my sound clip for my 2nd year, but I've been lax about doing my post commemorating the passage.

Honestly, your playing will really open up in the next 6-months if you keep at it.

All the Best!

Jordan

[Denny]

Tell yourself that the high notes
are easier than the low ones.
Relax up there.

Opposite on the low end,
give it a bit more.

Overall you are doing well for 6 months.

Start to play phrases,
instead of individual notes.

[mutepointe]

i listened to the clip but didn't read the other folks' comments. i gotta get to a birthday party. your music had a nice "fun" sound to it. when i was at the 6 month stage, i would have needed some basic cpr after playing something like that.

[peeplj]

Good on you!

Here's my thoughts:

First of all, great tone for the length of time you've been playing. You're having trouble with having enough breath; that will get better as your embouchure improves and you learn to use air efficiently.

Make sure when you breathe that you don't just lift your shoulders to "fill up;" the best way to breathe is to breath from the belly, like a baby. Breathe like a glass filling up (from the bottom up).

One thing that can help with breathing is posture. Sit (or, later, sometimes stand) straight and tall, and bring the arms well out and away from the body to give yourself room to breathe freely.

This will also help with keeping the flute stable; there were a few times in that tune that it sounded like you were having to divert energy away from playing the flute to keep the instrument securely held.

One thing that can help with embouchure and air efficiency is to practice long tones. Start with low G--try to play it just at a comfortable "medium" volume, but try to get it as clear and clean as you can. Over time, try to reduce the size of the hole between your lips to just a slit.

Properly played, a flute at medium volume should take no more air than a whistle--maybe even less than some whistles.

Do this with G, then A, then B...work up to second-octave G, and then work back down.

In the upper octave, try to not blow much harder to get the note; instead, tighten the lips even more and change the blowing angle a bit. That's very hard to do at first but will eventually become automatic, something you do without thinking about it at all.

Keep on keeping on! You're off to an awesome beginning!

Well done!

--James

[bayswater]

Very nice! Keep up the good work! Thanks for sharing

/Brian

[treesong]

Thanks for all the great feedback! I have benefited greatly from the time others have spent sharing their knowledge and experiences on this forum.

Hard as it is, listening to recordings of myself has given me insight to issues I need to work on. Definitely air efficiency/phrasing is top on my list, but I don't think I would know how dire the situation is without the recording. The gaps don't sound nearly as bad to me while I'm playing (probably because I'm too busy sucking in air to notice ). The comments reinforcing this really help me too. I have been focusing on producing a decent and consistent tone, developing my embouchure in general and working on some problem notes for me, but this is the next step and it is amazing how all these things work together.

Thanks again, to everyone for contributing. Such a great resource for us beginners!