Dealing with day's form

[StefD]

Imagine you play a couple of tunes on the flute and your flute starts to sing. The sound is full, warm, strong and full of energy.
Then you go to bed and when you start to play the next day it just sounds weak.
You haven't changed the embouchure knowingly but you hear and feel that your flute doesn't sound as it should.
I'm sure you all know those days.

I was wondering how you deal with that? Don't play any more that day and wait for a better day to come or would it be wise to work on the embouchure espacially on those 'weak' days? Maybe you can give me any advice?

(I'm sure this has been discussed before. I've searched a bit but didn't find a right thread or maybe I don't really know where to search for. So sorry if this has been discussed before.)

Thanks for your help

[Sillydill]

Hey Stef,

I seldom play well in the morning!

It always seems better later in the day.

[mutepointe]

I have a few flute type instruments, whistles too. If at first I don't succeed and it seems like it's going to stay that way, I change instruments for awhile. Warming up and achieving some type of success sometimes gets the original flute to decide to cooperate.

[Akiba]

I think the inconsistency of playing Irish flute comes with the territory. The Irish flute is an unpredicatable beast. Even great players vary in their playing from day to day, particularly in terms of tone generation. For instance, I just took a workshop with Larry Nugent and he admitted his flute tone was not what it could be because he just oiled it. Brian Finnegan freely admits he has his ups and downs with the flute. I think flute players on their solo albums sound different on different tracks based on the natural variation of Irish flute tone from day to day (John Wynne's "With Every Breath" comes to mind). Patsy Hanley admits he can't play well in the morning. It drives me nuts as well but I'm learning to accept it and lighten up about it.

Just work on everything else (ornaments, rhythm, tempo, phrasing, breathing, learning tunes) even if the tone is not great. I need to heed this advice as well.

thanks for the topic.

[FascinatedWanderer]

Yeah, often I find it's actually the flute and not me. Once I started keeping the thing well humidified at all times the variation has decreased greatly.

[StefD]

That's interesting - so some of you would say you play better later in the day?
That's what I've discovered but I thought this would just be imagination.

When the flute 'doesn't work' one day I allways take the whistle which I play a few years more. But maybe you're right and I should take the flute again after I've played on the whistle for a few minutes to see if the 'warming up' has changed anything.

[MeaghanEryn]

I've noticed that after I play for a while my bottom notes will sometimes start to get really weak. Sometimes swabbing the flute out helps. However, I've also played silver Boehm flutes for a number of years, and sometimes even after warming up you have good days and bad days. And you don't even have the excuse of crappy reeds or an exhausted embouchure!

One question I'd like to throw out there: I play on a McGee D-foot flute, so I *should* have a big beefy low end. I thought it was just me and my classical playing that was wussing out on the lower notes, but when I was in Ireland at some workshops this summer and we engaged in the obligatory flute-trading ritual, other players also commented on the weakness of the low end. I've contacted Terry McGee and taken the flute to my local repairman, but he couldn't find anything wrong with it. Any ideas???

Meaghan

[an seanduine]

MeaghanEryn, if the flute is keyed, the first suspect is a defective seal on one of the keypads. . .microscopic will do it. A prime suspect for the bottom D is the C key. Take an eyedropper and irrigate the key-seat. . .making a 'water-seal'. If the response of the D is altered you've found your gremlin.

Bob

[benhall.1]

MeaghanEryn, if the flute is keyed, the first suspect is a defective seal on one of the keypads. . .microscopic will do it. A prime suspect for the bottom D is the C key. Take an eyedropper and irrigate the key-seat. . .making a 'water-seal'. If the response of the D is altered you've found your gremlin.

Bob

Ah. I was just going to query that, but only because I'm so used to 8-keyers. Anyway, for clarity, you're talking about the long C key, producing the C at the top of the first octave, I guess.

Another key which can give problems for the bottom D is the Eb key. One of my flutes had a problem there, and, when I fixed the Eb key the bottom D, which I'd been struggling with, was as easy as pie.

[an seanduine]

Um, yes. . .since she specified a D foot. Seems there's some sort of node (anti-node?) right about at that point. Another culprit as well is the F key. 'Course any key can be troublesome. . . .springs, pads. . .arrgh! If by chance she has no keys, then I withdraw my suggestions


Bob

[benhall.1]

Um, yes. . .since she specified a D foot. Seems there's some sort of node (anti-node?) right about at that point. Another culprit as well is the F key. 'Course any key can be troublesome. . . .springs, pads. . .arrgh! If by chance she has no keys, then I withdraw my suggestions


Bob

Ah. Silly me. I had troubles with a G# key on another flute making the bottom notes fluffy, so yes, any key can be a problem.

[an seanduine]

My 'go to' flute right now is a four key early American ('Murcan) flute. You would think with fewer keys. . . .but it still gives me my moments

Bob

[LorenzoFlute]

My antique Thomas Glen is a very moody flute. Now that I'm living in Galway I'm going to sessions every day twice a day. During the late afternoon sessions most times I have some troubles to make it sound how it should. After about 15 minutes of playing it the tone opens up. In the evening sessions I can usually play much louder than just a couple of hours before, but then I have to watch the condensation. I hope the new headjoint will solve this.

[MeaghanEryn]

Thanks, guys! But like I said, I took it to our local repairman who checked all the keys--he adjusted a few, but I didn't notice a huge difference.

[Gordon]

Times of the day vary with everyone, but that idea really shouldn't be surprising. How well does everyone sing in the morning, as opposed to later? Energy levels come and go, especially with whatever food/drink we've had. And moods change. I play okay in the morning, actually, worst in the mid-afternoon, best in the evening... and even these don't always apply, depending on a variety things. The thing is, the better you play in general, the less noticeable your off-times will be to anyone listening - just to you. When I'm in the mood to play, and it doesn't sound great, I switch over to easier material, more toneful. And then when the tone comes in the way I want to hear/feel it, by then I'm usually back where I feel I should be on a 'good' day, or time. YMMV...