bad habits

bigpow5 · Post by **bigpow5** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:30 am

I took a month off from playing the whistle. Upon returning, I had a realization. AHA! I lift my fingers WAY far off the whistle when playing. And I hold the whistle way too tightly. No wonder I hit a plateau. Any tips for getting rid of these bad habits?
I slowed everything down yesterday and just concentrated on keeping my hands relaxed and close to the whistle. It seemed to flow better but I was off on my rythym and didn't sound very good.

Patrick

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:39 am

I can only suppose you hold the whistle too tightly because you tense up.

As for exaggerated finger movements, people will tell you to make do with minimal movement, but when you look at good players of wind intruments they often break all the rules. I've heard the following good advice: when playing cuts, taps and rolls, make your fingers jump as though they were touching hot coals. Now, I'm not sure you can do this without making fairly exaggerated finger movements.

I'm not even sure what I do. I used to play saxophone and the advice there was to move the fingers only as much as you need to. But you don't play rolls on the saxophone.

StewySmoot · Post by **StewySmoot** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:15 am

I lift my fingers as high as I need to feel comfortable, which is generally fully extended and it doesnt affect my playing.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:27 pm

StewySmoot wrote:I lift my fingers as high as I need to feel comfortable, which is generally fully extended and it doesnt affect my playing.

I also tend to lift my fingers up rather high when playing. I don't usually see many other whistle players live, so I didn't really notice it till recently. The distance one's fingers travel is not as important as whether or not they land back on the tone hole in time.

Jennie · Post by **Jennie** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:47 pm

Since I've learned to do ornamentation on the whistle, my fingers are much further out there than they used to be. I thought, like you, that this was wrong. Probably because of being a clarinet and recorder player first, and being used to gentler ornaments like trills. But I really can't get the speed I need for those rolls unless I approach it from further away.

But do work on relaxing more. One of the things I tell the kids I teach is that you hold the whistle like you would hold a rolled sheet of paper, trying not to crush it. Look in the mirror and check your shoulders. Breathe from your diaphragm. Don't try to play too fast. Close your eyes, even.

Of course, none of this worked for me when I was playing at a coffeehouse last weekend. That microphone sure makes me tremble!

Jennie

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:05 pm

Another thing that works to relax the grip some is, imagine your fingers are falling onto the holes like drops of water, rather than being pushed onto them by you. While you're trying to change this (I agree with everyone else that picking up the fingers too high is not a problem), play only tunes you're REALLY familiar with. That way, you don't have to think about the tune at all and you can concentrate on the grip.

I'm trying to change my grip on the flute, too. It's slow going.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:39 pm

From a beginner---The tension problem is a big one for me. I will try some of these suggestions. I have noticed that tense fingers do not move as readily as relaxed ones, so tension must surely interfere with speed, if one ever got to the point where speeding up was a possibility---not an issue for me but tension itself makes playing uncomfortable. I also get tension in my back, wrist and right fore arm. I am working on being aware of tensing up and making a bit of headway, but apparently for me relaxing and trying just don't go together. I am having better luck with improving how far my fingers are from the holes when they (fingers) are resting. I think if you can keep them in the general locality that is good for starters, rather than scratching your nose or something like that---at least one is becoming aware that if you are having problems getting to a note your fingers might be drifting away or something. You know, just so you can get to the hole on time. I suppose if one can play fast, you will have to keep them closer around but then there won't be much time to move them far away. I guess I tend to think more in terms of keeping my fingers in ready position , like holding my hand so that all three fingers would land on the proper holes, than in terms of the exact distance away.

Oh, I would appreciate a description of breathing with your diaphram. I have read things but I just don't quite get it. Could Jennie explain it the way you do to the kids?

Jennie · Post by **Jennie** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 6:41 pm

Okay, here goes for a description of breathing from the diaphragm...

Your diaphragm muscles are under your lungs and can actually pull them down to open them up more. Diaphragm breathing is what you do when you're sleeping. To check this with kids, I have them stand up and put their hands on their waist or their belly. A breath from the diaphragm, as opposed to shallower breathing only from the chest, should be felt as an expansion down near your abdomen. You can also have someone else check this for you while you're playing, in Heimlich position (somebody you trust!).

It's easy to contrast shallow breathing with diaphragm breathing. You can feel the difference.

See if that helps!
Jennie

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:34 pm

Jennie---Thank you! So when I breath in from the diaphragm, my belly will go out? And then when I slowly release air, I will do that by slowly sucking in my belly?

Jennie · Post by **Jennie** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:49 pm

Cynth wrote:Jennie---Thank you! So when I breath in from the diaphragm, my belly will go out? And then when I slowly release air, I will do that by slowly sucking in my belly?

Yes, your belly will expand when the diaphragm is working. But sucking in your belly upon exhaling... Well, that's the effect, but not really the focus. I think of it more as a release towards the more relaxed position of emptying my lungs... hmmm. Time for another yoga class, to get my bearings.

Try breathing slowly and deeply like that with a tune you know well.

Good luck!
Jennie

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:06 pm

Okay, I will make sure my belly expands when breathing in but not focus on sucking it in when breathing out. I'll just breath out slowly and what will be will be. Thanks alot J.

bigpow5 · Post by **bigpow5** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:20 pm

I just got back from my local session. I really concentrated on relaxing my fingers and hands. I didn't worry about playing well. Sure enough, I had some moments where things just started to flow. I think I can work with this.

One thing that seems to be helping me: I exaggeratted the purse on my lips to support the whistle, so along with my pinky and thumbs behind, my whistle is fully supported freeing up my playing fingers. I think I should consciously (until its habit) put my whistle in this relaxed, supported state before each tune.

Patrick

walrii · Post by **walrii** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:11 pm

Just to amplify what Jennie said about diaphrams: When you inhale, the diaphram muscle tenses up and contracts. The contracting diaphram moves downward against your stomach and intestines, pushing them outward. The contracting diaphram also forms the bottom of the chest cavity where your lungs are. As the contracting diaphram moves downward, the chest cavity gets bigger and air rushes in through your mouth and/or nose to fill the now-larger chest cavity. When you relax your diaphram, it rises back up into the chest cavity, your stomach flattens, your chest cavity gets smaller and air goes out. What's important here is that inhaling is a muscle contraction, exhaling is a muscle relaxation. When playing whistle, you force air in during the quick breaths, then relax and let the air flow out. Sometimes you may need to help the air flow out very gently, but mostly the relaxing diaphram does the work for you. In short, nothing needs to be tense to make a whistle create sound. The work (tensing of the diaphram) occurs on the breaths in. If you are trying to "blow out," that is, make the exhale a forceful movement, then you are creating harmful tension in an act that is really a relaxation not an action. Hope this helps.

lesl · Post by **lesl** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:59 pm

I went through a lot of bad habits when I first started flute and whistle. In
fact everything mentioned here I did it. The main thing I found causing it
(all of it) was trying to go faster with the music. To exaggerate, if you
only played one short note every 60 seconds, you probably would not
tense up or have breathing trouble, etc. Fortunately we don't have to start
off quite that slow. But any speed above the "tension" speed will create
all sorts of problems. It takes patience to play really slow but, that way
you can practice playing relaxed.

Hope that helps. And now, to massage my aching fingers :)
Lesl

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:07 pm

walrii---Thank you for that addition info. My trouble seems to be that the air comes out too fast when I exhale. I don't feel that I am really blowing at all, it just comes out. So it seems as though I have to tense up to keep it from going out so fast. I guess I should be shaping my lips or something to create more resistance. That is the problem----I am having trouble creating resistance to the air I am exhaling, and so my air stream is too forceful for my whistle. I think.