. . . came to me while reading a vast number of embouchure posts on woodenflute.com: more control of IT than the upper lip is the key. I tried raising my lower lip instead of peaking my upper lip down for low D and a few other notes in the first octave and, voila! It happened. I recall reading someone's disertation about making a bird beak of the upper lip curling it down over the lower one and I couldn't really do it. Raising the lower lip -- a snap!
FWIW
BillG
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Six Ps! (Poor Prior Practice Prevents Proper Performance)
BillG wrote:...I recall reading someone's disertation about making a bird beak of the upper lip curling it down over the lower one and I couldn't really do it...
Well. I hadn't thought of it as a bird beak, but I can see the reason to such a description. GOOD NEWS: Yes, you can do it! Simple, use the air pressure provided by your own diaphram. Your airstream can be used to fill out your upper lip, and the muscles of the upper lip can then be used to shape the lip, just about anyway you could want. It's easy. Give it a try.
Back on topic, yes, the lower lip does most of the work.
Tell us something.: Pipes have become my main instrument, but I still play the flute. I have emerged from the "instrument acquisition" phase, and am now down to one full set of pipes (Gordon Galloway), and one flute (Hudson Siccama).
I liked a description that the lower lip acts like the spout on a pitcher, pouring the air where you want it. Seems to me the lower lip should stay relaxed and flexible.
Hugh
I thought I had no talent, but my talent is to persist anyway.
flutefry wrote:I liked a description that the lower lip acts like the spout on a pitcher, pouring the air where you want it. Seems to me the lower lip should stay relaxed and flexible.
Hugh
Very well said!
Air, after all, is a very fluid medium. The lower lip indeed does "pour" that air. Therefore, the lower lip needs to be as fluid as the air it pours.
Last edited by Cork on Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Yes, he really does.
(This post really should be censored)
The struggle in Palestine is an American war, waged from Israel, America's most heavily armed foreign base and client state. We don't think of the war in such terms. Its assigned role has been clear: the destruction of Arab culture and nationalism.
Years ago, there was a publication in the United States known as Mad magazine, which featured a character by the name of Alfred E. Newman, who asked, "What, me worry?"
Now, looking at the above picture...oh, never mind.