My first flute (a bamboo flute)

[Bothrops]

Hi,
I've bought my first flute today. A bamboo flute in D, made by an argentinian maker (I'm from here).
I'm a tin whistle player, but I've never played a flute until today.
I found VERY difficult to get a decent sound of it, and my hands hurt a lot after trying to play for a few minutes (30 mins or so). I guess that'd be normal, but I'd like that you confirm this and if you have some tips or webpages to visit, I'd be very thankful.
The flute sounds amazing, because before I buy it I asked the man to play it a bit and asked him to show me how does the two octaves sound.

Here are two pics of the flute:



Embouchure


Thanks in advance, people!
Martin

[cocusflute]

You mean you can't play the flute in the first half hour? Most people master the flute in about five minutes. Ten if you're a slow learner.
My advice: relax. It takes time. Try to have fun with it and don't feel pressured to play a tune for a while. Just work on getting a good even tone for each note. It will come.
This is as hard as it gets.

[Bothrops]

You mean you can't play the flute in the first half hour? Most people master the flute in about five minutes. Ten if you're a slow learner.
My advice: relax. It takes time. Try to have fun with it and don't feel pressured to play a tune for a while. Just work on getting a good even tone for each note. It will come.
This is as hard as it gets.

You make me feel like an idiot, lol!!
No, really.. I could play it. But I couldn't play many notes together with a good tone. I tried to play Scarborough Fair, and sometimes I get some notes OK and sometimes I get a 'breath' sound.
Is it real that usually most people 'master' the flute in about 5 or 10 minutes??

[Aanvil]

You mean you can't play the flute in the first half hour? Most people master the flute in about five minutes. Ten if you're a slow learner.
My advice: relax. It takes time. Try to have fun with it and don't feel pressured to play a tune for a while. Just work on getting a good even tone for each note. It will come.
This is as hard as it gets.

You make me feel like an idiot, lol!!
No, really.. I could play it. But I couldn't play many notes together with a good tone. I tried to play Scarborough Fair, and sometimes I get some notes OK and sometimes I get a 'breath' sound.
Is it real that usually most people 'master' the flute in about 5 or 10 minutes??

It took me an entire hour but thats ok because I was dropped on the head as a child... a lot.

[FLUTEinVT]

I followed the exact same track last winter - whistle to bamboo flute. It was at least a week or two before any sounds that I could make could loosely be classified as music. I found Grey Larsen's book to be a great help in transitioning to flute - I think his website is GreyLarsen.com or something like that.

Paul

[scheky]

Relax, they are teasing you. It takes some time to build up the right sound. It will be months before you don't wince every time you need to jump to the second octave.

It will be years before you are happy with your sound (is anyone ACTUALLY happy with their sound, or do we just shift our level of what we want closer and closer to perfection as we advance?).

[Bothrops]

LOL!! Sorry, I'm not that naive. English isn't my first language so, sometimes I don't catch the jokes, lol.

I was about 30-40 minutes with the flute, left it, and after a few hours picked it up again, and tried to play 'Scarborough Fair'. I could play it, but not as good as in tin whistle. I can't control my breath very well yet. So, I will keep practicing the scales and those slow tunes like 'Scarborough Fair', 'Down by the Sally Gardens', 'Star Of The County Down' and so on...

I'll save money to buy Grey Larsen's book, many people recommended it to me...

[Bothrops]

By the way.. Do bamboo flutes need any special cares or manteinance?

[ringdove]

Bothrops, what's the name of the maker? Do you know if he ships abroad?
The flute looks good!

[jemtheflute]

Very pretty looking thing, I agree - except for the rather untidy embouchure! It doesn't look too bad, but that could be a source of both basic tone production difficulty and on-going breathiness. So often otherwise decent looking flutes (old and new) that seem to have been carefully and skilfully made are spoiled by poor finishing of the most important thing of all, the means of tone-production: i.e. the embouchure hole!

BTW, when starting flute it does take quite a while to get used to the air-demand with no "back-pressure" - the only control is your own over your embouchure and with your lungs. You are quite likely to hyperventilate until you get the habit of breathing for both the instrument and your own air requirements! There is loads of good advice on embouchure development (yours, not the hole in the flute!) and breath control all over the place online, not least on old threads on this forum. Have a look at this thread, especially daiv's main contribution. Read up on what a good embouchure should feel/look like, then practice long tone production in front of a mirror.

[Bothrops]

Bothrops, what's the name of the maker? Do you know if he ships abroad?
The flute looks good!

I don't know, you could visit his webpage and ask him through an e-mail (write to him in Spanish )
www.unmundodebambu.com.ar

Thanks!

[Bothrops]

Very pretty looking thing, I agree - except for the rather untidy embouchure! It doesn't look too bad, but that could be a source of both basic tone production difficulty and on-going breathiness. So often otherwise decent looking flutes (old and new) that seem to have been carefully and skilfully made are spoiled by poor finishing of the most important thing of all, the means of tone-production: i.e. the embouchure hole!

The flute embouchure really doesn't look perfect, but I don't think that could be the problem, but my own mouth. LOL. Really, I have thick and not too elongated lips, I don't know if it could be more difficult because of that. Anyways, as I said in my previous message, being patiente I could play 'Scarboroug Fair' fairly well..
And when the seller played it to show me, he did it like if it was very easy to do it

BTW, when starting flute it does take quite a while to get used to the air-demand with no "back-pressure" - the only control is your own over your embouchure and with your lungs. You are quite likely to hyperventilate until you get the habit of breathing for both the instrument and your own air requirements! There is loads of good advice on embouchure development (yours, not the hole in the flute!) and breath control all over the place online, not least on old threads on this forum. Have a look at this thread, especially daiv's main contribution. Read up on what a good embouchure should feel/look like, then practice long tone production in front of a mirror.

Thanks, I will take a look to that thread! Very useful!

Cheers!
Martin

[sbfluter]

Those guys who sell you the flutes always make it look so easy.

Nothing wrong with your mouth. You can do this. It just takes time and patience. One day it will make sense and like riding a bicycle you won't ever forget. You might have some bad days though that make you think you forgot!

I found sometimes, especially if the hole is on the small side, if I blow more into the flute the tone comes out stronger. Just kind of bend my head down. I learned that with my little fife.

Also, sometimes the lack of sound is from your fingers not covering the holes, too. Not always just the way you are blowing.

Good luck. It's a pretty flute for what it is.

[Bothrops]

Ok, today I could get a good tone, and I could play some 'simple' tunes controling my breath quite well.
Now, I realized about the main problem. It wasn't my breath control, it wasn't the embouchure...
I find that the R3 hole is DAMN far, it's so painful trying to reach it, because I find it unnatural.. Imagine that I can naturally cover it with my pinky finger instead with my ring finger..
I don't have small hands nor big hands.. they have a normal size I think.
Does it have a solution or I am doomed? =/

[Guinness]

Doomed. This forum is actually a support group.