Who's teaching tone?

[Terry McGee]

A question addressed to those who have taken lessons lately from an Irish flute teacher - at a summer school situation, on line, regular lessons, formal, informal, whatever. I'm interested in hearing of any teachers that include "tone" in their teaching, and what approaches they recommend - embouchure approach, blowing approach, where to aim, degree of coverage, etc. Any teachers reading this should feel free to answer directly.

Terry

[Gabriel]

I don't teach on a regular basis (not many people around here who want to learn the timber flute), but tone was the bit I found most important when I started out learning the "irish" flute and I have achieved a pretty good one, I think. If I'm asked about tone, what I usually say is that to get a good and steady tone, one must develop an appropiate breath support with the diaphragm. A nice exercise for that is to lie down on one's back and try to play the flute then. One will automatically support the breath...it's a good training. Gravity is our friend here!

Then blowing doesn't start at the lips or in the mouth, but down in the lungs. It helps to imagine that tone starts down there, especially with low flutes. It's more of a mental thing...but can improve presence a lot.

Regarding embouchure forming, I don't like the "smiling face" approach. It is too unflexible and creates a rather wide aperture which doesn't fit too well for the traditional oval embouchure holes, creating more noise. I personally use the "frowned face" approach (see Youtube, James Galway embouchure masterclass) and form a very narrow aperture to hit nothing but the very center edge of the hole, creating a tone rich of harmonics without much noise at all. This approach also enables one to get a wide variety of different tone colours. The facial muscles must be trained to find the same embouchure again and again. The only way to do that is by doing it over and over again.
I don't find it too useful to stand in front of a mirror for finding a good embouchure. What one hears is what matters, and standing in front of a mirror making silly faces won't help the ear...

The usual "dark tone school of thought" that says one should aim more "into" the embouchure hole is what I'd support as well. But again, for me this is more of a mental thing. Thinking of blowing into the flute helps more than doing it. Most players unfamiliar with the idea will produce no tone at all if they try to *do* it. *Thinking* of it does the trick.

Degree of coverage - no fixed numbers here. I roughly line up the blowing edge of the hole with the far edge of LH1 and go for it. I tried to scientifically nail down the optimal spot of lip, hole and such in the past (including overtone analysis and all sorts of stuff), but it depends on day, player's mood, weather, breakfast, emptiness of pint, ...
Generally I say that the more the hole is turned towards the player, the higher the degree of hole coverage is and the less dynamic possibilities are preserved. Everyone will have to find the sweet spot by themselves. Players are not standardized after all. I can show others how I do it, but sometimes it doesn't work for them. That's life.

All in all, for my understanding the priorities to get a good tone should be lined up as follows:

1. Get a good breath support, that includes the imagination of the tone starting down in the lungs. You'll never get a good tone when you're running out of air all the time.
2. Teach your facial muscles to reproduce the same embouchure all the time. Requires lots of training.
3. Adjust flute and embouchure so that you're able to produce a tone you like. Again this requires lots of time and training. There is no approach that always works.

[an seanduine]

I would second Gabriel's remarks.
To add my own two cents worth, I would bring a couple of addages to the discussion:
1. Anyone who may have perspired through Czerny's School of Velocity will in all probability been given the advice: If you wish to play faster, practice slower. Speed only comes with time.
2. The corollary for flute tone would come from a quote by Jack Coen: "Play the notes distinctly and get the blur out of it."
Again, slow practice forces distinct tone. Speed only comes with time. Don't "sell out cheaply" to gain speed.
Cheers,
Bob

[LorenzoFlute]

The irish teachers i've taken lessons from didn't say anything about tone... Davy Maguire does focus on breathing though.

[Akiba]

Spent four days in group lessons and one 90 minute individual lesson with John Skelton this summer. Don't believe he specifically spoke about the technique of tone production at any time. He did speak generally about the character of the flute in Irish music--e.g. 1) it's not supposed to be pretty; 2) the flute is one of the rhythm instruments in ITM, probably the most rhythmic of any melody instrument--but that's it.

Also, it's hard to speak of tone in specifics when in ITM fluting the range of accepted tone options is so vast, from mellow and melodic to harsh and rhythmic. It's what I love about ITM fluting--it's so individualistic, unlike classical flute playing which is so homogeneous.

Jason

[brotherwind]

Hi,
Gabriel's points reflect what my teacher - Nils Nolte - always tells me. He even made us look at our embouchure in a mirror to try and get the hole we blow through small as possible. He goes for a very harmonically rich tone.

Samples of his on Facebook.

As a method for us to check ouir tone he makes us play lower octave G and then do finger vibrato with R2. The reedier, more harmonically rich, the tone, the stronger the vibrato gets.


Cheers, Moritz

[tin tin]

At this year's St. Louis Tionol, Catherine McEvoy briefly inspected each student's flute/embouchure relationship. In general, she had people rolling out to open up the tone. It was interesting to hear the before and after sounds from everyone. Most of us sounded louder and clearer after incorporating her adjustments.

[Unseen122]

I have been taking lessons with Tome Doorley since September of last year and he spends a lot of time on tone. A lot of players in ITM only play with one tone most of the time, this is the complete opposite of what Tom teaches. He makes his students improve their tone by making us play a wide range of tones instead of focusing on one the whole time. Another thing he has his students do is spend time playing in the higher register meaning into the third octave. The reason behind this is that playing in this register requires a more focused embouchure so by practicing in this range you build up the muscles required to play with a more focused tone thus your tone is more focused in all the registers. he also reccomends that a player should start of by playing a hollow tone and then afer a bit of warming up begin to focus it. Some other things would be move your jaw upwards and/or look up to get a sweeter tone on higher notes.

I can't really post the exercises he has us do because I don't have his permission and most of them are his own inventions. He takes a somewhat classical approach to developing tone and technique but applies the ideas into an ITM context. As far as I know he is one of the first people to do this on the Flute.

On things like embouchure approach and degree of coverage he would usually discuss this on an individual basis because everybody's mouths and Flutes are different. He would say that you just have to experiment with it and whne you find the best tone continue using that embouchure.

As for blowing this is fairly standard that a player should support the air with the diaphram. For where to aim he would say at the edge of the hole. Yet this is not that simple because the player can't see the hole and where the air is going and that is why one should practice using different angles until they find the best tone.

FWIW, my playing has improved vastly since I began taking lessons from him so that means if you are willing to put in the time his method is incredibly effective.

[Casey Burns]

Going to a modern flute playing teacher is useful for tone production and general principles. But some caution - they have little experience sometimes with traditional conical bored flutes. Their music is also aimed towards higher octaves whereas we like here a good strong bottom D. So its a slightly different focus thous some of the things like diaphragm control are universal.

Most of teachers I know such as Grey Larsen, John Skelton and Jan Deweese do focus on tone production as well.

Casey

[Gordon]

Also, it's hard to speak of tone in specifics when in ITM fluting the range of accepted tone options is so vast, from mellow and melodic to harsh and rhythmic. It's what I love about ITM fluting--it's so individualistic, unlike classical flute playing which is so homogeneous.

Jason

I agree completely, and - oddly - Unseen 122's Tom Doorley take, which advocates tone techniques that - I'd wager - are very effective, actually still (IMO) makes Jason's point. Doorley seems to like multiple textures, while others stick to one or two. There's no true consensus on what tone(s) we shoot for playing ITM, and the variety of tone production between the best players - and the methods they use to achieve their tone(s) - leans in no particular right or wrong direction. It's even part of why players choose Prattens over Rudalls, or the other way -- they produce slightly different tonalities, neither more or less desirable to listen to (when played well).
What is usually taught by ITM teachers, in my experience, is what that individual player/teacher does to achieve their tone - sometimes without mentioning tone at all. Sent home each lesson with a tune or three on cassette, or learned in real-time at a pub, it often ends up more a matter of mimicry of the teacher's tone and phrasings than a lesson on how to attain it. The good thing is, once the mimicry is achieved to some acceptable degree, it's on-target enough to be trad, if different enough to be unique to that next player.

[utsilasi]

Hi all, its my first post here, though I've been keepink track of this beautiful board with passion since many time.
My experience is as bohem flute teacher; I'm quite a beginner in ITM but I have some experience in baroque conical flutes (but the latests have a circular hole instead ellypsis)
In both modern and conical I believe total relaxation of embochure is the point of departure to develop a rich sound. Lips more natural possible. Then expansion of all the oral cavities and throat. Subsequently one can progressively tighten to focus the harmonics he needs - different in the octaves and by the kind of sound chosen. During totally relaxed embochure it's also useful to try maximise the blowing, then progressively learn to economise it, serching for the equilibrium.
One useful exercise to develop low notes, especially low D, is to try first the trill (ex on R3) then blow hard; the stabilisation is easier, then stop trill staying on the long D.
All the best!
Cristiano