Does anyone play flute?

[sarah-flute]

Stenir: it may be partly that your open holed flute was a better flute than your closed hole flute. Most people upgrade somewhat when buying an open hole flute, and whilst most of how a flute sounds is the player, not the instrument, a reasonably decent flute will make a difference.

[bassistah]

I was lucky enough to teach Maestro´s girlfriend

The blowing the paper against the wall trick is really for beginners, or people that have been playing for a while without using supported diaphragm breathing.

It´s an easy way to isolate the breathing without the added complications of embouchure etc; to really focus on what your body is doing. And little kids love it!

You basically hold a piece of paper against a wall, breathe into your diaphragm (first get the pupil to isolate the diaphragm by placing their hand just below their ribcage and breathing in quickly and deeply. The diaphragm comes out. Get them to tense it, and get used to that feeling.)

Then they blow on the paper in a concentrated flow and try to keep the paper on the wall. You can get them to increase the time and this then increases their breath capacity and stamina.

When they have this sorted, you can then move onto long notes, and if you´re teaching in a group, have competitions to see who can hold a note on the longest. Use an easy note like G.

The idea is to never let the lungs become completely deflated as the resulting sound will be weak. Breathe to top up, not to refill the lungs, and always keep the diaphragm and abdominal muscles tensed to support the breath. Very similar techniques are used for operatic singing. This just gives you a far richer, more rounded sound.

You can also use your diaphragm for vibrato and articulation. This also adds depth and flexibility to your playing.

Then apply this to your playing, always listening incredibly carefully to your sound. If it´s airy, adjust the flute position, the tightness of your embouchure untill the sound is pure and fuzz free. Then apply all over the instrument in arpeggios, tongued and legato. Don´t be afraid to drastically alter your embouchure as you go up the instrument.

Then try for different timbres. Belgian-chocolate rich, smooth and light like a fresh cotton sheet, silvery and sparkly like icicles. Visualisation really helps. All you´re actually doing is varying the under and overlying harmonics in your playing but visualising the sound you really want is incredibly helpful. Dont forget that what you hear when you´re playing is an exaggerated version of what your audience will hear, so you have to make the changes more drastic to get them across to an audience. Again, recording yourself is invaluable in this. Try playing the same piece with different timbres and try and make them as diverse as you possibly can.

With double tonguing, the best way to practice it is with scales. The Trevor Wye articulation book has some great excersises for this. Basically it´s either De Ge, or Te Ke, depending on what type of articulation you require. DG is further into the mouth, TK is at the very front of the mouth and is more staccato. The G or K should be a reflex, and therefore easier to control. You find lots of students just beginning double tonguing wandering round going TKTKTKKTKT under their breath!

Basically the aim is to make them indistinguishable from another, and completely even rhythmically. Recording yourself is incredibly useful for this.

Excellent pieces to practice for double tonguing are Moz concerto in G, especially the last movement, and Fauré fantasia.

Flutter tonguing is easy peasy. Just roll an R at the front of your mouth, like you´re saying Brrr Brrrr! Then do it into the flute! As you practice double tonguing anyway your tongue will get stronger, and increase the duration.

Have fun!