THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! It worked for me. I was blowing too hard, and now my tone is much better! It took a few minutes of trying it out, and WOW!
Hi! Doctor Flute!! I just want to express my grateful in teaching us the correct way to improve our flute playing!! It really helps my technique even if I am only a beginner. Continue making this video because some of us are your silent watcher students☺
This was a great explanation, thank you! I am still working on support. I start with great support, but then at some point, I realize it's gone. I wish I could figure out how to sustain it and make it an unconscious part of playing.
I'm glad this has helped you! You are not alone. The ability to make support constant and automatic is something you can work on for a long time before it begins to happen. Just keep working it will happen eventually.
Thank you again for another great tip and demonstration. The idea of Intense air works. It still amazes me how using different words can change everything. Tuesday my beautiful 'LillyB' arrived. Lillian Burkart .998 pure silver flute with 14K LR. We are getting to know each other and it is a journey I never thought I would have. I wake up wondering what we will learn about each other. I played a thin wall sterling silver Haynes for 47 years! She is still a beauty, my delicate lady. The new flutes are smoother action, richer sounds and more colors to explore. I find myself saying..ok, where did that sound come from.
I find it pretty difficult to play with "more air", whole notes and soft sound. I was hopin' to get a bit of help with that so my sound would stop being so fuzzy. I find this to be helpful, and I shall try my best to use this in my practice session. 😄
Hi Jelly, I would not concentrate and that aspect at this time. It sounds more to me that you have a bit of an embouchure issue. If you are having a fuzzy sound the first thing I would tell you is to open your lips and teeth more. Fuzzy is usually because the sound is bouncing between the lips and creating that fuzz. Open more to create a clear path and see what happens. Then try to hold the air in more. Let me know what happens.
Great tip, I like to watch t pro players making octave plus jumps effortless. Im still working on the tip adding he sinuses, its not easy but I think I have got it a couple of times. 2x👍
You may be referring to holding back the elastic pressure of full lungs by continuing the inhalation action mildly. This reduces the air pressure that would otherwise be achieved by full lungs. There is actually only one way to actually make the air "faster " , that is to blow harder. Sounds like you are describing embouchure problems. Not "air" problems. BTW air speed through the aperture is irrelevant to the size of the aperture. Musicians just love saying " faster air".
No it is not an embouchure problem. Look at it this way, if I were to tell a student blow harder they would invariably overblown and in the wrong way. But faster air connotes something different. One thinks about embouchure and control not relying on blowing harder. Can we agree on that?
Practicing air speed is all about breathing properly. You need to hold in the air while maintaining pressure in the abdomen. The best way to practice that is with long tones.
I'm sorry, I don't understand the distinction between providing more support, or creating more "pressure", and blowing harder? You're talking in physical terms but they are not consistent with physics. It is impossible to create more air pressure without blowing harder. Those are the same thing. Higher pressure = higher rate of flow. Higher rate of flow = blowing harder. What am I missing here?
I can create pressure in my abdonmen and then play flute and not use that air. I can hold it in and control how much air comes out. Do you agree to that?
@@DoctorFlute Okay, so what mechanism are you using to hold back the air? And if you are holding it back, (and not just engaging isometric abdominal tension) then wouldn't that just be wasted effort as the extra pressurization isn't contributing to flow at the instrument?
It appears you are blocking comments. Please allow. Only if we can agree on what "fast air" is. I have no idea what you are referring to as "fast air" if not the velocity of flow somewhere in the system, Such as through the lip aperture. Interesting that you wrote: "No it is not an embouchure problem." Then wrote: "But faster air connotes something different. One thinks about embouchure and control not relying on blowing harder" Quite contradictory.
I like the discourse. I still maintain it is not an embouchure problem but an air problem. Let’s perhaps say, if you will, that there is a mind set difference. Blowing harder is to overblow and play loud all the time. When you think faster air you won’t blow as hard. Yes there may be an embouchure change with that as well but let’s say I’ve already addressed this with a student.
I'm still not sure exactly how to do it. I just feel like I'm blowing harder and more air, it's coming out faster but I'm just getting louder and feel there's something that I'm not getting right.
Hi Mi Feke! If you are getting louder you are definitely blowing harder. When you do this correctly you should feel a lot of air pressure inside (support). You control this air and then you can maintain a level dynamic and not get louder.
It is all about support. If you have a lot of support (pressure) pushing up on that 3rd octave then your embouchure can be much more relaxed and not so tight. Yes it is smaller then in the low octaves but normally it is way too tight. Try and see what happens.
@@DoctorFlute I tried it. When I relax the embouchure and increase the pressure, the air runs out quickly because the aperture is too loose to regulate it. The bigger is air pressure, the tighter must be embouchure to regulate the air. It's physics. The only lesson I see in this is "Learn not to make the embouchure any tighter than absolutely necessary."
Not necessarily. Yes if you were just to open up more and push more air out you will run out of air quite quickly but if when you tighten your stomach muscles and you control how much air comes out then you can be as loose as you want. This will give your 3rd octave a freer sound. It is all about the support....and how you use that support. Control