Taming the Beast

Tags

embouchure, flute pedagogy, piccolo

Intonation on Piccolo

Over the last few weeks, students have been asking me for help with piccolo. For such a diminutive instrument, pitch awareness and placement is a huge issue. It might even be the biggest issue because so much of what we know about playing the flute translates directly to piccolo. Here are a few tips to help your students play better in tune on piccolo:

• Make sure the piccolo the student is playing is in good repair. In my experience, school piccolos are notorious for being in the worst condition of any instruments in the storage locker. They have shredded pads, bent keys, plating flaking off the keys…you name it. They rarely see the inside of a repair shop and often are unplayable.
• Check the headjoint cork placement. This is probably the #1 problem with student flute players playing piccolo out of tune. Make sure to use a piccolo cleaning rod for the correct measurement. The line should be in the middle of the blow hole.

• Have the cork replaced if it moves easily. A leaking cork will cause a lot of pitch problems.
• Be sure that your piccolo players have the most stable and developed embouchure in your ensemble. They need to know how to correct pitch and use their air properly on flute to know how to begin to explore piccolo without causing more problems than they solve.
• You need to put the piccolo a little higher on your lip than the flute. Because of the small size, issues of placement are magnified. In other words, smaller adjustments will mean larger changes in pitch and tone quality
• Playing octaves will teach the student what in tune means on the piccolo. The pitch tendencies are a bit different than flute. This is especially noticeable in the notes just above the staff like Bb, B, C, C# and D. This can also be the case with long notes on the staff like D, Eb and E. Another way to practice pitch is by using a tone generator and playing intervals like perfect 4ths and 5ths against the drone.
• Make sure to make adjustments by moving your lips independently. Rolling your bottom lip out will raise the pitch, using your top lip to angle the air down will lower the pitch just as on flute. The movements are more subtle and require you listen carefully.
• If rolling the instrument to adjust pitch is a bad idea on flute, it is an even worse idea on piccolo. Remember, everything, both good and bad, is magnified on the piccolo. You could even say, “less is more”. A smaller change makes a bigger difference.

As always, if you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

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You Wouldn’t Think it Makes Much Difference But……..

Tags

dynamics, embouchure, flute pedagogy, flute posture

There are a number of seemingly insignificant habits your flute students can get into that make a bigger difference than you might imagine to intonation, tone quality and technique. Some of these are more visibly obvious than others. All of them can negatively impact your flute players, both individually and as a section. Keep an eye and ear out for these things in your flute students for a better sounding section.

• Pressing the flute too hard against the chin – This makes a big difference. If you can’t move your bottom lip, you are pressing too hard. When the flute is resting on your lip, make sure you can move your lip to be able to say a “W”. If you can’t make the “W” shape, back off on the pressure against your lip. If you can’t move your bottom lip, controlling dynamics and play high notes will be too difficult.
• Flute too high on the chin – Affects both tone quality and pitch. Sound will be small and probably sharp. If you have to pull the headjoint out more than 5/8″ (1 cm), the flute is probably too high on the bottom lip.
• Covering too much of the blow hole – There shouldn’t be any more than a 1/3 of the hole covered by the bottom lip. Any more than that and the tone will be dull and likely flat
• Angle of the lower end of the flute in relation to your head – This means that you get the best sound from your instrument when you can see the lower end of the instrument in your peripheral vision. If you have the end of the flute in line with your right ear, you won’t be able to get maximum resonance from your instrument
• Balance of the flute in your hands – Position the headjoint on the body so the weight of the rods is more on top. That way your fingers are free to move and you won’t be having to “hold” the flute to prevent it from rotating backwards.
• Resting right knuckles against the rods – Just bad for the flute and for technique. Bad for the flute because sweat and body oils can work into the mechanism causing binding and even rust. Bad for technique because you can move your fingers much more quickly from the joints at the base of the fingers than from the second joints.
• Thumb position on right hand – For best technique and hand position, thumb should be under and behind the flute, more or less under the F key. Thumb should never be in front of the flute (check the headjoint alignment and balance) or up under the F# or G key.
• Thumb position on left hand – For best technique, left thumb should be open in relation to the rest of the hand, straight and relaxed. Let the thumb fall on the key wherever. This can be anywhere from the thumb knuckle to the the tip, depending on size and length of the thumb. Top joint should not be bent. The Bb key arm is intentionally recessed around the B key on flutes to accommodate different size and shape thumbs.

As always, if you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

The Dreaded Nay Palm

Tags

blowing, dynamics, flute pedagogy

What is the dreaded nay palm? Every band flute player is well familiar with the so-called nay palm. That’s when their band director is always asking them to play quieter because they can’t hear the……you name it, trumpets, low brass, clarinets…… By the way, my old teacher, Thomas Nyfenger coined this expression with more than a little irony. Trust me, every flute player has experienced the nay palm at one time or other.

First a bit of reality. There is no way the flute can ever compete in terms of volume of sound with any other instrument in the band. Never. Even if we have a well developed, mature and characteristic sound are we ever going to be able to overpower any other wind instrument? It’s just simple physics.

Secondly, the flute section usually sits right under the conductor. So the person on the podium will hear the flutes first just because the flutes are sitting right under their nose. Is it possible that it’s not really that the flutes are playing so loudly, but that the other instruments are seated further away? You can get a better sense of the balance of volume of the flutes in relation to the rest of the ensemble by getting further away, like in the auditorium. Then I think you will find that the flutes are generally not loud enough and any flute features in the music get lost in the bigger room.

A while back, I was playing with pick up ensemble that supported a local chorus. Most of the time it was an orchestra and we sat in the traditional orchestra configuration. The conductor never once said anything to me about playing “too loudly” through many oratorios and choral works. Just one time did we have a band rather than an orchestra. Now I was sitting directly under the same conductor and I was repeatedly told I was playing too loudly. I have to conclude it was where I was sitting in relation to him rather than how I played. It was the way I play in either case.

For your flute players, the biggest issue with always asking them to play quieter is that they usually develop problematic compensations because they don’t actually know how to play quietly, with a supported sound. Here are some of the most egregious:

• Pinching and squeezing the aperture
• Clenching jaw with teeth too close together
• Barely blowing
• Closing the throat

All of these are guaranteed to cause pitch and tone problems. Compound that with being told to roll in or out to tune and you wind up with a real mess on your hands. And playing is not so fun or rewarding for the students.

How can you help your kids? Here are a few suggestions:

• Make sure your students understand the fundamentals of good sound including size and shape of the aperture and placement on the lower lip
• Experiment with where your flutes sit in relation to the podium to be able to get a better sense of the balance of the ensemble even in the band room
• Encourage your flute players to blow. Just using sufficient air will ensure better pitch.
• Teach your flute players about supporting the air column. When you use your core muscles to drive the air, the air is moving fast enough to play more softly without losing pitch control.

As always, if you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

Three Essential Skills

Tags

dynamics, flute embouchure, flute technique

You already know that blowing on a flute has many variables, maybe a bewildering number of variables. In speaking with a flute playing colleague who is also a band director recently, she told me that busy educators are looking for two or three simple steps they can follow to help their students play their instrument easily. So here are three essential things to communicate to your flute students at every stage of their development:

1. Find the optimum position for the flute on bottom lip. Do this by bringing the flute up from below to about where lip and chin meet. Avoid rolling down from the center. This places the blow hole too high to get a full, characteristic sound. The Legend of Kiss and Roll, Teaching Great Flute Sound, What is Transit Time
2. Balance the flute in your hands. Turn the headjoint slightly back to align between the key cups and the rods, rather than directly with the key cups. This puts the relatively heavy rods more on top so the flute can rest in your hands. No bracing needed even with all the fingers off the keys (like with C#-Db). It’s All About Balance, Balance and the Right Hand, Balance and the Left Hand
3. Shape the blowing aperture enough to focus the air stream and experiment with blowing angle. There is a subtle and intricate balance between top and bottom lip that is always adjusting to change registers, dynamics and control pitch, not to mention create different colors. Independence for Lips!, Warm Air, Cold Air

Try these three pointers with your students. Let me know how it works for you.

As always, if you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

Troubleshooting Tone and Pitch Issues

Tags

beginning flute, embouchure, flute embouchure, flute pedagogy, flute tone

Because there are so many variables involved in flute embouchure, there are an infinite number of problems that students can manifest in their tone quality and intonation. And as instructors it might seem we have to virtually be psychic to deduce the problem and offer solutions to our students. This is because so much is affected by things going on in the body that aren’t obvious from looking at a kid. Over the years I’ve been collecting a laundry list, so to speak, of tone/intonation problems and their solutions. Here are some common ones for beginner to intermediate students.

Problem: Windy, airy tone that is sharp

Solution: The aperture is too large and the blowing angle is too shallow. Blow through a smaller aperture and angle the air down more. You can achieve a steeper blowing angle by putting the flute lower on the bottom lip and reaching over with the top lip more, while maintaining the smaller aperture. The Legend of Kiss and Roll, Independence for Lips!

Problem: Dull tone quality, flat pitch

Solution: There is too much bottom lip covering the blow hole, and the flute is probably too high on the bottom lip. Move the flute lower on the bottom lip and roll out. There shouldn’t be more than 1/3 of the blow hole covered by the bottom lip. Also check alignment of the headjoint and balance of the flute. That alone can cause a student roll in and cover too much of the blow hole. It’s All About Balance

Problem: Strangled or pinched tone, can be flat or sharp depending how high or low the flute is on the bottom lip

Solution: This requires some sleuthing on your part because you have to identify the source of the constriction. There are at least four places I can think of that cause a pinched sound: 1) The lips themselves with a flattened and pinched aperture, 2) clenching the jaw with teeth too close together (common with kids who have braces, especially with rubber bands), 3) the back of the tongue is too high, constricting the airway, and finally, 4) the kid can actually be closing off the throat itself, as in activating the gag reflex. It takes some practice and discernment on your part to tell the difference which of these four constriction points are causing the problem. I can tell you that each one has a distinct quality that identifies it from the others, but it does take carefully listening and practice to recognize each one. Getting the Cart Before the Horse

Problem: Trouble producing third octave notes even with the correct fingerings

Solution: Third octave notes seem scary to kids. To them it seems like the natural thing that in order to control the third octave, they should roll in and pinch. After all, who wants to hear screeching high notes? This is precisely why they are having trouble. The solution, paradoxically, is to open up the blow hole a bit, support the air column more from the body core, and relax the grip of the aperture slightly. The speed of the air column itself will ensure the high note speak with ease. Warm Air, Cold Air

As always, if you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here.

Tuning Tendencies of the Flute

Tags

flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flutes

Only this week I came across a chart on a high school band website listing notes on the flute that have tuning problems with recommended fingerings for correcting pitch. It is taken from a Guide to the Understanding and Correction of Intonation Problems, Al Fabrizio, Meredith Music Publications, 1994. In looking through the chart, I realized that the advice it was giving was based on the old scale flutes that were available back in the early and mid-1990s. The scale of instruments has changed since that time. A LOT.

When the modern flute was invented, the schematic of the placement of tone holes was based on a lower pitch than we play at today. “Normal” pitch in the mid-1800’s, according to Theobold Boehm, was A=435. Therefore, the schematic he created for the flute was for an instrument that played in tune at A=435. Over the rest of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, pitch has climbed to A=440 and even A=442 or in extreme cases A=444. For a really long time, the solution for getting a flute up to pitch was to make a shorter headjoint, by several millimeters over what would play in tune at A=435. The consequence of this practice was that the low register of the flute would be flat and the third octave would be sharp. The open C# would be hair-raisingly sharp. In order to have a hope of playing these flutes with short headjoints in tune,  all kinds of compensating fingerings were created to correct the pitch. This included things like adding right hand fingers to lower the pitch of the C# and half-holing right hand keys. Student flutes with this older scale were widely available until fairly recently. Think old mainline American student brands, especially Armstrong, Gemeinhardt, Bundy, Artley, etc.

Fortunately, there has been a revolution in flute making brewing from the mid-20th century started by flute makers and players including Albert Cooper, Eldred Spell, Trevor Wye, William Bennett and even James Galway to bring the schematic of the flute up to modern pitch. Most every flute made today, by every reputable manufacturer, at every price point, has a scale that has its basis in the work of these pioneering flute makers and players. Many of the old compensating fingerings are unnecessary and even undesirable with a modern scale. The first and second octaves are now in tune, and only minor adjustments are needed in the third octave.

The C# is still an issue, but not because it isn’t in tune. It is more because it is the shortest tube and therefore the most bendable pitch. It also reveals the player’s expertise in focusing and directing the air correctly. If the C# sounds high, it means that the blowing angle is too shallow. It is absolutely true that if you can fix the pitch and tone quality of the C#, you will vastly improve the tone and intonation on the rest of the flute. More on tone, tuning and C# in another post.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here

What is Transit Time? And Why You Should Care

Tags

dynamics, embouchure, flute embouchure, flute pedagogy

When it comes to understanding how to teach your students to play with characteristic flute tone, it comes down to being able to teach your students to conceptualize the transit time and maintain consistency in the transit time. So what is transit time? It is the time from when the air exits the aperture to when it hits the strike edge of the blow hole. Having the optimal transit time has everything to do with whether the sound is focused and in tune rather than being dull, shrill, diffuse and out of tune.

In this blog, we have been looking at this issue in as many ways as I can think of over the last two school years. These articles include “The Value of Consistency“, “To Roll or Not to Roll“, “Independence for Lips“, “Why do my Flutes Sound Thin and Squeaky in the Third Octave?“, “What do you do with your corners?” and “The Legend of Kiss and Roll“.

Here is a video to demonstrate consistency in the transit time contrasted with rolling in and out. You will notice that when I am being consistent with my embouchure, I never cover more than about a third of the blow hole. You will also see that I often reach quite far over the embouchure hole with my top lip (I do have an overbite), but that the relationship of the bottom lip to the opening and blowing edge is consistent. When I roll the flute on my bottom lip, notice how much not only the pitch changes, but also the tone color. You will see that the amount of the blow hole you can see goes from less than half open to completely open. However, you can see when I restrict the movement to just my lips forward and back, I can still manipulate the pitch, but the amount of coverage of the blowing hole (approximately 1/4-1/3) remains the same. There is not nearly the change in color doing it this way than if I’m rolling the flute in and out. This is because when I am moving my lips independently, I am still maintaining consistent transit time, thus preserving the tone quality even while adjusting for register, dynamic or pitch.

There is no question that learning where to place the flute on your bottom lip and learning consistency in the transit time is a challenging idea to conceptualize. But it is also really the crux of the matter when it comes to producing characteristic flute tone. We have to rely on ourselves to develop that consistency rather than on the equipment as with reed or brass instruments.

Have a great summer, everyone. I may pop in occasionally over the summer with an announcement or two. And I’ll be back in the fall with more flute tips for you. If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances, click here

Revisiting “To Roll or Not to Roll”

Tags

flute embouchure, flute intonation, flute pedagogy

There isn’t time this week to do another full entry here on Dr. Cate’s Flute Tips so I’m sharing a link to the most read post since starting the blog – “To Roll or Not to Roll: That is the Question“. Helping flute students improve their intonation is an ongoing issue for all of us, band directors and flute teachers alike. Hope you find these suggestions helpful.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics, workshops and performances,  click here.

Relating to the Flute

Tags

beginning flute, flute embouchure, flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flute tone

Tracking down the origins of Kiss-n-Roll

Frankly, I have been puzzled why the Kiss-n-Roll approach to flute embouchure is still a thing among school music educators. There is so much information available, flutists teaching flute methods classes and so many flutists who care deeply about how students learn flute embouchure discussing how to correctly teach students how to relate to the flute that it seems amazing that the Kiss-n-Roll is still around at all. People like Patricia George, Phyllis Avidan Louke and Jennifer Cluff have written and blogged about teaching basic flute embouchure. On this blog, I’ve written on this very topic at least three times in the year and a half I’ve been doing it.

Then last weekend, I had a very interesting insight into the pervasiveness of this phenomenon. While I was up in Wisconsin doing clinics and presenting at a flute festival, I had an enlightening discussion with a band director at one of the schools. His main instrument is trombone. He showed me what he understands about teaching flute embouchure. When he demonstrated, he rolled the flute down from the middle of his lips and made a sound typical of a beginner to intermediate flute player. I asked where he had learned the Kiss-n-Roll. He said he thought no one in particular had told him to do it that way, it just seemed the easiest way to relate to the flute. And that is when the lights went on for me. He is trying to relate to the flute lip plate the way he knows how to relate to his trombone mouthpiece! Doing this makes the flute seem less foreign, more familiar to what he already knows and can do well.

Here is the harsh reality, folks. Rolling the flute down on the lip into playing position is never going to help your students develop a truly characteristic flute tone. Why? Because it places the flute too high on your lip to get the maximum resonance out of the instrument. The transit time (time from when the air exits your lips to when it hits the strike edge of the embouchure hole) is too short. The sound will always be small, often windy, sharp and unfocused.

So what happened when I asked the band director to try bringing the flute up into position from underneath as I’ve discussed numerous times on this blog? Bingo! He instantly had a stronger, more focused flute sound than I think he had ever achieved in the past. Granted, it took him out of his comfort zone as far as how to relate to the flute. The difference in the sound he made was a huge improvement.

Parting words for today? You cannot relate to the flute embouchure plate in the same way you relate to your brass mouthpiece. There is not going to be direct contact with your lips. Bring the flute up from below and learn to feel the inside edge of the embouchure hole about where your lip and chin meet (this can vary with the size and thickness of your lips). In order to get the best sound out of a flute, you need to let go of your attachment to the feeling of having contact with the middle of your lips. When you understand this and can explain this to your students, you will see a huge difference in the tone quality your students can achieve. The flute is a completely different animal from any other winds or brass. To achieve a characteristic tone, it is necessary to learn to relate to the flute on its own terms.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

Intonation and Dynamic Control

Tags

dynamics, flute intonation, flute pedagogy

How many times have you heard your flute students play sharp when the dynamic is forte and flat when the dynamic is piano? I’m pretty sure it is one of those examples where you would say, “If I had a nickel for every time I heard……., I’d be rich”. So how can you help your students learn to play in tune regardless of the dynamic marking? The answer lies in helping them understand how to change the direction of the air at the different dynamic levels, rather than rolling in and out, as is commonly taught in school music programs.

The first aspect you need to address with the students is developing a consistently fast air stream regardless of the quantity of air one is blowing. I explain it by saying that when we first start playing, air speed and quantity are like a married couple going hand in hand. Air speed and air quantity need to get a divorce, go their separate ways. The air speed (and the size of the aperture) is pretty consistent regardless of dynamic or register. What changes with different dynamics is the quantity of air and the direction of the air stream. How can you teach this kind of steadiness of the speed of the air stream? I like slow melodies (like the chorales so many bands use to warm up), Remington intervals and slow scale exercises. Pay particular attention to not just blowing on the notes but blowing between the notes.

Here’s an example of a simple scale exercise you can use with all your winds. You can adapt it for keys your students know and/or use it for teaching unfamiliar keys (for flutes in band, that would be sharp keys). I believe the only way you can really learn to blow with steady air is to play slowly. Finger technique is a distraction to learning to blow steadily, so remove it and encourage your students to pay attention to how the air moves through the line and between the notes.

Secondly, the guidelines for staying in tune through all dynamics are for loud dynamics, blow down more by reaching forward with the top lip, and for soft dynamics raise the air stream by pushing the bottom lip out more. Remember Independence for Lips? Getting good control of the direction of the air takes attentiveness and practice. Here is an exercise I recommend doing with a tuner. First, have the student establish a good baseline pitch for the given note at mezzo forte. Then have them start the same note as softly as possible, with a light and fast air stream, gradually get louder and then diminuendo again while maintaining the pitch center. Do this exercise first with a tuner, but with more experience, try it by ear to further train your ear. Finally, have the student try diminuendos of different lengths, first longer duration and then gradually shorter note values.

Helping your students learn to play in tune at any dynamic level is about making sure they understand the necessary physical skills and helping them developing their ears.

If you find these entries useful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment. If you have a topic you would like to see explored more fully, you can contact me via IM/Messenger on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.