Never Mind About Support

“What??? But, but…….how can a wind instrument sound good without support?” That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m saying we need to stop paying attention to “support” as a concept. Let me ask you a few questions. If I tell you to support your sound, what do you do? Can you explain what you are doing or how you are doing it? What is your definition for “support”? How do you explain “support” to your students? What do they do in their attempts to follow your instruction?

First, my observations about flute students who have been told to “support”.

• They are pinching the aperture, squeezing their lips
• They are clenching in their throat
• They are generally tense in their shoulders, torso, even in their hands and wrists

Secondly, here’s my definition for “support”. Simply put, it is having body energy behind the blowing. It involves using abdominal muscles, pelvic muscles and intercostal muscles of the rib cage. In other words, its a full body activity.

Rather than talking about “support”, let’s talk about blowing. If I say, “Blow fast (or faster) air,” do you understand what you need to do? Do you think students will know what they need to do if you give them that direction? If the air is moving sufficiently fast, the tone will be supported automatically. Support is the consequence of blowing quickly enough. All those supporting muscles are engaged in the process of blowing. You don’t need to “do” anything else besides blow with sufficient air speed to have a supported sound.

Beyond blowing sufficiently quickly enough, there are, of course all the issues of finding the right placement on your chin, having the blow hole open just the right amount, shaping the aperture, blowing at the correct angle for the register you are playing and so forth. But a lot of these issues will largely take care of themselves if the student is blowing fast enough air to begin with. So encourage your students to blow faster air.

Finally, air speed is different than air quantity. You can blow a lot of air through a large aperture and nothing will work well because the air isn’t moving fast enough. Not low notes (they will be wooly and unfocused), not the middle register because it will keep dropping down the octave, and not the third octave because it will either be so pinched as to not speak at all or keep dropping down to a lower partial. With the correct air speed and direction a flutist can play rich, focused low notes, have a clear, singing middle register, and be everything from heroic to ethereal in the third octave. It all starts with sufficient air speed. The rest comes through refining the direction of the air and sensitivity and flexibility of the aperture.

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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It is so exciting to share the amazing news that Dr. Cate’s Flute Tips has reached 100K views in less than three years.

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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.

If You Can’t Hear It, It Doesn’t Count

When I was a grad student, my flute professor said to me, “It’s obvious you have a very active inner musical life. The problem is, I can’t hear it.” To say that this was a light bulb moment for me would be a bit of an understatement. This observation really shook me to the core and completely reordered my priorities in my practicing and performing from that time forward. What I realized is that there is a big difference between what I thought I was doing and how it was coming across to my audience. It was when I devised a simple, somewhat tongue-in-cheek rule for myself that has proved to be really useful as a way to monitor my playing and face the truth about how effectively I’m communicating the composer’s intention through my playing. “If you can’t hear it, it doesn’t count.” As I’ve reflected on my “rule”, I’ve discovered there are as many corollaries as there are parameters to playing. There is seemingly an infinite number of things I can hold myself accountable for in my performing including technique, articulation, tone quality, phrasing, inflection, tone color, expression, etc.

When I lead sectional rehearsals and flute choirs, one of the biggest issues I run into all the time is how to handle repeated notes so they sound like repeated notes. They can appear a number of different ways:

• repeated notes under a slur
• repeated notes under a slur with either a tenuto or staccato
• repeated notes marked with tenutos or staccatos
• repeated notes marked with accents
• repeated notes marked with no designated articulation

More often than not, repeated notes come across as a sustained note, maybe with barely perceptible bumps for the individual repeated notes. And this is just with one player! Compound that by the 6, 10 or 12 kids in your flute section and I guarantee it sounds like a single, sustained note to your audience. What to do to make the repeated notes sound like distinctly different from each other? Here are a few thoughts to consider:

• Whether or not there is a slur, repeated notes must be tongued. How else can we delineate the same pitch which is repeated? No tongue, no separate note
• A so-called breath pulse isn’t a solution either. That’s more like vibrato and when utilized by multiple flute players in a section/ensemble, it basically sounds like nothing but a bumpy long note
• Along with tonguing the repeated pitch, let up ever so slightly on the blowing at the end of the first note before tonguing the second note. It gives a little more definition. The type of articulation mark determines the length, but there should always be a slight lift for definition.

It takes a special effort to define and delineate repeated notes on the flute because the nature of the flute is to sound legato. Other wind instruments with a legato character include the clarinet and the horn. They face some of the same issues with regard to repeated notes as flute players. As the great French flutist, Marcel Moyse, said, “Play the music, not the flute.” In other words, figure out how to get the flute to meet the demands of the music rather than acquiescing to the nature and inherent weakness of the instrument. You can hear me demonstrate playing repeated notes here.

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.

A Few Words About Piccolos

There is a lot of variation in types of piccolos available on the market today, maybe more variation than for any other band instrument. There are all metal piccolos, plastic piccolos, combination plastic body with metal head piccolos, wooden piccolos, plasticized wood piccolos…….the list goes on. So how do you know what kind of piccolo to either buy for your instrument inventory or recommend when students decide to buy their own piccolo? 

First of all, there are two basic kinds of bore configurations: conical head/cylindrical body or cylindrical head/conical body. In general, metal piccolos are conical head/cylindrical body and plastic or wood piccolos are cylindrical head/conical body. 

You can make a case that different types of materials the piccolo is made from dictates the type of playing it is designed for. Here’s a quick run down of materials and purpose:

• Metal – strong, bright sound. Best for marching band and pep band. Somewhat weather resistant, but pads are vulnerable to water damage
• Metal head/plastic body – somewhat warmer sound, but still strong. Wide application from marching band, to concert band and even orchestra. Somewhat weather resistant, but pads are vulnerable to water damage
• Traditional plastic body – warmer, rounder tone. Strong enough for outdoor playing but suitable for concert band and orchestra. Somewhat weather resistant, but pads are vulnerable to water damage
• Guo New Voice and grenaditte piccolos – all the benefits of all plastic piccolos, plus weather proof silicon pads. The grenaditte also has the added benefit of having more wood-like qualities because the material is a plastic/wood composite with grenadilla. Wide range of applications from marching band to concert band to orchestra. 
• Grenaditte or plastic/wood composites – the sweetness and warmth of wooden piccolos without the need for strict temperature/humidity control. Wide range of applications. Traditional pads that need to be protected from water damage
• Wood body and head – sweet, warm sound. For indoor use only. Important to protect from extremes of temperature and humidity to avoid cracks. Traditional pads. 

Like flutes and other woodwinds, piccolos need regular maintenance. Yearly maintenance is what is recommended to keep piccolos in top playing shape. Keep in mind, because of the small size, you may not be able to detect mechanical problems as easily as on a flute or other woodwind. The player can certainly hear and feel the problems. It is also extremely critical that the headjoint cork be placed correctly. Even half a millimeter can make a difference in being able to play in tune. The correct distance should be 13mm. A side note is that in my experience, school piccolos are more often than not the worst maintained instruments in the band inventory. They often haven’t been properly serviced in many years. Imagine how disheartening that is for the kids that have to play them. I frequently counsel students to just go buy their own if they want a good experience playing piccolo. 

Teaching High Note Fingerings

How soon do you introduce your flute students to notes in the third octave? If you are using the standard band methods, probably not until the second year, at the earliest. Personally, I think this is a mistake that impacts the students for a long time. When you wait so long to introduce anything higher than C or Db above the staff, the students often wind up equating the third octave with being extremely difficult or even impossible. Another problem I encounter fairly often with young students coming from a band program is that they are trying to play in the third octave with regular first and second octave fingerings, essentially harmonic fingerings (which are more difficult to produce than the real fingerings).

By the time a student can play from low E or F to the C or Db above the staff, they are certainly ready to start learning the third octave fingerings. I introduce them one at a time using the old tried and true Octaves. That way I can show the students how the third octave fingerings are related to the lower and middle octave, as well as how they differ. Here are a couple examples:

•  D above the staff T023|000Eb compared to middle D T023|123. They left hand is identical in both octaves and the right hand switches from 123 in the middle to 000Eb above the staff
• Eb above the staff T1234|1234Eb, all your fingers on all the keys vs. middle Eb T023|123E with left first finger and little finger off the keys

It is possible to relate all the third octave fingerings to the fundamental fingerings from the first two octaves, though at the top of the third octave the fingering become more about harmonic fingerings of the note a 5th lower rather than a fundamental fingering (eg. the highest C is essentially a modified F fingering).

Once your flute students have some high register fingerings in hand, it’s important to get them to use the fingerings in the context of music they are playing. This means in band literature, technique class material, solo and ensemble literature and in exercises. Here’s an exercise I made up for practicing adjacent third octave notes in pairs and in groups of three. Feel free to tailor this exercise to the notes your students are learning in as many key signatures as possible. A little of this goes a long way. 

The granddaddy of third octave technical exercises is Top Register Studies for Flute by Thomas Filas. Though not for beginners, these can be used with advanced intermediate and high school students. They are short, melodic, in every key and really help students get comfortable navigating the third octave. This book would be a great tool for a high school technique class.

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.

Teaching Great Flute Sound

Tags

flute embouchure, flute pedagogy

If there is a secret to helping your students develop great flute tone, it is that you have to teach your students how to discover the optimal blowing angle. Once a flutist is able to define and understand the blowing angle for themselves, they will have it for as long as they play the flute. Since there is no such thing as an absolute one-size-fits-all solution for every flute player, experimentation is essential to developing a characteristic sound. Here are the parameters that need to be examined and experimented with:

• Placement on the chin/relation to the bottom lip – this is as variable as each of us is from another. Bring the flute up from below and feel the edge of the blow hole at the edge of the bottom lip for most people. People with a full bottom lip may need to put the flute up on the bottom lip itself. Conversely, if someone has really thin lips, it may need to be slightly below the lip. See The Legend of Kiss and Roll
• Aperture formation – whether the aperture is in the center of the lips or off to one side depends on the shape of the top lip. If the top lip is relatively straight, a centered aperture works well for most people. Otherwise, if there is a prominent teardrop in the top lip, an off-center aperture is the best choice. In most cases, it is better to have the aperture to left of center (toward the headjoint crown), but I have seen it work successfully with an off-center aperture to the right as well. See Flute Embouchure and a Teardrop Top Lip
• Help your students direct their attention to learning to use the aperture to focus and direct the air. Honestly, it isn’t necessary to give any thought to the corners of your mouth. Any attention on the corners causes the flute player to stretch their lips laterally, whether smiling, grimacing or frowning. It takes attention away from shaping and refining the aperture. Flute isn’t like other instruments where the issue is about interacting with a mouthpiece. For flutists, our embouchure is also our mouthpiece. The size and shape of the aperture is very similar to the opening in an oboe reed. Understanding the aperture is everything. See Our Lips are our Mouthpiece, “What do you do with your corners?”
• Give your students the tools to develop mobility and flexibility between top and bottom lips. The back and forth between lips gives control over register changes, pitch and dynamics. Of course you also need good control of air speed and pressure, but the flexibility is what makes the control of register, pitch and dynamics possible. A great place to start is with basic Octaves. See Independence for Lips, To Roll or Not to Roll: That is the Question
• Dealing with braces – the student who gets braces after playing for a while needs to reevaluate their blowing angle. The hardware in their mouth necessitates finding a different blowing angle. Experiment with placement on the chin and how open or covered the blow hole is. It will be different. It’s just a matter of finding a new angle. As treatment progresses and teeth move, this will continue to need reevaluation. It is an ongoing process and there isn’t a final solution until the student is done with the braces. See Helping Your Students Adjust to Playing With Braces

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

Thank You for Reading!

It’s so exciting to be able share with you that readership on this blog is up 4x what it was a year ago today. We just passed the 50,000 views milestone exactly one year after we surpassed 10,000 views exploring flute pedagogy together. Thank you for reading and sharing this blog. Look for more flute tips coming your way beginning in late August.

Midwest Clinic 2015

Whether you are seeing Dr. Cate’s Flute Tips for the first time or you are a loyal follower, you will want to stop by the Fix This!/The Horn Stash booth 136 or the Jupiter booth 217 to say hi and talk about teaching school flutists. I’ll be at The Midwest Clinic Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week, December 16-18. Please stop by so we can discuss how I can help your flute players develop great tone, build solid technique and improve their intonation, music reading and rhythm skills. I’m available for in person clinics or over the Internet. 

If you would like to contact me to set up a meeting at the Midwest Clinic, email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net or by private message on Facebook. Look forward to seeing everyone next week. 

Helping Kids Have a Great Start

Whether you are starting students out on flute in groups of ten or more, or  one on one, the essential skills kids need to get off to a great start are embouchure formation and learning to balance the flute in their hands. Let’s look at each of these in more depth.

Embouchure

Unlike any of the other winds or brass, which have a mouthpiece to relate to, our embouchure is our mouthpiece. The part of the flute that rests on our chin is called a lip plate and the top joint of the instrument is called a headjoint. The actual “mouthpiece”, if you will, is how we shape the aperture with our lips to generate resistance for the air column.

Starting with the headjoint alone, have the student bring the edge of the lip plate up from below the chin to rest against the bottom lip at about the edge of the bottom lip. Please note that determining the optimal place on the chin/bottom lip to place the flute is different for each student. It will require some experimentation on both your part and that of the student to find the best place. Aids and demonstrations that help students develop a good embouchure include using your finger against your chin as a pretend flute, using the Pneumo-Pro and blowing through a coffee straw.

Do not use the so-called “Kiss and Roll”. I can pretty much guarantee you if you teach this to your kids when they start, you will observe the following characteristics in their playing down the road. These are big problems that require a lot diligence on the part of teacher and student to overcome. Why handicap the kids to begin with?

• windy, unfocused tone
• small sound without projection
• shallow blowing angle
• pitch problems
• they will be kissing and rolling loooong after they’ve learned to play. It’s a completely useless mannerism

Balancing the Flute

Start by making sure that the flute is properly assembled with the headjoint turned back slightly so the blow hole lines up between the rods and the keys. This makes it possible to hold the flute in a balanced way, without having to brace or compensate for the weight of the rods pulling the flute backwards. With a C foot flute, it works for most people to line the footjoint rod with the middle of the D key (this might have to be adjusted for kids with smaller hands).

The balance points are the right thumb under (and a little behind) the flute and the right little finger on the Eb key,and the fleshy pad between the first and second joint of the left first finger. Jennifer Cluff, flute blogger extraordinaire, has a great video about aligning the flute. As Jennifer explains, teaching good balance right from the start leads to better sound and developing a fluid technique later on.

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 privately on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.