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.

Small Kids and the Flute

Regardless of what grade you start beginners in your school district (anywhere from 3rd to 6th grade), you are always going to run into kids that are too small to be playing a straight flute. What do you do when this is the case? Have them play a straight flute anyway? Steer them towards another instrument where size isn’t such a big issue?

In the photo above, there are a number of issues that are cause for concern. First, the student is trying to balance the flute by raising her left shoulder. Both elbows are extended causing her to bend her wrists at an extreme angle, especially the right wrist. The left wrist is out in front of the flute rather than under it.

Did you know that you can permanently handicap a kid’s flute playing by insisting that they play on a straight flute before they are large enough to balance it in their hands and line it up on their bottom lip correctly? Every case is unique and not everyone is permanently impacted, but I have seen numerous times the consequences of someone who was playing on a straight flute before they were physically big enough. These consequences include an offset embouchure with no physical reason such as a tear drop lip, as well as awkward, tense and incorrect hand/wrist positions due to compensating for the length when they were physically small. It takes a great deal of effort on the part of the student and teacher to overcome these old, ingrained habits. I also believe that having problems with playing the instrument due to small size can stifle enthusiasm and motivation to play and practice.

As you can see in this photo, the student is no longer trying to balance the flute by raising her shoulder. Her elbows are bent. Her wrists are now straight and the left wrist is under the flute, supporting it properly. Granted, her right thumb needs to move back a bit, but overall, her hand and body position is greatly improved and her embouchure is more centered.

Here are a couple options available on the market that make it possible for small children to learn the flute, develop a good embouchure and proper hand positions. If you have small kids in your beginner to middle school program, I encourage you to recommend that they get either a flute with a curved head joint (which frequently comes with two head joints) or a Waveline flute. Students can swap out to a straight flute when their arms are long enough. Ask your local dealer to have these instruments available in their rental program.

Curved head joint flutes have identical keywork to a regular concert flute. The curved head just brings the whole flute up closer to the player’s body.
The Waveline flute is especially good for really small kids (Suzuki flute teachers use them all the time). The body is one piece. There is no foot joint, just an Eb key. There are adapter buttons to make the keys easy to reach for small hands. There are no trill keys, so the flute is extremely light. You do need a swab cloth with a short weight to clean the curved piece in the head joint.

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.

This Blog is for You!

It is so exciting to share a new topic with you every week, watching the stats and seeing the audience for this blog grow. I’m gratified to see music educators are finding the entries useful. This week it is your turn to tell me what you would like to learn about flute pedagogy. Send me your questions, either about new topics or topics I’ve already written about. You can leave a comment here, write me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@DrCate), Tumblr (Dr. Cate’s Musings) or email dr_cate@sbcglobal.net.

I would love to know what you think about these upcoming topics below. Please share your questions about these or any other flute teaching issue.

• Articulation – tonguing and blowing
• Releases
• Vibrato – teaching
• Vibrato – using
• Using harmonic fingerings in third octave
• Third octave fingerings to correct pitch
• Articulation – double and triple tonguing
• Developing a seamless legato
• Developing strong low notes
• The headjoint cork placement
• Common mechanical problems
• Intro to tone color and harmonics
• Diagnosing tone and pitch problems
• Support and breathing

Band directors are not the only ones welcome to comment and make suggestions for topics. Flute instructors, please share your observations about what kids are learning from their band teachers that is counter to good flute pedagogy. While it is true I have seen a lot in my own teaching practice, maybe you have seen something I have never run across. I am eager to hear your suggestions. Wouldn’t it be great if band directors and flute instructors could be a team helping their flute students play their best?

Dr. Cate’s Flute Tips is going to take a short break for the holidays. We’ll have more great ideas for helping your students play their best at the beginning of January. Happy Holidays, everyone!

If you find these entries helpful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back in January for another flute tip. Find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@DrCate), Tumblr (Dr. Cate’s Musings) or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.