Playing Softly Without Pinching

Tags

breath control, dynamics, embouchure, flute intonation, flute pedagogy

Once you have confidence that your students know how to blow with a steady air stream in at least two or more octaves of the flute, it’s time to help them develop a dynamic palette from piano to forte, so they can begin to practice and understand balance and style. How many of you have tried teaching your students to play more quietly only to have a host of weird compensating behaviors magically appear, not to mention having the pitch go haywire? Things like:

• Pinched aperture, shrill tone and sharp pitch
• Rolling in/covering to much of the blow hole, dull tone and flat pitch
• Clenched teeth, tight sound lacking resonance, probably sharp
• Tight throat, strangled, dull tone and probably flat
• Slow air resulting in flat pitch, trouble placing and controlling high notes, thin, bleating tone

Ok, so the problem with all of these “solutions” is they miss the point that makes the difference and you wind up with all kinds of compensations that just make a poor situation worse. The point is to understand that there is a difference between the quantity of air and the speed of the air. Youngsters and anyone who doesn’t really ‘get’ flute have trouble conceptualizing the difference between air quantity and air speed. In fact, for kids speed and quantity are the same thing. The way I explain it is that until you understand better, air speed and air quantity function like a bad marriage, needy and codependent. One cannot exist without the other, but to the detriment of the both partners.

In order for a player to be able to control dynamics and pitch, air speed and air quantity need to get a divorce and be able to operate as separate entities. The speed of the air stream has to be maintained (supported) while the quantity of air determines the relative volume of the sound. You need to maintain the air speed/pressure using the abdominal muscles while decreasing the quantity of air you are blowing. Here are a couple other concepts to incorporate into the mix to get good dynamic and pitch control:

• Maintain the oval shape of the aperture without flattening it out
• Maintain the position of the flute on your lip without rolling in or out
• The less air you blow, the more you need to raise the blowing angle towards more straight across the blow hole to maintain pitch
• Keep back teeth apart and mouth cavity open
• Keep a relaxed and open throat. Think of how your throat feels right on the edge of yawning
• Keep the speed of the air, just less 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.

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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

The Value of Consistency

Tags

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

If you play a brass or reed instrument, there is a certain kind of consistency built into how you blow into the instrument by the mouthpiece itself. The internal dimensions and type of material of the mouthpiece play a huge part in determining tone quality on the instrument. The reason why there are so many kinds of mouthpieces for any given instrument is because we, ourselves are so variable….in terms of lip size, teeth size and shape, tongue size, and size and shape of the oral cavity and internal dimensions of our throat. And it is also partially why there is constant research and experimentation in the design of mouthpieces (another reason being because tastes in tone quality change with time). Brass and reed players are aiming at producing a characteristic and consistent tone for their instrument, as well as improving response and flexibility. If you want to improve the tone quality, try other mouthpieces.

The big difference with the flute is the player has to relate to a hole. It’s rather like having kids. As you well know, kids don’t come with directions. “Congratulations! You are a new parent. Go!” Nobody can tell you exactly how to relate to that hole. And yet flute players need to develop a consistency of approach with how the flute rests on the chin/bottom lip and maintaining the optimal distance between the aperture of the lips and the blowing edge (known as the transit time – the time from which the air exits the aperture to when it strikes the blowing edge). If you change it up by rolling in and out, you have no control of tone quality, tone color and intonation.

Here’s the challenging thing about learning correct placement and blowing angle…Each flute player has to discover this best place for themselves because of all the other inconsistencies of lips, mouth, tongue, teeth and throat. It’s somewhat akin to learning a string instrument, except maybe a bit less daunting. With strings, every parameter of playing is up for grabs including placement of the bow between the bridge and fingerboard, bow angle, placement of the fingers on the fingerboard for correct pitch, bow speed and pressure. Or like trombone, where one needs hear the pitch to know where to correctly place the slide for the note to be in tune. With the flute, we need to learn consistency in order to maintain the correct blowing angle and have control over tone quality, intonation and color.

Finally, I’d like to share a couple videos with you of flute players who know the importance of being consistent with maintaining the correct relationship with the blowing edge under extreme circumstances (i.e. while dancing). If these players didn’t understand this relationship as thoroughly as they do, they would not be able to maintain their beautiful tone throughout their performances. Here is Zara Lawler with Neil Parsons and Hilary Abigana of the Fourth Wall Ensemble. Be sure to check these out because you will see clearly that no matter what else they are doing, these players maintain the flute in relation their aperture at all times. There is no rolling in and out.

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.

 

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.

Solutions for Common Third Octave Problems

Tags

embouchure, flute balance, flute embouchure, flute fingering, flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flute students, flute technique

The third octave on the flute is an interesting phenomenon because of the embouchure issues it presents and because of the technical and acoustic properties of the instrument. It is definitely not as straight forward as the lower two octaves in terms of the mechanics of the flute. The reason for all the cross fingerings and venting in the third octave is because each note is combining the harmonics of two lower pitches to reinforce the sound of each note. One of the easiest to conceptualize is the fingering for high E: T12|12(Eb) It is combining the overtone series of both E and A. In fact, if the air speed is insufficient, an out of tune A will sound below the intended pitch with this fingering. You can get to the high E by playing harmonics on either E or A. For E it will be the 4th partial and for A it will be the 3rd partial. The two combined make the standard fingering for third octave E (among flutists it is generally agreed that the E is better in tune without the Eb key).

Be sure your flute students know the third octave fingerings. It isn’t enough for them to just overblow a 1st/2nd octave fingering. They will be playing harmonics rather than the correct third octave fingering. The real fingerings will always sound more solid and will be easier to play in tune. Give them a way to practice these fingerings and test them on the practicing you assign. The kids need concrete ways to build their facility in the third octave.  Here is one way to practice third octave technique.

Then there are the common embouchure issues you see with kids. It is common for students to struggle with buzzing rather than playing the desired pitch in the third octave. What causes the buzzing? Their lips are stretched laterally, from corner to corner. If your kids are pulling their corners, there is a really high probability that they will buzz in the third octave. Have them pay more attention to how they are shaping the aperture in the middle of their lips (like how your lips are shaped to blow a kiss or to drink through a straw), and forget about the corners. Remember to blow!

Another common problem is trying to control the third octave by flattening the aperture, rolling the flute in and pinching. Usually what goes with this is insufficient blowing. Oh no! High notes! Cue the Psycho shower scene music! The results are going to be really sharp and likely unsuccessful beyond high E or F. They will be lucky to get to a G. You have to help unwind them. Flute lower on the chin, roll the flute out a bit, relax the corners, shape the aperture (think of saying “W”) and blow more. Make sure the flute is aligned properly, check hand positions and balance. It seems paradoxical that rolling the flute away from you a little bit would improve the response and intonation of the high notes, but it works like magic. Check out this device (Flute Tutor) that can help enforce this positioning with your students.

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.

To Roll or Not to Roll: That is the Question

Tags

dynamics, flute embouchure, flute intonation, flute pedagogy, flute tone

Do you ever feel as if getting your flute section to play in tune is like herding cats? Have you ever told your flute students to roll the flute in or out to adjust the pitch? Me and my flute teaching colleagues are all holding our ears and crying, “Noooooo!” Why the extreme reaction, you might ask? The answer is because rolling in and out to change the pitch is a chewing gum/rubber band solution for the issues of pitch awareness. It really doesn’t address the underlying issues of embouchure formation and pitch awareness. The student might be more in tune for the moment, but they won’t really learn what “in tune” really means and rolling in/out has a really negative impact on tone quality. And the next time they play the same passage, you are back to where you started because it will be just as out of tune as it was before you asked them to roll in or out the first time.

What are the tone problems caused by rolling in and out? If you roll in, you wind up covering the blow hole too much. This will make it flatter, but it also makes the tone dull, small, lifeless and impossible to play with any kind of dynamic range. If you roll out, the pitch will be somewhat sharper, but the tone will be thin, weak, won’t project and makes it impossible to play with any dynamic range.

It is essential to understand that correcting pitch problems means correcting embouchure and placement issues. Embouchure flexibility, dynamic and pitch control are basically one issue. As developing flutists, we all have to learn consistency in where we put the flute on our bottom lip/chin and how we direct the air. The best place to put the flute is where you can get the most resonance from the flute. This is different for each person because of the endless variation in size of lips, teeth and oral cavity. The only way to achieve a good, in tune sound is through experimenting with blowing angle, how much to open or cover the blow hole and teaching students lip independence. When students are not energizing the air column sufficiently (supporting), you see all kinds of compensating behaviors including pulling corners, pinching the aperture, closing the throat, clenching the teeth. All these behaviors cause pitch problems.

Here are some general guidelines for pitch and dynamic control:

• To raise the pitch, push the bottom lip forward to raise the airstream, while making sure the top lip is directing the air at the blowing edge.
• To play more softly and in tune, raise the air stream
• To lower the pitch, reach over with the top lip to direct the air down more
• To play more loudly and stay in tune, blow down more
• Be sure to blow with an energized air column (support) at every dynamic level.
• Stay relaxed in the throat, jaw, cheeks and use a focused air stream through the aperture in the lips.

Try this exercise with your students individually and in sectionals. Use a tuner and maintain the pitch with crescendo and diminuendo using the guidelines above.

If you find these entries helpful, subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Feel free to comment and ask questions. What do you want to know about flute pedagogy? Maybe the answer to your question will be the next flute tip. Find me on Facebook or email me your questions at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

When Do You Start Teaching Dynamics?

Tags

dynamics, flute embouchure, flute intonation, flute pedagogy

The short answer to that question is, “It depends”. What does it depend on? It depends on a student’s ability to blow with a steady air stream and to differentiate between air speed and air quantity. Learning to differentiate between air speed and quantity takes time for the student and an understanding of sound pedagogy from the teachers who work with the student.

When a kid starts on the flute, the first job is to learn to direct the air properly to hit the strike edge of the blow hole. Then they need to learn to change the blowing angle to play in the different registers. Often at this stage the student is blowing through a large aperture, expending a lot of air, huffing and puffing, making a fuzzy sound and having trouble sustaining anything longer than two or three beats. As they continue practicing, most of the time the student learns to blow through a smaller aperture, control their breath and make a clearer tone.

Is this a good time to start introducing dynamics? I would say no, absolutely not and here is why. You can do more harm than good for your kids because they start trying to do what you are asking without having the skill set to play with dynamics correctly. Kids will pinch the aperture, which can make them play sharp. They start rolling the flute in and covering more. This will make the pitch flat. They try to control the air by squeezing their throats. Do you really want your students to sound like they are strangling? And they don’t really know anything about managing the air stream so they wind up trying to control the dynamics with their lips, tongue, throat, size of the oral cavity, etc. Kids are enormously creative in their solutions but the results for both pitch and tone can be devastating. And they wind up building in habits that they may never overcome.

A few pointers for teaching dynamics:

• Never mind about dynamics for a least the first year to two years of playing.
• Teach them to blow with a steady, supported air stream always (using their abdominal muscles to drive the air).
• Teach them that the size of the aperture stays pretty much the same throughout the range of the flute.
• Show them that the air speed and air quantity are not the same thing. You can play very softly provided that the air column is moving quickly enough with enough pressure.
• Dynamics on flute are controlled by a steady air speed and varying the quantity of air, not with the embouchure. The embouchure’s job is merely to point the air in the correct direction. Think of a garden hose. The actual source of the water pressure is far from the nozzle. The nozzle directs the water wherever it is pointed.

Your students will develop a wide palette of dynamic expression if you spend time helping them learn to control the air column in the first couple years of playing. It all comes down to how you manage the air.

If you find these entries helpful, subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back regularly for more flute tips. Please comment and feel free to ask questions. What do you want to know about flute pedagogy? Maybe the answer to your question will be the next flute tip. Find me on Facebook or email me your questions at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.

Diagnosing and Fixing Tone Problems

Tags

flute embouchure, flute intonation, flute posture, flute tone

Diagnosing the tone problems we hear with our flute students is one of the thorniest issues we face as teachers. And hand in hand with tone problems are intonation problems. If the sound is not good, chances are that the intonation won’t be good either. The fundamental question is to ask is what is the student doing with their playing apparatus (lips, oral cavity, throat, breathing) that is making it sound the way it does. I have explored this question by trying to create the sound the student is making for myself. Doing this have given me a lot of insight into why a student is having the problems they are having because I’m essentially recreating what they are doing. I learned this trick from my teacher, Thomas Nyfenger, who could imitate anyone, good or bad. Let’s examine the each of the areas of the playing apparatus listed above.

Lips – essentially our lips function as our mouthpiece, shaping and directing the air at the blowing edge, assisting in creating sufficient resistance to make a characteristic flute sound. Lips cannot provide support to the air column. Many students squeeze their lips rather than use their supporting muscles.

• If the sound is reedy, thin, sharp or strident, chances are that the student is pulling their corners, stretching the lips laterally and/or flattening the blowing aperture. It is often a combination of all of these.
• If the sound is wooly, flat and unfocused, it means the aperture is too large and the student isn’t gripping the airstream firmly enough.
• If the sound is sweet, clear and small, the student has the flute too high on their bottom lip. This can be caused by being taught the kiss-and-roll when they started.

Oral cavity – while it is necessary for the flute to rest (not press) against the bottom teeth with the lip in between, it is important to relax the jaw and open the oral cavity as much as possible. It functions as a resonating chamber, along with the sinuses, nose, throat and chest (ask the singers). If you’ve explored all the possible lip issues and the tone is still small and tight, experiment with opening the oral cavity more.

Throat – needs to be open, with the base of the tongue relaxed for the most resonant sound. Squeezing the throat or tensing the base of the tongue will muffle the sound. Students will frequently squeeze here rather than engage their supporting muscles. I like the analogy of imagining that I am on the verge of a yawn. The tongue is down and relaxed and the throat is wide open. Throat is merely a conduit for the air column. Keep all the physical structures of the throat out of the way.

Breathing – If everything else is out of the way, then the torso with its abdominal and intercostal muscles are free to support and pressurize the air column. I really like the idea of allowing ourselves to breath naturally, deeply and freely rather than over-analyzing the breathing mechanism. The truth is, kids rarely understand the difference between the quantity of air and the speed of the air. If the air is moving sufficiently fast enough, the sound will be good and it will be in tune, provided that they are playing on a flute with a good scale (note that some of the older brands still have not updated their scale, especially in the beginner level instruments). Sitting up or standing tall with good open posture is critical to being able to use the air effectively.

If you find these entries helpful, subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back next week for another flute tip. Please comment and feel free to ask questions. Maybe the answer to your question will be the next flute tip. Find me on Facebook or email me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net. For information about clinics and workshops click here.