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.

Flute Balance and the Left Hand

Tags

flute balance, flute pedagogy, flute posture, flute students, flute technique

Several months ago we looked at balance and alignment issues with the right hand and how that can impact the development of solid technique and good tone. Today we are going to look at left hand balance and alignment issues. When you look at how this young man is holding his flute, what do you see?

I see the flute is rolled back toward him, his right wrist is under the flute and his left wrist is in front of the flute, with his fourth and fifth fingers almost completely straight. Also, his head is forward of his shoulders. Can you see that the headjoint is rolled forward more in line with the front of the keys?

What kind of problems will this type of positioning cause? In terms of ergonomics, he’s going to be fighting the flute because it will always feel like it wants to roll back. If you are fighting the flute, developing a fluid and relaxed technique becomes much more difficult. The flute isn’t well supported and always feels unstable. Holding the flute this way can also lead to strain in the neck, left elbow, wrist and shoulder. In extreme cases, I have heard of players developing problems with nerve impingement in the left elbow.

Notice in the second photo how much better the alignment is for this young man. We turned the headjoint back a bit to between the keys and rods. Now the left wrist is under the flute, supporting it. The right hand is behind the flute and the flute is resting on his right thumb. His finger positions are more relaxed. The weight of the instrument is distributed evenly between both his hands. His ears are now over his shoulders. Now that he isn’t fighting the instrument, his technique improved immediately. The other thing that improved right away was his tone. He could place notes in a big interval much more easily and maintain a focused sound.

To put it in the simplest terms; if the flute is balanced between the hands, the player can get on with the business of developing good tone and solid technique. It’s really difficult to do this if you are always fighting to balance the flute in your hands. Biggest clue there is a balance problem with the left hand is that the left wrist is in front of the flute rather than under it. Check the headjoint alignment and make sure the blow hole lines up between the rods and keys, as we’ve discussed in the past.

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.

 

Being the Flute Police

Tags

embouchure, flute embouchure, flute pedagogy, flute posture, flute students, flute technique

Now that your students aren’t beginners anymore, what do they need to keep developing their flute and musical skills? The flute police! I’m joking, of course, but in a way I’m not. The interactions with and interventions by their teachers, both their band directors and private instructors (if they have one), during their first two or three years of playing are really critical for determining how long they continue playing and the level of competency they achieve.  In order to keep my own students on track, here’s what I have to be constantly vigilant about for them:

• Embouchure, embouchure, embouchure – make sure they are shaping the right size aperture, know where the flute is placed on their bottom lip, and that they understand how to change the direction of the air without changing the size of the aperture.
• Blowing – as important as embouchure. You can have a great embouchure, but it’s not of much value if you’re not putting air into the instrument. Likewise, a student can have great technique, but it is of little use if you can’t hear them due to insufficient air. Be sure to teach kids to drive the air with their abdominal muscles (often referred to as “support”).
• Balancing the flute and hand positions – turn the headjoint back and turn the mechanism more forward just a little so the weight of the mechanism is more on top, rather than dragging the flute back. Left hand and wrist under the flute to support the weight, right hand behind the flute with fingers extended. Right thumb under and more on the back side of the instrument.
• Posture – align shoulders over hips, whether sitting or standing. Turn head left about 45 degrees and bring the flute up into playing position. The plane of the body and plane of the flute intersect near the left shoulder. The end of the flute should be in line with your nose rather than in line with your right ear (you will be amazed at the difference in the sound with just this one simple adjustment).
• Technique – teach the kids the patterns of music including scales and arpeggios in all major keys. Teach your flute students to play in sharp keys. I get it! Band repertoire puts the flute parts into flat keys in order to accommodate the transposing instruments. However, you severely limit the playing options available to your flute students if they never play in any other keys besides F, Bb and Eb until they get to high school. And teach them the correct fingerings in the third octave.
• Counting and rhythm – be sure to teach kids to count for themselves rather than learning rhythm by rote. In more than 30 years of teaching lessons in schools, I have seen band teachers whose students have excellent counting skills and those whose students couldn’t count their way out of a paper bag until someone “shows them how it goes”. The student who understands rhythm and can figure out music they are learning on their own is much more likely to stick with playing long term. They will be able to benefit from your instruction about ensemble skills more readily because they will be more flexible and adaptable.

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.

Flute Balance and the Right Hand

Tags

flute balance, flute posture, flute technique

Have you ever seen flute players holding their flutes like this?

How about this?

Were you aware that both of these right hand positions have many negative consequences for students and how they can contribute to the flute section of your ensemble? These consequences can include poor tone, poor intonation, and slow and/or uneven technique. In some cases, hand positions like this can lead to physical problems like tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive strain injuries.

If you recall, in an earlier post from last school year, we examined the issue of balancing the flute in our hands rather than holding it. Take a look at the banner photo on this blog and you will see how I accomplish this. If you were looking from the bottom end of the flute, the rods should be at about 11:00, with the mechanism pointing slightly forward. That way, the flute can rest on the right thumb, with the little finger on the Eb key as a counter-balance. My right hand is behind the flute and I am able to move my fingers freely from the joints at the base of my fingers.  It is also important that my wrist is relaxed and in a neutral position, not canted to one side or the other.

Let’s examine the issues in the first photo:

• The rods of the flute are pointing straight back at about 3:00
• The student’s thumb is in front of the flute and she is bracing the flute against the base of her fingers so it won’t roll back
• The base of the fingers are against the rods (this is also bad for the flute because dirt and oil can work its way into the mechanism, causing it to bind)
• Her wrist is canted toward the upper end of the flute
• She has a lot of tension in her fingers, thumb, palm, wrist and forearm

If she continues like this, this student will have a lot of trouble developing her technique. Also, her tone is small, covered and flat. The first thing I would do is realign her headjoint so the blow hole is between the keys and the rods. Then she will need to learn to rotate the flute body away from her so she can let the flute rest on her thumb. She will also need to retrain herself so she extends her fingers and learn to move her fingers from the bottom joints rather than the second joints of her fingers.

In the case of the second photo, the alignment of the flute is not so much of a problem, though it can probably be adjusted slightly. The problem lies in what she is doing with her right thumb. There are lots of kids with so-called hitchhiker thumbs. This hand position is seriously impacting her ability to develop her technique. She’s also putting a lot of strain on both joints of the thumb. In some cases I have seen that this can lead to repetitive strain injuries. The solution is to teach the student to rotate the thumb so the flute is resting on the side of the thumb, by the fingernail and extending the fingers so it is more like holding a ball or a sandwich. Once she can learn to move her fingers from the base joints, she will quickly acquire facility in her technique.

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.

Flutes in the Band Room

Tags

flute posture, flute seating, flute students

Do your flute students look like this, struggling to hold their flutes up, scrunched into tight quarters, leaning their right arms over the back of their chairs, hunched over as if they can barely hold the flute up?

I am sure you have seen variations of this with your own students. And you have to constantly remind them to hold their flutes up, sit straight in their chairs, and on and on…….

Perhaps the solution lies in how the chairs are arranged. In the example above, notice that the chairs the kids are sitting in are side by side, in a straight line along the wall, facing forward. The question I pose to you is if this makes sense, given that the flute is played asymmetrically (as are saxophone and bassoon)? In order to hold the flute up and be comfortable, the kids have to twist in their chairs, rest their arm on the chair back and wind up developing other poor habits. Try this instead and see if it helps your students sit up taller, hold their instruments more correctly and even sound better as a section:

As you can see, all the chairs are now turned about 45 degrees to the right, rather than facing straight forward. Now let’s put the kids in the chairs and you have something like this:

As you can see, the chairs are quite close, everyone can hold their flute up, the kids can sit straight in their chairs with their feet on the floor and the end of each flute is behind the head of the next kid. There is plenty of room for everyone, even if you have a small rehearsal space.

If you find these entries helpful, please subscribe, share with your colleagues and come back next week for another flute tip. Comments are always welcome. Send your questions and suggestions for future posts to me at dr_cate@sbcglobal.net.