Flute – Ten Things that Every Band Director Should Know About Flutes – Pt 1

Posted on May 1, 2017May 29, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Ten Things that Every Band Director Should Know About Flutes – Pt 1

Flute – There are several simple things band directors can teach to flute sections that will quickly produce measurable improvement in tone quality, technique and intonation. These tips can be used with beginning flutists, as well as flute sections in middle school and high school. How many times have you lamented that your flute section is extremely sharp and shrill in the high register? How many times have you reminded your flute section not to go flat on the diminuendos? Does your flute section have a breathy sound instead of a beautiful and focused sound? This article addresses these concerns and others with tips that every band director should know about flutes.

1. PRODUCING THE FIRST SOUNDS AND GETTING A BETTER SOUND

Start on the head joint only
When teaching beginners how to get their first sounds, it is beneficial to use the head joint only. This allows students to experience success without the awkwardness of holding the whole flute. Many important skills can be developed using the head joint, including starting notes (tonguing) and blowing with a strong air stream. Fun activities with the head joint include exploring the variety of sounds that can be produced, including glissandi (like trombones) and covering the open end with the palm to produce a low pitch. Students can also learn to play several scale-wise pitches by inserting their right index finger into the open end of the head joint which will allow them to play three note songs such as Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb.
Placement of the lip plate

For good tone, the embouchure plate (or lip plate) should be placed just below the flare of the lower lip allowing 1/4 to 1/3 of the tone hole to be covered. The student should be able to feel the edge of the tone hole under the flare of their lower lip, which will help with placement. This position enables flexibility of the lower lip, which controls the angle of the air stream. Students with full lips having difficulty with sound production, can place the lip plate slightly higher directly on the lower lip. Traditional methods of placement such as “kissing” the tone hole and then rolling tend to place the lip plate too high for many players.
Fast air stream

Using a consistently strong fast air stream on all notes, both low and high, is required to develop a good tone. I like to use the analogy of using “birthday candle air”, i.e. the speed of air used to blow out birthday candles.

Forward tonguing. Teaching students to tongue as if they were “spitting a grain of rice off the tip of the tongue” is a method of tonguing that helps students blow a strong air stream through a small aperture. This type of tonguing produces tone that is strong and full without the usual “airy” sound that is produced when the air stream is too wide. This method of tonguing is sometimes called spit rice tonguing, Suzuki tonguing, forward tonguing or French tonguing. Its hallmark is tonguing slightly between the lips–sometimes it is helpful for students to think about touching the tip of their tongue to the top lip to start each note. When they do this successfully, there is a small “pop” sound as the air is released.
Students with Braces

Most students will figure out ways to adjust after getting braces, but for students having difficulty getting a sound, there is something simple that can be done to help. Patricia George, flute pedagogue, recommends putting layers of masking tape on the part of the lip plate that rests against the chin. The idea is to build up layers to compensate for the changed blowing angle caused by the hardware on the teeth. Two layers of masking tape might help some students, while it may take up to six or more for other students. (See photo #1 below) After the number of layers is determined, the masking tape can be trimmed neatly with scissors to the shape of the lip plate.

Photo #1

2. PLAYING SECOND OCTAVE NOTES

Producing notes in the second octave is sometimes difficult for beginners. Since most of the first and second octave notes have the same fingering, students must learn to change the angle of the air stream with their lower lip to produce the higher octave. Have students start the high note with the syllable “pooh” (as in Winnie the Pooh). This will probably cause some giggles, but that’s part of the fun, and the silliness of the syllable will help them remember how to start the high notes. This syllable pushes the lower lip forward, raising the angle of the air stream to blow across the tone hole, rather than down into it. Remind the students to use strong “birthday candle” air, which they should already be using on their low notes.

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 3

Posted on April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 3

Flute – So, how do you change the angle of the air stream?

Place your open palm 4-6 inches in front of your mouth.

To help simulate a flute embouchure, place the index finger of the opposite hand across your chin just under the lower lip (on the “flute shelf”) in the same position where the embouchure plate of the flute would sit. After blowing straight ahead, move your air stream higher and higher up your hand until it reaches the tips of your fingers (without moving your head or hand, of course).

Then move the air stream down your hand until you reach the bottom of your palm. Have the student watch for changes in your embouchure as you do this.

What changes in your embouchure does the student see, as the air stream goes higher and higher? [They should see your lower lip move forward as the air stream gets higher.] Have your student stand in front of a mirror and try this same exercise and observe the changes in their lip position as the angle of the air stream changes.

To further demonstrate this concept, play a low note followed by a high note, having your student observe the position of your lips.

For the high note, they should see your lower lip push farther forward, and for the high note, the lower lip should be farther back.

In front of the mirror, the student can try this on her own, playing a low note and then an octave higher, making special note of their lip position.

If the student has difficulty getting the higher notes, have them say “poo” when they attack the note. That should get their air stream at a correct angle.

When teaching, it is important to involve as many of the student’s senses as possible, since students can have very different learning styles.

Tactile learners respond to feel, by feeling the air stream going up and down their open palm, and by feeling less air on their hand when a high note is played and more air on their hand when a low note is played.

Visual learners will respond to observing embouchure changes between playing high notes and low notes–working in front of a mirror so they can observe changes in their own embouchures is helpful.

Auditory learners hear the difference in the high and low notes while they’re feeling and seeing the embouchure changes that occur.

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 2

Posted on April 16, 2017April 16, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 2

Flute – The flute is also unique among the woodwind instruments in that the fingerings for most of the first octave notes are identical to the fingerings of the second octave notes.

While other woodwinds have an octave key to facilitate the switch between octaves, the flutist is left to make the switch by using their embouchure.

The production of high notes vs. low notes is a function of direction of the air column. Simply put, to obtain low notes, the air stream is directed down toward your toes, while the air stream is directed straight ahead across the tone hole to obtain higher notes.

The speed of the air stream should be strong and kept constant for low notes and high notes. Although there is a tendency for students to blow harder for higher notes, this strategy will produce a sharp and shrill upper register.

Likewise, many students tend to blow softer for low notes, producing a flat and listless low register.

As the angle of the air stream increases, the percentage of the air stream going into the flute decreases.

For instance, for low notes, more than half of the air stream is blown into the flute—for example, approximately ¾ of the air stream will be blown through the flute, and ¼ of the air stream will be blown over the top of the embouchure hole.

Conversely, for high notes, less than half of the air stream is blown through the flute—for example, approximately ¼ of the air stream will be blown through the flute, and ¾ of the air stream will be blown over the top of the embouchure hole.

[These proportions are approximate and are for illustration only. They will vary depending on the note played, as well as other factors.]

To illustrate this concept, raise your flute into playing position with your left hand only. Place the open palm of your right hand approximately 3-4 inches in front of your mouth. Play a first octave G.

Do you feel a lot of air on your palm when you play that note? [You should just feel just a little air, since more of the air stream is going into the flute.] Then play a second octave G. Do you feel a lot of air on your palm? [You should feel a lot more air than with the low note, since less of the air stream is being blown into the flute.]

If you are teaching a beginning student, you can demonstrate the high and low notes, and have your student place his or her hand in front of your mouth to feel the differences in the volume of air expelled for each note.

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 1

Posted on April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Teaching the Basics of Tone Production by Phyllis Louke Pt 1

Flute – Learning to play the flute is a complicated process.

It is up to the flute teacher to break down the process of learning to play the flute into the simplest terms and gradually build on a student’s skills with more and more details.

One of the basic aspects of playing the flute is tone production.

Tone is produced when the air stream is split by the edge of the tone hole–some of the air goes in the tone hole and some goes out.

If you cover the tone hole with both lips and blow all the air into the flute, a note will not be produced. Likewise, if you blow all your air over the top of the tone hole with without any air going into the flute, a note will not be produced.

This is unique among wind instruments: in brass instruments all of the air is blown into the mouthpiece and sound is produced from the vibration of the lips against the mouthpiece; in single reed instruments, all of the air is blown into the mouthpiece and sound is produced from the vibration of the reed against the mouthpiece; in double reed instruments, all the air is blown into the reed and sound is produced from the two halves of the reed vibrating against each other.

In order to produce a precise air stream (which is the foundation of good tone), I teach my students to do “spit rice” tonguing.

Using this type of tonguing eliminates most of the peripheral air that causes the airiness in the tone of many beginners.

Students can pretend that they have an uncooked grain of rice stuck on the tip of their tongue and practice “spitting” it off.

The goal is to “spit” the rice far away from you (i.e. across the room).

When this is done correctly, the tongue will touch the inside wet part of the lips, even appearing slightly through the lips, and will produce a little “pop” as the tongue is pulled back releasing the pressurized air.

This should produce a fast stream of air through a small aperture formed between the lips. If the air isn’t fast enough, the rice will just “dribble down to your toes”.

For those who have trouble visualizing the tongue placement, real rice can be used (outdoors, of course) to practice the technique, and have some fun, aiming at targets.

Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 2

Posted on April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 2

3. Teach Fast Air

“Using a consistently strong fast air stream on all notes, both low and high, is required to develop a good tone. I like to use the analogy of using “birthday candle air”, i.e. the speed of air used to blow out birthday candles.”

“Many other fast air techniques, such as the blowing hard enough to hold a piece of paper on the wall, tends to cause tension in the neck. An exercise to create awareness of the breathing process is to have the students hook their hands around the lower rib cage so they can feel the lungs expand and contract. This counters the “diaphragmatic” breathing myth, which can leave the student confused.”

4. Right Hand on Barrel

“This technique was actually developed by Patricia George. First, have the student remove the footjoint. Then, have the student grab the flute with the right hand on the barrel. The student can still play simple tunes using the left hand keys.” (see video below for a video demonstrating Right Hand on Barrel)

“For right hand placement I like having a small tactile indicator under the right hand thumb. It serves as a reminder to the student where to place the hand. I used to use a small round Dr. Scholl’s corn pad, but they’ve stopped making them. I’ve started using a little bit of masking tape instead.”

Another great tip (learned from Patricia George) for the right hand, is the ‘coke can test.’ Have your student grab a can to see whether the thumb lines up below the index finger, middle finger, or somewhere in between. This will determine the most ideal placement for the right hand thumb during playing.”

Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 1

Posted on April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 by Cristy

Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 1

Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 1Flute – Tips for Beginning Flutists by Phyllis Avidan-Louke Pt 1

1. Spit Rice Tonguing

Excerpt from Phyllis’s article “Teaching the Basics of Tone Production”

“Students can pretend that they have an uncooked grain of rice stuck on the tip of their tongue and practice “spitting” it off. The goal is to “spit” the rice far away from you (i.e. across the room). When this is done correctly, the tongue will touch the inside wet part of the lips, even appearing slightly through the lips, and will produce a little “pop” as the tongue is pulled back releasing the pressurized air. This should produce a fast stream of air through a small aperture formed between the lips. If the air isn’t fast enough, the rice will just “dribble down to your toes”. For those who have trouble visualizing the tongue placement, real rice can be used (outdoors, of course) to practice the technique, and have some fun, aiming at targets.”

2. Avoid the Infamous “Kiss and Roll” – Know correct placement on the lip plate.

Excerpt from Phyllis’ article “Ten Things that Every Band Director Should Know About Flutes ”

“For good tone, the embouchure plate (or lip plate) should be placed just below the flare of the lower lip allowing 1/4 to 1/3 of the tone hole to be covered. The student should be able to feel the edge of the tone hole under the flare of their lower lip, which will help with placement. This position enables flexibility of the lower lip, which controls the angle of the air stream. Students with full lips having difficulty with sound production, can place the lip plate slightly higher directly on the lower lip. Traditional methods of placement such as “kissing” the tone hole and then rolling tend to place the lip plate too high for many players.”

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 19

Posted on February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by Cristy

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 16

Getting out of your comfort zone means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before. Sometimes you may find it relatively easy to accomplish that new thing, and then you keep pushing on. But sometimes you run into something that stops you cold and it seems like you’ll never be able to do it. Finding ways around these barriers is one of the hidden keys to purposeful flute practice.

Generally the solution is not “try harder” but rather “try differently.” It is a technique issue, in other words. In Steve’s case, one barrier came when he hit 22 digits. He was grouping them into four four-digit groups, which he used various mnemonic tricks to remember, plus a six-digit rehearsal group at the end that he would repeat over and over to himself until he could remember it by the sound of the numbers. But he couldn’t figure out how to get past 22 digits, because when he tried to hold five four-digit groups in his head, he became confused about their order. He eventually hit upon the idea of using both three-digit groups and four-digit groups, a breakthrough that eventually allowed him to work up to using four four-digit groups, four three-digit groups, and a six-digit rehearsal group, for a maximum of 34 digits. Then, once he reached that limit, he had to develop another technique. This was a regular pattern throughout the entire memory study: Steve would improve up to a point, get stuck, look around for a different approach that could help him get past the barrier, find it, and then improve steadily until another barrier arose.

The best way to get past any barrier is to come at it from a different direction, which is one reason it is useful to work with a flute teacher or coach. Someone who is already familiar with the sorts of obstacles you’re likely to encounter can suggest ways to overcome them.

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 18

Posted on February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by Cristy

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 18

Our memory experiment was set up to keep Steve from getting too comfortable. As he increased his memory capacity, I would challenge him with longer and longer strings of digits so that he was always close to his capacity. In particular, by increasing the number of digits each time he got a string right, and decreasing the number when he got it wrong, I kept the number of digits right around what he was capable of doing while always pushing him to remember just one more digit.

This is a fundamental truth about any sort of flute practice: If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve. The amateur flutist who took half a dozen years of flute lessons when he was a teenager but who for the past 30 years has been playing the same set of flute songs in exactly the same way over and over again may have accumulated 10,000 hours of flute “practice” during that time, but he is no better at playing the flute than he was 30 years ago. Indeed, he’s probably gotten worse.

We have especially strong evidence of this phenomenon as it applies to physicians. Research on many specialties shows that doctors who have been in practice for 20 or 30 years do worse on certain objective measures of performance than those who are just two or three years out of medical school. It turns out that most of what doctors do in their day-to-day practice does nothing to improve or even maintain their abilities; little of it challenges them or pushes them out of their comfort zones. For that reason, I participated in a consensus conference in 2015 to identify new types of continuing medical education that will challenge doctors and help them maintain and improve their skills.

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 17

Posted on February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by Cristy

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 17

Purposeful flute practice involves feedback. You have to know whether you are doing something right and, if not, how you’re going wrong. In Oare’s example the flute student got belated feedback at school with a C on the performance test, but there seems to have been no feedback during practice—no one listening and pointing out mistakes, with the student seemingly clueless about whether there were errors in the flute practice. (“How many times did you play it correctly?” “Umm, I dunno … Once or twice …”)

In our memory study, Steve got simple, direct feedback after every attempt—correct or incorrect, success or failure. He always knew where he stood. But perhaps the more important feedback was something that he did himself. He paid close attention to which aspects of a string of digits caused him problems. If he’d gotten the string wrong, he usually knew exactly why and which digits he had messed up on. Even if he got the string correct, he could report to me afterward which digits had given him trouble and which had been no problem. By recognizing where his weaknesses were, he could switch his focus appropriately and come up with new memorization techniques that would address those weaknesses.

Generally speaking, no matter what you’re trying to do, you need feedback to identify exactly where and how you are falling short. Without feedback—either from yourself or from outside observers—you cannot figure out what you need to improve on or how close you are to achieving your goals.

Purposeful practice requires getting out of one’s comfort zone. This is perhaps the most important part of purposeful practice. Oare’s music student shows no sign of ever pushing himself beyond what was familiar and comfortable. Instead, the student’s words seem to imply a rather desultory attempt at practice, with no effort to do more than what was already easy for him. That approach just doesn’t work.

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 16

Posted on February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by Cristy

Not All Practice Makes Perfect – Pt 16

Purposeful flute practice is focused. Unlike the flute student that Oare described, Steve Faloon was focused on his task from the very beginning, and his focus grew as the experiment went along and he was memorizing longer and longer strings of digits. You can get a sense of this focus by listening to the tape of session 115, which came about halfway through the study. Steve had regularly been remembering strings of close to 40 digits, but 40 itself was not something he could yet do with any consistency, and he really wanted to reach 40 regularly on this day. We began with 35 digits, which was easy for him, and he started pumping himself up as the strings increased in length. Before I read the 39-digit string, he gave himself an excited pep talk, seemingly conscious of nothing but the approaching task: “We have a big day here! … I haven’t missed one yet, have I? No! … This will be a banner day!” He was silent during the 40 seconds it took me to read out the numbers, but then, as he carefully went over the digits in his head, remembering various groups of them and the order in which they appeared, he could barely contain himself. He hit the table loudly a number of times, and he clapped a lot, apparently in celebration of remembering this or that group of digits or where they went in the string. Once he blurted out, “Absolutely right! I’m certain!” And when he finally spit the digits back at me, he was indeed right, so we moved on to 40. Again, the pep talk: “Now this is the big one! If I get past this one, it’s all over! I have to get past this one!” Again the silence as I read the digits, and then the excited noises and exclamations as he cogitated. “Wow! … Come on now! … All right! … Go!” He got that one right as well, and the session indeed became one in which he regularly hit 40 digits, although no more.

Now, not everyone will focus by hollering and pounding on a table, but Steve’s performance illustrates a key insight from the study of effective flute practice: You seldom improve much without giving the task your full attention.