Fabulous Flute Playing Tips

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Here you will find basic tips which will enhance and refine your flute playing into a strong, confident and mature performance. You will find some techniques to practice and also some great performance ideas!

Breathing

Finger Breaths are a great way to demonstrate quick, deep breathing to students.  First, blow out all your air. Next, place the knuckle of your first finger, either hand, to your mouth.  Form your lips in a circle around the knuckle, leaving only a slight gap at the sides of the aperture and suck in air like you would take a quick, deep breath.  It makes a very loud, big sound and gives a great idea of the amount of air needed to play the flute.  Next try this and then put the flute up as if you were going to play and blow a note.  You will find that you have good air pressure and speed with your deep breath.  Finally, put your flute in place and take in this type of breath and immediately blow a note without holding the air in.  You will find that you have no tension in your throat, that your breath is quiet and that your beginning notes have resonance and lack a hard attack.  All of these are great components for an accomplished performance. Finger Breath Exercises.

Remember, that a good breath feels like this: “HHAAH”.  Open your throat and breathe in deeply.  Your diaphragm will move downwards and you will fill your lungs up quickly and deeply.  Avoid raising your shoulders.

In really long phrases, do not shy away from marking a “catch breath” in a place where you may not think you need one i.e. you still have some air, but which will allow you to make to the end of that long phrase.

Performance

TRILLS – Be sure to start and end your trills on the main note.  This avoids any confusion to the harmonic structure, eliminates stumbles or unevenness in fingers and makes the movement into and out of the trill sound clean. It will be easier to perform and easier for the audience to hear. 

LOW C/C#/B –  When moving to lower notes on the foot joint, count back two or three notes and find one which will allow you to pick up your right hand fourth finger (D# key) and still sound the note. Leave it up so it is ready to easily depress the low C/C#/B key. Also remember when “going” for low C or B, be sure that you slide your little finger onto the keys and that you lay your finger across all necessary keys.  Don’t try to aim your little finger at one of them and depress it with the tip of your finger.

Sightreading

Sight reading is just as exciting as starting a new book.  It is a fun pastime, a joy to do with a duet partner and the thing every musician does for each new piece of music. 

• Before you start check the key signature and the time signature.
• Scan the piece for any new notes or accidentals.
• Next check the “road map”.  This is the musical term for the layout of the music.  Where are there repeats, 1^st and 2^nd endings, D.C.’s, Fine’s etc.  Know where you will be going as you play through the piece.
• On the first read through, feel free to leave out any ornaments you are not yet able to play on sight.  You can come back and put in that “tr” when you have practiced it separately.

Support

The description of how to do this varies from teacher to teacher.  A great example is to stand up and imagine yourself in front of a group of people, then, prepare to read out loud.  Get something to read and try this. You will naturally breath in, hold your abdomen firm and let your breath out gradually.  It’s that simple.  Just more work with a flute.

Breath Control

Use the reading out loud example from above. You will naturally take in a breath and let it out over the time it takes you to read a sentence or a paragraph. (Surprising huh?!) This same idea is applicable to taking in a breath and letting it out over a phrase or until your next breath mark.  Practice making your phrases longer by making your goal one more note each time until you get to your planned breath mark.  Also, concentrate on not making the beginning of the phrase too loud so that you can have air left for the musical end of the phrase.

Dynamics

In a solo, you may need to play soft sections louder than you think depending on the size of the room. Remember you are responsible for all the emotions and colors to present the music in a delightful and entertaining way.  Have someone be the audience and let you know about the volume differences for that room. If playing with piano, have someone check the balance between the flute and the piano for particular sections of the music which vary in volume.

In a good concert hall, in a large ensemble your softs and louds will carry just fine.  Your conductor will let you know if he needs more or less.

In a phrase marked ff or fff, it may be way more important to get to the end of the phrase or figure in one breath rather than trying to blast your way through and disrupt it with a breath.  So although your goal will be to play loudly, but you may feel like you are holding back and not matching your effort to the dynamic marking to reach a good place to take a breath. 

Note Placement – especially for solos

Over time you will begin to hear that, even though you are playing the notes and rhythms correctly, something about the way a professional moves through a particular line makes the music feel and sound different.  You of course know this from all the recordings and YouTube videos you have been watching.  Work with some of these concepts to improve your musicality.  Of course you can play along with your media to feel how they do it.

• When the music wants you to slow down, decide where to start the ritard, where to end it and where to start the a tempo.  These may be a few notes different from where the word or musical term is actually marked on your part.  Try to deduce where it feels and sounds best for the passage.
• When playing up and over a run or through a phrase, keep your air moving.  The highest note is probably the loudest so do not back off your sound (support) for those high notes.  If you play without a full sound notes will weak, maybe even shrill, they will not be in tune and they will not match the rest of the notes in the passage. Keep your tone homogenous throughout unless you intend to change it.
• Some slowing down or intentional placement of notes sounds really good. Interestingly enough, music really does not go ahead exactly on a beat at all times.  There is some give and take. Learn to stretch or condense you notes within the beats of a measure. A passage should not sound like you rushed through it. It should sound like it unfolds naturally just like you would read a story out loud.
• At the end of a piece, it is very likely that the last note(s) will be slowed down and placed in a specific way. Experiment with your endings, make them intentional and musical, not just the right note exactly on the beat.

Musicality

Musicality is what you do with the music above and beyond the right notes and rhythms on the right beat.  Whether you have thought about it consciously or not, here are the components that you have at your disposal that make your performance musical rather than just accurate.  Experiment with them and you will begin to feel the music for yourself. Mostly give yourself permission to use these freely, and listen, listen, listen to yourself and to other performers. What can you add to this list?

If you are a teacher, your students will need help in understanding and executing these ideas.  Play for your students to show them the difference these can make.  Listen with them to a couple different performances of a piece they want to work on.  What is different between the performances? Which one do they like the best and why? Where does the performer breath, slow down, show increased intensity in volume or vibrato? Help them make their performance intentional and not be satisfied with whatever just comes out when they pick of the flute.

If you are working on your own playing, work on listening and analyzing the performances of others either in a live concert or on YouTube. What do you like? How do you make it sound like your favorite performer?  What would you do differently?

See also 10 Magical Musical Techniques.