Fluteland.com Flute Message Board

You know I forgot to mention this... Sometimes my students get achy pains in the side of either one hand or both hands because they are just plain gripping the flute too tightly. Maybe you are just concentrating so hard on covering the open holes that you are gripping very hard and causing tension w...

Is it your left or right hand? If it's your left hand, you have probably switched to an "in line G" key system. For some people, it's quite a stretch and it is uncomfortable. My flute wasn't available with the left hand G key at an angle, so I just plug the hole. My ring fingers are considerably sho...

Try di Medici, made by Altus. They are the beginner professional line manufactured by Altus Flutes. Altus Flutes also manufactures Jupiter brand flutes but do not mistake di Medici flutes for Jupiters. They truly are professional flutes at a bargain price. You might also want to check out Pearl flut...

This happened to me also. I bought a gold plated flute and love it. The entire thing is 18k rose gold plated. But I didn't just buy it because of "flute chin." It's the acids in your skin. Often when you wear lotion or make up on stage your skin's pores are blocked and it creates excess perspiration...

I played an Artley first and then an Armstrong 104 in high school by the way. The Artley was okay and had already withstood years of use and abuse when it was handed to me at age eleven... The Armstrong 104 model really is built like a TANK and is a very reliable flute. If your local schools don't h...

Try just the headjoint on another body, either from that shop or from a friend. That will make the decision about which one to ultimately buy and sink some cash into... The cut of the tone hole makes a huge difference. The artley may look like a clunker but might play like a dream. Likewise, the Arm...

Ransom Wilson Alexa Still Jeanne Baxtresser Look up every major symphony and get their flutists' names and then look for recordings by them. You will be amazed at the differences in tone quality and color as you discover new flutists. James Galway and Rampal tend to have a very sweet and round "flut...

RIDICULOUSLY FAST AND WITH
ARTICULATIONS was how fast the non-remedial (graduate students/doctoral
students) were playing them. It really freaked me out to see them going 130+ bpm
w/sixteenths but I stuck it out in the remedial class and made good progress
once I caught on. Scary, though...

Practice double tonguing away from the piece to ease your frustrations at first. Use whatever key the piece is in and then practice eighth note double tonguing (1+2+3+4+ as TKTKTKTK) and do it slowly on one pitch of the scale for each whole measure. Then try doing a whole measure of sixteenths on ea...

I had horrible shoulder and arm pain, although in a slightly different way. Most of it was due to overpracticing and tension. You may want to check out two possible conditions that could cause this problem. The first is Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. Most doctors know how to test for this but some do a h...

That is a HUGE list. My best advice is go somewhere that specializes in flutes and take a ton of different music with you to try. Low passages with staccato, high passages at pianissimo, etc. Take a tuner also. See how close you can get to being in tune in extreme ranges the first time through with ...

Sell the Gemmy, buy an Armstrong model 104. They're built like tanks but play with a nice medium feel of mechanism and usually play quite well as far as the headjoint is concerned. Look for one that is cut on the sides of the tone hole (angled in) to help you focus your beginner tone. You could keep...

It's not that bad because some of these say you only have to do them in eighth notes. It could be sixteenths. I did two hours a week, twice a week of technique class at IU Bloomington for flute. Their scales were this fast and I was stuck in the remedial group! Get these requirements to your private...

You're probably doing this "goat throat" thing that many flutists do. It's related to tension in the upper throat which just slightly cuts your air on and off when you are blowing. Usually it sounds like g-g-g-g-g-g-g when you are trying to use vibrato or even when just blowing a straight tone. The ...