Assembled Flute Position

[Fox]

I'm curious as to how everyone assembles their flute.

I've recently changed how I was assembling my flute so that it is more balanced. I was having trouble with the flute being supported by my left hand thumb, so when I moved my thumb the flute became unbalanced.

It took me a couple days to find a position where the body was balanced and the head joint was in a position that gave me less of that airy sound. The thing is that now the keys are aligned to the edge of the lip plate and not the edge of the embouchure hole.

[Kraken]

Salud!

My teacher corrects me many times because I turn the flute too much inwards, so I've started to turn the headjoint a bit outwards from the standard position. I'mhappier now.

[fluteguy18]

It took me a couple days to find a position where the body was balanced and the head joint was in a position that gave me less of that airy sound. The thing is that now the keys are aligned to the edge of the lip plate and not the edge of the embouchure hole.

You either have the headjoint turned too far outward, or you have it too far inward. The weight of a flute is unevenly distributed because of the key mechanism. You have to learn how to hold it properly. You can't just change the alignment to solve the problem. It will only form bad habits.

You have to anchor the flute in three key support places. You should be supporting it with your right thumb, your chin and your left hand [at the knuckle on the base of your index finger]. It should be rock solid, but relaxed. Your right thumb should be holding it up, the left hand should be pushing it back against your chin, and your chin should be pushing it back against your hand.

Your left thumb should not be supporting the flute at all.

Changing your alignment like this may make things easier now, but it will impede progress in the future. At the moment it seems as if you are just trying to achieve a clear sound by turning inward. While trying to achive a clean sound is good, turning the headjoint too far inward will cause intonation problems down the road. Achieving a good tone takes patience and a lot of work.

Anyway. Here is how my flute is assembled: I have the embouchure hole in line with the "C" key/first key [which is very slightly turned in by comparison of the rest of the keys]. My footjoint is angled so that the post of the footjoint mechanism is in the middle of the body joint keys.