Tone

[remnantpark]

For some reason, I'm not very consistent when it comes to tone.

When I play in front of (no offense, not trying to be immature) my evil band teacher, my tone always become thin and diffused.

When I play at lessons, my tone actually sounds better than practice.

When I have just a teeny perfectionist thinking, my tone becomes sounds slightly forced.

When I first play on the flute, my tone sounds not focused but everything evens out after playing tone exercises...

Is there are reason why my tone never stays at one level? (sorry for all those spaces)

[flutepicc06]

Well, at least part of it sounds psychological. You need to figure out why you sound different in lessons and while playing for your B.D. and then learn to undo whatever thinking is causing that. You mention doing tone exercises, but how often do you do them? Just when you feel your tone slipping away, or all the time? They have the greatest effect if you play them daily (or a couple of times a day), so you might need to start focusing part of your practice time exclusively on tone if you're not already. It may also be the different acoustics in the various rooms in which you're performing. Try recording yourself in these different settings and see if you still notice a difference.

[arion]

Agreed...on the acoustics piece, I know that my tone got worse whenever I played on our stage (until I started working on the stage because I realized that performances are, unfortunately, not held in tiny practice rooms where your sound reverbrates back to you so quickly.) Just something to look into, if you can perhaps practice in your band room (actually, that might help psychologically too, if you can be in the same environment as you are when you play with your band teacher).

Just random thoughts...

[~Stormy~]

Yep its all in your head.... Don't scare yourself.... Once you get over that your tone will be great!