Hello! I regularly played the flute in band from the 5th grade to my senior year in high school. I also had regular lessons. But, for the past four years, I've only played/practiced once a year for a flute festival.
So I've been fending for myself with irregular practice and my abilities are obviously slipping.
Recently, I haven't been able to get a reliable sound from notes above F in the second octave. My highest and lowest registers are fine. For example, if a piece starts with the middle B flat (just above the bars), 50% of the time, it will come out an octave lower by accident. I feel very unreliable and I can't really tell what the difference is when I succeed.
I've apparently totally forgotten how to fix this, but I also read that it can be a problem with the pads and my flute hasn't been looked at in years.
Help??? D:
New problems in my middle octave
Moderators: Classitar, pied_piper, Phineas
Re: New problems in my middle octave
I'm going to sound like a generic band instructor here, but practice your arpeggios. Start slowly, making sure your get down your tone on each note, and try to get them all to 1/8 notes or faster, without cracking notes. Also, check out http://www.laurenteachesflute.com/, she has a few vidoes on embouchure. Even though you're doing well with high and low notes, you may be changing your lip positions too much to get to each octave, making it hard to focus on the middle octave. I know this because I had that struggle, once.