a good tone

flutegirl49 · Post by **flutegirl49** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 11:44 pm

I have been playing flute for over 8 years now.. Seriously playing flute for a little over 3 years however.

I was wondering if any of you serious flute players have trouble with a constant good tone..

I have mentioned this before.. but my tone is always changing.. Sometimes I stop playing for 2 minutes and pick my flute up again, my tone turns miraculously sweet and clear... sometimes i practice my tone for a few minutes.. and my tone becomes good.

However sometimes no matter HOW much I practice long tones my tone does not get that pretty sweet tone..

and this affects my tone.. without that clear pretty tone my notes do not come out as well and i cannot play my best.

I HAVE practiced long tones ever since I realized my problem and it HAS helped because now I rarely get that blurry, bad tone..

However, I have doubts that I will be that flute player with that pretty, and sweet tone whenever she picks up her flute. I know a girl in my flute section that plays like that.. Her tone NEVER changes.

SO I was wondering if anyone else is in my situation. It's kind of frustrating b/c I really want to have a good tone. Am I thinking the wrong thing? Do flutists actually practice a LOTTTT to achieve that beautiful tone which doesnt change? Because I admit I do not practice daily.. but sometimes when I practice I can practice up to 2 hrs.. but those times are maybe once every 2 weeks...or eveyr month?

please let me know what you think.. If someone who is an advanced player tells me that all I have to do is PRACTICE a LOTTT to get that beautiful tone.. omg i would pick up my flute and keep trying an trying and trying.. but i DOUBT thats the case.. i think some people just effortlessly (well almost) after playing flute a few years can achieve that beautiful tone..

please help![/u][/i]

MeLizzard · Post by **MeLizzard** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 11:24 am

Ok, calm down

Without hearing you play it's hard to define the actual problem. You say you don't practice daily? The physical responses involved in playing an instrument are similar to the ones we need to master when playing a sport. Without consistent reinforcement, our muscles can't fully absorb and reliably reproduce the "correct" (slightly different for each of us) motions. I can always tell when my students haven't been practicing regularly--tone is the first thing to go

. Even if they only have been playing in band class each day, or only have a few minutes each day to play some tone or scale exercises, the tone will sound better than if they log one marathon practice session of two-three hours once per week. So this means, occasionally, a super-busy student will have a pretty-good tone, but not know the notes of their new solo for the week.

Have you tried practicing maybe 15-20 minutes of just long tones or scale studies each day, even as a break between your other activities? It's a great, um, palate cleanser, for example, between your math homework and your history paper (or taking out the trash, lol!). Don't forget to listen to recordings of great players, too. Good luck, let us know what happens!

ick27 · Post by **ick27** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 6:18 pm

I agree with MeLizzard's suggestions. If you want to play consistantly, you have to practice frequently. Not necessarily a lot, but regularly. Even if you only have 15 or 20 minutes on some days, it will really be worth it to practice every day. The point of practicing is to change how you play (for the better hopefully,) so you must try to do things differently when practicing. It can be good to have a goal sound in mind when working on tone (from a teacher or reccording.)

flutegirl49 · Post by **flutegirl49** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:46 pm

i've found out the problem.. it was mostly my embouchure.. i was concentrating too much on a certain time of pretty sound i wanted to have but my embouchure was just.. not right lol.. hard to explain but i think hopefully, i ahve solved my problem! thanks!