Slippery Lip

[ncnan]

Hope someone has a tip on how to avoid a lip slipping after playing a long passage of music..seems like my lip perspires and then it is hard to keep the flute in place!
Anyone else with this problem?

[fluteguy18]

I hope this answers your question, because I am not exactly sure what you are asking..... But here it goes.


I have never had that problem. If you are wanting some ways to keep the lipplate from slipping, I do have a suggestion or two.

If your flute (or just the headjoint) is solid silver, you can have it engraved. The grooves increase friction, and thus decrease the "slippery" side effect of perspiration. However, this method is irreversable, and rather expensive (usually upwards of $200 ).

If you don't have a solid silver flute, or just want to go the cheap way of doing this, you have to forget about how the flute looks. You can take a small thin strip of masking tape (I prefer scotch tape because it is clear), and put it on the lip plate where your chin goes. It looks a little tacky, but it does the trick. Then when you need to take it off, you just pull it off, and maybe rub a little nail polish remover over the spot to remove any glue residue (there usually isn't any, so you probably wont need to do this).

I put little strips of scotch tape where I rest my flute on my thumb, my left hand, and the b key. The extra friction helped me release tension in my hands because I used to think my flute would roll out of my hands.

This tip also works if someone will be getting braces. You can build the thickness of the tape to allow you to use the same emouchure after you get braces. However, it doesn't always help with braces.

Hope this helps.

[flutepicc06]

Fluteguy's suggestions are good (personally I would get the lip plate engraved, but it is expensive, and cannot be done if your flute is plated, as he mentioned). You might also take a postage stamp and cut it to sit just below the embouchure hole where your chin rests (without lapping over the edge of the hole or the edge of the embouchure plate). These stamps will increase friction, and are pretty easily removed as well, and do tend to hold up a bit better than the masking tape. Neither the tape nor the stamps should pose any danger to the silver (or silver plate) of your lip plate.

[ncnan]

Thanks for the suggestions..I am soon to purchase a solid silver headjoint and will look into engraving.

[flutepicc06]

If you go that route, you might want to be sure that the person doing it has experience engraving flutes. There are plenty of engravers out there, but you don't want one who is a rookie to flute work to accidentally chip the embouchure hole or something. You should also find out if they do all their engraving by hand, or if they use machines (the highest quality work is all by hand), if that matters to you, as hand work tends to have that extra sparkle that machine engraving just can't replicate. Besides, with hand work, you know the piece on your flute is completely unique and personal (which is another benefit of engraving).

[Zevang]

Guys, I would think about something different.
The fact of a sllipery lip could be a matter of holding wrongly the flute.
Take a look on this to have an idea(it's an old concept, but very helpful):

"The Supporting of the Flute.

712. In order that the flute may be held at all times steadily and firmly, one of the essential conditions for good playing, its support must not be allowed to depend on any parts of the hands which are required to act, either directly or indirectly, on the finger-holes.

It must therefore be pressed against the lower part of the under lip by means of the base of the left hand first finger and the tip of the right hand thumb. The pressure of the finger and the thumb must be nearly horizontal and exactly opposed. The left hand first finger, being placed against the outer side of the flute (at a short distance above the c"# hole, or the touch of its key), will press the upper part of the flute inwards. The tip of the right hand thumb, being placed against the inner side of the flute (almost between the first and second fingers of the right hand), will press the lower part of the flute outwards.

The flute will thus become a lever of the first order [i.e. a lever with the pivot-point in the middle e.g. a see-saw], the left hand first finger being the fulcrum, and the right hand thumb the power. It will be evident that if the right hand thumb were placed under the flute, exercising pressure in an upward direction, depression of the head-joint could only be prevented by the downward pressure of one or more of the right hand fingers, or by the upward pressure of the left hand thumb. Either of these correctives would necessarily violate the primary rule for supporting the flute. The thumb will have no tendency to slip if its pressure be directed exactly
towards the centre of the bore.

The thumb should always be placed to the right of the first finger, otherwise the action of the fourth finger on the open keys of the foot-joint might cause the first finger to act as a fulcrum, and the thumb would thus acquire a tendency to move the head-joint on the lip at the moment when the steadiness of the flute would be of the greatest importance.

713. It will be found convenient to allow the left hand thumb, and perhaps some of the fingers of both hands, to aid in holding the flute previously to its contact with the lip. There can be no possible objection to this temporary use of the thumb and fingers, but during performance the flute must depend for its support entirely on the three points before mentioned. Players on the eight-keyed, or any other flute with the old fingering, may rest the left hand thumb against the flute, being careful that no support shall be thus given to the instrument.

[flutepicc06]

Guys, I would think about something different.
The fact of a sllipery lip could be a matter of holding wrongly the flute.
Take a look on this to have an idea(it's an old concept, but very helpful):

You're quite right Zevang, and thank you for pointing this out. I assumed (and that was my fault) that the way the flute was being held was correct and thus was having no impact on the slipping, and thus that it was entirely a matter of perspiration or other condensation forming between the lip and the lip plate. You are quite right thatNc it could be a problem holding the instrument (which was not something I had considered in this instance). Ncnan, I would strongly suggest taking a look at the way you are holding the flute (hopefully with the help of a good teacher) before shelling out the money for engraving, or sticking things on the lip plate. Should you find that the problem does not lie there, then our other suggestions could be quite useful.

[ncnan]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
My problem lies in the fact that my lip perspires after being held in playing position for long passages of music.
I think my stance is proper but that does not control my lip sweating!
The part of my lip that gets slippery is actually just UNDER the bottom lip where my chin is and where the mouthpiece goes.
Hope this description is more clear.

[flutepicc06]

It is indeed more clear, and it seems that I did understand the problem correctly after all. You might give the cheaper and easier options a go first, and see if they work for you. If so, you might avoid shelling out for engraving.

[Beemorriscats]

Ncan - the same thing happens to me, especially during marching band . I just wipe my lip (actually that part right under it that you specified) and continue. Its a major pain in the butt.

[flutytooty91]

I too had this problem except it happend most during marching band. I went to a pharmacy and bought clear, odorless roll on deodorent. It seemed to help and would be cheaper than getting the flute engraved.

[flutepicc06]

I too had this problem except it happend most during marching band. I went to a pharmacy and bought clear, odorless roll on deodorent. It seemed to help and would be cheaper than getting the flute engraved.

You'd want to be careful with that, if you choose to go the deodorant route. Your facial skin may have a different reaction to the chemicals that make up the deodorant than the rest of your body. It would be a shame to cause a rash on your chin just because of a slippery lip. If engraving is out of the realm of possibility, or just isn't appealing, I would suggest applying a postage stamp to the lip plate where your chin contacts it, being sure not to let it lap over the edge of the embouchure hole. This is both cheap and easily reversible, and poses no danger to the silver or gold of the lip plate, or your skin (unless you have a known allergy to the adhesives that stamps use. You might also use masking tape, though this will need to be replaced more often than a postage stamp.

[MonikaFL]

I use a 1-cent postage stamp (the old-fashioned kind you lick - it seems to last longest) cut it half... I just need a little bit of grip, not the whole plate! And like flutepicc06 mentioned, you don't want it to be too close to the edge. I have problems with slippage whenever I'm playing somewhere and it's hot and humid (hence the sweat)... and here in Florida, that is a LOT of the time. LOL The 1-cent stamps are probably the cheapest way to go. Of course, you could have fun choosing from all the fun stamp series out there too... just don't use any of grandpa's collectible stamps!

[Piccolo/Flute_Player]

I have this problem, but I only wipe my chin and move on with the piece.

[tarzaflute]

Hi. I know exactly what you are going through because I have exactly the same problem. It's terrible! I'm at uni studying flute performance and it is an absolute nightmare, and I have tried everything. I got my lip plate engraved, have tried every tape known to man - shiny sticky tape, matte finish sticky tape, masking tape, elastoplast (works best for me but can irrate, needs to be worn down a bit I've found - and also affected my tone a bit). I've tried to non-scented anti persperant deodorant. One I haven't seen in any other replies is bow rosin (my teacher thought this might work but I didn't get too much success). I can't just play my flute with the engraved lip plate without it slipping and I paid a lot to get it hand engraved - however it still looks absolutely amazing! I'm now going to look into how diet can affect this cause as someone who plans on playing flute for the rest of my life and can't get through very much at all without having to wipe checking out every avenue is necessary! Hope anything I have mentioned above might be useful for you!