I posted before about being a woodwind doubler trying to learn flute. My question is, the piccolo players in my high school band are SO AIRY. Whenever they play i can just HEAR the air RUSHING out of the instrument it sounds horrible. Even our first chair player who is a region band flute! Is this from lack of piccolo practice? The instruments they play on are yamaha ypc-32`s which are very dependaple little instruments, so i dont think that is the problem. So im just curious! O and this gives me a chance to adress a problem I have. I dont play flute yet, but when i form the embouchere, i notice that my teeth are fairly close together (if i raise the top lip SLIGHTLY my teeth will show) Ive heard of TURBULENCE before of the teeth so i know this isnt good. Any way to fix this!

Some people do play with their teeth quite wide apart. That suits them, and they have become used to the reduced lip support form the teeth. there has just been chat on this topic in flutenet at Yahoo.

However there will be no problem with turbulence from teeth, even with them quite close together, as long as the lips cover the whole of the outside face of your teeth, i.e. the area of the teeth facing toward the lips.

I suspect the piccolo players are so airy because they have not had flute/piccolo lessons, &/or their teacher knew very little about flute playing - perhaps a band leader who never even played flute, &/or they do not practise.

You could hardly blame that model of piccolo.

I once had the role of auditioning kids for an inter-school orchestra - about 100 of them. There were two major teachers - call them A and B - teaching in schools and privately in my city at that time, and some of their mature students were also teaching. `A` was an accomplished flute player, and `B` was a semi-accomplished clarinet player. They both taught flute. By the time an auditionee had played for 5 seconds I knew for certain from his/her fuzziness or lack of it whether he/she was taught by `A` (or his mature students), or by `B` (or his mature students).

So your teeth being close together wont affect your sound (fuzzy)?

Usually you need to use less air for the piccolo since it`s a smaller instrument. You need to use a smaller embouchure and fast air but you need to use less air than on the flute. This is probably why they are so airy.

My teeth are about 6 mm apart and my sound is clear.

Experiment: Put your teeth closer and closer together while playing. Assuming you have a clear sound to start with, suddenly the teeth will introduce turbulence and destroy the clarity of your tone.

Probably, having lips well apart will have an influence on the wave-form of the pitch changes inherent in vibrato. This is because the fluctuating air pressure behind the lips will move the lips slightly during the vibrato if the lips are not supported at all by teeth.

IMO.

picc playing requires practice and the guidance of a competent teacher

you must focus, focus, focus

it is just the way they are build. all piccolos sound airyier then the flute. silver ones dont as much.

I`d say that SOME players on piccolo always sound airy. Good players don`t. And they do not need a silver piccolo to not sound airy!!! Most of them prefer to play on a timber piccolo anyway.

Piccolo queen, may I ask just how much experience you have in the areas you write `knowledgably` about? What you are saying could be very misleading to readers who do not realise that your expertise is really quite limited.

Mine is too, on the grand scale of things, in all but a few specific areas, but at least I know my limits!

I agree Arak! Even though I played piccolo for many years in school, there is no way I`d feel qualified enough to give some of this advice.

Piccoloqueen, please be sure that people know your level of experience before you tell them absolutes in advice. It is always nice to have OPINIONS from many people, but please be careful about presenting yourself as an expert.

i never said i was an expert i just no my stuff. sorry if you dont agree

Perhaps you just THINK you know your stuff?

I have a customer who is a professional piccolo player. She plays on a wooden piccolo, and when she tests it after I have serviced it, she NEVER plays with an airy sound, even when playing amazingly softly in the third octave.

Examples such as this demonstrate that you do actually do not know your stuff.

Single examples can never prove a blanket statement, but a SINGLE example can DISPROVE a blanket statement.

Your statements seem to be based on doubtful information that you have been told or on very limited experience. More experience will provide you with the examples which show your blanket statements to be false.

Get a grip Arak. It is so obvious to everyone that he has no clue what he is talking about, so just chill....

PS. I think that wood piccolos have an airier sound then silver too.

It`s that famous "woody sound."

How old are you piccolo_queen?? (and/or) How long have you been playing?? because i agree with a lot of this stuff said, and, no offense, but you sound like just a beginner that shouldn`t really be giving advise anyways.