I`ve been playing flute for almost 4 years and I wanted to try and play piccolo. I taught myself the flute, but I sometimes play for my band director (and help beginner flutes) to get help and mooch sheet music off of him x) I`m not an expert player or say I am, but I`m pretty good.
Anyway, I was wondering is it hard to switch from flute to piccolo? How hard is it to get the embouchure? And what`s a good brand of piccolo? I`m not looking for a proffesional piccolo, just one to play for fun and church.

I switched to piccolo about 5 months ago and I found it quite the endeavour... the embouchure is different, tighter and smaller... I made alot of mistakes at first but it`s getting better, the lip plate is higher up on your lip and in my case i had a wooden pic so i had to make sure i was rolled in because there was no lip plate. I luv my yamaha pic, i`d have to drag it out to find out what type it is and i can do so at your request. My friend has a gemeindhart but i them and i suggest you stay away lol. I did alot of scales to work on my high register and practiced all my flute music to get used to it. I`m not an expert so anyone who is willing to suggest anything else go ahead! im just telling u from my experience wut works. good luck and have fun!

Thanks I would like to know the model of your Yamaha, if you don`t mind.

Does anybody think a Venus brand would be good? I found one, but I`m not familar with the brand.

http://www.8notes.com/f/25_144038.asp

Read this post.

I play both flute and piccolo.

I borrowed the school`s piccolo.

It was hard for me ONLY because the piccolo I borrowed, it turned out it was broken!!

I suggest you get a plastic piccolo with a metal head. Most metal piccolos are very shrill, and since you are a beginner you do not need a wood piccolo as they can be quite expensive. At least stay with heard of brands such as Armstrong, Gemeinhardt, Emerson, etc. Yamahas can be quite expensive and many do not like them for tuning problems.

"Yamahas can be quite expensive and many do not like them for tuning problems."

Here! Here!

Thanks for the help

If your tone sounds airy to you, I would advise recording yourself play, then listening to it before sinking into a state of depression . When I play my piccolo, I sound extremely airy, but when my band teacher recorded us playing, it sounded fine.

I am a flute and piccolo major at university. I find it greatly helps if you dont try and "lift" all your flute skills and try to use them on picc. They should be more of a base and try to just apply what you have learnt on flute to picc, after all it is an entirely different instrument and should not be tarred with the same brush as flute, Although it may seem similar. an example of this can be shown by my university provides piccolo as a differnt study to flute, as it is only related and is not a shrunken version of the flute. if you would lke any help, email me and i will be more than happy to send you some aid.

<<I am a flute and piccolo major at university.>>>

think we all know that by now after you repeatedly say it in every post. I don`t think that makes you a specialist in the flute area.

well seeing as I start my Phd i.e doctorate in flute performance technique and history in september im alot more qualified than many others and thought other players would benefit from what I would consider specialist knowledge. If you can prove me wrong on anything by all means contact me.