So Kate and Bilbo have both told me over and over ROLL OUT!! So last night, I was practicing my etudes, and I kept reminding myself to roll out...
And...when I did...the sound seem to weaken to me. It just wasn't as pure. It got AIRY.
Am I rolling too much!!
Help!!

Maybe you're rolling too much.
But you must keep in mind that any change take time to be accomplished.


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It's just like if you were learning from the very beginning. The flute is easily turned out, but the lips must be taught the new position.

you need to clarify what roll out means. perhaps they meant line up the embouchure hole slightly outward, don't roll when you play, you will get a terrible tone, never roll the flute while playing

Yeah, you're right Patrick. They meant for me to NOT cover up too much of the hole.

Yes, she is covering up too much of the hole making the sound thin and then it tends to go on the flat side, especially in the lower register. Brandy, I am sure you were doing this because you wanted that clearer sound. To achieve the more pure sound as you would like, it is going to take some adjusting and patience. It will sound bad in the beginning, but don't give up. Start trying to work with lips and experiment in how you are blowing into the flute making sure you are not using the smiley type of embouchure. You don't want to have to tighten up the muscles in your lips too much, but I do feel that you would benefit from working with the muscles in your lips and also making sure your throat is open enough. You don't want your throat to me tense. Try imagining a larger round size of bubble gum in the back of your throat. You also will want to make sure that you are putting enough space between your top and bottom teeth when playing.

If you really want to work on sound and flexibility, then you should start working on long tones. I was going to copy some exercises for you since I know you no longer have your books, but I ran out of ink.

Okay.. I am done harping on you for today Brandy poo. lol!!

PS. Have you found out anything about Thanksgiving yet? Call me and let me know.

I'll try that. I'm gonna work on some of the long tones that are in that book you let me use.
I know for sure that my future mother-in-law is not doing anything. I still need to talk to my mom about getting my car fixed...
I'm gonna work on those long tones tonight, and I just might call you, so you can listen in!!

I definitely second the suggestion that you give it a bit more time before deciding whether playing with the hole uncovered more works for you. Zevang's quite right...Your embouchure will need time to adapt to the new position of the embouchure hole in relation to the aperture. In the long run, you'll probably notice a positive change.

Also to add,
think of the airstream as an expanding cone. If you have a shorter and wider cone and you roll forwards or lighten up on the pressure against the bottom lip, the tone and airstream will become more diffuse.

When working on long tones, they will say to relax the lips. I think that this suggestion is from a person who exercises on long tones daily like Moyse did. At some point tension can develop to a very high level. LIke shaking lips or jaw, TMJ disorder and things like that....Inversely, if you relax too much, then the sound gets bad or totally fails. So I think that a smaller airstream cone, like a thin ribbon of linguini from the lips will produce a fair sound. Aiming that airstream becomes less easy soo we practice, experiment and refine.

Then too the angle of the airstream hitting the far edge affects the tuning. If you roll out too far or have a high lip plate, then you can't go any farther if you need to for playing piano. This does not give you much dynamic/tuning capability. FOr a "fun time", try your dynamics with a tuner sometime for a real revelvation as to what goes on when you try to change from piano to forte.

Long tones are our way of trimming the tone until it sounds better. We need to do this regularly to improve and to develop control.
BTW: It takes a lot of listening.
I think that what it boils down to is to work for a beautiful tone that rings with (as I think John Wion put it) a 'spinning vibrato'. You'll know when you hear it.

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As for the amount of practice and time spent.... I hope that someday I will have a beautiful and attractive sound if I am dilligent at the long tones.

I acctually heard that rolling out/ in while playing is bad, but i heard that you can move your jaw, but just barely and you can have the same tone, but still get your note in tune... I have tried it and i like it.

Please go back and read all the way through the thread. In Brandy's case she was covering up too much of the hole when playing and needed to roll off the lip plate and not cover up the whole as much. It helps if you read through the thread first. Just a thought..

Oops.. I mean hole, not whole.

One of a set of common issues is to cover up the hole too much.
This can be caused by holding the flute too tightly against the chin area which may be caused in turn by a hand position that causes a tight grip. One other symptom of this is that the left index hurts because it is pressing against the tube. This could also cause a situation where the bottom lip is behind the top one -Kind of like an overbite but actually the lips are the important point here. If the top lip is not aligned with the bottom one, then the hole in the lips may be huege, uncontrolled and when the player does slurred leaps such as simple octaves, the tuning or tone will be missed.

At Sir James' forum there is a discussin about vibrato. I'm not inclined to get into that here but I can say that if you have your lips right, you can learn to play octaves at the speed of a vibrato and the tuning (generally) won't be off from the lower note to the higher octave. That is, if things are right in the embouchure.

Your tone should be one of a set of things that should be a constant concern while playing. If not, others won't be very concerned with hearing you. Cultivate an attractive tone.

drop your jaw. imagine "opening up" your throat