My band teacher said that I only tongue right half the time (though whenever I go to competition the judges say my articulation is great!) She says that I use my lips. I do trust my teacher since she used to play flute professionally. I think that I need to get better at it over the summer though. Do any of you have some advice on what to practice/how to get better at tonguing? And does a "tear drop lip" (her words not mine!) affect tonguing?? THANKS!

Wow - as the least experienced, worst flute player on this site, I hate to presume any competence in any area, but since this has been on my mind much of late, I figured I'd offer my half cent of advice. Just bear in mind that if anybody else jumps in and contradicts me, they're right, and I'm wrong.
The tear drop lip doesn't really affect tongueing, it affects embouchure. It's the extra bit of lip that hangs down in the middle of your upper lip, which you'll notice that most flautists do not have. It makes it a bit more challenging to direct the airflow, and many flute teachers don't seem to have much experience with working with this feature in their students. (I have one, as you may guess.) At least one professional flautist has one and claims it helps him direct the air downward, so all is not lost if you have this extra body part. But it does make life more challenging.
To tongue correctly, make sure your tongue is hitting the right part of your mouth. Make an aspirated "T" sound (prounce the word "tooth"). Make sure the tip of the tongue makes a connection with the roof of your mouth, right where your upper teeth connect to the fleshy part of your mouth. Most people do this naturally - some mutants (such as myself!) invented completely new ways of pronouncing "T" and had to relearn for the flute.
When you practice an articulation exercise, make sure you can feel the tip of your tongue connecting with that spot each time. Start slowly, and then gradually speed up how quickly you can articulate multiple notes, making sure your tongue doesn't get lazy or sloppy along the way. You may wish to pick up Trevor Wye's articulation book for some good exercises (or just get the Omnibus to save money if you're eventually going to go through all of them).
I'll sometimes just go "T-T-T-T-T-T-T" as I'm walking along to practice the feel, making sure my tongue hits correctly each time.

Hope this is useful.
Watcher

From Jennifer Cluff's site -- more than you ever thought you knew about tonguing on the flute!

http://www.jennifercluff.com/articu1.htm#clear

Haha :-) Watcher, you make me laugh.

Anyhoos, Jermis, I have a friend who has been playing the flute since her eyes were at her knee level and she has the "Tear Drop" lip and she said to get a good embouchure she angles the 'tear drop' sideways to make way for the air flow. She plays beautifully I wish I was as good as her, like Watcher, I'm in the bottom 2 were flute players are concerned as well. :-)

I think once you can master how to position your lips there'll be no stopping you.

As to the tongueing problem, I've been thinking the same thing of late too...I think my tongueing is too pronounced (strong) It's a bit hard to explain, but it separates the notes too much and causes the music to not flow silky and smooth, if you get my drift!I would surely like to get some tips on that too myself so please share whatever tips you get :-)

Good luck!

Ahhhh, you have that good ol' bad articulation habit...Don't worry about it. Your teacher is correct, don't use your lips to "tongue." Many times you THINK you are not doing it, but you are...it is just a bad mindless habit. The thing is that you ARE tonguing but as you tongue, you are also closing and reopening your lips...This makes your articulation very muddled and your embochure unclear...Why? Because you keep stopping the airflow and redoing the embochure. As you keep reforming your embochure, the tone gets fuzzier and fuzzier and hence, articulation is unclear. Look at yourself play in the mirror, play something involving lots of stacatto/articulation at the same time...You will seee your lips move very subtly! So how do you fix this habit? START WITH THE BASICS. Just saying "oh, I'll just keep in this mind" WILL NOT WORK. Play very very very very slowly and all SLURRED. See how when you slur you don't close and reopen your lips? When you slur, your body is saying that to connect all the notes, you must keep your airflow moving at ALL TIMES in between notes. THIS IS THE MINDSET/BASIC START to excellent articulation. Just because the notes are not connected anymore and you are tonguing does not mean you have to stop and restart airflow. Keep the air pushing from your diaphragm at all times, the notes disconnect FROM THE DIAPHGRAM (like a big ho ho or ha ha from santa claus) NOT FROM THE TONGUE/LIPS. So after you slur, play the notes still very slowly but tongued, controlling the airflow from the diaphgram but not through your lips (lips should NEVER stop the air...this is a big mistake), and make sure your lips DO NOT MOVE (and you will never get this from the first try btw)...Then bump up the speed little by little. Whoever mentioned Trevor Wye articulation book...yes. GET IT.

Thanks! I'm going to work on it. I hope that I'll be much better at it by September!