Hi there guys, I recently recieved my first beginer flute having never played woodwind before and was very keane to learn.
I looked up alot of lessons before actually recieving my flute and looked into the instrument quite alot.
However when starting to practise I can't make a sound atall, I'm using the headjoint? to start as all the lessons say so fingering is not an issue. I'm even trying alot of different methods that they say, and I appear now to have all of there advice in mind when trying including the placement of the flute but nothing is helping.
I just hear the metalic airy noise you would expect with abit of whistling now and then (I can't whistle so it's definately from the flute)


Any words of advice people?

Please let me start by saying that the flute is not an easy instrument to start out on. I had this problem as well the first two weeks I was learning to play and it was so hard and frustrating I almost quit. Then my instructor get me through this and it was all up hill after that.

It is so so so very important that you start by using absolute proper techniques and don't pick up any "bad habits" as these are difficult to break later on (trust me on this one). You will thank yourself for this down the road.

I would HIGHLY suggest you get an instructor. If you can get through the basics with an instructor (learning how to make a sound, correct fingerings etc. this will get you on the path to success and then you can move to studying out of books for a while maybe. However, I will say that I had a private instructor for years outside of my band/orchestra groups and I was always learning something new.

Each person is unique, each flute is unique so honestly, there is no quick and easy answer on how to fix this or what you might be doing wrong. I hate to say this but your best option is a private teacher who can observe you.

With all that being said, my instructor had me start out by taking the head joint off my flute and simply blowing into it. There was a lot of rolling the head joint toward you, rolling it away from you to get the feel of where the "sweet spot" is where tone is produced, but bad habits can easily be started just in this first basic step.

The problem you face is normal and common. In fact getting sound from the instrument is the fist step of many you will have to accomplish.

Do the following:
- take the headjoint (J) out (the part with the blowing hole).
- Hold it with your left hand and and blow into the blowing hole (with the HJ separated from the flute body) as you would blow on a bottle to make it sing. Try different positions of your lips but the idea is to produce a jet of air focused on the hole (or most precisely on the facing edge of the hole, but this will come later as you adjust to get the best sound.

- Once you have it, close the open end of the HJ with your right hand palm. The sound will increase in pitch,

Play with this for a few minutes

Once you can produce sound reliably, insert the HJ fully on the flute body and repeat your blowing until you get sound. For this, some notes are much easier than others, I recommend you close all the keys of the left hand and leave those of the right hand open. You should produce a G in that position.
Now if you cannot afford a teacher you need at least a book with the basics of the instrument. But the first step is of course to be able to produce the sound.

End lesson one...