I would really like to work on my lower register. I have been playing the flute for 18 years, and I have only had about three sessions with a master flutist. So, I am not on a beginning level. Does anyone know where a good site that may contain articles on improving the lower register?
Thanks!

Saxophone music! A lot of flute music tends to stay above the bar lines, but a good Alto Sax study book can provide lower then norm melodies to practice with. I have Southern`s Melodious and Progessive Studies for Saxophone which is a wonderful study book for low range. There are some low B`s and not many Bb`s. It`s fun to excerise that B key if you`ve got it.

If anyone would like to see any samples of the Southern book shoot me an e-mail and I`ll send out a couple of the exercises that this book has. Fun stuff. Offer only good till end of day tomorrow 8/8/05

Turn on your favorite radio station and play along/improvise in the lower register.

I would suggest you do some long tones. I know it sounds pretty boring but long tones can help tremendously on the projection on low notes and the tone quality. On Amy Porter`s website there`s a page that shows the notes to Samuel Baron`s Low Tone exercises. The link is

http://www.amyporter.com/Content.asp?cid=27&sid=830354087

Hope this helps!

I do not know if this is what you are talking about but, if the sound doesn`t come out as pure? Is that what you mean?

When I play a flute, I some how, make my neck like, move the air through my wind pipe? a different way, and it makes the sound more purer. In other words, tighten my neck up. It helped me, but I`m not sure if it will to you.

I have these tendancies to be able to feel. Yea, I know almost everyone can feel, but I mean, feel the posture, the signifigance of things. I would never be able to become a flute teacher for a beginner because, I have my own ways of doing things and it is harder for me to explain how I make certain gestures, and then, if I do explain it, they do not get one word I say. Lol.

So anyways, I hope that (above the little paragraph) is what you were talking about, or this whole messege would be useless

"tighten my neck up"

I would disagree with this. You don`t want anything to be tight when you play. The thing about low notes is you need to be loose, and not tight. The looser the muscles are in your body the better the sound and projection are. You might have meant to open your throat a little? This would help also and to think about openening the cavities in your throat.

sorry the last sentence should have been to think about opening the cavaties in your mouth instead of throat.

I agree Scott. But people do all manner of body manipulations that they have come to ASSOCIATE with the action that is required.

Perhaps some people have not learnt to open their throat without some other action such as tensing up their neck muscles.

I know one player who claimed to improve her high notes by imagining she was defecating. Of course she was using this image to tighten her abdominal muscles to get more air pressure.

Likewise, a certain top touring masterclass guy rattles on about having to stand exactly right, to play well. He is using leg muscles as props to operating other muscles such as the abdominals. It so happens that many top players can play just as well in orchestras without even standing.

Why do people always answer posts that don`t have a clue what they are talking about? If you don`t know the proper way of something, it is simple, don`t answer!

I am sure after 19 years of playing Reenie isn`t going to take that advice. Come on guys!

If she`s been playing for 19 years and has trouble with her lower register she has been avoiding it for those 19 years. A Saxophone/Oboe "study" book is a wonderful excercise in low range. Flute study books tend to hit the full (more mid-high) range of the flute, but nothing that truly targets the lowest possible range.

Rather than long toning to death a simple lower range study book will help a great deal.

Just practicing low notes isn`t going to help that much. You need to do long tones, no matter how boring they are to see how you need to place your lips, how to open your throat, etc. You can`t do this by simply practicing an exercise with low notes in it. You have to take time and examine the tone and make the corrections to make the sound better.

Think about what you just said.

You`re saying that you can improve your low register just by playing low notes in some piece. No you can`t...you need to do long tones in the lower register to focus on the tone not just on the exercise.

Have you considered that some pieces may actually contain the long notes you suggest, hence achieve the same thing, providing the player`s focus is appropriate?

After all, it is what the player is thinking and doing during those long notes that is important, not the actual playing.

Most pieces aren`t generally all whole notes.