i think my tone is absolutely awful and i was wondering if anyone knew any tone excersices i can do, as i don't want to buy a book on it just now

Well first, you have to ask other people about your tone. To most people, when you are playing you will hear air. But the audiance wont. But if they do hear air, practice long tones. Also try to experiment with embouchure. It took me a good week of researching and practing to find "that" embouchure.

A lot of tone problems come from two things, IME.

1:Improper breathing. It's exactly like singing or martial arts. You want to generate your energy down low and let it flow out. You should feel your chest slightly vibrating from the energy.

2:A lot of players don't press their lips tightly enough to the lip plate or position it exactly right. Experiment a bit. You'll find one position, most likely, where it suddenly sounds much better. The trick then, is to keep things as close to that position as possible. Of course, every headjoint is different, so it can take a while to get the most out of one.

thanks for the help, i have tryied changing positions and a couple work, but i am going to keep experimenting untill i get one that sounds good

Tone exercises?

Try this,
1)breathe in
2)Close lips
3)blow without your tongue. Like saying PooH. but just the beginning of it.
Blow the note quietly.
Start on low F and go up chromatically to your highest notes. Play each pitch for 4 quarters and one half note. Concentateand focus.
Then try doing octave slurs:
F1 F2 F1
F#1F#2F#1
G1G2G1 etc.
Keep them in tune.

The problem with talking about tone in writing is that it really helps loads to hear examples of the problems from the student and the the right way from the teacher.

i do have lessons but we are working on my rhythm right now so i can do my sight reading in my grade exam in june, but i was wondering if there was anything i could do to improve my tone

Leigh,
First, all good flute players work on their tone daily. It is something that a good teacher helps them develop gradually. Very flutists start with a mature sound and some have more troubles getting there than others based upon either their perceptions or their facial structure.

Use a mirror so that you can view your embouchure while playing. Controlling the hole between your lips is very important to your sound and your air stream.

The teeth should be apart somewhat. (Think of an egg in your mouth) This is so that you aren't blowing through your teeth. This causes turbulence.

Think that this hole between your lips should be either a small rectangle as in the shape of a half rest or a whole rest as a goal. You can also think in terms of a small round hole but the point is that you should ultimately be able to control the height and the width of the opening with the muscles immediately around the opening.

Some issues to observe:
1) If the height of the airstream is too narrow, the sound will generally be thin and wispy.

2) I personally have not got to the point where my width is too narrow without having a narrow height.

3)If the muscles around the lips are not being exercised or if there is some sort of problem with the shape of the lips, the airstream may be not well formed. This may include creases in the lips which can cause more than one air stream. These issues result in fuzzy tone or a multiphonics situation (More than one sound at a time). Very often you can overcome these things with careful practice.

With this in mind, please try the suggestions that I made in a previous post above. I do it with my students rather often when they come on for lessons and it works for me as well as for them.

you need a good model for a good tone. Listen to great recordings of great players and don't ever use your friends in school for this model sound. As your tone improves, work on every piece and every note that you play for this tone. If it misses in practice, work the sections until it is reliable.