So I've been playing flute for about 12 years now, and I never really had any interest in the piccolo until recently. I like to think I'm a pretty decent flute player. I was first chair all through high school and college. I just recently purchased a picoolo, and I sound horrible! I'm not even sure if I'm playing it correctly. Any tips for a beginning picc player??

Everyone sounds horrible at first. Just keep practicing, and get an ear plug for your right ear. Long tones are very helpful, too.

Even though the flute and piccolo have a lot in common, they really are two very different instruments. It takes time to make the transition from flute to piccolo.

Here's a few things that might help.

1 - The piccolo's embouchure hole is smaller than the flute's. To compensate, you need to place the piccolo higher up on your lower lip than you normally place the flute. With the flute, much of the embouchure plate is below the red part of the lip. For the piccolo, most of it is on the red part of your lip. It will not feel right at first, but give yourself a chance to adapt to the feeling of the plate being higher. This helps to get correct the angle for the air stream.

2 - The opening of the lip must be a lot smaller for the piccolo that for the flute. Remember that the piccolo is an octave higher than the flute. When you are fingering the lowest D on the piccolo, it sounds in the same octave as the middle D of the flute. Think about making your lip opening more like it is when you are playing an octave higher on the flute, but even more so. But don't tighten or pinch the lips to get the higher notes. Keep the lips relaxed but think a smaller opening.

3 - Your air speed must be faster for the piccolo - not harder but faster. This is one of the more difficult concepts to grasp. This month's Flute Talk magazine has a great article "Breath Control on Piccolo" by Cynthia Ellis. In it she writes: " Many novice piccolo players over blow and sound harsh because they move the air on piccolo the same way they move the air on flute. A very helpful exercise is to play soft long tones on piccolo and time them with a goal of sustaining a good sound quality for about 60 seconds." If you run out of air too quickly, it means that you lip opening is too large.

4 - One thing that helped me make the transition from flute to piccolo was to practice playing whistle tones. They are actually much easier on the piccolo than the flute. Blow VERY, VERY gently to get a whistle-type sound. Finger a low D, but think about a pitch that is several octaves higher. You will just barely hear the pitch but once you get control of doing this, you'll find that your piccolo embouchure will be more focused and the normal piccolo pitches will begin to sound better.

Don't expect your piccolo tone to sound as good as your flute overnight. It will take a while to get the feel for it. Just keep at it and before you know it, you'll be able to tackle "The Stars & Stripes Forever" !!!