Hey. I would consider myself a pretty good flautist, I started playing the fife when I was seven and the flute when I was eight. I am now fourteen and am grade seven standard. However about a month ago I got traintrack braces, I had ignored everyones warnings of how it would effect my playing because I had a retainer before then and I was able to play just fine (looking back I realise that I took the retainer out to play so it was rather stupid of me to judge it on that). Since getting my braces on I have really struggled with playing. It took me a while to even get a note out and now my sound is airy, and, to be honest, rather pathetic. I also cannot even manage to reach a high C (two octaves above middle C) and I can usually reach the D an octave higher than that. I was wondering if anyone had any tips or advice on what to do because being unable to play is really getting me down. I was told by my teacher to pretend I was starting again but it has been so long since I started that playing is instinctual, I don't actually know how I play if you understand what I mean. But I would really appreciate any comments anybody had. Thank you xxx

Okay.

The best thing to do when you get braces is pull out the lovely beginning music books and just do long tones, half notes, quarter notes, whole notes ... these help to readjust the embouchure. Do that for awhile until you feel comfortable.

For the two years that I had braces my tone suffered. It was airy but, I was able to build up my range. I just couldn't practice nearly as long as I can now because my mouth would just hurt after awhile. It was probably easier for me to play with braces though since that's was what I started playing with, and I wasn't use to good clear tone. So I didn't know how much the braces effected my playing till AFTER I got them off. And then I was like "wow!". One of my friends has braces though... and she still sounds good. Not as strong but still good. I hope you'll be able to get used to them.