hello, I really need help with my embouchure!
I started playing flute in the 5th grade. Played for a few years and still hadn't even heard the word embouchure come out of my music teachers mouth.
Thus this post.

I recently had a few extra bucks and went to a private teacher.
She told me that I have a flat embouchure. Meaning that instead of having a hole "0" that I have a slit "-". And that I hold the flute wrong. that it's rolled away from my body.

Any advice on how to fix my embouchure, practice tips, books, videos, etc. are much appreciated!
LilLaree

PS I play a VERY OLD Armstrong student flute. It has to be at least 40yrs. old. I had it re-padded about 8yrs ago and have not played it much sense then.
I REALLY want to pick it back up again!

She told me that I have a flat embouchure. Meaning that instead of having a hole "0" that I have a slit "-". And that I hold the flute wrong. that it's rolled away from my body.

In fact, if you observe the shape of the embouchure hole, you will note that the "-" shape it's exactly what is needed to match with it. The only worry you must keep is that your embouchure is not tense at the sides (not smiley). A good start is watching Sir James video on youtube regarding this matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcXRzZZv1mE
A relaxed embouchure is what you really want.

Any advice on how to fix my embouchure, practice tips, books, videos, etc. are much appreciated!

Trevor Wye's books seem to be very well suited to your needs.

About your flute, it's mandatory you send it to a good technician for a complete revision. Flutes are just like cars, if you just let them stored, they get ruined the same way, just a matter of time, just not so fast as if you were using them.

I was lucky to have a private teacher from the very beginning. We worked on the embouchure for a while, but after some time she let me adapt freely it to my own style and to the headjoint I used at every stage of my learning (I changed HJ three times so far). And this worked!

My personal experience is that the embouchure issue is very personal and you can and must study and correct things if there is a problem. Otherwise, IMO one should develop your own embouchure with time and lots of practise. I would dare say that a good embouchure for one good player (professional or teacher) will not necessarily work fine for other player.

In other words, unless you have problems in your tone quality, tuning, projection and similar, just develop your own embouchure, the one you will feel and hear is the best for the headjoint you use.

Zevang, Thank you for the link. I found it very helpful.
It's funny that you use a car analogy, because my business is detailing cars.

I will also look up the book you suggested.

regards, LilLaree

jose_luis, I am having problems with tone and projection.
I do believe that every player is different though, just like our finger prints

I have only owned one flute/head joint. I don't know what different head joints offer.
Does it matter the metal, the size of the embouchure hole? Are they different shapes?
I would appreciate a general crash course on this subject.

Thanks, LilLaree

"I have only owned one flute/head joint. I don't know what different head joints offer.
Does it matter the metal, the size of the embouchure hole? Are they different shapes?
I would appreciate a general crash course on this subject."

Hi LilLaree,

I own many flutes and many headjoints
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad112/pyrioni15/headjoints.jpg
and I even own crystal glass flute, wooden and bamboo headjoints
http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad112/pyrioni15/DSC01971.jpg

and my uncle is a local flute/sax repair tech, he let me try on many flutes and headjoints after repair, including Lafin and Salitorie(?) from Paris. There are too many old and new brands I forgot many names sorry.

I am still a student like you. so what I say below is based on my limited understanding and experience only (my own opinions only):

- Player is the number one factor of the sound, bear that in mind. You can change any sound you want on any flute (with your embouchure, method of playing, different force, air, oral chamber, resonance, etc), that's the beauty of the flute playing.

- There are materials difference - not very significant, but as a player you can hear the tiny difference between materials. Audience may not be able to hear the difference, because after few meters away in any hall, your sound is changed and rounded and they are all the same. But you yourself can hear the tiny difference between materials, especially the wood and bamboo and glass, and gold are different.

Plated flute has brighter sound, silver is mellow, gold has deep sound with depth, glass is crispy and shallow, wood has chamber or space sound and sometimes sounds like wood, bamboo sound is too thin and crispy, ceramic-metal sound is too crispy. But as said, your audience may not be able to hear the difference, because the material vibration on flute is tiny, and the hall will round up the sound.

- Then there is difference in cuttings of the Embouchure Hole of the headjoints: traditional French cut EH was a small hole and perfectly round, the sound is very sweet but the sound level is very low. Then orchestra requires more bigger sound, so gradually the hole is cut larger, and becoming oval hole, but still sweet - because the air-stream is concentrated at one point, typical Japanese headjoints are mostly oval. Then the American conductors wanted even more sound and more projection, and they even liked/wanted to borrow upper partial overtones to project out, so American flute manufacturers opened the Embouchure Hole even bigger, like square or rectangle-shape cutting. And they even cut more and more from both overcut and undercut. Yeah, sound is bigger now, more projection, more upper partial overtones, much louder now, but they lose the sweetness of the tone as the square shaped cutting is harder for players to concentrate and focus their air-stream into one small point, less pure, their air-stream trend to go into a flat plain direction, therefore creating more overtones!

- Then there is Low Riser headjoint and High Riser headjoint. as said before, players can create any sound they want with their embouchures and oral chamber etc.. but Risers can make things easier for players (like cheating). High riser is easier! Low riser is harder. But high riser has many limits on variations, low riser has NO limits, but makes players difficult to make changes, players have to do more work with their embouchures and force to make changes in tone and color and everything.

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- oh, there is thickness of the wall.

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- uh.. also there is the difference in lip-plate shape and drop-off plate/wing shape. steep drop-off shape makes the air-stream easier to leave, therefore less resistance, makes the sound clearer and change faster, respond faster, but it makes the intonation harder to control! Also harder to control the much smaller details in sound/colour changes.

<Added>

Don't worry too much, just stick with your student flute, and learn to make changes with your own embouchure, force, air and oral cavity etc! Then you will learn much more.

"I prefer a simple tube without a built-in tone...then I can put into it what I want" (Marcel Moyse - greatest master and forefather of modern flute)

"I like flutes with simple cut, because our orchestra requires me to make lots of changes in tone and colour, only a simple cut headjoint can do that for me!" - Emmanuel Pahud said this to us in a masterclass. Pahud is the principal flautist and soloist of Berlin Phil!

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to me, I found Yamaha 2xx, 3xx, 4xx student flutes have the most basic french traditional cut, the CY cut headjoint, with normal basic lip-plate, oval shape E-hole, and almost everything very normal and basic. You can train yourself well with Yamaha. Pahud demostrated to us that you can make great tone with Yamaha student flutes with stock CY french cut headjoint! If you can make great tone with the Yamaha student flute (instead of original Yamaha dull tone and slow response), then you are a good player. That's why I played Yamaha 211 everyday for 5 years despite my teachers kept asking me to change to pro-flute.

Hi Pyrioni,
Wow, that's a lot of choices. I had no idea there were so many differences.
Thanks for the info!

I will stick with my Armstrong. I am kind of partial to it. Had it since I was very young.

One thing about my Armstrong, it does not have what I think is called the crown.
The piece at the very end of the head joint. Do I need this piece?
It was like that when it was given to me.

Thanks again, LilLaree

I believe you should give a try to a more modern flute and see if your problems are solved at least partially. Not necessary to buy now, try one or several in a shop, a flute festival or request a trial instrument to Fluteworld or similar shop (if you live in USA).

Your old flute could be holding you back seriously, no matter how much you could appreciate it. And you can always keep it as a backup flute, an important item to own.

Concerning the crown, I suppose the piece is simply missing. It should be there and it is related to the cork position and adjustment.

More to make me suspect you may have a problem with the instrument more than with your embouchure.

jose_luis,
I think that I will take it in to my music shop and have the tech. give it a look.
I noticed that one of the key's is slow to come up too.

I think both the flute and my embouchure are to blame for my tone.

Do you have a favorite company that make flutes?

Thanks for all the advice!
LilLaree

<Added>

Yes I am in the USA. I live in Arizona.

"She told me that I have a flat embouchure. Meaning that instead of having a hole '0' that I have a slit '-'..."

Try to open your teeth/jaw while playing, like say 'oh', this way you can turn '-' to oval 'o'.

There is no right, wrong, or ok embouchure, just modify your embouchure and always make changes, and be flexible all the time. Many masters told us so. Don't believe those teachers or masters who tell us to "have your own unique sound/tone", greatest flute masters like Pahud told us to be flexible and never have your own tone. So, Flexible man! '-', 'o', 'O', '0'

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....there are so many different embouchures, there are smiley, frown, natural, even-lips just lightly touching the lip-plate, flat lower lip, loose lower lip, sinking lower lip, round, oval, slit, and slit with a small round hole in the center, and smiley with a small hole in the center. A good flutist need to know how to play all of them, as we need changes and flexibility.

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Your Armstrong is OK, a lot better than Gemainhardt (my opinion), a missing crown is no big deal, you can still play beautifully without a crown as long as your cork is in good seal and is in correct position.

Yes I do, but it is so personal... In this site you may receive many recommendations, so it could be difficult to decide.

The only way is to try as many as you can and then decide, taking your time. I only suggest that you stay with first brands. I chose Yamaha and I am happy with it, but there are so many others!. Your budget will also be a deciding factor, quality and features increase with price, say from 500$ to well over 5,000$.

I suggest you consider intermediate flutes, if you can afford them, as you have already had a long experience with a student flute. If you still prefer (or can only afford) student flutes, a model I like very much is the Yamaha YFL 200 series. (In my case, I have a Yamaha YFL 211 as a backup instrument, I find it very easy to play and has excellent good tone and projection for its price (for my level and experience).

Please note that your flute may have mechanical problems or be out of adjustment. This can be solved by a technician. However, if the type of headjoint cut or some other limitations is the cause of the problems you report, there is nothing a technician could do.

I have the (personal idea) that the player basically adjusts its embouchure automatically to suit the instrument and with enough time and practise he/she will finally develop the embouchure best adapted to his/her particular instrument.

There may be special problems or bad habits that can be corrected, as well as heaps of exercises to improve the tone. But still, with a very old flute, which has missing parts and as I understand, has never been checked -not to mention an overhaul, it is almost sure that you have a failing instrument.

I took out my flute headjoint's CROWN, and practiced for all day today, and found no difference at all.

I tested it on my video...have a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTP5cmHBrQU

If the cork is OK and tight, the crown presence or absence should make no big difference or no difference at all. But we do not know in what status is that flute and if the crown is missing there could be other problems too. Maybe he/she could check if the cork is in the right position...

yeah Jose, true he/she has to check cork for leaks and position. Best to check or overhaul with a good tech.