Alternative instructions...
1. Carry them out in front of a mirror.
2. Initially use the top section of flute only, called the "head". Block the open end with a cork or equivalent - NO LEAKS. (You could just block it with the palm of your right hand.)
3. Never at any stage pull your lips tight around your teeth.
4. Smile very slightly - just enough to take any slight wrinkles out of the centre of your lip. Make sure you NEVER bunch the lips up into a wrinkled `pout`.
5. Hold your head up. Ensure that one lip is directly above the other, without the top lip overlapping the lower lip. You may need to slide your lower jaw slightly forward to achieve this. Both lips should be touching against an imaginary VERTICAL line. Make sure that this lip position does not change as you work through the following.
6. Blow gently, STRAIGHT AHEAD, to create a tiny slit between your lips, perhaps 10 mm wide and 1 mm high in the middle. Do not blow hard. You should barely hear the air coming out.
7. Make sure you have not altered 3 to 5. If you are doing 1-5 correctly, and you hold the palm of your hand directly in front of your lips, say 80 mm away, you should feel a cool wind against your palm, STRAIGHT AHEAD. That is the blowing part; give your lips a break.
8. Now get the flute head. Hold it vertically in front of you, with the corked end pointing down and the embouchure hole ("EH") facing toward you. With your left thumb vertical in front of you, place it gently over the EH so that it covers 1/4 to 1/3 of the hole. Your thumb is exactly what you lip should look like soon. It is important to note that you cannot see the edge of the hole that is covered by your thumb.
9. Repeat 3 - 5, checking all points, and test 6 & 7 again. Do not alter your lip position. Bring the flute head towards your chin, making sure that the EH points upwards AT ALL TIMES. Rest the `lip plate` of the flute against your chin, just below your lower lip. Wriggle it upwards or downwards until your lower lip covers 1/4 to 1/3 of the EH, and looks, in the mirror, just like your thumb did before. Make sure that the edge of the EH covered by your lip is nestled under your lip sufficiently that IT CANNOT BE SEEN IN THE MIRROR. If it can be seen, then it probably means you are forgetting No 3... Go over 3-5 more carefully!
10. Blow STRAIGHT AHEAD, as you did in No 6. Do NOT be tempted to blow DOWN into the flute. (see Note 1 below)
11. The note you get should be about the first Bb above middle C on the piano, or A if you used your palm instead of a cork. If it is lower than A, you are blowing down, or blowing too gently, or covering too much EH, or looking down. If the note is about the third F above middle C on the piano, then you are blowing much too hard, &/or the hole between your lips is too small.
12. Check everything mentioned above, make VERY slight experimental adjustments, until you have a loud, clear, reliable, low note.
13. Now take the cork out, and do the same again. The note should now be the 2nd Ab above middle C, loud and clear. Push your finger in and out of the end, to give a wailing siren-like effect. (If your note is the THIRD Ab above middle C, you are blowing far too hard.)
14. Now block the end of the flute head again. Blow the air a lot faster, and press your lips a little more firmly together to make the slit a little smaller, to get the high note mentioned in 11.
15. When you can play these notes reliably, loudly, and clearly, you are ready to assemble the flute and try fingering different notes.
Note 1: Some players may be surprised about what I wrote in 10. Try this... Blow straight ahead into the palm of your left hand, without the flute. Now, WHILE you are blowing, place your fight index finger under your lip as if it were the flute. You will notice that the presence of the finger under your lip AUTOMATICALLY diverts the air a lot lower on the palm of your hand, even though you are still blowing straight ahead.
Note 2: You cannot get a clear note if there are obstructions within your mouth that make the air turbulent as it gets to your lips. So make sure that your jaw is sufficiently open so that the teeth are nestled against the lips. Try closing your teeth nearly together to see what I mean - the tone gets VERY fuzzy. This turbulence can also be produced if the front part of the tongue is not lying at the BOTTOM of the mouth during a note, or if the back of the tongue is raised almost to the roof of the mouth.
Note 3: I have not attempted to cover the issue of tonguing. There is enough to think about initially without that too. However it is very simple... Whisper "Toooo" into the flute to begin every tongued note, remembering Note 2 while the note is actually sounding.
Good luck. Seeing you have been a sax player, you may have special problems relating to going from sax to flute. The following may be very useful to you as you develop your flute playing:
http://www.saxontheweb.net/Resources/FluteLessons.html
