Embouchure, Smilin' Juttin' and Jivin'

Dear subscribers,

I can't believe I have almost 180 subscribers to this blog and over 400 subscribers on youtube. How amazing!!!
Thankyou to you all! Wowza!! Thankyou readers! What a marvel!
Can't wait for your input and comments.

So, just a quick update on "smile embouchure" as a topic (and for new readers joining us, the "smile embouchure" is not recommended on flute because of the thin, airy, shrillish tone quality).

For those of you who subscribe, regarding yesterday's post on Lazzari's book and embouchure pictures, I have managed to locate a wonderfully generous Italian flute friend who provided us all with a decent translation of the Gianni Lazzari text that accompanies the embouchure pictures for my latest post; so you may want to know about it, and see the translation! :>)

Here's the new and improved drawing samples of embouchure pictures with English text describing the finer details of why smiley-embouchure tends to make the flute tone airy, spread, whistley, and in general, not a good flute tone.

If subscribers want to have a copy in pdf, please go ahead and print one from this file: Lazzari's embouchure drawings & text in pdf.

For those who missed the "smile embouchure and why it doesn't work" there's an earlier post on that here.

And, of course, if you haven't yet viewed the video, see the James Galway video that started it all here:




The related Cluff blog post with video on jaw use is linked here too for those readers who may just be joining us:

And, there's my own video on jaw jutting from a post several days ago as well, of course.

Comments and more detail from teachers and players are welcome!

Best, and hope this catches us all up with new and useful information for flute students and their developing embouchures.

Jen :>)

Il flauto traverso by Gianni Lazzari

Dear Flutists,
A book published in 2003 by Gianni Lazzari (in Italian language only at this time) has come to my attention. I was able to find some of its text online at googlebooks. What marvellously helpful drawings!!



Lip pictures can be of help in locating the embouchure muscle use in flute students. I draw embouchure "reminders" such as these on my student's sheetmusic and notebooks constantly during lessons.

A friend from Italy translated the accompaning text for me (thankyou!)for the above jpeg and I have also created a pdf that shows the text that goes with each picture, for printing out, if you'd like a copy. It is the same as above, but BIGGER. :>)

Lazzari has mentioned the "smile" embouchure and, of course, the limitations of it. But these pictures show WHY it wastes too much air, giving often a breathy, airy tone that so many students complain of. More on this topic in future, and please do leave comments. Pictures of this kind are welcome too, if any flute teachers out there would like to send them to me. :>)
Fabulously interesting!

I dearly hope this book is translated for English readers soon!
Fabulous!

Jen :>)

Jaw motion for flute - Is your jaw jutting too much?

Dear Fluteplayers,

One of my readers wrote to me regarding jaw use. If your flute teacher is telling you to "move your jaw forward and back" and yet you're reading articles, books and blogs by flutists who warn about excessive jaw motion it can be confusing.

I'll refer you first to part 1 of 3, of Walfrid Kujala's "Jaw Boning" article.

Walfrid Kujala and other flute teachers have written about how to use the jaw for dynamics, tone colours, intonation and for reliable and fast 'interval leaping'. These are all embouchure methods that combine abdominal air support and the angles afforded by a slight opening and closing of the lip aperture in a vertical manner. This is the opposite of sliding your jaw forward or "jutting" it forward and back to play the flute.

So to further elucidate with the miracle of web-cammery, I had fun today, making a quick video on flutist's jaw use to explain the basics of easy jaw motion:



For background reading on this topic, you can have a look through these previous blog posts, which have plenty more supporting articles and explanations of jaw related flute skills:

1. The Flute & the Jaw Bone

2. Why the smile embouchure doesn't work well on flute.

For good quotes by Michel Debost in "The Simple Flute" and from Thomas Nyfengers delightfully informative book "Music and the Flute" read on:

Thomas Nyfenger on Embouchure & jaw:

" If the lips are cushioned forward, we must learn to use and control the position of the upper lip which, for many flutists, [unfortunately] just hangs like a piece of dead liver while the lower jaw and lip dance around [excessively]."

"The jaw can move up and down but it moves slowly, and in the process also changes the angle of the airstream as it moves up-forward and down-back. Thus the constructive bug in the mandibular joints, coupled with the effort to compensate for the unwanted motion (at least in flute playing, a more foreign act to the body than chewing) create another in a series of potential isometric [tensions].

To understand this problem, let us discuss the muscles involved in opening and closing the aperture in the lips. First, the ability to raise and lower the upper lip independent of the muscles at the corners of the mouth, and likewise to move the lower lip without "jawing", is essential to efficient, rapid, and smooth [legato during large] intervals.

If you have ever observed an alligator wrestler doing his thing, you will notice that the essential defensive maneuvers consist of holding the beast's jaws closed....This is becuase the wrestler knows that the extreme weakness of the jaw-opening muscles are in no way reflected in the immense power of the closing apparatus. We too are better equipped for closing, tightening, gripping with the embouchure than for opening it."

"I often prescribe exercises requiring a minimum of jaw motion while changing octaves so to increase the student's awareness of this mechanism (of using the muscles around the lips such as those used for sneering, pouting, pushed forward and back, in order to find the senstive area inside the lips, in order to control the size and angle of the airstream).

Later, I add an explanation of how both the jaw and lips can move in any combination to acheive the desired results....My principal contribution in this area is the potential development of the opening and closing muscles, allowing a freedom of movement which can then be employed in conjunction with other means."

Michel Debost on "Jawboning":

"By jawboning, I mean constant change in the angle of the airflow into the embouchure (hole). Playing intervals of more than a third (for example changing from the lower to the mid-range), they seem to need a different thrust of the chin and/or an alteration of the shape of the lip aperture.

My contention is that this practice is neither logical nor totally reliable......in a slow chromatic scale from mid range to low register there is no perceptible lip or chin movement.

Jawboning [has a few small] advantages. It is useful for correcting intonation and in tapering off some long note diminuendos.

It quickly becomes a mannerism if used constantly.

Ninety-five percent of [large legato] intervals in our repertoire are under the octave. These require the involvement of the the whole body, not just the mouth and chin."

Hope this brings out some comments from my readers!!
Use the comment button below.
Best, Jen :>)

Documentary - Trout Quintet - Watching Musicians at Work

Dear Readers,
Just a quick note to subscribers: the format of your subscription has been changed so all links are clickable at my blog. So links (blue & clickable) will be at the JenCluff blog host site from now on. Thanks.

The Trout Quintet is a documentary showing five great musicians performing chamber music together. Wonderful to watch how they emote, work together, listen and perform. Okay, I know, there are no flute players in "The Trout", but we can learn so much by watching and listening to precision chamber music played with heart.

"The Trout" documentary:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



Part 5



Part 6




Enjoy (as Jacqueline Du Pres is one of my all time favourites; check out her smiling at other players! :>)
Best, Jen

The Smile Embouchure & why it doesn't work

Why is the smile embouchure not a good thing for flute players?

This came up as a topic for discussion on one of my flute groups, and I had a great time trying to explain my "take" on it.

I put everything I knew about "Why isn't it a good idea to smile to form a flute embouchure?" here in this pdf article.

Please read the above pdf and then comment below.
Here are some reference links too:

The great book: The Illustrated fluteplayer from which comes this useful 'THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY' picture:


Also see: Nancy Toff's "The Flute Book" (free online preview here) on the embouchure instructions of Taffanel, Gaubert, Moyse and others in their books. (all agree with the ideas presented here.)

Also see: Walfrid Kujala's three part "Jaw Boning" article from 1987 (search University library periodicals or contact Flutetalk magazine).

Also see: A previous Cluff-blog reference to the Kujala "how to" article concerning the jaw and flute dynamics.

Galway video on a headjoint exercise to stop that oh so smiley embouchure :>)

Nyfenger's Music and the Flute book where he explains the jaw is configured to bite, chew and speak, and how to avoid jutting the lower jaw forward which is its weakest position.

Please comment using the button below.
Best, Jen :>)

Lorna McGhee teaching in a recent flute masterclass

Topics to discuss: What is University level flute playing & what do you learn in University?
What is a masterclass?

Firstly do enjoy listening and watching Lorna McGhee teach the Frank Martin Ballade:

Part 1 McGhee masterclass



Part 2 McGhee masterclass



Part 3 McGhee masterclass - Martin Ballade



Now for answering two frequent freshman questions:

Every September I meet incoming College and University level flutists who commonly wish to know about two things:

1. What level of flute playing is considered "University level?"

University level flute performance majors typically play high quality grade 9 and 10 RCM flute repertoire. An example of 'A.R.C.T'(equivalent to grade "11" Royal Conservatory of Music) level is the Frank Martin Ballade which is shown in the above Lorna McGhee masterclass videos.

If you are not yet familiar with the repertoire lists typical for grade 9 and 10 Royal Conservatory you may wish to begin to work up to them, learning the technique of the flute, as well as several grade 9 pieces prior to University entrance with the help of your private teacher.

Articles for University students at this level of playing are here.
College prep. advice for flutists is here.

If you are not yet at the grade 9 or 10 level, you will of course want to do daily, very focused practise sessions on tone, technique (scales/arpeggios) and work on the grade 6 to 8 repertoire with your private teacher.

Students wishing to become education majors in order to become Band Teachers should be able to play at a grade 8/9 standard on their primary instrument prior to University entrance.

Typical grade 8 RCM repertoire would be:
Gaubert's Madrigal, Barber's Canzone, the G minor or Eb major (easier) J.S.Bach Sonatas, Ravel Piece en forme de Habanera, Pergolesi G Major Concerto, Tartini Concerto in G Major.

If you do not yet have a private flute teacher , (as I often greet several highschool band students each fall who mistakenly have not had private lessons but wish to continue on in University for a music education or music performance degree) you should find a private teacher; information is here.

If you've had no private lessons at all, then you may need a year or two of private lessons prior to entering University music performance courses, and you'll need to clear your schedule to practise up to 2-3 hours a day (in short sessions with several breaks.)

Trying to perform at a high qualityUniversity level with no prior private lessons can create an enormous daily time scheduling problem, as you will need to practise the flute (tone, scales, vibrato, tonguing, dynamics, tuning, etudes, exercises etc.) from 2-4 hours per day while completing a large amount of other musical course work. This can be quite a work load for those who've never studied their instrument privately before, so if you are serious about being successful in your post secondary education, you may need a year or two of prep. prior to commencing a Performance degree. You can always enroll as a part-time University student and take an Arts course, music theory or music history course as well during that prep. time. Part-time jobs that help save for University area also a good idea during prepatory years.

The flute student's level of flute playing seen in the video of Lorna McGhee's masterclass at the Portland Flute Festival above, would be A.R.C.T. (or grade "11 RCM"), and would be typical of a recent graduate from a four year Bachelor of Music in Performance. Another complete performance of the entire Martin Ballade is here.
This is the level toward which University flutists are working during their four-five years at school.

2. "What is a masterclass?"

Flute students arriving at University without previous exposure to flute recitals, competitions and masterclasses may be curious to know "what is a masterclass?"
A masterclass features a visiting "master" of the instrument who assists each participant to discover the best musical methods to polish a pre-prepared solo flute work.
The student prepares to perform the entire work (with piano), and may be stopped at any point to work on improvements to their playing.
The visiting master, such as McGhee in this case with her INCREDIBLE TONE COLOURS, assists the student as much as possible in the time alloted.
Usually 4-6 flutists perform in a masterclass each receiving 15-30 minutes of expert help with their prepared pieces.

More flute articles to help incoming highschool flute majors are here, on all topics that you'll need to know about before performing at the University level.

Best and comments welcome (especially about Lorna McGhee's wonderful tone colours and teaching!)

Jen

L'Apres Midi with Lorna McGhee & London Symphony

Oh happy days! A chance to watch one of my favourite flutists, Lorna McGhee, playing the opening solo of Debussy's L'Apres Midi d'une Faune on video:




Enjoy! Best, Jen

How soon to introduce singing while playing?

Dear Blog readers,
Here's an interesting conversation which all the flute teachers out there might want to give their input on. In my own teaching, I introduce singing while playing in private lessons, not in band class sectionals or large group learning situations, but I'd like to hear from others on this. My feeling is that in a group setting there are other more profitable topics to be covered such as seating, posture, breathing, tuning, fingerings, and general basic techniques of flute playing. But read on....

Hi, Jen
I love your website and had a question for you. At what age would you introduce singing and playing? I will be working with a group of 7th and 8th grade flutists and don’t know if this would be an appropriate age group to introduce this concept to for the purpose of tone development.
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Jen replies:
I have a colleague in Norway who introduces extended techniques (in easy-to-manage small amounts) as early as 2 years of playing.
Personally, I only teach singing and playing in the 3rd year of private lessons to those who are at least 14.
It depends, of course, on the student.
Go ahead and see what results you get for tone and throat openness etc.
Best,
Jen
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Thank you. I would also like to list your website as a great flute resource for them to check out. I just didn’t know if there were any health-related issues with singing and playing at a young age.
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Jen replies:
Sure, you can list my website.

As for "health related" issues.

The only thing that Robert Dick warns against in his book "Tone Development through Interpretation" is that if people try and sing too loudly, or forcingly, they hurt their throats, and don't get the desired tone improvements, or open-throat improvements.

Personally, I would myself think that grade 7 and 8 students are too young for this to be that effective, especially in a group setting.

I would use Robert Dick's book with them if I were going to attempt it.

There are so many other things that they don't yet know that you could teach them instead:

- cork placement - how to check, how to leave the crown alone (don't keep twirling it)

- headjoint placement - how to know where to line up your headjoint for your own ergonomics

- playing in tune; how to know if you're flat or sharp, and which way to pull out or push in the headjoint to get octaves in tune by overblowing etc. etc.

Many of these things are covered in my teacher's handouts.

http://www.jennifercluff.com/teach.htm

http://www.jennifercluff.com/secretsbw.pdf

http://www.jennifercluff.com/misfingering.pdf

The Norway teacher's ex-tech stuff for beginners is here:

http://www.fluteped.com/Dean/articles.htm

http://www.fluteped.com/Dean/Music/music.htm

Best,
Jen

Slashes through note stems?

There are many abbreviations in printed music which have been used over the past 1-3 centuries to make hand-written music faster to copy out, use less ink, and allow some music to be abbreviated for ease of page turns and the like.

One of the abbreviations that often confuses the student, when it pops up unexpectedly in older printed music, is the symbol that looks like slashes through the note stems.
These slashes represent a short-hand method of indicating dividing the written pitch into repeated eighth notes, sixteenths or even 32nd notes; all played on the same pitch.

One slash through a stem means for you to divide that note value into eighth notes. Look at it as "eighth notes have one beam, so one slash means eighth notes". Two slashes through a note stem mean to divide that note value into sixteenths. Look at it as "sixteenths have two beams". Three slashes mean to divide that note value into thirty-seconds. Just as thirty-seconds have three beams, this slash mark has three beams".
This picture is taken from the excellent flute method book by Alfred Brooke:


A full page pdf version of the above page from the Brooke Method for flute is here in PDF, and shows further practise samples of these note division abbreviations. The PDF version is easier to view and read.

As you will see slashes through note stems and/or dots shown above the note head indicate the same principle: Divide the note into the value that has the number of beams. Exammple; one beam (one dot, = 8th notes) (two dots = divide into 16ths; four dots = divide into 32nd notes.)

It's interesting to note that this slash-through-stem abbreviation was a little difficult to locate in this otherwise very complete music symbol page from Dolmetsch music history, theory and music dictionary online, which is otherwise an excellent resource.
I finally located the same slash-stems explanations as found in the Brooke Flute Method on the Dolmetsch site here.

Hope this helps,

Best,
Jen

Best right thumb position on the flute?

Question:
What is the best possible right thumb position on the flute?

Answer:
After teaching for over twenty years, I firmly believe there is no single "best place" for the thumb, as every flute player has completely different hand shapes and finger/palm lengths.
There is the possibility of having different lengths of :
- fingers
- thumb
- palm
- distance of placement of thumb joint on palm.

Therefore, there are multiple possible placements for the right thumb depending on the above factors. Indeed, some players play on the tip of the thumb, side of the thumb, with thumb pointing up the body toward the headjoint, with thumb bent backwards into a J-shape, etc. etc. All thumb positions in players who play for more than four hours a day are in fact reached by the hand adapting over time to faster and faster technique. So be willing to accept that the thumb position will adapt over time as well.

To start out: the easiest way to find your natural hand position is to follow Patricia George's advice about placing the three fingers of the Right Hand PRIOR to placing the thumb.:

1. Place slightly curved fingers on the right hand (F, E, and D) keys, but leave the thumb *off* the flute. Notice where the thumb might meet the body of the tube if these three fingers are comfortable, natural, and in the best position for rapid movement.

2. Place flute into playing position ( continue to leave thumb off the flute)

3. Observe the right wrist to be sure it is not cocked backward (see www.jennifercluff.com/lineup.htm for more details). You need the right arm to be as natural as possible; as if picking up a book on a mantlepiece or lying sideways on a shelf at shoulder-height.

4. Now lightly place the thumb where it naturally lands on the flute body given 1-3 above. (those with large hands may place it on the back of the flute, those with small hands may find they place it under the flute. However short fingers on large hands, or long fingers on small hands will alter these outcomes.)

5. Lastly move footjoint to a position so Eb key is under a slightly curved pinky.
See footjoint article: http://www.jennifercluff.com/footturn.pdf

Again, hands vary tremendously between flute players. The spectrum is enormous.

Watch this video at minute 4:30 for a visual demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1lY8rjeHc

Ideally the thumb should be placed so that the fulcrum of the finger motion in the right hand is easy and natural as shown in the attached illustration from Michel Debost's book "The Simple Flute".

For a short time this Debost picture (a very good one indeed) is viewable here:


But owning the Debost book "The Simple Flute from A to Z" is a good investment, and will help solve countless problems, and answer many many questions.

Best, and happy experimenting.

Jen Cluff