Q&A for How to Improve Your Tone on the Flute

Usually when a flute is airy, it's because your embouchure is too tight. Experiment by angling your air stream more down instead of straight out. To practice angling your air stream, bring your index finger and middle finger up to your mouth and place them where your flute would go, then blow like you would on a flute and try to make the air hit the middle finger and not the pointer finger. Another option is to try out an open-holed flute. With this type of flute, the air can escape through the keys not in use, creating a less airy tone.

Play as long as you can every day you practice it. It stretches out your lungs.

Faster, cooler air (in terms of the speed you blow) and your embouchure can help you hit the high notes. You should aim the air slightly more upwards, jutting out your chin. For lower notes, your embouchure should be exaggerated, frowning more. Use slow, warm air (like you would for fogging up a window) and aim your air slightly lower. It's mostly about the air speed.

Practice scales and etudes to improve your fingering; remember to start slow and get faster later. Also, practice taking huge, deep breaths, filling every cavity with air. This will make proper breathing easier.

Try practicing your breathing. Put your left hand in front of your face with your palm directly in front of your mouth and blow. Keep doing this until you stop whistling and practice your embouchure.

If you're already used to playing a flute, it should be easy.

Practice more. They'll come back. It just takes a little time.

Relax your embouchure. If your mouth is too tight, either a squeak or no sound at all will come out of the flute. Also, playing the lowest notes, it's important to use plenty of air. This can be done by using correct posture and breathing techniques.

So, first you want to make sure that you know the range of the flute. Many learning composers don't know the ranges of each instrument. The range of a flute is C1 or B0 to G3. Depending on the difficulty of your piece, the range can go higher up to C4. In addition, you want to know how to write the dynamics for the flute. The flute can not play really loud on the low notes; nor can it play really soft on the high notes. Be reasonable.

Try deep breaths before entering the phrase, and practice long tones every day.

Some notes are hard to transition from, like from C# middle octave (all open, with Eb pinkie optional) to D (thumb, 123 123; all down except Ab key and pinkies). Make sure your fingers go down quickly enough. If the problem is changing from different notes on different octaves, like from Ab (thumb, 123 Ab key) to high F (thumb, 13 13 Eb pinkie optional), then make sure that when your note changes, you play faster/slower air, depending if you're going from a high note to a low note or from a low note to a high note.

Tighten your lips, especially on the higher notes, but don't lose your tone when you do this. Practice with your range and establish that the lower notes require lots of air, while the higher notes need faster air.

Purse your lips, then with a thin stream of air coming out of your mouth, say ta (with the pursed lips) not into the flute, but outwards.

Try spending a lot of time practicing in front of a mirror. Check yourself in the mirror every few minutes and fix it. This will help you reset your muscle memory to holding your flute the right way. Because you've been playing for years, it may take awhile to make the change. Remember, lots of consistent practice will take you a long way.

To get darker tones I close the aperture in my mouth. It will also help to use the "frowny" embouchure and open the gap between the top and bottom teeth. This will improve the sound's overall quality, but the aperture is what controls the color of the tone. A smaller aperture makes darker sounds, a larger aperture sounds brighter. Listen to professionals play darker tones and see if you can replicate it. Experiment and practice and you will get it.

Practice long tones (play as long as you can with a steady sound). Also, scales will help a lot. Start on a middle register and ascend to the higher notes. As you go up, tighten your embouchure and blow faster air. If you sound flat, slightly tilt your head up. If you are sharp, slightly tilt your head down. Practice this every day. Also use a tuner if you can't tune by ear. In fact, bring one even if you can, just to be sure!

Try cleaning your flute with a cleaning spray. If that doesn't work, it might be because your embouchure is too tight, so relax your mouth more. You also could adjust the flute cork; that might happen if it's too tight or too loose.

The easiest answer would be that you are not fingering the notes correctly. The easiest way to rule this out is to switch flutes with your friend. If you have the same issue, I would recommend looking up a fingering chart. If you're flute is to blame, it may have leaky pads, broken or misplaced springs, or even bent keys. I would take it to a professional instrumental repair shop. They can help you figure out exactly what is wrong and fix it for you.

Your first priority is to get your asthma under control. See your health professional to decide on the best course of treatment. When you are able to play again, start practicing as often as you can, playing pieces of increasing difficulty as you go along. You may also want to take lessons to catch up.

Do you have those allergies? If you do you might want to get one. If you don't, just Google it.

Make "pa" "pa" "pa" sounds when blowing into your flute. I've noticed the high notes can be a bit tricky. You need to find the place on your mouthpiece (so that you can blow straight over the embouchure). It helps if you tense your lips a bit, making the smallest hole you can.

Take a very deep breath, and use your gut to control how much air is coming out of your mouth.

Yes. There's still some debate as to whether or not open holes actually help, but all professional flutes are open-holed.

Breathe from your diaphragm, not your chest. Try not to waste so much air, and concentrate it so you can get more sound out of your air.

You should try increasing your airspeed. If you are hearing the first octave fundamental, then the vibrations are not quite fast enough.

When you take a breath to play, think of breathing from your stomach. A good breath results in your stomach expanding. If you raise your shoulders, that will restrict the muscles that are vital to an effective breath.

Something some teachers say is to try to act as if you're blowing on hot soup. Make sure your breaths are soft and that your posture is correct.

There might be an issue with the springs in your flute. You should hear a very quiet pop instead of a clicking sound. Consider consulting your nearest music store for assistance.

You can adjust the intonation by directing the airstream slightly lower, relaxing your embouchure, opening your jaw, and slightly lowering your head. Some notes are easier to alter, and some methods may work better than others.

To improve your scale playing on the flute, practice daily focusing on accuracy first and speed later.