With school starting up soon and the prospect of new flute students coming in the door, now is the time to devise a little check up on some flute basics to ensure that students are in a good position to get going on a new school year. These suggestions are especially useful if you are tasked with working with groups of flutists.
1. Check the flute itself; is the head joint cork in the proper place and are all the keys working properly? If not, the student will be handicapped from the start, leading to frustration for all concerned.
2. Is the flute assembled properly? Is the head joint lined up with the keys (not the rods) and is the foot joint rod lined up with the center of the D key? Improper flute assemble leads to bad habits and again handicaps the player.
3. Can the student balance the flute easily so the fingers move freely while maintaining a steady position on the lip? Fingers should never rest on the rods, the only place the fingers should touch the mechanism is on the centers of the keys themselves, never on the rods. (Regardless of what many young flutists try to do, it is not possible to ‘hold’ the flute with the right hand index finger levered against the mechanism and still be able to play with good technique!) They should be able to balance the flute using three points, the chin, the left hand index finger ‘cradle’ and the right hand thumb while being able to waggle all fingers freely. Yes, I said ‘waggle’, it is a technical term describing free finger movement!
4. Is the size of the embouchure narrower than the embouchure hole in the flute? It is fun to pair up flutists at camps and workshops to check the size and shape of each other’s embouchures. At the most basic, the opening in the lips must be narrower than the opening in the flute, otherwise air is being wasted and the tone will be diffused. Further investigation can be done as to how the embouchure changes for different registers. Immediate improvement can be made in the tone just by bringing attention to this. Just don’t let the student become obsessed with it!
These basic check ups should be done regularly with beginners and with new students. They reinforce good habits and help head off the development of bad ones, enabling students to sound better and make more progress in their flute studies. It’s also easier on our ears, too!!!