Anybody here play the flute?

I don't play flute so I can't answer from experience, but this thread might give you some ideas:

Musical Instruments

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41782

To begin with it feels damn frustrating. Getting the right mouth position is hard.

Just blow gently across the hole--the way you would a coke bottle. Yes, it vibrates somewhat. Beginners often get lightheaded.

I played flute for years, but what I felt in the first 3 lessons was frustration. And my arms did get tired from holding it up too.

flautista

the first lessons i had were on a pop bottle. no kidding. there is something called an _______ --lordy it starts with an O and rhymes (kinda) with hombre. it means the opening between your lips. it has to be strong and perfect and is incredibly tiring to maintain. the air must come from the diaphram--or else NOT from the diaphram-(-i remember getting smacked on the diaphram for something.)

in our school, a student had to get that "blowing" thing straight first. so i practised blowing an "OMMMM" sound with a pop bottle. it was a couple of lessons before my band nun let me near my brand new flute. by then the new had worn off. i was no jethro t. granted sister was nuts before she took me on, she was practically psychotic before it ended. i can't be sure all aspiring flautists do it this way. i may have been more of a trial than most. then i took up softball. i was one hell of a thrdbaseman--s6

embrochure

yeah--that was it. there was this icky picture of one on my first student book. what a great science fiction title: the embrochure that ate wichita! --s6

flautist

not flutist. if you want esoteric--s6

Okay, I don't play the flute but I had a roomie who was really good at it in college and once or twice I tried to play it just as you describe. I should qualify this by saying that I play the violin so I already have a knack for music.

In all, I found it very very simple to get a note out of a flute. Took me about three seconds. Essentially if you can make a sound on an empty bottle you can get a sound out of the flute. Yes, your arms get tired of holding it up after about 10 minutes or so but I doubt your scene would last any longer than that. The hard part for me was making the right note combinations. There's a sequence of fingerings to go up and down the scale and as I recall there's something you have to hit with your thumb or pinkie? Anyway it took a little instruction for her to show me that.

But all in all I found it to be a very basic, self-explanatory instrument. There's no way you could ever pick up a violin and start making notes instantly like that. So your character might be nervous at first and then delighted that she actually makes the notes after a try or two.

Incidentally, my husband plays the trumpet. We've been married a year and a half now and every so often I take that thing out and try to make something of it. IMPOSSIBLE! Oh man, it is so hard to blow correctly on that mouthpiece.

I learned the flute along with all the other orchestral instruments when I got a bachelor's in music education, which means that I learned basic technique and how to teach it in all of them but not advanced in any of them.

The teacher had us spitting grains of rice. Is the teacher in your story eccentric? This would be a nice touch, if he is, I think.

Anyway, she talked to us about flute stuff as we spit rice (one grain at a time) all over the class. I'll bet the caretakers loved her!

When we had that down, we took out the mouthpiece only. We kept our lips in that same embouchre and blew across the hole in the mouthpiece. The bottom lip must be on the edge of the hole and then you rotate the mouthpiece until you get the best tone, or in some cases, any sound at all. When you're starting any band instrument, it's normal to start with mouthpiece practice, whether it be "crowing the reed" (winds with reeds), "buzzing the nouthpiece" (brass), or the above procedure with flute.

If you're not careful you can get very light neaded because, unlike all the other blown instruments, there is absolutely no resistance, so you breathe in and out huge amounts of air -- the paper bag thing is good if you get carried away. The teacher advised us that when we taught beginners in school, we watch carefully for faniters.

The mouthpiece thing can go on for several classes. You're trying to get them really comfortable, automatic with it before you put the instrument together. And it's not hard to keep them interested becuase this is your chance to get their whole rhythmic thing together. They play all kinds of notated rhythms, little "pieces" even, with just the mouthpiece.

Oh yes, if you blow straight across the mouthpiece you get the right sound. If you rotate it away from you, you start getting a higher not or "partial" which you don't want just yet -- it's called overblowing and gives you the higher notes. There are actually three ranges. The one you start with, then the octave above that and the next, but that takes a while.

When the student is really comfortable with the mouthpiece, you teach them how to put the instument together. It is in three pieces, the lower two with keys and the mouthpiece without. When you put the lower two together -- the lowest is the foot joint -- you hold down the keys in a certain way so that the rods (which connect the keys that you press down to the pads which are lifted off the holes in the body of the flute) are not bent. Otherwise they will eventually get bent all to hell and the repair is expensive. Then the mouthpiece is added. Always, they are put together with a twisting motion, always, for the same reason. The teacher has a fit if you try to jam them straight together because that means her repair bill, if it's a class, will go up. And from the very, very beginning, the teacher never lets the student open the case (usually with tow snaps) anywhere but lying on the floor so that the instrument does not drop.

Feel free to ask questions.

The easiest way is to remove the embouchure piece/joint, about the first six inches, from the other two pieces, and learn to blow correctly, and hold your mouth right, first.

I am forming the impression that my music teachers were a bit rubbish.

Band teachers have it rough. In most high schools, they have to teach three or four types of sax, clarinet, trumpet, one or two types of horn, two trombones, baritone, tuba, flute, drums, percussion, and a partridge in a pear tree. In a larger band add bass clarinet, another trombone, and one or two double reeds (oboe and bassoon).

It's a bitch.

Pity them.

I play flute, and I had no problem getting a good sound the first time I picked the instrument up. I'm told that that's not at all usual and most people struggle for a short while.

Yes, easy to get lightheaded in the beginning. Awkward to get used to the way to hold the flute and where to place all the fingers at first.

I'm a music ed major too, lonsdale...woot! Glad there's another running around...my secondary instrument is flute though.

To start with, the beginner would probably have a very airy sound. She would (as has been mentioned) get very light-headed.

The flute feels very awkward to hold--for one thing, you don't really "hold" it at all. You balance it on 4 points--your chin, the crook of your left index finger, your right thumb, and your right pinky. The left hand goes above the right. It's hard to keep your arms up without your right elbow flying away at first.

The embochure used playing the flute is like saying the word "pooh" or "pure" with the corners tight.

If there's anything else I could help with, (I'm pretty solid on most instruments,) let me know!

FloVoyager said:

Boy meets girl and they fall in love. Boy is a professional flutist, and after they become intimate he allows her to hold and attempt to play his prized metal flute. It's a fun, tender scene, where he's showing her how to play the instrument so she can get a feel for what he does. Thanks

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Hah... In college, I was involved for a time with an oboe major--same sort of thing. To borrow from Leo Kotke, I sounded like "geese farts on a muggy day."

He'd have to start with telling her how to hold the thing. Then, she'd probably blow too hard.

Tiger said:

He'd have to start with telling her how to hold the thing. Then, she'd probably blow too hard.

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Gosh, I can't tell you how many times I've heard exactly that. Sigh.

Also, if your character doesn't have particularly muscular fingers, their knuckles could 'lock-up.' Basically, your smaller fingers no longer bend and you have to massage life back into them. It's scary when it happens the first time, because you don't know how to fix it.

The easiest way to prevent this is to wrap your fingers with some self-adhesive bandage wrap. The skin-colored sticky kind that sticks to itself. I forget what it's called. A band-aid works, too.

alleycat said:

Every serious flutist I've met chringes at "flautist".

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Isn't that someone who blatently disregards the law?

naw

a flutist merely flauts the oxford dictionary. a flautist plays the flute--s6

Well, maybe someone can explain why my "flautist" quip would rate a rep comment like: " Come and say it to my face, a$$hole."
??