Question and Answers Page

Vibrato is a tricky issue. To start out, I would listen to people who have vibrato: singers and string players especially, but anyone else as well, such as other instrumentalists. Listen to the way they do their vibratos and take note of what you like and don't like. Is it too fast, too shaky, too slow, too broad, just broad enough, not deep enough? etc. Find a vibrato that you like and then emulate it. What I mean by that is try to sound like that person. That's the best advice. As for mechanics, vibrato should originally be learned in the diaphragm. It's like coughing. Put your hand on your stomach and cough, feel the diaphraghm move? Your diaphragm is a muscle that runs along the bottom of your lungs and when you breathe it pulls the lungs down, pulling air into them and when you exhale, that's the diaphragm going back up pushing the air out. To do vibrato you must pulse the air column. In the beginning, that's done by the diagphragm. Try saying "ha ha ha" in a steady rhythm and then slowly speed it up. You might get the hiccups a time or two but that's ok, that's just your diaphragm learning something new. Once you can do this, do it while singing, then add it to your flute. Pick a note and do your vibrato on just that one note. Later on, your vibrato can be moved into your throat. Your uvula is the name of the thing that hangs down from the roof of your mouth down your throat, the thing you see when you open wide. You have to make that go back and forth to get vibrato faster. It's nothing you have to force. I would just open wide and look in the mirror as you do it, watch yourself saying ha, then take the voice out of it, connect the "ha's" like a dog panting and see how quick and even you can get it. In a nutshell, that is vibrato.

I'm not sure I could tell you a way to tell if vibrato is wrong or not. If it sounds halting and uneven, it's best just to leave it out, and your throat/vocal chords should not be involved in the vibrato at all. If they are, it might sound choking. Remember, it's a pulsing of the air column.

Fast fingers, good question. What you need is a metronome. They can be bought for around $20, and this will help you. What you need to do is learn your scales with a metronome. Most music that is fast, is a succession of runs. All runs are are scales. If you know your scales, you're golden. Here are some suggestions:
Play your easiest scale, say, F Major. Set your metronome to 60. Play eighth notes on your scale. That means play two notes for each beep. Tap your foot if you need to. When your foot goes down that is the beep, it is silent when it goes up, you play a note for each. It's like dividing the beat in half. Play all the way up and down the scale evenly, not rushing or dragging, but keeping in time with the metronome and when you've done that, move the metronome up a click or two. You don't have to play just eighth notes, you can play triplets to one beat or 16th notes - four to a beat, it's up to you. Just make sure you start out slowly enough that you can play them all evenly. Once you reach a speed that you cannot play evenly, back off one click and play your scale again. Next time you go to practice, start at that speed. It just takes a little time. Do this with all your scales but especially your difficult scales. It will get your fingers used to the patterns and soon when you have hard fast notes, take a look at them and you will see that the runs are all based on scales, you might have an accidental here and there, but you can recognize it and it will be easier for you to play. As for books there are all kinds of them, you can get a scale book or any kind of etude book but I would just start out with scales, that will help you the best. Also, look on my links page, there is a link for finding music teachers, and I'm sure you can find a private lesson teacher in your area through that.

Pinky and ring fingers are tough. When you are sitting in class, try this. Tap just your pinky up and down. When it gets tired, tap your ring finger up and down. Your fingers cannot get stronger, there is very little muscle actually in them. However, what makes your fingers move are the muscles in the forearm and those are the muscles you have to train. Move your middle finger up and down. Look at your forearm, feel how hard that is? Those are the muscles you have to train.

I am buying an new flute for my daughter who is currently using my gemeinhardt. I think I found a killer deal on a gemeinhardt 3SB. She currently plays a gemeinhardt student flute but we really wanted to move up to a solid silver head. Seems like, though, when I make that upgrade, most are open hole, inline, b-foot. Anyway for hardly any more money I can go to solid silver head and body with a 3SB.

My question?

Is this too much of an upgrade? She's pretty good. Freshman in high school.

The Gemeinhardt 3SB is a great deal and a great step up flute for students. I started out on my mom's old Gemeinhardt as well and when the time came for me to get a new flute due to my increasing ability, this was our first choice. It only cost us about $700 for a flute who's tubing is solid silver with plated keys. Such a deal! Most other step-up flutes go for much much more than that and very few of them are all solid silver like this one. If your daughter is ready to move up and you would like to get her a solid silver headjoint but are worried about the transition to a completely new flute, I would not worry too much. It's very difficult to find a solid silver flute to go with a student model flute, and the change would not be worth it. Headjoints have the most impact on the sound of a player, however, student flutes are usually made of cheaper materials such as nickel that are made for durability's sake (because we all know how young students have a tendency to bang things around inadvertantly). If you would like to upgrade your daughter, I would go ahead and get a step up flute or an intermediate flute as they are sometimes called. The 3SB is a perfect choice for this. True, it is in-line with b-foot, but if your daughter continues to improve, this will just catapault her more quickly in the long run, even though the initial set-back will be frustrating. The open holed flutes come with plugs which the player can remove one by one as she becomes more adept. This also forces correct hand position. If it is possible for you to get offset G, I would recommend this as it is a much more ergonimical position for the hand and prevents excess tension, but if it's not possible, it's perfectly fine to get inline, it will just be a bit more of an adjustment for her.

I got my 3SB as a sophomore in high school I believe and it was a bit of a challenge for me, but I welcomed it because I immediately sounded so much better, which made me want to practice more, which meant that I got used to it that much more quickly. If your daughter likes playing, I would bet she'll have the same results. In the beginning it will be a bit frustrating and difficult, especially with taking out the plugs, but have her take them out one by one and she'll be fine. Also, if she has a private lesson teacher, the teacher will be able to help more with the adjustment. In any case, my answer to your question is that I don't think (based on the information that you have given to me) that the upgrade will be too much for her and that she will benefit greatly from it. It's also a long lasting flute that will last her many years. I just graduated college and am still using mine, although with a different headjoint. I have outgrown the flute, but due to finances, can not afford a new one, so I'm buying it a piece at a time :), so in the meantime, the flute I have does a wonderful job.

I get really nervous when I play in front of people. How can I stop being so nervous?

About playing in front of people, I usually don't get nervous until when I start walking to the stage, then I feel some butterflies. But, I just think to myself "hey, I've done this plenty of times before. Yeah, I'll probably mess up, but let's not dwell on that. I'm going to do my best and just play like I love the music." So I do. Usually toward the end of the piece my hands start shaking and so does my embochure. I really hate that but, there's nothing you can do about it that I know of, just think to yourself that hey, this will pass. They'll shake for awhile and then stop. You can think very calming thoughts and think that the audience is on your side, they feel bad if you mess up, even if they're judges, they still sympathize with you. We're all human. I also like to listen to my favorite music to relax. That just happens to be the soundtrack to "Braveheart". Try listening to your fave music, as long as it is calming and puts you in a peaceful state of mind. What I do before I go up is mentally prepare myself. I visualize myself playing everything perfectly, and I try to slow down my breathing and imagine my heart rate decreasing. It doesn't always work, but I try! Visualization is a powerful tool. In fact, there was a man, a POW, who was put in solitary confinement for years and years and the only way he could keep himself from going crazy was to visualize himself playing his favorite game: golf. He would imagine the feel of the grass, the smell of the air, the way the sun felt on him, the grip of the club, everything. Then, in his mind, he would play all 18 holes, not leaving one out, and at every hole he would visualize himself hitting the perfect swing. Years later, the man was released. He went to play golf and that first day, he played the best game of his entire life. Give it a shot.

What does a used flute cost?

The cost a used flute varies. The cost depends on the brand, how old it is, the shape it is in, the level, etc. If you are a beginner, I suggest renting a flute first before buying one, that way you can find out if you really want to play and if you discover you don't, then you're not stuck with an expensive flute. Start with a student flute and if you like it, then you can buy it. Student flutes range from about $50 (you'd only find one this cheap at a garage sale) to perhaps $200. Depending on the shape it is in. Intermediate models are more expensive. They can range from $150 to perhaps $700. These are just guestimates on my part, burt the price does vary.

I played flute in high school and then quit. I'm starting to play in church and perhaps for weddings. Do you have any suggestions on developing a repertoir for this type of audience?

For this type of audience, you would want to choose something simple. Nothing too fancy or fast, but beautiful classics everyone likes. For weddings, I would suggest perhaps "Pachelbell's Cannon". That is very often played and well liked. Little chorales and such of which I don't know the names would be appropriate. However, you would need an accompianist or some other instrumentalists, as I do not know of really any flute solos good for weddings. I am not very knowledgeable of this subject since I've never played in a wedding and have been to few. If you would like to find some music to order, here is a great place you could go to get it: .

I am having an extreme amount of difficulty getting good tone in the upper register, yet I have a great sound on the low notes. Any tips? Also, is ther any interesting music I can play while I'm developing that upper register tone?

I have the same problem. I have a wonderful tone in the low register, but when I get up into the stratosphere, my tone can be somewhat lacking. Here are a few of my suggestions. First of all, relax. Have you ever noticed how relaxed you are playing the low notes? You have to be to just get them out! We think that when we play high, we have to tense up, but the result is squeky, thin, unpleasant sound. Try this: play a low note, say a Bb. Notice how your body feels when you play that note, then play the octave and keep the same feeling in your body, relaxed. Take that note, and then play the octave above that, keeping the same relaxed feeling you had on the lowest Bb. You should be able to get that note out much easier, the only difference is that your lips should be doing a little more work, the bottom lip should be out farther, reaching for the note and the hole smaller. Also, your should drop your jaw as far as you can get away with, but the key here is to relax and you'll be surprised at the beautiful, whole, rich sound you can come away with.

As for interesting music, there is a wealth of it! Mostly it is hidden away in big books full of music. Try etude books, they are perfect for developing all kinds of different things. One book that every serious flutist should get is "24 Concert Studies for Flute". It is a big yellow book and on the front, the U's look like V's. This book is wonderful. It has many standard repertoir pieces in it as well as things in the front for developing tone, register problems, tec.

What are curved headjoints? How do they affect playing and sound? Do they look different?"

Curved headjoints are exactly what they sound like. The headjoint on a flute had been curved around in a U-shape instead of being straight. They are especially useful for very young players who cannot easily reach all the keys on a normal flute. These headjoints do not affect the sound at all, they sound the same as a straight headjoint, they just make it easier to reach the keys,, which is why some alto flutes and all bass flutes have them. it would be next to impossible to reach the keys with out them!

Does the flute fit into the woodwind or brass family?

This is a perfectly understandable question. Some have been lead to believe that if an instrument does not use a reed, it belongs to the brass family. This is not necessarily true. The flute fits into the woodwind family. True, it does not use a reed, and it is made of metal, but that metal is not brass. The brass family is composed of instruments that are made of brass. The flute is actully in a class all by itself because it is the only instrument that is side-blown, and it does not use a reed but is made of metal. However, it fits into the woodwinds because it is not made of brass and for some other reasons I'm sure I'm not aware of. :)

I'm thinking of learning to play the flute. Is is very difficult to learn, Will it take a long time to learn to play well?

Learning to play the flute is like learning to play any other instrument. How long it takes to learn and how easy it is depends on you. It depends on your musical ability and whether you're a fast or slow learner. I personally think that the flute is one of the easier instruments to learn, oboe and french horn being the hardest. (but don't let that discourage you from learning them if you want to) Learning to play the flute is a whole different ballgame from learning to play it well. To play, all you really have to do is learn how to blow properly, how to hold you fingers and learn which keys to press. Unless you have a lot of talent or are a really fast learner, learning to do anything well takes a lot of time. If you truly enjoy playing, then you will play a lot and practice a lot and the more you pratice, the better you'll get and the less time it will take you to learn to play well. The flute is a very fun instrument to play and I would encourage anyone to try.

Does brand matter? What should I look at when I choose a flute? If I don't know how to play it at all, is it difficult to choose the right one? or should I find a flutist to help me choose one?

Choosing the right flute for you is a very personal thing. One flute of one brand might feel totally different from an identical flute of the very same brand. To choose the flute, you really need to try them out for yourself, that's the only way you'll know if you'll be completely happy with what you have. When you're starting out, just beginning, brand does not really matter. You want one tht will last you, if you're going to go on to a better, more advanced flute, then brand matters, but if you're just learning or only want to play occaisionally or for fun, then brand does not matter much. All that matters is how the flute feels to YOU in YOUR hands. I started out on a Gemeinhardt because that's what my mom had and that's what I learned on. Most of my friends had Yamaha's but I didn't like the way they felt, and still don't. I think they feel oily, but that was probably because the one I learned on was 20 years old and dry as a bone! It could be difficult for you to choose one if you don't know how to play. First of all, I suggest that you rent a flute to learn on first. Then, if you decide you like it, you can either buy it, or you can go pick out one because you'll know how to play by then. Taking another flutist with you might be a good idea, but I would go around and get everyone's opinion first and then try them out myself.

I am considering learning to play the flute and want to buy a good flute that will last. Would it be too hard to play with an open hole model?

YES YES YES and YES!!!! Learning how to play on an open hole is like learning how to ride a 10-speed bike with out training wheels! One should always start out on a student flute and student flutes are not open-hole. The purpose of open-hole flutes are to get a better sound for those that are more advanced. When you are just learning how to play, you should be more concerned with learning how to play the notes than the sound. First of all, you have to put your fingers on the keys a certain way and with an open-hole, your fingers have to be perfectly alligned over the holes so there are no leaks and if you learn wrong, then you'll have to re-learn the right way and that's not fun. I didn't think I was holding it wrong until I got the open-hole and found out that my fingers were in the wrong place because I couldn't cover the holes. So, I had to re-learn it all over again, and I had already been playing for 4 or 5 years already! Besides that, open-holes are usually more expensive, another good reason for waiting to buy a better flute. My advice, start out on a student model closed-hole flute and you'll be much better off.