Chiff and fipple used instrument section
If you don’t have a teacher, check out the books listed below, which will be useful not just for blowing and breath control but ornamentation, learning tunes, and other aspects of Irish flute playing. Plenty of good Irish flute players use tonguing, but it’s done more sparingly than in classical music, and most traditional players use glottal stops instead of tonguing (classical teachers train you to avoid glottal stops!). This is a big difference between classical flute playing, where tonguing is used to separate staccato notes, and Irish flute playing, where glottal stops are more commonly used. By “breath control” I really mean two things: 1) the ability to maintain a strong and steady tone through to the end of a musical phrase-whether that phrase is long or short-and 2) the skill of separating notes by stopping your breath between them. That’ll strengthen your own embouchure and help you get a stronger, more consistent tone and better tuning throughout the flute.īreath control is another important topic that’s best learned from a teacher, video, or book. Once you are able to get notes in the second octave, try playing long tones on the highest notes with a goal of making them as clear and pure as you can (without a lot of breath sound). If you’re a beginner it may take a long time before you can produce a strong, steady tone there aren’t any shortcuts. My advice is to listen to lots of different players until you feel yourself gravitating toward a sound that you like, and try to emulate it. What’s the “right sound?” Listening to a range of Irish flute players will give you a range of possible tones, from breathy and rhythmic to dark and pure.
I don’t think the technique matters so much as long as you can get the right sound.
#Chiff and fipple used instrument section how to
You will find some videos online of James Galway demonstrating how to play the flute using a relaxed embouchure he insists that flute players should avoid the more common tight “smiling” embouchure but in fact that’s what most traditional Irish players use. If you watch any number of traditional Irish flute players you’ll see a wide variety of mouth shapes and blowing angles: this is one of those areas where the end result is more important than the technique used to produce it. The lower notes can be harder for beginners.
If your flute’s head joint can’t be removed, you’ll have an easier time learning to get a sound out of the flute if you play the G (the note that sounds on a D flute when just the top three holes are closed). In the very beginning stages it’s easiest if you take the head joint right off the flute and blow into the embouchure hole until you can get a sound. Grey Larsen’s The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle has some tips as well. The next-best thing to having a teacher is to watch a video: you can do a search on youtube to find many free instructional videos (aimed mainly at classical flute players) that can help you get started.
#Chiff and fipple used instrument section trial
Learning how to get a sound out of a flute is best accomplished by going to a teacher or learning through trial and error.