The opening concert was held in the Sergei Prokofiev Hall and featured the J.S. Bach Six Sonatas for Flute and the Partita in A Minor. There were two concerts on the second day of the festival. The first included works by Bach, Mozart, Liadov, Schocker, and Pozin which was performed by the newly-created flute orchestra while the second showcased the four Mozart flute quartets. On the third day of the festival Denis Bouriakov taught a masterclass and the Moscow Flute Center exhibited flutes. The evening concert was dedicated to past composers and flutists of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra including Zusman, Kohler, and Tsybina. The fourth day featured a masterclass taught by Bouriakov and ended with a concert of piccolo music. The festival concluded with a grand concert in the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre which was broadcast live and could be seen worldwide. Featured performers were Sofia Wieland, Maria Fedotova, Tatiana Khvatova, Denis Lupachev, Nikolai Mokhov, Sophia Cyprus (harp), Denis Bouriakov and Erin Bouriakov with the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. The concert included works by Vivaldi, Koehler, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart and Sibelius. With the success of the festival, the organizers hope to do it again.

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Step One: Breath Attack
    Play a second-octave quarter note with a sudden thrust of the air without using the tongue. This is called a breath attack. The diaphragm is engaged to increase the speed of the air.

Step Two: Adding the Tongue
    Start by playing four tongued, staccato quarter notes in a row (preferably in the second octave) quarter note = 60 using the T attack. Repeat the four notes using the T attack and adding the sudden air pulse or breath attack in step one as if saying ha-ha-ha-ha without pronouncing the syllables.
    Note that the notes in step one have a business-like, plain quality, while the notes in step two have an additional energetic and spirited nature. This happens because you are investing extra energy to play the notes, emerging from the most basic tonal element,  the air itself.

Development
    In order to develop this skill, practice breath attacks without using the tongue as if saying ha on each note. Before beginning the following practice suggestions, be sure the embouchure hole is aligned with your aperture. Use a mirror. Learn to lift the instrument to the embouchure in an efficient, organized and consistent manner. Hold the flute at a proper right angle to your head. Proper alignment is crucial to the immediate response of the tone when starting a breath attack.

Five-Note Scales
    Play the following five-note scale on each ascending chromatic step with the breath attack, eighth note = 60. Play very rhythmically and staccato, and breathe in between the notes. Minimize movement of the embouchure throughout and keep the jaw and throat relaxed. Avoid any sound from the vocal chords or chewing motion in the jaw. Work to achieve good tonal focus and immediate response. Do not crack the notes in the second octave. Increase speed very gradually over time, using e =108 as a general goal. As you become proficient, repeat in the first octave.

    As you become proficient, gradually add in the T attack (breath attack plus T attack). Try using different degrees of tonguing, from very light to a heavy accent. Take frequent breaks as the exercise is quite fatiguing. Varying the amount of the tongue attack helps achieve different emotional characterizations.

Larger Intervals
    After mastering this approach on the five-note scale exercise, practice the technique using Marcel Moyse’s De La Sonorite pages 16-22. Once you are achieving consistent, good results, move on to Joachim Andersen’s Twenty-Four Progressive Studies for Flute, Op. 33, No. 2 and Twenty Instructive Studies, Op. 30, No. 3. Always play very rhythmically, breathing between the notes. Increase the tempo but make sure that the quality is still excellent. With practice, one can learn to play quite rapid passages of staccato notes with this attack, giving the music tremendous energy and buoyancy.

Energizer
    The following well-known passages benefit greatly from this technique. On the following page, look at Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, movement 3. The single notes, both at the start and at #1, and all of the eighth notes in this passage can receive energized pulses of air with a firmly-tongued staccato. The accents in measures 9-10 will benefit greatly from this attack as well. Take care to start with a gentle attack in measure 11.

Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano

    In Paul Hindemith’s Sonate for Flute and Piano, movement 3, all of the tongued eighth notes can be enlivened by a subtle pulsing of the air column along with the articulation. This results in a high level of excitement for the entire movement. The eighth notes should be long, as staccatos will sound rather mechanical.

Paul Hindemith’s Sonate for Flute and Piano

    In Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, movement 1, keep the air column alive with the staccato articulations to project the character of a scherzo. A little vibrato on the accents also helps. Small groups of notes also come to life using this technique.

    In Philippe Gaubert’s Nocturne et Allegro scherzando, measures 53-61, give the sixteenth and eighth note groups a little pulse of air with the articulation each time for the scherzando feel and a high level of rhythmic definition. A bit of vibrato really boosts the energy.

    In this passage from Alphonse Duvernoy’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 45, Measures 7-10, the tenuto notes and accented neighboring tones can have a very warm, expressive pulse of air, with vibrato, using a very gentle tongue with the attack.

    Learning to start the notes with the air itself benefits your playing in many ways. It aids with basic focus, develops embouchure strength and stability, produces a higher sensitivity to air placement, and helps develop firmer control over air flow and vibrato as well. 

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Vary the Location
    Do you always teach or practice in the same space? In many music schools, the practice rooms are windowless and quite small. It is easy to stop projecting when practicing in such an environment. Playing in a classroom, recital hall, or large rehearsal space can do wonders in opening your sound. Look around and practice and teach in as many different locations as you can.
    When I taught at the university, there was one classroom called the mirror room because there were mirrors covering each of the four walls. Whenever I had the opportunity to teach in this room, I always took it. With the many mirrors both the student and I could view the student’s set up from every angle. Sometimes I taught flute choir in this room. After a session in the mirror room, the ensemble’s playing always improved.
    Another favorite place to teach was the recital hall. The acoustics were outstanding so it was often rented out to professional musicians who were recording CDs. The hall had about 500 seats in a stadium arrangement so non-performing students had an unrestricted view of a classmate performing with the piano. There were also several pianos and a harpsichord to choose from to achieve just the right sound. One year I was assigned this hall for my weekly studio class. Since we had such a marvelous performing space for the term, I decided that every week each flutist in the studio would perform in class to learn to work the acoustics of the hall. Several students remarked that what they had learned about playing off the acoustics of the hall had helped them make better musical choices when playing in the larger symphony hall.
    I prefer practicing in a dry space because with my limited practice time, I need to fix problem areas quickly. Playing in a dry space tells it like it is. It can be depressing because there is no echo to camouflage the sound. If you are having trouble with flow though, practicing in a vibrant space (a space with hard surfaces and no carpet or curtains) makes you sound better than you really do and will free you so the music flows freely. It is generally helpful to practice in both types of surroundings.
 
Studios
    Most teachers set up their studios and leave everything in place year after year. Rearranging the furniture or redecorating a studio can inspire a fresh approach to teaching. Changing the décor also offers the opportunity to declutter your office. For some students, the clutter in an office is distracting and prevents them from doing their best.
    Consider the lighting. Many buildings have overhead fluorescent fixtures. Through the years, the bulbs become loose and begin to hum. This humming can be tiring for both teacher and student. Recently I have seen a trend towards indirect lighting. You can accomplish this with lamps (both table and floor) and special lamps for the music stand and piano rack. When I changed the lighting in my studio, every student commented how much more relaxing the atmosphere was. At the end of the day I realized I was not as tired as usual because I had not listened to the humming of the bulbs for eight hours.
    I have a colleague who purchased additional music stands for her office. She selected a silver one, a red one, and a purple one in addition to the standard black ones. When a student played the Borne Carmen Fantasy, she switched the student to the red stand The silver stand was used for contemporary music, and the purple stand was for bon bons like the Doppler Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy. The music stands became a visual prompt and set the character of the piece.
    Take a fresh look around the room with an eye to what you could change. After a visit to the art department, I noticed that several professors had removed the ceiling tiles from their studios and vastly expanded their cubic space. For a flute studio this could improve the acoustics of the space, but might also affect the sound proofing. If the studio has too much echo, consider fiber wall hangings. I hung one of a flute player that I had been given by a former student from Guatemala. It was not only interesting to look at but absorbed just the right amount of sound. For another studio, I hung an antique quilt.
    When I was teaching in Idaho, I lived on the edge of a desert so the air was very dry. At certain times of the year, I kept a humidifier running in my studio. The students always remarked how much easier it was to breathe with more humidity. Plants are an excellent way to improve air quality and add to the overall ambiance of the space. Avoid plants with flowers as many students have allergies.
    Consider repainting the walls. Generally, a color that stays out of the way is best. You can bring in personality through art work, diplomas, and concert posters. If the carpet in your studio is aging but cannot be replaced, an inexpensive area rug will freshen the space.
    Students frequently wait for lessons outside the door, so place interesting and informative things in this space.  At the beginning of one term, I typed up my favorite quotations by Nadia Boulanger. Every Monday morning, I posted a new quotation on the door. My students loved them and colleagues commented that they enoyed them too. 

The Flute Bag
    Take a good look at your bag. Be honest. How does it look? After carrying it around every day and sitting it on the stage floor for rehearsals, there is a likelihood that it is filthy. If the bag seems worth saving, then throw it in the washing machine on a gentle cycle. I was more than pleased with the results. As you repack the bag, think carefully about what you are putting back in it. We all carry around too much stuff and then wonder at the end of the day why a shoulder or back aches. Determine what are the bare essentials that you absolutely need to carry around.
    If your bag is torn, then it is time to replace it. There are some excellent choices on the market today to select from. If you travel a lot, you may want to consider a small bag with wheels. Trevor Wye arrived in Idaho with a roll-about that contained all of the flutes he needed for his Variations show. If you live in a large city, you may want to select a bag that does not scream, “I have a valuable musical instrument in here.”
    William Cowper’s poem, “The Task” (1785) says it best, “Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor." Whether it is in teaching or practicing, exploring what we do, how we do it, and where we do it can invigorate lessons and practice sessions.

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Flute Bag Essentials
Flute(s)/piccolo
Cleaning rods
Music
2 sharpened pencils
Screw driver
Spring hook
Glasses/earplugs
Datebook or lesson schedule
Phone (for contacts, music dictionary, tuner, metronome, recording device, Kindle)

Optional
Music stand
Flute stands
Post-it notes
Band-Aids, aspirin etc.
Additional music/exercise books
Snacks

The post Changing Things Up appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Where did you do your undergraduate and graduate training?
    After high school I went to the Royal Academy in London and began working with William Bennett. I studied four years there, three as an undergraduate and one post-grad. I also studied with his wife, Michie Bennett, for technique and fundamentals. My favorite, most memorable lessons with WIBB were on Marcel Moyse’s Tone Development Through Interpretation and 24 Little Melodies with Variations. He would teach students how to develop the speed of the vibrato through a line to give the notes of most importance the fastest vibrato. The other side of this would be to de-emphasize less important notes or resolutions with less vibrato. For example in the First Easy Melodic Study, he would sing “Oh how I LOVE you” with the first phrase. He would develop the vibrato through the first three notes (Oh How I ), then show the appoggiatura with the fastest vibrato on the fourth note (LOVE), and then have slower vibrato on the fifth note (you) since it was the resolution of the appoggiatura. The other essential element was accurately playing repeated notes by diminishing the first note ever so slightly, and then with the reiteration of the same note, articulating with more vibrato to show the emphasis and repetition. In a big hall, he would say that without that attention to detail, the repeated note would not register. It would just sound like mush, or at worst, a tie. In other words, the player should diminish (vibrato and volume) at the very last minute on the I and really vibrate on the downbeat (LOVE). This is what good string players do as well. Players should build phrases in this way – developing this idea even more in the second phrase. In the third phrase, modify the amount of diminishment (on you) as the phrase goes on and keep the energy going through the phrase.
This teaches players to become flexible in sound and articulation. It is learning syntax, grammar, punctuation, and diction so you can talk through your instrument. It is not enough to play with a nice tone and nice vibrato; you have to respect inflection, tension and resolution, and reflect everything in the energy of the sound. Vibrato is really energy, and the energy modulates. Sound is never static; it is always in motion. This is how you turn sound or noise into meaning and tell a story and engage the audience. When I look back on these years, I feel incredibly lucky because everyone was so supportive and positive. It was about making the music come alive and never just a matter of sheer execution.
 
What was your first playing job after college?
    I actually missed graduation because I had a gig. David Nicholson had spoken to me candidly as I was auditioning for college. He cautioned me against going into music as a career, as he would caution his own children. (Ironically, his own daughter became an actress, and his son is a French horn player.) I did appreciate this bit of wisdom. It made me understand the gravity of practicing and preparing. If I could go back now and caution my 18 year-old self, it would be to practice intelligently and fully, but not obsessively, and beyond endurance. I was overly anxious about getting a job. So, I never turned down a gig and missed my graduation.
    My first professional position, at age 22, was as co-principal flute with the BBC Orchestra. This was after a two-year trial. After the BBC, I met my husband David Harding, who is a viola player, at a chamber music festival. At that time he was with a string quartet at the Indiana University South Bend campus. I got a one-year position to teach flute at the University of Michigan (for which I was too young). After that David took a job in Vancouver, Canada, teaching at the University of British Colombia, and I ended up as the adjunct flute teacher there, as well.
    While we were in Vancouver, I became temporarily disheartened about music as a career. The business of music was too much for me. It did not match my expectations and ideals. I started a new master’s degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in graduate liberal studies including literature, comparative religions, political science, and philosophy. I encourage my students to understand their choice about playing. It is always a choice, we are under no compulsion to play. We are not bound to this, life is much bigger; this is just one aspect of self. It is a beautiful part, and even a main part, but we are more than our music. I decided to come back to music and never give up on my ideals, and that is when I auditioned for the principal flute position in Pittsburgh.

What do your daily practices include?
    The goal is to have such a great technique that you can do anything musically, without even having to think about it. Therefore, most of my practice is pure technique and building kinesthetic memory and effortlessness. I practice tone and flexibility exercises ad infinitum and do a lot of singing and playing of long tones to open up resonance and free up my breathing. I practice harmonics everyday (slurred), lifting the airstream like a searchlight as I go through the registers (moving the airstream up and down by moving the bottom lip and corners forward or back). You can experience this without the flute by blowing onto your hand with a flute embouchure and them moving the airstream up and down your hand. Think of it as moving from the bottom register (base of the hand) to the high notes (at your fingertips). Imagine that the airstream is a beam of light that can illuminate the sound through all of the registers. With a great technique (and the greatest aspect of technique is tone production), you will have the confidence to open up your peripheral awareness. For example, when I play Dvo˘rák’s New World Symphony, I want to be aware of the essence of what the cellos are saying in their beautiful opening phrase and respond to it emotionally with my own answer, just as an actor would respond to the essence or meaning of the what a fellow actor has just said. This is very different expressively than merely saying the lines, or playing your part on cue – no matter how beautifully you have prepared it. Music is a living, breathing art form. It is not wooden and should be responsive, alive, vital. When you take the time to develop an impeccable technique, you can really focus on making the music come alive.

Igniting the Breath
    The composer Reynaldo Hahn, best known for his Art Songs once wrote that of the myriad  approaches to supporting the sound, he felt the best philosophy was to support with the heart. Similarly, in the book Vocal Wisdom: Maxims of Giovanni Battista Lamperti, Lamperti talks about igniting the breath with the desire to communicate. Legendary Chicago Symphony tuba player Arnold Jacobs talked about uniting the expressive drive (the song) with the dynamic and living air stream (the wind).
    Flutists are artists of the breath. Phrasing is more than just crafting a line, it is imbuing sound with life and meaning. Flutists do that fundamentally through the breath – accept no substitutes. Really commit to what you want to say and put it right into the airstream. As Jacobs said, let the air lead, and the muscles follow. If you let the muscles lead (i.e. tightening the muscles around your ribs, or throat, or diaphragm too much), you will be in an antagonistic relationship to the breath where you have to push and pull the airstream. This greatly limits expression.
    Think of the airstream as having the dynamic energy of a river or the waves of the sea. Try not to dam the river with too much muscle tension as this will cause the sound to be static and even stagnant. It is important to recognize that the goal is not relaxation. Far from it. The airstream should be alive and dynamic and pretty fast. Do not cage in the breath or the sound with excess muscle tension. Release the breath. The better you release it, the more easily it will return.
    This takes quite a lot of courage as flutists are often afraid of running out of breath. However, take the risk and see what happens. Over time you can build up a wonderful elasticity with the breath, and that gives a lot of freedom of expression. One of the exercises I do at the beginning of my warmup to invite this free exchange of the in-breath and out-breath is singing and playing long tones at the same time. Allow the air to flow effortlessly back into the body after releasing the sung out-breath with great freedom. Try to stay out of your own way and just observe. An effortless in-breath starts with breathing out really well. The key word here is to allow with no pushing, shoving, or compromising. Let the throat be an empty pipe. Singing is so natural, it helps flutists tap into the body’s intrinsic ability and cultivate the wave power of the breath.It also connects breath and voice with the flute, so that over time flutists can express themselves as directly as if they were speaking or singing – igniting the breath with meaning.

What are your thoughts on creating beautiful tone colors and dynamics?
    When the body is free from any unnecessary tension, then we have the chance to become like a singer and use its resonance of the body to help us achieve expressive ideas. Quite literally you can put the expression into the airstream (speed/intensity) and if the body is like a blank slate (free from tight shoulders, locked knees, collapsed neck etc.) then the ideas come through loud and clear. Flutists can help things along by thinking about where the sound is resonating and further develop the colors by using different vowel sounds like a singer. I mean to literally make the embouchure and inside of the mouth in the shape of A, I, OO, or E. The airstream is a flutist’s medium of expression and should never be treated in a functional way as merely fuel to get from A to B. I always invite my students to be artists of the breath. That is where the spark comes from. For me the Alexander Technique is a way of helping the breath to be as free as possible, and this in turn allows the expression to be as free and direct as possible.
    In the beginning, my reasons for taking Alexander lessons were very prosaic. As a student, I was practicing compulsively, my shoulders were up by my ears, and I was in pain. The Royal Academy in London offered Alexander lessons. Initially, I studied Alexander for the short-term benefits of playing without pain, but then found that my sound started to open up. I could not get enough of this. It was amazing, recognizing and making the connection that how I was using my body was having a direct result in my sound.

What is your favorite music to perform?
    Anything by Debussy or Bach. My favorite collaboration is teaching and playing with William Bennett. Traveling to Japan, Canada, or the UK, and teaching with him in the summers affords me opportunities to play duets with him. I especially cherish the opportunities to play his duet arrangements of the Brahms Waltzes. I played with him at his 70th birthday party at the British Flute Society convention, and now we just celebrated his 80th birthday. Playing a Chopin nocturne or the Waltzes with him ignites a spark because there is so much warmth in his playing. I love reading his body language and getting pulled along by his phrasing.
    I also enjoy playing chamber music with my husband, an amazing, sensitive viola player whose sound is just imprinted on my brain. We perform together at chamber music festivals andhave a trio (Trio Verlaine) with our friend, harpist Heidi Krutzen. She is currently principal harpist in the London Philharmonia, so we are not together frequently. I truly enjoy playing the intricate and delicate work associated with flute, harp and viola trios.
    My advice to flutists everywhere is to enjoy playing, enjoy music, and pass that joy along. Pablo Casals said that playing an instrument should increase people’s confidence, not their fear.   

Trio Verlaine

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Recordings
Hour of Dreaming for flute and piano, Beep Records
Taheke, 20th Century Masterpieces for flute and harp, Skylark Music
Trio Verlaine: Six Departures, Ravello Records and Fin de Siècle, Skylark Music
    Info about purchasing these recordings can be found at

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    Lorna McGhee has performed as guest principal with the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, London Symphony, Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Before coming to North America in 1998, she was co-principal flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, England. As a soloist, she has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonia, Victoria Symphony, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, San Luis Obispo Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
    In addition to her current position at Carnegie Mellon University, she previously taught at the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia. She has given masterclasses at universities, conservatoires, including Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music, and flute festivals in the UK, USA, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and Canada, She teaches at summer schools, including the Pender Island Flute Retreat, the William Bennett International Summer School, and the Galway Flute Festival. McGhee studied with David Nicholson in Scotland and with Michie and William Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

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    Flutists sometimes fall into behaviors which are less than completely rational. They lick their lips while simultaneously trying to inhale, stand stiff are a board while struggling to take deep breaths, dance while playing, wave the flute like a baton, or wait until the last second to breath before a long phrase. With each new group of students I see the same unfortunate instincts recur, including the desire to raise the tongue in the high register, to smile while playing, and to blow with a too-slow airstream in the low register.
    It can be frustrating for teachers to see the same problem habits in student after student. A closer look reveals that even if some of these behaviors are less than perfectly suited to achieving fine flute playing, not everything students do wrong is irrational. A fair percentage of these bad behaviors actually accomplish something important. Figuring out why students are doing something less than ideal is the first step to showing them better ways to create the desired result.

Self-awareness
    A first step is to become more physically aware of how the body works and how to use it. While completing my doctoral degree at The Juilliard School, I took an Alexander Technique class that helped me become more deeply aware of how I use my body. After each Alexander session, I would find myself sitting in my next class,  heavily influenced by Alexander Technique practice, releasing tension in my left foot, wondering why my elbow stiffened when writing with a pen, or why I clenched my jaw or bunched up my tongue for no apparent reason. Becoming more self-aware physically helped me relax in my life and as a flutist. It also taught me that my first instinct in doing something might not be the best choice.

Controlling the Airspeed
    As a young, less experienced teacher, I was perplexed why year after year new students arrived with the same bad physical habits. One of the most ubiquitous is raising the tongue inside the mouth, especially when playing in the high register. This clearly leads to a tight and shrill, less resonant sound. Before fixing the problem, it is helpful to consider why so many students adopt this method of playing.
    In order to get the flute high register to speak, the airstream must be sufficiently fast. When students begin playing the flute, they blow hard to get the high register to pop out. This is a legitimate solution, but often not the best one. Students eventually realize that they need to be able to produce a fast airstream without blowing as hard as they can.
    Many flute teachers compare how air travels through the aperture with the way water moves through the nozzle of a hose. In this analogy, the embouchure is shaped to guide the air as the nozzle directs the water. If the nozzle is relatively open, the water will dribble down to the ground. However, if the nozzle is tightened, the water is forced to move much more quickly. This is because the same amount of water goes through a smaller opening. For the high register to speak well and in tune at a variety of dynamics, the aperture is made smaller.
    While making the aperture smaller is the ideal, another less efficient way to increase air speed is raising the tongue inside of the mouth. This is quite a bit more practical and efficient than perpetually blowing as hard as possible, and is what almost all young flutists fall back on instinctively.
    Returning to the analogy of water coming through a hose, raising the tongue in the mouth is similar to squeezing the hose near the nozzle. While this would have the effect of forcing the water to go through a smaller passageway more quickly, it is clearly more efficient to adjust the nozzle instead.
    For this analogy to work, there must be a good and steady supply of water through the hose or in the case of a flutist, a reliable and constant supply of air. The hose is attached to a faucet that provides a steady source of water, and flutists should provide a solid foundation of support that will lead to a constant airstream. Many students, especially the young or more timid ones, narrow the space in the mouth and throat because they are not supporting and blowing sufficient amounts of air in the first place. Narrowing the channel through which the airstream passes allows students to support and blow less yet still produce the air speed required to create a flute tone. Tightening in the tongue, mouth and throat is never a good means of creating faster air speed. It is certainly not acceptable as a form of support and  will cost players abundantly in terms of resonance and beauty of sound.

Observation
    I have learned that it is much simpler to convince students to change bad habits when they understand why they are tempted towards those habits in the first place. If students understand that the tongue is raised or the throat is tightened because the necessary air speed results, they can then intelligently look for alternative solutions to the problem of air speed while beginning to let go of the bad habit. When teachers instead simply tell students to lower the tongue and open the oral cavity, students struggle more to do so. The body subconsciously understands the need for air speed and remembers how it has (less desirably) created air speed in the past. With a better understanding of why students are doing something, it is easier to find alternate, preferable means to accomplish this subconscious goal of creating a fast-enough airstream to produce a good flute tone, especially in the high register.

Smiley Embouchure
    Other bad habits can be explained by a student’s need to accomplish something essential to flute playing. The problem of smiling while blowing often comes from a subconscious effort to control the airstream.
    When flutists with a smiley embouchure are only told to “relax the corners of the mouth,” they instantly feel a loss of control and want to return to the previous, familiar and comfortable smiling embouchure. Instead, try explaining to students that this feeling of control can be maintained by bringing the corners of the lips forward (“say ooh”). Students soon realize that control of the airstream is retained while more flexibility is gained. This also tends to lead them to relax automatically. They learn to trust that the new, less tight, and less spread embouchure can in fact aim the air more accurately.

Low Register
    Flutists learn early on to create the low register by blowing with a gentler airstream. In flute playing, the air column must angle more sharply downward to create low-register notes. Students intuitively realize that the air angles down when they do not blow as hard. Returning to the hose analogy, when the faucet is adjusted to let less water flow through the hose, the water coming out of the hose angles more towards the ground. If flutists blow less air, the airstream angles down more sharply, and the low register speaks better.
    Of course, young flute students usually do not think about the reasons behind how hard or gently they decide to blow. They instinctively respond to their bodies’ feedback and realize that it is easier to make the low register speak by angling the airstream more sharply down into the flute. An insightful teacher can help students understand that air angle does not need to be connected to air speed. One can play in the flute’s low register with as much air speed as one desires, getting a full tone, better resonance, and better projection, as long as the air is correctly angled down into the flute. Once students have this epiphany, they can aim the airstream towards the elbow or any other envisioned point, training the embouchure rather than decreasing air speed.
    Students display these and other problematic habits in an effort to make the flute respond. Understanding the instincts that create these bad habits will help teachers explain to students how to accomplish the same goals through better means. 

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