Have any of you encountered throat tightness while playing and even a vibration of the vocal chords while playing? If so, have you found any exercises to remedy this? Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, and if you listen closely to some flute recordings, you'll hear little grunts now and then. Even some of the best players do this.
Don't worry about it too much. But if you want to rid yourself of the noise, learn to open the back of your throat as though you're yawning while playing flute. Gets rid of the vocalizing, and also tends to make your tone big and phat.
really just try to keep a nice embouchure and keep the air moveing freely almost right into the tone hole. practice playing right in front of a mirrior. if it fogs up, your doing something wrong! hope this helps....
And try to relax all muscles that aren't strictly involved in playing the tune - which will include your neck and throat muscles. Look who's talking! I'm guilty of all the bad habits in the books!
Relaxing and getting into that yawny feel is the way to go - no doubt about it. However, paradoxically, one exercise that can help is to intentionally sing into the flute while playing. This makes one aware of what is happening and makes it easier to stop doing it when you want to.
flute player anatomy question
flute player anatomy question
Hello all flutists and whistlers,
Have any of you encountered throat tightness while playing and even a vibration of the vocal chords while playing? If so, have you found any exercises to remedy this? Thanks for sharing!
Sarah
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by songofthelark
Re: flute player anatomy question
Yeah, and if you listen closely to some flute recordings, you'll hear little grunts now and then. Even some of the best players do this.
Don't worry about it too much. But if you want to rid yourself of the noise, learn to open the back of your throat as though you're yawning while playing flute. Gets rid of the vocalizing, and also tends to make your tone big and phat.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by Will Harmon
Re: flute player anatomy question
Similar vein.
Box players do it to I am told...I am one of them and until I started recording myself was not even aware of it.
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by zippydw
Re: flute player anatomy question
really just try to keep a nice embouchure and keep the air moveing freely almost right into the tone hole. practice playing right in front of a mirrior. if it fogs up, your doing something wrong! hope this helps....
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by irishflute93
Re: flute player anatomy question
And try to relax all muscles that aren't strictly involved in playing the tune - which will include your neck and throat muscles. Look who's talking! I'm guilty of all the bad habits in the books!
C. Nicolas
# Posted on September 19th 2008 by C. Nicolas
Re: flute player anatomy question
Relaxing and getting into that yawny feel is the way to go - no doubt about it. However, paradoxically, one exercise that can help is to intentionally sing into the flute while playing. This makes one aware of what is happening and makes it easier to stop doing it when you want to.
# Posted on September 20th 2008 by Crackpot
Re: flute player anatomy question
Or you could work it into your style! I use this occasionally when playing the whistle to get additional grace notes into a run.
If you listen to players like Desi Wilkinson, he uses this to provide a great driving effect to his playing.
# Posted on September 20th 2008 by breandan
Re: flute player anatomy question
Great comments! Thanks all!
# Posted on September 21st 2008 by songofthelark