Higher notes

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Nichole on August 1, 2011 at 8:47am

I had that problem as well, and what helped me was when my teacher told me to act like the air I'm putting through my horn is drilling a hole in a wall, meaning put more air through your horn, don't tighten up, relax your shoulders, and eat raw meat, meaning do not be afraid to be play and be gusto when you play. That helped me, and now I am not afraid to play high, or a little loud, because I know that my voice is just as important as any other instrument in the band.

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Permalink Reply by Chrystene Mallett on August 18, 2011 at 5:12pm

I help out with my schools JR High flutes and each and every one of them had the same problem!  At some point, some one had told them not to play loud.  Which is understandable, but with beginner flutes, they need to play loud, and I agree with Ashley, eat raw meat!  Blow your director/teacher's hair back!  When I was teaching them, I held a piece of paper in front of them and told them to blow it back while they were playing.  I moved it farther and farther back until they got the tone down.  If you still haven't fixed the problem, go ahead and try that.  :)

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Nichole on September 20, 2011 at 9:17pm

And air speed doesn't always control your volume. If you have good air speed and are able to blow that paper away, you can change your volume. But I agree, beginners should be able to play loud so that they do not feel like they have to pinch and be quiet. It is better to start off loud and go down from there, than to play quiet and have to get loud. Lets say you leave a place with around 12 flutes and you become the only one, in my case I had to play so much louder because I could not depend on the other 11 because they were nonexistent. So kick a bad habit in the butt before it actually becomes a bad habit.

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Permalink Reply by Janet K Bordeaux on September 25, 2011 at 12:34am

I fought frustration with this, too. I don't think ther is a "fun" way to tackle those notes. Here are the things that have helped me:
1. My teacher didn't make a big issue out of iit, or insist that I conquer them all at once.(I'm an adult student.)
2. She gave me a chance to work into them, by giving me etudes that only went up to my hardest note. As that note became easier, she would add a half step or whole step to it.
3. When I struggled with some of those notes, she would acknowledge that those are just plain HARD notes! Somehow knowing they are hard for everyone helped me to keep working at them.
4. Part of what made them hard for me is that the fingerings are all different from the lower octaves, so not only was I struggling to lift my air high enough, not squeak it, but I had to think about every finger movement. I did a lot of practice moving my fingers through the patterns without having a flute in my hands. Or just holding the flute and moving back and forth from one note I knew to the next one I was trying to learn..not playing the note, just focusing on the finger movements.

I think one thing that makes a good teacher is the ability to change their approach to fit the way a student learns. I look forward to hearing it what works for your student.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly McKinney on February 3, 2012 at 6:53pm

I used to be a triathlete.  I was very much into researching the 'best' way to do this and that.  The cycling portion of races were always a problem for me.  I asked someone who was really great a cycling one time how I should get better.  He replied, "ride lots".  

I think this analogy applies here.  The best way to get better at the high notes is to play 'play lots'.

I teach all kinds of instruments and sometimes it helps to look at other instruments to see how they do it. 

The trumpet, for example does lots of lip slurs, which strengthen the buzz and the embouchure.  This is a great place to start for your student.  Have your student do intervals, slurring notes up.  Another thing I like to do is to have my students do long tones and I add a higher note each week.  We will have contests to see how long she can hold out the note without cracking it.  I will write down the seconds.  

This might be a little beyond your student at this point, but  I have found a great little book that has short, 3 line exercises for high notes.  It is by Thomas Filas, called Top Register Studies for Flute.  I think it is a great little book, the songs are nice and if you go through it, spend time on one per week, your upper register technique will definitely improve.

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Permalink Reply by Hermione Augenblik on July 27, 2012 at 11:59am

It helped me a lot to play harmonics on lower notes. I.e. playing the original note, then let it jump as high as possible. In the meantime, my teacher told me - one by one - a few things that I should change or pay attention to. In the end, my main problems were to get too tense and forget about breathing support. I think, the best hint my teacher gave me, was to think "up" when playing lower notes and "down" when playing higher notes.

 

Sorry, this comes very late for your student, but perhaps it will help another one.

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Permalink Reply by Megan on December 24, 2012 at 9:53pm

I'm in middle school to I'm in 8th grade, so next year I'll be at the high school. "I'm an exceptionally well flutist," I've been told this many times from different directors too. I don't have troubles with high notes, as I practice from upper high school leveled pieces, but other girls do. They struggle with focusing their air.

A "fun" way to practice getting notes out is to bring in a bag or other container of rice. With the rice put them into plastic cups or on a napkin, one for each student. Then have them put a piece of rice in their mouth and have them pretend to spit it out. By pretend I mean to have them do the motions for it but don't spit it out unless they are going to clean it up. This exercise is a fun way to get the right lip structure. After running out of rice or after about ten minutes of this have them pick up their flute and imagine they are spitting out that rice. Have them say how to breathe in and too while they play then they should get that high D out. You can message me if you have any questions about this.

****Tip: make sure that none of the girls have the thumb down if they use thumb/alternate/trill Bb.

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