I have a pupil who has been learning for some time. She is just beginning to become more confident when playing in the middle register, however, her sound is very breathy.

Any tips on how to help her get rid of this?

David

Is she blowing straight across the mouth hole with her lips parallel to the line of the flute?

Is she now able to make an embouchure that produces an airstream no wider than the mouth hole, so that there's no noise from air going round the sides and not helping to make the note?

Have you tried moving the flute slightly lower or higher on her lower lip? People lips vary so much that that can make quite a difference to the sound.

Have you tried getting her to turn the head of the flute slightly more towards or away from her, to change the angle of the airstream?

Hope something out of that lot may help.

Good luck!

Thanks, I will try those. It's difficult, because I don't actually ever remember having that problem when I was learning.

I think another problem is she is very tense when she plays - she holds her lips and jaw etc. very tightly against the instrument. I love to find some ways of curing this!

David

I was taught, and teach, a flexible embouchure that uses a lot of the muscles in the mouth area to vary the size and shape of the embouchure, controlling dynamics. I can imagine that tense lips and jaw might result in the air escaping through a shallow slit rather than a more rounded hole, which would certainly affect the tone.

I found it fascinating to look at a diagram of the muscles of the face (in Gray's Anatomy). They are extremely complicated, which is reasonable when you think what a variety of expressions and activities they have to control!

Too get rid of a breathy sound you practise with a tone book and also do your scales!

Hi,

Not a flautist, but I was wondering - would encouraging your pupil to play the fife help? It sounds from your description like she might need to relax her embouchure; recently, Sarah had some success with one of her pupils using a fife.

Could be way off though; sorry if I am .