Hi,
I've been recording myself recently, and although I think I might have improved in some areas, in others I am going backwards.

One of my main issues has always been tensing up, I am not a relaxed player. I have memories of trying to change my right hand wrist (it's still not right) but it just won't relax. But anyway, the main point of this topic is that when I am trying to play quietly, in the middle register, I tense up around the jaw. I can feel it, and it even feels pressurising on my head. But how do I stop this? It's not in all pieces, just some. I asked my teacher, and he said that my message is telling my jaw to tense, so I have to send a message to get my jaw to relax. But how do I do that?

Another problem is that when I am tense, I go back to playing with vibrato all the time. I developed vibrato naturally, so have never come to control it. Especially between October and January, I did so much work on playing with an open throat and I came on a lot in that respect. But now, I seem to slip back into my old habits sometimes. This isn't helped by the fact that my lessons are 2 or even 3 weeks apart, and I won't have had one for 6 weeks by the time I next have one.

So, any help will be good, especially so I don't sound terrible in my recital in a fortnight.

Do you know the exercises where you sing whilst playing? I developed a nanny-goat vibrato over my years of no lessons and this is what I have been using to get rid of it.
My teacher also makes me do exagerated yawns if my jaw is loooking too tense.

Thanks for that! I've not done either of those as exercises before, so I'll have a go

I'm no expert, and nowhere near your grade, but I've found when my tone varies or my fingering goes awry, I try standing in front of a full length mirror (or my bathroom mirror if I want the 'echo' from the tiles !, where I can see my head/shoulders & best part of the flute). That way I can see if my shoulders are hunched or if I'm tensing up my face etc. Essentially I then just relax everything - I don't even think about playing the flute in any way, just that I "rest" it against my chin, right thumb and left finger/thumb crook. Then just play a note without any fingering (I know it's not proper!) - not even c# - sort of just 'bouncing' the flute on my right thumb to relax. Then I try B natural/Bb etc where I'm just 'sighing' into the flute but concentrating on the 'squeeze' of my left hand fingering and going down the scale rather than up rather than thinking about facial muscles and stuff. Once I'm comfortable I move back up the scale - if the note flows then I'm happy and play it for as long as possible holding the 'pure' tone as I move up and concentrate on my lip position rather than jaw - the fingering is normally already relaxed by that point. The way I think of it is that the muscles/oxygenated blood which cramp up are in the lips not the "bone" of the jaw so more likely to cause pain/cramp if I don't relax that area. (Another way I think of it is to say ooh into the flute rather than ahh or eeh). Sorry if this sounds daft but as a beginner it's what I find works. There's been times when I've had a 'vibration' appear in notes which is weird and sometimes sounds ace for a second, but I know I'm not ready for it as it's uncontrolled and not the sustained vibrato that would come with practice.

Thanks very much for that It does help!