I've been using the Trevor Wye tone practice book but I'm stuck on the harmonics, when you finger low C but reach top C, I can do others but not top C, although I can play the note when you use top C fingering... Whats going on?

Sorry, can't help. I can't do it either if it's any consolation!!

yeh neither can i, well i dont think so, will have to try agen and get back to u!
try going down to it from a note u can reach the harmonic for, such as E D then try C, when you're on a roll!

do you mean C2 or C3?

QUOTE (sarah-flute @ Apr 11 2005, 11:15 AM)

do you mean C2 or C3?

C3

Weird, I can do that no problem, and I don't actually know how! Sorry if that's not a lot of help. I actually read your post as C4 the first time, and wondered why I couldn't get it to work! You can get something that sounds suspiciously like a very off E3 from C1 fingering too...

But then, I've never had much trouble getting (admittedly off) notes from strange fingerings on the flute, I used to play (unwittingly) with recorder fingering all the time! I can't anymore, my newer flutes mechanism isn't so forgiving.

Which brings me to another point, it could be simply that your flute mechanism doesn't like that fingering for that note, which combined perhaps with (no offence meant here at all, ) less that perfect blowing, makes that particular harmonic unusually difficult.

I dunno,

After having read tamsins post... I actually mean C4. I forgot to include middle C as C1.



I was having a brain dead moment... sorry!

Nope, well I can't do that... just get that off E like I said! We'll have to keep trying! lol

QUOTE (tamsin @ Apr 11 2005, 05:27 PM)

Nope, well I can't do that... just get that off E like I said!

If your cork is in the right place, it's a justly tuned E rather than an equal tempered one. You should get exactly 5 times the frequency of the usual C with that fingering, but your ear has been educated (mostly by listening to pianos) to expect 5.0397.

Hmm, as I've never played the piano in my life, or had much experience to listening to people playing the piano, I doubt it's a piano thats been brainwashing me!

I call it a very off E, becasue due to the fact I'm forcing the note out, all sorts of other 'things' (frequencies I supose) creep in as well. With practise I might get closer to an E at (non-piano) pitch. Saying that though, I seem to recall from GCSE Physics, each note on different instruments is made up of lots of different frequencies (...or was it wavelengths or something else?!) layered on tip of each other to produce something that equates to the frequency associated with each note anyway?

<Is probably digging self very deep into a Scientific hole here>

Wow, having just had an experiment, who would have thought you can get 8 or 9 different notes out of a flute simply with C1 fingering... you can practically get a whole scale out!

I think (in the course of theis experiment) I just about hit C4, but only for a second... so I guess it can be done, with practise!

btw, I also managed to hit an E3 than sounded like an E3... instead of 'off'!

QUOTE (tamsin @ Apr 12 2005, 04:45 PM)

[...]I seem to recall from GCSE Physics, each note on different instruments is made up of lots of different frequencies (...or was it wavelengths or something else?!) layered on tip of each other to produce something that equates to the frequency associated with each note anyway? <Is probably digging self very deep into a Scientific hole here>

That's all generally true, though some intruments have more partials that make a contribution than others do. Flutes and recorders are fairly pure sounds, meaning that only the first two or three frequencies matter. Violins and harpsichords are much more complex, with high frequencies making a contribution even on low notes. If you have plenty of energy at the frequencies of C2, C3, G3, C4, E4, and G4, your ear will tell you that you are hearing C1, even if it is not present. That's how you can hear a low note on a double bass even if it comes to you via a telephone that cuts off below about 200 Hz.

Wavelengths and frequencies are closely related: for any note their product equates to the speed of sound in the medium in which you measure the wavelength.

If it makes you feel better, I can't get C4 either!

Me either! Are you supposed to be able to get C4 from the C1 fingering? I know I can get Bb3 from it... I need to go get my flute and the book...

Me either! Are you supposed to be able to get C4 from the C1 fingering? I know I can get Bb3 from it... I need to go get my flute and the book...