I'm a clarinet & sax player, & can't get a noise out of a flute. I've tried different mouthshapes, but still can only just get a noise out of the smaller head piece. Can anyone help? What is the shape?

Have a look here for various embouchure shapes. They vary so much because everyone's mouth is a different shape, there is no 'one size fits all'.

You could try this: put your lower lip over your top lip and then blow as you roll it down (so that you look like a sulky toddler ). This is a good method to begin with as it encourages a relaxed mouth shape.

Another analogy which might help is thinking of it as 'squirting' rather than blowing into the flute.

Above all, keep trying! I know a professional flautist who took six weeks to produce a sound when he first started playing.

The shape is very different from the sax/clarinet embouchure, so forget about that mouthshape! Andante's posted much more helpful stuff that I'd be able to come up with, but wanted to second "keep trying"!

Also, different headjoints suit different people's embouchure.

There isn't a certain shape that your mouth has to go into, people play in so many different ways.

But as people have said, it is a much different embouchure to that of a sax or clarinet. Remember you are not blowing into the flute as such but across it.

Hope this helps, good luck!

make sure your breathing over it rather than blowing! pull back the corners of your mouth and relax the lower lip. i dont really know how to describe it!

It's al little like the shape your mouth is when you whistle and un a sense you kind of squeeze the air out rather than blowing. I hope this helps.

You are just trying to get a noise out of the head joint on its own to start with aren't you?
Try holding it so that it's against your chin & then roll your lower lip out & flatten/ mould it against the lip plate. Then imagine you're sucking a lemon & breathe out, pushing the air down into the flute.

yeah keep trying! i couldnt get a sound out of the flute for a few weeks- (im play sax and clarinet!)

then when i could do it, it was difficult toplay it straight after another instrument, and now i can do it easily" so keep trying!

I play sax clarinet, and flute too. When I first played the flute, a book I had suggested placing the lip plate against your lips, closed, and so the lips were centred, then rolling the flute out to make almost a right angle with the bottom lip. The lip should not cover more than half of the hole, or even less. I like andante's "squriting" analogy. That is what you are doing.

I took some time to get ANY sound, let alone a half decent one, so keep trying. You'll get there.

http://web.utk.edu/~sbinder/embouchure.html

just some more embouchures, thought it was interesting to see!