Flute update...

[khiemtran]

For a period of two weeks in April, due to housemoving and illness, I didn't play at all. When I picked up the flute again, my first thought was that it must have been damaged in the move - the sound was barely audible. All it took though was a good half hour of practice and the flute had miraculously repaired itself. I just had to relearn all the little tiny things I hadn't learnt consciously before.

My assault on the upper register continues apace now, "assault" being the operative word because there's precious little music happening. I can hit the top D maybe three times out of four, but only by blasting it out. I've noticed my right ear has been ringing a bit after too long in the top register, which is not a good sign. This should hopefully improve as my lip control gets better and I can use less air.

My fingering has also improved a lot lately - I can now hold the flute naturally balanced between just two fingers, which is pretty much what you need to do to get any speed happening with the other fingers.

My tone... well, let's just say the bamboo flute is an instrument best played atop a craggy limestone mountain peak - and best listened to from atop another, preferably distant, peak.

In related news... Bach! My Brilliant Classics Bach Edition came in the mail a week ago, and I've been in geek heaven.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I can hit the top D maybe three times out of four, but only by blasting it out.

You need more laughter in your life!

Well, it sounds as if you need to support your tone more with your diaphragm, and laughing is one of the things that will exercise your diaphragm - it's a muscle, so it can be trained. I find that posture plays a great role in being able to support my tone - I never was able to play the oboe sitting down _at all_, for instance.

The really fun bit comes when you're trying to overblow a second register...

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Guilty as charged. Mind you, the traditional posture for playing the bamboo flute involves sitting on a water buffalo and they're in kind of a short supply around here.

The oboe? What was that like to play?

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

The oboe? What was that like to play?

Exhausting.

No, seriously. The mouth position you need to adopt to get sound out of an oboe is rather peculiar and very tiring, and you need _a lot_ of support for your tone (I am having a hard time imagining how people play basoon.) Since my lung volume is not all that wonderful, I tended to get out of breath easily; and with each concurrent bronchitis, it got worse.

Also, you cannot play the oboe occasionally. You need to play it daily if you want to have any chance of _playing_ rather than making feeble noises and giving up five minutes later; and I did not have the time or opportunity to do so.

Also, I was trapped in the place of not being good enough for an orchestra and getting bored playing melodies on my own, and there's not much you can do with an oboe - it's a rather overpowering instrument, not really suitable to busking and too forceful for most casual gatherings.

Between my limited breathing and a sticky joint I knew I would not make a good oboist. There are occasions when the joint of my left little finger sticks and I cannot bend it immediately. That is never a problem _unless_ you want to hit a key at precisely the moment you need to hit it, and if you're not good enough to hit alternate fingerings, or there _are_ no alternate fingerings because you're playing a complicated sequence of notes.

I'd probably do better with a baroque oboe.
http://www.moeckmusic.de/pages.php?pid=200
(Moeck are the makers of my recorders; I can only recommend them. The quality of their instruments is - or at least was, when I bought mine - exceptional.)

Interesting tidbit: I've googled for it on the net, and found that *every single reproduction* of baroque oboes seems to be based on the same instrument.

Maybe I should take up breathing exercises...
http://us.powerlung.com/en/products/performer/index.htm

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

the bamboo flute is an instrument best played atop a craggy limestone mountain peak - and best listened to from atop another, preferably distant, peak

*Nods sagely* In this it seems the bamboo flute bears at least a superficial resemblance to the Scottish bagpipes. *g*

Though with bagpipes I normally say that they'r best heard from the opposite side of a misty glen.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, bagpipes are best heard warming up, because after that it's too late...

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Bagpipes are instruments of war. You can win quite a few arguments with them.