How can you save thousands of Dollars on a new flute and get the most out of your flute?

“Your masterclass changed the way I play and improved my tone so much that the members in the orchestra were asking me if I had bought a new flute!”
That was a quote by Yavuz from the UK, after his participation in my intensive masterclasses, and he wasn’t the only one that had such experiences.

Most probably the flute companies are not going to be too happy about this article, but here is the thing: You don’t need to invest thousands of Dollars in a new flute if you are not happy with how you sound. In most cases, the problem is not the flute, but rather us who don’t (yet) understand fully what the current flute we own could allow us to actually sound like.

I have to admit that I’m privileged to work regularly with advanced flutists from all over the world. Whether they are flute professors in universities, professionals in orchestras, master and bachelor students or advanced hobby musicians – they all own good modern instruments normally. But owning a good instrument is one thing and getting the most out of your instrument is another thing!

Unless your flute’s scale is completely out of tune or your headjoint really doesn’t fit to you, in 95% of the cases the reason that your flute doesn’t sound the way you wish is unfortunately you and not the flute. It’s easy to think that a new flute will solve all of our problems, but in reality, if you don’t treat the source of the problems, they won’t disappear just because you change a flute. Things might be slightly easier with a new flute or less noticeable, but the problems will stay, unless treated.

So what can you do, you’re probably wondering, to change that? My answer would be: First, do not despair, there’s a very cheap solution: a smart practicing routine that let you discover the real capabilities of your flute.

🎯 A practice routine that challenges you daily and expand your limits

There are people who seek perfection and don’t go beyond a limited comfortable range of dynamics, colors etc. that they feel they control well and can play it perfectly. Me, I value much more taking risks and practice especially those areas that we are not comfortable with. That would be the only way for you to discover what your flute is really capable of allowing you. It doesn’t mean that you can’t aim at perfection as well, but it allows you to drop the fears you might have from those areas you are less familiar and comfortable with.

Your daily practice routine must include exercises that pushes your limits every day. Comfortable is just not good enough and being comfortable would not allow you to test on a daily basis what you can get out of your flute. For example, in my online warm-up routine course, among other exercises, I teach one exercise that combines both our extremes (fff/ppp) in one short phrase. Too often the students would be afraid of actually playing these dynamics because they would either be afraid of cracking the notes in fff (read my article here on how you can avoid cracking notes) or completely lose their sound in the ppp. I prefer to treat these moments as opportunities for change and improvement, rather than trying to avoid them at all cost and assuming that the flute doesn’t allow us to get more out of it.

A quick tip that will prove to you that your flute can allow you more

For this tip to work, I assume that you know and do play with sufficient air pressure (although in too many cases I see flutists playing with insufficient air pressure and they lack the knowledge of how to create it properly).

The next example is extremely easy to do. Just play any note in the second octave, let’s say a G2 or A2, with the embouchure position you are used to and simply drop down your jaw (taking your whole embouchure down together with the jaw movement). If you do it correctly, you’ll immediately hear your flute resonates in a totally different way, with a much richer and fuller tone quality. Isn’t it exciting? Just imagine how you could sound, if you always play with such resonance…

Now you know for sure that the flute can give you more and it mostly depends on you how you use it. I promise you this only the beginning of what you can still discover and that you will be surprised how differently you can sound with the flute you currently have, if you learn how to get the most out of it. 

Enjoy practicing, keep healthy and let me know what you think in the comments.

Ory

Ory Schneor is a principal flutist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra and member of the Geneva Camerata. He is teaching masterclasses around the world and he is the founder and instructor at FLUTEinWIEN – Intensive Masterclasses in Vienna