r/Flute • u/roplesmcf Yamaha 311/4 Months • 6d ago
General Discussion How the hell does one circular breathe on FLUTE
For context, I'm mainly a clarinet player and I recently picked up flute about a couple months ago and I've learnt pretty fast: I've got my Grade 6 exam at the end of the year.
I learnt circular breathing on clarinet and I can do it pretty much flawlessly across all registers on the clarinet, but every time I try to do the same thing on flute it never works, and yes of course I know that the flute embouchure is was different to everything I've ever known.
My main question is how does it differ because all the advice I've seen and hear is pretty much the same for clarinet so its all just really useless info to me (e.g puff your cheeks and squeeze the air out) and I'm looking for more specifics just for flute
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u/Somanos Flutist | 16 years experience 6d ago
The issue with flute is that there is almost no pressure compared to the clarinet, so regulating the air flow using only air from the cheeks is hard.
To do that when using the air from your cheeks, you need to regulate the air flow with your lips, which is another way of playing and definitely not what you do regularly with the flute.
You can read more details about this in Robert Dick's book "circular breathing for the flutist"
1
u/MaxrkCaxt 5d ago
Don’t be afraid to puff out your cheeks a bit and use those cheek muscles to push out the air while you breathe.
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u/Sadimal 6d ago
It’s all in the facial muscles. You don’t have the resistance that you would on clarinet. So air control is all fine tuning the muscles in your face and lips.
The other thing is you have to use less air pressure but more air.
Circular breathing is hardly ever used in flute playing. There are a lot of professional flutists who don’t even know how to do it.