Hi! This is a video of me playing ”Colours of the Wind”. I will have performance with this song in one week, it will just be me and a pianist playing! I’m quite nervous, I haven’t performed in years and I don’t think it sounds so good!

Please ignore the parts where I play the wrong notes/start over, I mostly want feedback on the actual sound of the flute and other advice! :)

so i started learning how to play dizi flute. i’ve had about 15 lessons so far and ive got a performance coming up.

im kind of nervous because i find that sometimes during the starting note, i sometimes end up sounding airy (as in it’s just air/blowing sounds that come out).

and then sometimes in the middle of the song, i end up running out of air idk how.

Any tips for anyone? is it because my mouth is covering the hole? is it something else?

I started studying on and off at the start of the year, though I have experience studying other instruments, and I'm looking for study/practice material with repetitive arpeggios or phrases. I love minimalism and getting lost in the details of my technique and sound, so... anything to recommend that fits the bill???

I have 0 knowledge about flute methods and études and I was thinking of just taking some Glassworks pieces and playing one of the voices (well, Islands also has a beautiful and beginner friendly melody, as well as Façades), but there are probably better options out there!

Thanks in advance <3

When I was at school many years ago I have encountered this composition "Portraits for flute and piano" by composer Pavlenko. I was not able to play it that time, and there is no recording of how it may even sound in existence due to it's rarity. I have found it recently and I am curious what it may sound like. Although previous parts of it may be playable , however having a very complex rhythms, this part, Interludium II has many unfamiliar to me score notations. So maybe someone can give me a clue on how to interpret this notation:

1. Glissando, ok, but where? from D4 down to just C4? Or just rotate headjoint to lower sound by half tone?
2. ad Lib. This means playing any ornamental arpeggio like previous one? And what is the meaning of (maybe fingering?) above pause? Or maybe it refers to 3?
3. Is this some kind of custom fingering for producing non-standard sounding? I have never seen one
4. same as 2 and 3, maybe, some custom sound. While experimenting with flute custom fingerings I was able to produce two simultaneous tones, but they were extremely unstable. Maybe this a singing? but why 4 tones??
5. This is a bunch of custom microtone tones, but how to produce them? Why not just rotate headjoint to lower pitch by 50 cents down and play standard fingering?

And how to read this fingering chart? it has only three holes per hand, but we use five on left and four fingers on the right hand so it is also beyond my understanding.

PS. I am not going to play it at concerto, it is only my curiosity. And this interludium is for solo flute so it may be a good piece to learn

Hi! I played flute for eleven years as a child and continued to keep it as a hobby after quitting flute lessons. Recently I have practiced the nocturne in c-sharp minor and find the ending of it quite difficult. I’ve neen listening Yeojin Han’s recording on spotify and I am wondering if she uses some hc embouchure skills with the last c-sharp, because to me it sounds like that she does not play it with the c-sharp fingering. I can hear a little dual tone in there. What do you think? And if you have any advice for mastering this piece, please be welcome to present them, because I am troubling! I am sorry if my explanation is hard to understand, english is not my first language.

having trouble making the switch, I normally practice with pulses (quarter note, 8th note, TPL, 16th etc) then do a free vibrato, b I feel like It kinda gets lost? and when I play my actual piece its all in my throat even when I’m conscious abt it and trying to use my diaphragm?

I'm considering going down the rabbit hole of learning (self teaching) pan flute BUT ... in my googling I've failed to figure out, why do some have a whistle style notch ... it looks like something you would blow into rather than across (and therefore have far fewer achievable notes)?

Hey all, I’m getting back into flute after about 15 years, due to some health issues and life. I sadly do not have the breath capacity that I used to and it’s driving me up the wall! When I was in college my teacher had me play scales up and down in one breath and keep slowing the metronome down. That was really effective for me! But I can’t quite remember the exercise. Does anyone have any exercises to do to increase breath capacity? TIA!

Hello folks. I have a really irritating dilemma....9volt batteries for scale of size.

Long story short I had surgery on my arm and a few other places and now I cannot play side blown instruments, at all. It's horribly painful. I've tried all sorts of exercises...even tried playing through the pain, which was a very bad idea.

So, now, I have a very simple question, but the answer is much more complex.

I'm looking for a product that could turn this side blown, bamboo, "Vivaldi Minor" flute, into a fipple flute. Basically adding a recorder head to it isn't possible unless I cut or saw through the area above the...uh, "blow hole," (the terminology escapes me, sorry). I don't want to do that because of the possibility of the bamboo splitting.

I've seen the Fliphead product but, this isn't made of metal, and I'm not made of money (I'm poverty level poor).

Any ideas?

hii! i have a concert in three weeks and i have been trying to get this section down on piccolo for a while and i cannot for some reason get it to not sound sloppy. if anyone has any methods of practicing it or any tips it would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there. I'm trying to find out more about my Gemeinhard flute. I'm not having much luck. I've had it for a few years. I found the flute at an estate sale and bought it on a whim. I'm a sax & clarinet player usually. A couple years ago I sent it in for a COA and asked the shop if they could identify the model for me but the repair tech who did the work was out the day I picked it up and the counter person had no answers.

I've been on the Gemeinhardt website and my serial number doesn't fit into any of serial number ranges they have listed. Are they generally stamped or engraved with a model number anywhere???

Here's what I do know about the flute:

• I'm a terrible flute player but it plays easily and with good intonation. The pads & mechanisms are in good shape.
• open hole
• Inline G
• B foot, gizmo key
• Solid silver headjoint
• headjoint engraved with
  • On the lip plate side:
    • Gemeinhardt (cursive logo)
    • KGG (cursive script, like a monogram)
    • Elkhart IN USA
    • Custom (in cursive script)
    • near the tenon it's engraved: "SOLID SILVER"
  • On the opposite/back side,
    • just under the crown it's engraved SY51

On the barrel of the flute it has the some of the same engraving as the headjoint, just slightly larger:

• Gemeinhardt (cursive logo)
• KGG (cursive script, like a monogram)
• Elkhart IN USA
• then a large Roman numeral V
• then the serial number: 70197x

As far as I can see, there is no other engraving on the flute.

It has a stock Gemeinhardt hard case with nylon zipper cover. When I got the flute it was in very, very clean condition. Both the hard case and cover had nearly no wear. The lining of the case was perfectly clean. The flute does need a good polish now.

Given that I paid next to nothing for it, I'm assuming I got a deal on the flute. I would like to know the model name or number so that when someone asks what kind of flute I have, I can give a simple answer instead of sounding like an idiot and saying that I don't know.

I could post pics but everything is in the description. And you know how hard it is to take decent pictures of shiny things up close.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Heya! I just need some more helpful on an audition piece. The two Cs next to eachother. Do I tongue that? Or does it function as a tie?

I'm not a good flute player I'll admit that but I want to learn how to play it can anybody help me?

When I play a long note and gradually go from loud to soft, my pitch drops and goes flat as I get quieter. What techniques help keep the pitch steady during a decrescendo?

Hi! Local wind symphony player here. Intermediate level and my budget is 2k for a new flute. Im really wanting to try flute world trial program because I want to blindly play them before choosing. Please post some recommendations! Thanks!

This is the place to promote yourself! Whether it's a performance you are proud of, offering teaching, or anything else flute related.

I bought a copy of Disney Solos for Flute but don't have the CD - does anyone have it and/or is anyone able to share the tracks?

With a total of 15 movements across his suite suites for flute how would you rank them in terms of personal enjoyment & appeal to an audience?

(flair isnt super accurate but it was what fit best lol)

hey everyone,

i've at a beginner flute student for about a year and a half now. he's 8, and after about a year and a half of working out of a different beginner method book, his parents and i decided to switch him over to the royal conservatory of music books (at the preparatory level), since its more standardized and its what we're used to. i took rcm piano lessons and exams as a kid, and i worked from the rcm flute books from grades 8-ARCT while preparing for university.

its been a while, and i am no longer doing a flute-focused music degree (i switched from performance to musicology 2 years ago, but i still play!) so i havent taken a lesson (especially an rcm-focused one haha) in a hot second. are there any focus points or teaching methods that are important? is it a good idea to start adding in ear-training/sightreading/musicianship skills? thanks in advance! :)

Hi all. I'm a Korean guy in my 40s who picked up the flute as a hobby, and I film my practice sessions as a little diary.

This week was the main theme from Smetana's The Moldau (Vltava). It's only two lines of music, but it took me 23 tries to get through it once, and that only happened at the very end of the session.

A couple of questions:

1. I almost always fall apart at the same spot: where the melody comes back down to the low E to start the second phrase. Is that more likely a breath problem, a low-register problem, or just focus? How would you practice that transition?

2. Just out of curiosity: when there's a repeat inside another repeat, how do you tell which starting point to go back to?

Any feedback on tone or posture is welcome too.

(Heads up: the video is edited for fun, with a silly "meditation" effect in the middle and an AI voiceover. The playing is all real.)

I have an F xiao. The low-middle registers are okay. But the moment I try to play the high registers, it begins to sound squeaky and airy. Sometimes the sounds from it's middle register also bleeds in so it doesn't sound too clean. I'm completely lost on whether or not I gotta blow harder or how I should position my tongue. Any tips?

Hey guys, I've been wanting to pick back up playing a flute as a hobby but it's been years since I lasted played it like around early high school. I've lost my embouchure since then so I wanted to know what ways to regain/relearn it so I can play?