First off Let me start by saying that tone is a very, what is pleasing to me may not be pleasing to you. Before we start you must realize that some things that affect tone can’t be changed. First of all you must have a good flute with a good headjoint, a good headjoint is the most important thing about the flute. A person’s face size and mouth cavity can affect the color of the tone, and the size of the tone. But that is not to say that the people with awkward sized faces lips, or mouth cavities can’t attain a good tone, but it may be impossible for them attain certain variations on tone color. The most important thing about finding good tone is to try different things. What you may read here that works for some people may not help you at all. But I do hope that I can give you some ideas about developing a good tone.
I believe that tone is definitely technical. It is definitely not a matter of pure talent. Hard work and Determination make good tone. You must be willing to put forth a lot slow and at times boring practice.
You should start practice out very slow in the low registers, know how the embouchure should be shaped and start out very slow. Pick out notes that do not have a good sound for you keep playing it and following the tips below, make sure your embouchure is right and your are supporting your sound, do what is necessary to make the note sound better. Memorize what you did to make the note sound better. Do this with all notes that do not have good sound. Do a lot of slow practice so you can really memorize how the embouchure should be.
Finally you need to listen to as many good flute players as possible. You need to learn what a good tone sounds like, you need to hear different tone colors, or how will you know when you are really improving for the better
First off you need to think about your poster, here’s some Ideas to think about when standing up.
-Stand straight up
-Put your left foot out slightly and keep your feet shoulder width apart
-Tilt your head up to the left, not down into the music
- Tilt your flute to the right a little also…. There should be no tension in you shoulders
You should not play with your head and flute perfectly parallel to the ground, this may be a good effect for Marching Band, But it creates a lot of tension in you shoulders and makes your sound thinner
Master Air Direction
-First you must have the embouchure set
-Don’t use cheek muscles to keep the air hole small, Use vertical pressure keeping your lips together, but try and avoid tension in the face.
-Don’t use Lip pressure instead of breath support
-Learn to keep the throat open
-Drop the jaw, try yawning while you play to get the right amount of space between your molars.
