Your spine naturally curves in at your lower back. At this point the spine is quite wide and thick. The front edge of your lumbar spine is a few centimetres in from where you feel it externally on your back. It is the front, internal edge of the lumbar spine, so within your abdominal cavity, that you want to place above your hips. Think of placing the point half way between your belly button and your back above your hips. (which are above your knees, which are above your feet)
Balance 3: Hips
Many people don’t actually know where their hips are. Feel the outside of your upper leg bone (femur) and work out where the top of that bone is. With your hand on your hip area, lift your knee and you can sense which bit is moving and which isn’t. Find the point at the top of the leg bone.
Your hip joint is slightly in and up from this point. For many people this is lower and further in than they might have imagined their hip to be.
Once you’ve worked out where your hips joints actually are, place them directly above your knees (which in turn are above your feet).
Balance 2: Knees
Your knees are capable of three positions; bent, locked or balanced.
Pushing them back creates the locked position and creates tension up through the body.
Having them constantly bent creates a lot of work for your leg muscles and is tiring.
Balance is that lovely middle ground where the weight of the body travels easily down through the legs and spreads out through the feet.
Experiment with all three positions and remember your knees should be directly above your feet.
Balance 1: Feet
While standing move your attention to the soles of your feet and notice the contact they make with the floor.
Lean forward and feel the weight on the balls of your feet.
Lean back and the weight shifts to the heels.
Move from side to side and notice the change in pressure from side to side.
Try moving in small circles and sense the weight through the soles.
Ideally we want to weight of the body to be spread evenly through the arch and over the entire foot.
Roll a tennis ball between your foot and the floor to gently massage the soles of your feet and increase your awareness of your feet.
As you practice this week try to notice how the weight is spreading through your feet
Balance: Introduction
Playing the flute is a very physical activity so having a good awareness of how we use our bodies is crucial and beneficial. There are six points in our body that we should aim to line up vertically to create a lovely sense of balance and to promote optimal use of the body when playing; the feet, the knees, the hips, the lumbar spine, the shoulder region and the head floating up on top. The next series of blogs will look at each of these points in turn.
Rhythm
Rhythm is not a byproduct of playing the flute. It should be at the essence of your music making.
Changing from low to high
The previous posts have been about developing a good basic embouchure on the flute. This article is about how to get from the low register to the second register successfully.
The 10 Basic Embouchure Tips
The previous 10 blogs have given some tips for developing a good basic embouchure. This is by no means an exhaustive list and do whatever it takes to make a great sound on the flute. (Whatever a great sound means to you!)
Here is a pdf. of the 10 Tips which you may wish to download and use in your own playing or teaching. All I ask is that you encourage people to visit my site and perhaps even sign up to the blog.
Basic Embouchure Tip 10
If the aperture in your lips is not centre, so slightly off to one side, that’s fine just make sure the flute embouchure hole is lined up in front of where the air leaves your lips.
Basic Embouchure Tip 9
Avoid pulling back the corners of the mouth. If anything they have a forward energy.
Recent Comments