Hiya,

My flute teacher told me you can either blow a flute or you cant. I blew my flute fine on the first attempt. I played for a few days myself and had a couple of lessons and found it was much easier than I expected. My teacher and friends said my low notes where very bright and clear.

But then I had to learn middle E. I had a lindo flute and for two weeks I could not make the note at all. I got a trevor james 10x and I can play the middle octave, but it takes me a while to find it and it is not usually very clear.So long there is no way I can play a not in a song, and I cant always do that!

Does this mean I will always have problems playing flute? I was told the flute plays best in middle octave, but I seem to have a large range for low and really struggle with middle. My flute teacher says he has never seen something like this and cant help me much.

Im a bit depressed because the low octave was so easy and now I fear I might never be good at middle octave. I really want to continue flute, and my favourite songs are all in the middle octave.

Has anyone had a similar experience and got better at higher notes?

Keep the same embouchure as the low octave one, and blow more, with more pressure, more air speed. Tighten a bit your lips. You should at least get the note even it's very airy. Start with the first note that uses over-blowing : the middle E. It should be quite easy to get

You can also try harmonic exercises : do a looong low octave note, then while playing this note, blow more and more (don't forget to tighten the lips to avoid using all your air in 2 seconds) and you should get harmonics of your low note. By fingering a low D your can get like 4 or 5 different notes depending on the air you put in. It's a good exercise to know where is the air-speed limit between the first and the second octave !

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To improve your tone I think practise is the only way, your need to find the best air speed, angle and embouchure shape for each note. Doing long notes exercises and harmonics are usually a good way to improve your tone ;)

When I started to play, my teacher showed me with my hand, that while he had a small air-breeze in front of his flute, I had a storm in front of my flute.
An exercise that helped me a lot, was when I started my lessons by playing "overtones": I held a low D, playing an A, held a low D sharp, playing a B flat, and so on.

"......you can either blow a flute or you cant. " This may be true but after teaching for 30+ years, I've not seen anyone who couldn't get some sort of a sound on their instrument if they are shown how. I feel that it is something like riding a bicycle, once you find your sound, it's hard to forget. The other suggestions are good. There is a balance that one needs to find between the angle of the airstream across the opening, the size of the air stream and how hard one is blowing. As one makes a smaller airstream, the sound becomes clearer but if their angle of blowing is wrong then they will loose their sound because they miss the edge. They may also close the lips more but blow too hard. Faster air speed is partially what causes high notes or harmonics. So if you decrease the size of the air stream by closing your lips a bit, you need to blow less forcibly.

"Does this mean I will always have problems playing flute? "The greatest flutists always practice their tone quality daily as they include this with their daily studies of things like finger movement and articulation. Because some musician may say that playing music is easy or it may look easy to the audience does not mean that learning any musical instrument is going to be easy. Don't ever think of your problems with your flute study as impossible but just something that you WILL eventually overcome as you find your way. Practice does not make perfect but you will never know how really, really good you can get without practicing.

again I agree with Bilbo...I was told as a beginner by a band director that, because I couldn't whistle, that I would not be able to play flute, so don't always listen to bad advice...

It is an issue of focus, I tell my students "focus, don't force" , you have to find each note on the flute..don't "tighten" the lips as one poster here said, stay relaxed, a tight embouchure results in a tight sound

I'm not quite sure what you mean by middle-E. If you mean the lowest E that the flute can play, the note on the lowest line on the G clef, the notes do get a little harder to play as you go down low. It requires "focusing" the airstream to get them. I would play long tones starting with a note you are comfortable with and then one note at a time work your way down lower. It is possible the flute you are playing has a leak somewhere where a pad is not sealing properly. You could have an experienced player try it and see if they have better luck. Obviously, check a fingering chart to make sure you have the right pads closed to play the note you are having trouble with.

If it makes you feel better, I have a pretty nice pre-professional flute which is very difficult to play in the low register. I can't decide if it has a leak somewhere, or if the head joint cut is just ornery. I do some repairs myself, but I should probably have a good flute tech look at this one.

Jim

Wow do I disagree with your teacher. I'm a flute novice, and can't really add a lot of specific flute experience here, but I didn't make a sound when I first tried to blow into a flute. I practiced, and I got better. I would also note that I have a teardrop embouchure, so I'm the student that all the books say you should give up on immediately. I probably progress more slowly than others, and I'll never be a concert level flutist, but it hasn't stopped me from steadily improving.

My other hobby is teaching martial arts. Short of major physical disability, I've yet to encounter the student who can't engage in them at some level. Many of my students have physical limitations, and don't have a full range of motion in all their joints. We work around it. Based on my experience, I question whether this is a good teacher for you.

Keep at it, be patient, always try to learn, and I think you can succeed at any activity.