Basic Embouchure for the Flute

Hi, it's Amelie. Today I'm talking about tone development. It's a question that's been coming again and again. So, first thing I would say is your flute needs to be stable. If your flute is not stable, you can watch the video about posture, or at least remember your fulcrum points that are the second finger here, that you put under the key. Then you have your thumb of the right hand, and your chin, and very often your little finger, your pinky of the right hand. So, just keep in mind to keep your flute stable on your chin, so it's not going like this, especially when you're nervous and you're shaking a bit. If the flute can be pushed like this easily, it's not strong enough. It has to be very stable, and ask someone to just go like this when you're not so hard, but if with a finger it's too easy, you have to push it a bit against your chin. Another thing, when you play the flute, the upper lip doesn't really move. It's mostly the lower lip that moves, and the jaw, the lower jaw that moves. So, the upper lip is just against the teeth, and it stays there. You don't go over the hole with your, like an umbrella over the hole of the flute with your upper lip. That doesn't give a good sound, because the hole needs to be open. And if you close it with your upper lip, going like this, you're closing the hole, you have no control over the embouchure. So, keep it close to the teeth, and then this can move under like this. If I go and I do the three different Ds and three different registers, my lower lip and lower jaw will move a little bit. As I said before, keep the hole open. Very often, people block the hole with their lower lip. They cover way too much of it. Only a fourth to a third of it should be covered, not more than that. And if you don't cover it with your lower lip, but you cover it with the upper lip, it does the same thing, it covers it. It has to be open, because it has to whistle. There has to be air going both ways, so you have to keep the right angle. That would be pretty much it. Plus, blow. Blow, blow, blow, blow constantly, blow always. If you stop blowing, the sound won't be good, the air pressure has to be constant. So, just keep that belly working and pushing the air out, and it should help a lot. I'll try to make another video about developing tone in different registers, but that would be the basics to have a good tone to begin with. So, I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions or comments, just leave them in the comment section below. Thank you.