Tips.. Here are links to some handouts which are useful for improving or fine-tuning your playing at all levels. I will update this from time to time.
Coronavirus guidelines for flute players
Newish article here - again showing that the better you play, the less aerosols.
When we play a flute, air splits along the blowing edge and not only goes in, but also comes out in front of your flute, as well as out any open finger holes and the bottom (foot) of the flute.
--Here's an August 2020 article on a study showing approx. 1 yard/meter aerosol for a professional flutist (highly controlled and directed air stream).
--This fifing document explains more details on distance for wind players. Please read!!
An item that lessens the impact of our speeding breath while playing:
-The "win d fender", designed to shield the player's blowing edge from wind. Conversely it shields other from the air blown out of the mouth hole. https://win-d-fender.com/product/win-d-fender/
You can make one at home with a piece of firm sheet plastic. It doesn't replace Department of Health coronavirus guidelines. Stay safe, practice more!
Flute Care - Read this page from Brad Hurley.
Tuning
Tuning up Irish flutes in pdf, adapted from this article in pdf by Jennifer Cluff. (original article is for Boehm flute) includes what to do every time you start to tune up, either alone or with others, and what to do if you aren't sure if you're in tune.
Link to sound-files of a few drones. These are available free at various places on the web, and you can download from the link. Some are only previews. A good resource called The Tuning CD is available at their website and covers drones for all notes. Playing along with the drones will help keep your flute in tune much more than a visual tuner. Make sure you can clearly hear the drone when playing along.
How to balance yourself and your Irish flute
An abbreviated but step by step guide of what I teach on posture and balancing your flute. It will remind you of the basic steps. Download Balance while playing flute - you can save it or print out. Please note that it is quite abbreviated - every person's body is different and you may spot some things we've gone over in lessons that are omitted here.
Tone improvement tips
An abbreviated set of reminders for things you can do to improve your tone. Download the word doc here.
Harmonics for Irish flute
On a flute, each fingering has more than one note, depending on what you do with your mouth. The notes above your main note are called, among other things, harmonics.
Playing harmonics for a few minutes daily is a good way to warm up your lips and helps improve your overall tone. This in turn will help relax your hands and body while playing: it creates better tone using your lip muscles, instead of using other muscles which can cause unnecessary tension.
I have adapted, for the keyless Irish flute, a harmonics exercise from the book "Trevor Wye, Practice Book for the flute, book 1 Tone" which is available on Amazon.com here. All the notes on the page 6 exercise in that book are not readily available on an Irish style flute, so I made up a sheet covering the notes we can easily reach. I teach this by ear, but you can use the notation by downloading Harmonics for Irish flute, Play each note with the fingering for low D only.
More tone warmups from the Trevor Wye Book
These sheets are best done before the harmonics, but I uploaded them later. Only use the repeats if you need to.
They are in my Box.com storage, no need to log in. Just download the pdf's:
Tones low register
Tones 2nd register
Tones 2nd register 2
Learning tunes
Some students have difficulties with learning tunes and practicing them at home. An article from the jazz tradition explains this really well. This excerpt contains many things some of you will have heard me repeat during lessons! I have only omitted references to jazz factors in this excerpt. Word doc download of excerpts Learn a Melody.doc is here.
Here's a link to another excellent article from jazz.com with an undercut to learning tunes- playing along with the sound in your mind, explained very clearly. Some of you will find this familiar but even more detailed than the way I've explained it.
https://www.jazzadvice.com/lessons/3-simple-steps-toward-playing-what-you-hear/
Tools for learning tunes and tricky bits. Makes happy practicing!
Here's a list of some good tools you can use to solve common problems. Download and keep in your practice notebook.
Best times to practice
Here's a great article on when to schedule your practice time:
https://www.bulletproofmusician.com/simple-practice-scheduling-hack-couldnt-possibly-effective-seems/
More to come...
note: If you are interested in written flute tutorial books, I highly recommend
An Fheadóg Mhór - Irish Traditional Flute Technique by Conal Ó’Gráda. (Click on the title to go to his website.)