Here’s a quick blog post about a question that has come up so much lately: flute dynamics. Specifically HOW do we play louder or quieter?
Basically, flute dynamics are a function of the quantity of air. If you want to play louder, you have to use more air. If you want to play quieter, you have to use less air.
However, it’s not so easy, is it?! It can be difficult for us to separate air quantity with air speed. Often, when we blow a lot of air, it’s fast, which means it’s fairly easy for us to play loudly in the upper register. And when we play with less air, we often keep it moving very slowly, resulting in a quiet low register. But how to play quietly in the upper register? Or more substantial in the lower register? If we can separate the amount of air from the speed, we can accomplish this easily.
For quiet notes in the upper register, the air still has to be moving fast across the embouchure hole but the amount of air should be small.
For loud notes in the upper register, this is a bit more intuitive. Blow lots of fast air.
For quiet notes in the lower register, blow a little bit of slow air.
For loud notes in the lower register, blow a lot of air but make sure it’s still moving slowly.
For the low notes, be sure you’re pointing the air a bit more down into the embouchure hole by using your top lip. (Don’t tilt your head down, or you’ll get a muffled, closed off sound!) You can also think about dropping your jaw, or creating more of a round shape inside your mouth cavity.
Find videos of me demonstrating how this works over on TikTok!
Try this exercise, and leave a comment about how it works for you!
