AIR CREATES- Pahud class and Galway chat

I  am always talking to the students about Air and what it creates... 

I like to say is:

YOUR AIR CREATES.... How you use it, create it, imagine it, know it, feel it, express it... Creates the MUSIC... 

I also went to the Pahud Class and Concert in Austin Texas last week and this morning read the Galway Flute Chat. Many wonderful things, inspiring to think about and learn from.

During the Pahud class and watching him at his concert it was clear that he created with his air. There was always a sense of ease and right effort in creating the music and an at one-ness with the music and musicians. 
Some of the things he said about air were:

"Air in motion, creates sound...

Not lips but your air, your wind...

Breathing, air is supported NOT pressed, instead imagine an inflated balloon... Bouyant...

Release the air, it is all in how you release the air... For Forte, release more air... for Piano release less air...

Use the and feel the air in the Sinus cavities, the Wasabi diet...
Allow the air to flow, send it and focus...

Place the breath in a musical place or an expressive place that is least heard... I want to hear the fantasy, your imagination in between the notes... use your imagination, air and body to create this... "

Below is something I saw and appreciated on the Galway Chat this morning... I was helping a student with her high Ab playing softly at the end of an Overture. Part of the 'trick" is knowing the feeling when the note is, STABLE or "locked in" when it is resonating and not to press it but to continue to support and allow for the resonance of the note to be amplified inside the body and in the instrument.... If a person does not have this awareness, knowledge and feeling then they might keep pushing and the note may crack, drop or be very difficult to play...

"The following idea might sound almost too simple, but with the flute being a wind instruments everything is triggered by the airstream. The airstream is the tool, which includes all our musical ideas. No air, no music. It has to go across the edge of the lip plate at a width of two Millimeters. The lips, the fingers, jaw and the tongue follow this airstream. Comparing this to violin playing: The bow is leading, not the hand on the fingerboard. We will find out that playing to the octave doesn’t mean to change the lip position. The lips will adapt to the supported airstream. I don’t want to simplify at any price, but I think a change of prospective can help to approach a complex issue.

Having understood this basic concept through the years, I could allow myself to look at technical details like the following one with great fascination:

Air pressure inside the mouth has been measured. The result was that we don't have higher air pressure inside the mouth in the high register. There is some change of pressure at the moment when we switch from low to high register. But once the high notes are stable, the pressure inside the mouth is going back to the earlier level. From this moment on, the resonating chamber inside the mouth and head is amplifying the sound of the flute (and not the amount of air we blow into the instrument!). The feeling is, as if the high note would lock in, independently from its dynamic range. Check it out!"

Matthias Ziegler

Zurich University of Arts

Switzerland

www.matthias-ziegler.ch

“It does lock in - and mouth resonation in octaves plays an essential role, 

basically you reshape the inside from an open vowel (aaaa ... like in LOVE) 

to a semi-closed (eee like in THE)... Though the fact that the air columns 

stays in the upper octave even after reducing the speed, has more to do with 

the inertia of the vibrating mass.

Thank you for this very interesting message, have a great day”

Uberto, London

www.ubertorlando.com 

Embouchure

  Embouchure

Your lips are vibrating membranes...~ Marcel Moyse

Embouchure: Formation of the Lips                        

The air, your whole body, spirit, musical imagination and your instrument create your sound. Every Face and Lips are one of a kind and  so is the creation of your Embouchure!

I have learned many great things about embouchure from all my teachers. Thank you for all your help and wisdom. I also learn by observing what great players do while playing, by listening to their artistic sounds and music making. Then I explore and try to emulate that sound and embouchure via my own lips, body, ear, air and musical spirit... Please do the same. 

Learn, watch, listen, experiment and hear what creates your most natural and beautiful sound. 

Your Embouchure refines the air and your sound. It is best to create a natural formation with your lips. One that has life, movement and is a Supple, Stable Structure and can Sculpt your Sound.

Let’s look at some parts of the embouchure, even though they all work together, in concert.

Top Lip: Aims and directs the Angle of the Air down into the flute. 

You may like thinking of the top lip as the top of a pyramid or  a bit like a beak to aim air. 

Aperture: A tube, tunnel like opening between the lips. When 

the lip tube is long it creates a   warmer sound and faster air. It                     

It helps to control air flow, to  sculpt & shape your sound.                  

See aperture section below.

Bottom Lip: It is like the base of the pyramid, a long, stable structure.

 It Connects to the lip plate, Curls out, or pouts forward and away from teeth and Cushions the air between the lip and teeth. 

You may imagine something alive there, inside the cushion, like a lady bug, so you will not crush it or this space which is the cushion of air. Most people place the flute below the red of your bottom lip. Release unnecessary tension from your whole body, face, jaw and tongue. 

More on Embouchure

The aperture can change the flow (dynamics): smaller as you get softer and more open to allow for louder sounds.  It can change the speed (register) via the shape and length of the tunnel, tube of the aperture and lips. 

Here are some of examples of how the aperture     may change shape for each register and dynamic.

upper register & softer dynamics - higher pressure and faster, smaller and a bit rounder

middle register & medium dynamics - medium pressure and air, a bit longer and more open.                          

lower register & forte dynamics lower pressure and slower air, more elliptical, thinner longer opening.  

(Forte dynamics may be rounder, and more open,  depending on registers.)   

Educate yourself and use your artistic, creative imagination to find your embouchure and sound. 

More things to experiment with for your embouchure:

Practice Bending tones, above and below the pitch for greater flexibility and to find your sweet spot.

Use Harmonic practice to learn the best use and balance of Air and Embouchure.

Use straws in different sizes to help with size and shape of aperture and length of lip tube/tunnel. 

Think of your air aiming at your left elbow or left big toe. (If you are using your air, pressure and flow “Bernoulli Effect” and embouchure well, then the raising and lowering of the angle of air is minimal. 

Use outside air and move the air into the flute, allowing it to ring and resonate.

Learn to buzz lips and use a chopstick for more balance and stability a’la Keith Underwood.

Use this idea: all air and lips, no teeth. To allow for the independence of the bottom lip and jaw.

Clarity = Confidence

I have not written for a while, but have been teaching and playing a lot. This always leads me to thinking a lot and trying out the ideas that surface as I teach and play. Lately there is a theme of teh week that presents itself in the weekly lessons. A few weeks ago it was this idea of:

CLARITY & CONFIDENCE

It started out as a question of:

How do I make something clear to my students and how does a student make something clear for themselves?

This in essence is:

How am I teaching?  How are you teaching yourself?

When we are both doing this in meaningful, creative, articulate ways, it is Clear. When this happens, something in us becomes clear and ideas resonate.

When we have these moments of CLARITY there is CONFIDENCE.

When we have CLARITY and CONFIDENCE together there is movement and magic in our self and in our playing. 

Teachers, are you reading the student to make sure that you are clear? When they do not seem clear are you confident that you can teach it another way? Are you open to the present moment and willing to offer suggestions and ideas to make something clearer? Are you able to make it a metaphor? Are you free to think and live outside the box and in your self and your students world to... Make the Music come to life?

Students, how are you receiving clarity from your teacher/s? Do you have the confidence to ask questions when you do not understand? Remember, clarity=confidence. Are you stopping at the point of confusion? OR, are you finding ways yourself to turn the confusion into something clear? For it to become clear in your mind, heart, spirit, WHOLE SELF... So that the music comes to life? 

And, having made a distinction between the student and teacher relationship, which is important, it is also true that we are all students and teachers in this together...

I believe and have witnessed so innumerable times myself and with my students this "clarity" and how these moments add to confident playing and music making.

It adds hope to and gives you another reason to go into and beyond the confusion, to move into clarity. 

It is challenging, exciting, meaningful and necessary for personal growth and in becoming a great person and musician. These kind of moments of confusion into clarity is the learning process and  is what great students and teachers love. This dynamic of transformation into the great mystery of you and the music!

Share with us some of your great moments!

Heartfully,

Jennifer