hi my name is Rachel and today I'm going
to be taking you through a beginner's
introduction to playing the flute
first of all let's familiarize ourselves
with the different parts of the flute
the flute will usually come in a case of
some sort and what it looks like will
depend on the brand usually flute cases
are long and rectangular in shape
some may have cupboards to keep the case
protected as you can see mine has a
little bit of wear and tear which does
happen as I've been playing the flute
for about 12 years
once you open your flute case your flute
inside will be split into three separate
pieces before we put them all together
let's look at them one by one the first
piece is the head joint as you can see
it only has one hole in it this is
called butt embouchure hole and it's the
hole that you will use to blow into to
make a sound on your flee head joints
can come in a variety of materials and
sometimes the main head joint and the
lip plate will be made of different
materials but usually especially for
beginner flutes the entire head joint is
silver-plated and will look something
like this the second piece of the flute
is the body joint this is the largest
piece of the flute and it looks like
this the body joint has many keys as you
can see but don't worry you never need
to use all of them of us the keys on the
flute can also vary as you've probably
noticed many of my keys have holes in
them these are called open hold keys in
comparison a lot of flutes have closed
hold keys which is probably what yours
looks like where there's no hole in the
keys keys can also be offset as mine are
as you can see if I hold it this way the
line between the key these two are out
of line
the rest of the keys and this is called
offset but you can also have inline keys
which simply just means that all the
keys are in line you don't really need
to worry about any of that to begin with
but it's just nice to know if you're
wondering why someone's flute looks
different to yours keys are very
delicate so it's really important that
you take care of them and never knock
them against things or pull up them or
push them too hard as you could damage
your flute and it's quite expensive to
repair the final piece is the foot joint
this is the smallest piece of the flu as
you can see my foot joint is slightly
longer with three of these little keys
instead of two my foot joint is called a
B foot joint which simply means that I
can play one note lower than normal
C foot joints which look like this now
that we're familiar with all the pieces
of the flute it's time to start playing
before we set up the whole flute very
let's practice using just the head joint
making a sound on the flute can be quite
tricky to begin with and it's much
easier to just start with the head joint
as you need less air as there's less
space that you have to fill so let's
begin by making this space your flute
teacher might have instructed you make a
different face there are slightly
different ways to make an embouchure to
play the flute but this is the way I've
been taught and the way that I find most
effective so making this face which is
very difficult to talk in you want to
feel the corners of your lips pushing
backwards
I want these lines to become quiet
like this it can be quite uncomfortable
to give begin with and your face may
feel very tired after practicing but
after a while we get used to it and
we'll be able to play for long periods
of time
now that we've practiced without
embouchure I want you to bring a finger
up to your lip and rest it on the bottom
lip like this now pull our embouchure
face and practice blow now see how the
hole that my lips make is quite small
I'll show you again without my finger
and a bit closer so you can see
it's very small and this simply just
enables me to control the air better and
as a result get a better sound as
opposed to blowing over the flute like
this which will be quite ineffective so
let's practice again with our finger
make our own brush your face fill out
the corners without pressing backwards
and you should feel the air flowing over
your finger and sort of down around the
side as approached into it
so I always found when I was beginning
that it was really useful to practice
doing that before I even started playing
just to sort of get me on the right
headspace and make sure that my
embouchure was correct now that we've
gotten used to that we can start with
our hip joint so just like we did with
our finger you want to place the lip
plate against feel it like this you're
not sure as you can see the lip plate on
this side is a lot smaller than the lip
plate on this side and the longer side
of the lip plate is the side you want to
put on your lips so you're facing this
way with the air blowing to your right
place it on your lips about here there's
a little bit of space on your bottom lip
if you have it all the way up here it
would be very difficult to play if I
have it here and you want to have the
whole hole facing slightly towards you
but not all the way as you won't be able
to blow and it was facing all the way
this way you also run the other two blow
over so you might have to move it around
a little bit to find the perfect place
hey I'm your lip make out embouchure and
blow it may take a little while to make
a sound and as I said you might have to
adjust the position of the hole slightly
to make the best sound sorry just keep
practicing and to make a clean crisp
sound I know that's called tonguing then
oh so you make a sound with your tongue
but it's important your tongue you don't
want your tongue to go through your
teeth like this as you can see it's
quite difficult to play what you want to
do with your face and even just pulling
your own brush your face does make it
more difficult for your time to come
through the wrong way which sort of
means you have to do it the right way so
you want it to just touch against the
back of your teeth I'm doing that lip
line will make a tip sound
so keep going there to go on to feel
you're getting the hang of it you can
use this hand your left right hand all
right here right now to adjust the pitch
of the note slightly for example so just
using the head joint is a really great
way to get into playing the flute
especially if you're a beginner and
you're not quite sure but once you feel
confident making a sound using just the
head giant it's time to give it a go
with the whole flute when setting up
your flute it's absolutely crucial not
to force the pieces together as they are
all designed to fit together properly
and by forcing them together you could
actually damage the body of the flute so
we pick up a head joint and our body
joint and as you can see they both have
these holes they fit together and you
might need to twist them my flutes a bit
old so I find I need to twist but our
new flutes you should just be able to
slide it in to place for the head joint
and the foot joint I mean and the head
joint and the body joint what we need is
four holes to line up with your
embouchure hole
and then we get the foot rate and just
doing what we did before with the head
joint twisting it gently into place but
the foot joint you want this line here
to begin with
to line up with the holes on your body
joint
however you may find when you start to
hold it you might need to adjust it
slightly for your pinky because you can
see your pinky sits just here you might
find it difficult to reach so if you
can't fit your flute together never
force it as I said consult your teacher
or if you can't see your teacher and
there's a music store near you go to a
music store and they should be able to
help you because if you force it you can
dent parts of the flute and that's very
expensive to repair
so now that I've flute is set up it's
time to practice holding it
bring your flute out to a right hand
side like this as you can see my left
hand is over the front of the flute
whereas my right hand
it's behind it like so now you want to
place your fingers on the keys like this
1 2 3
see how my left hand this hole in the
middle is left free also on your left
hand the thumb key on the back this one
you want to place your thumb on this key
so that's what your left hand will look
like your right hand
remember it's behind the flute rest your
thumb on the bottom of your flute and
then place 1 2 3 and then finally your
pinky on this little key that's how you
hold the flu
you simply press down on the keys to
change the pitch of the flute which will
then make different notes like so to
begin with if you have small hands or a
nice position you might find it a bit
odd at first and your fingers might want
to shift closer together but as you get
used to it and as you practice more you
will begin to find it easier to begin
with let's just practice making a sound
with the entire flute without worrying
about nuts
you may find this a lot more difficult
than you did with the head joint simply
because as you can see this is a much
longer tube with created than just the
head joint and sorry the air needs to go
through a lot more of it to make a sound
sorry with our fingers in the position
and out embouchure already bring the
flute for your lips and blur let's
practice together one two three
when you're practicing to begin with you
want to try and make long notes as well
as short notes just so you get used to
using your tongue but also using your
ear support to hold a long note for a
long time it can be frustrating at first
if you can't make an S no sound but the
key to it is practice your teacher may
tell you how long they want you to
practice for and how much practice you
should be doing but as a sort of key the
thing is to practice every day even if
it's only for 10 or 15 minutes a day
practicing consistently every day will
see much greater results than practicing
for an hour well one day a week at the
end of your practice session you need to
pack away your flut flut can be quite
expensive and a very delicate and
precious and the last thing you want is
someone to knock it off your table and
damage the flute to pack away your flute
you simply take apart the joints the
opposite way to how we put them together
and clean them with a cleaning cloth
this is important as you don't want your
flute to be tarnished and you want it to
remain nice and shiny and beautiful with
your cleaning cloth you can simply rub
the outside of the flute like this
paying special attention over the keys
to make sure you don't push them too
hard
you'll also need a cleaning rod which is
just like a stick about this long with a
little hole in the end um I don't have
mine here which is why I can show you um
and you don't need to use the cleaning
rod with your cleaning cloth to get
inside the joints as you can see you get
inside them but you do need to be
careful with this and never try and
forth your cleaning rod and your
cleaning cloth all the way through as
they will get stuck that's a problem
after you clean it you simply place the
different sections of your flute back
into its case like so making sure they
are around the right way
and then close it and put it somewhere
safe so that no one can damage it or
play with your flu I hope you enjoyed
this beginners introduction to the flute
and happy flirting