Embouchure - Day 14Final day of my first test/warm-up period. Really think it's possible to see improvement across the two weeks, so I'm proud of that. I want to keep working on my strength, tone, timbre and breath control even further.Play Count: 33 Embouchure - Day 13Seems that I've hit a plateau for duration, struggling to hold a note for longer than eleven or twelve seconds.
Tone has warmed and opened up, though, or at least it has to my ears.Play Count: 47 Embouchure - Day 12The mouthpiece kept moving out of position for me, this session. Didn't think I was slipping or turning out, though? Weird.Play Count: 33 Embouchure - Day 11A good few strong, long notes of ten or more seconds. Lost my focus a bit, though, my mind was wandering....Play Count: 23 Embouchure - Day 11A good few strong, long notes of ten or more seconds. Lost my focus a bit, though, my mind was wandering....Play Count: 20 Embouchure - Day 10Pleased with this attempt, actually. My tone is showing signs of its former health, bright and creamy, without the breathy shakes I'd previously struggled with.Play Count: 31 Embouchure - Day 08Made it to almost twenty seconds sustaining a note!
It seems that the airstream I'm producing keeps faltering. Wonder if there's a way I can bolster it?Play Count: 19 Embouchure - Day 07Not a fantastic attempt - it's a bit of a dreary morning, and I'm more tired than I thought. Plus, the screw-top of my head-joint popped out without my realising!Play Count: 28 Embouchure - Day 06Today I tried to focus more on attacking the note and coming in strong...to some modest success. Unfortunately, this entails a sacrifice in clarity of tone and steadiness of production...Play Count: 25 Embouchure - Day 05Feeling a little shaky this morning, and it shows! The volume of my notes is improving and I'm more relaxed playing them, but still my facial muscles are too weak to keep the note steady.Play Count: 19 Embouchure - Day 04Getting stronger all the time! I think I sustained a ten second note, with few wavers.Play Count: 26 Embouchure - Day 03Managed some sustained and even notes for almost ten seconds. This is progress more rapid than I expected. Breath strength is still an issue, but that will come with time and exercise. Afterwards I felt tingling in my lips...Play Count: 28 Embouchure - Day 02My mouth doesn't hurt as much as it did yesterday, so I think I need to remember to go harder...Play Count: 25 Embouchure - Day 01Returning to playing the concert flute after many years away, and starting to practise with with rebuilding the embouchure (the strength in the lips and control of air - a fundament of the instrument).
The way this is normally done is by taking only the head joint of the flute, and creating a sustained single note, through adjusting the position of the lip-plate on the lips and also the position of the mouth and airstream over the plate.
As you can tell, I'm very, very rusty! This is a type of muscular exercise, and as such takes a long time to work up to full strength.Play Count: 40 Excerpt from Jean Genet's 'Miracle of the Rose' - page 108-9Jean describes his view of the criminal Bulkaen, a man he loves and hero-worships, through the lens of his own graduation into a life of jewel theft.
[First time for me online reading and recording...well, anything! At the moment, I very much dislike the sound of my own voice on playback, so do please bear with my mistakes, the tremors and odd timbre and strange noises of breath or mouth, as well as my pesky impediment. I hope to get more confident with practise, and be able to speak more clearly for the listener.]Play Count: 52