C above the staff - any suggestions

[otomah]

I'm a 48 year old who spent most of his life playing clarinet and picked up the sax a few years back. Now I'm working on flute. I have teacher, but lately my schedule and her's haven't matched very well so I thought I'd post this question to you all.

I'm having trouble with the C above the staff wanting to drop down and play an octive low. My teacher did give me an exercise of starting on the C and slurring first down to B and then back up, next down to B flat then back to C etc. This has helped, and I can do this fairly well now, but when I'm playing other things the same old problem shows up. Any thoughts on other exercises I can try. I suspect I've just got to work through this till my brain/lips learn to control the note.

thanks
otomah

[Gordon (NZ)]

It is the speed of the air from your lips that mainly determines which overtone (octave) the flute plays.

To produce high airstream speed you must have high air pressure from your lungs, AND good lip support to keep the lip aperture small enough in spite of that greater air pressure. This support is especially important in order to play quietly. (just as much airstream SPEED is required for quiet notes)

To get used to blowing with more air pressure for these high notes you may like to try practising even higher notes; it is easier to come DOWN from a higher note to a difficult note. The third octave D, Eb, F and G are actually easier to play than the C below them. Because of excessive venting resulting from the mechanism arrangement on flute, third octave E, F#, G# need considerably MORE air speed to be stable. The other notes mentioned above play just fine with this higher level of air speed.

You may like to check out my two articles listed in the home page of SOTW.