Flute Video Lesson: How to change octaves on the flute

Robert: Hello, welcome, everyone, to virtualsheetmusic.com. Today we have an extremely special guest. My wife, Florence Estrin, is here with her flute to explain to everyone, how do you change octaves on the flute. Now what is that all about? Well, here's the thing about the flute that's so interesting: There's exactly the same fingering for notes in the low register when you play an octave higher. So how do you know which one's going to come out? I've really been wondering about this myself and I thought it was a great subject for our viewers, for instrumentalists, as well as flutists specifically. So welcome to the show and tell us a little bit, how do you change octaves on the flute?

Florence: Well, as you pointed out, 10 of the notes in the low octave have exactly the same fingering as in the middle octave, so...and there's no octave key like there is on a oboe or a saxophone, so we need to do it with our lips. And it's a really very simple process. When you're in the low register, you simply have your lips spread out, nice oblong opening...and then when you want to go to the next octave, you simply bring the corners of your mouth forward. Now this is not tightening like a tension thing. This is just bringing them forward. So it's just moving them forward. So the 10 notes that have the same fingers...but the interesting thing is that even when you have different fingerings for the low register to the middle register, you're still going to adhere to the change of position. And where that position changes is on the middle ear of the flute, which is on the fourth space of your staff. So that's where you switch into that "corners forward" or I sometimes call it the "ooh position" because I've said that to students many times and, ooh, they come right into the right position. So one of the things that I've taught to many students and they have had difficulty, even knowing this information, is the opening of "The Sicilienne" by Gabriel Faure. And in the second half of the first phrase, it's going from that low position, that spread position. There's a couple of E naturals that you have to just quickly get into position. But you're trying to keep it all smooth, so why don't we try playing a little bit of that.

Robert: Let's do that. And then I have a couple of questions for you after about this.

Florence: Okay.

Robert: Oh, that was really beautiful playing.

Florence: Thank you.

Robert: So my question for you is how does someone practice a thing like this?

Florence: Well, doing what I did, just going from octave to octave is one way. When I was first taught about this, I wasn't a beginner, so what I would do in my music is I would actually put little indications whenever I had to get into that "ooh position" at the point where I was getting from E natural and above and I'd actually make a little notation, actually made a little circle. Made me think about bringing my corners forward into that rounder position and then I was able to remember to do it all the time. And it was actually very easy to incorporate because it's really, it's not hard to do. It's simply knowing to do it.

Robert: Got it. Otherwise if you didn't do that, what would happen? Like, if you just tried, would the note not come out at all or what?

Florence: It might not come out. It might come out flat.

Robert: I see.

Florence: You might not get as nice a sound on the note, but this way, it just, it's right there and it's easier to play in tune when you're using these. Now the next thing I want to talk about is that there's actually a third position when you get to the high register and it's very similar to that middle register "ooh position." It's just simply taking the chords a little further forward and again, there's no tension involved. It's just really just bringing them further forward so that you can play quietly in the third octave, which seems to elude many flute players, young flute players. And so I thought maybe we can show a little bit of that with the B section of the "Ave Maria" by Bach-Gounod.

Robert: Perfect. All right...That was just beautiful.

Florence: Thank you.

Robert: You know, I've heard a lot of flutists, when they play in the high register quietly, the notes go flat, is what you hear a lot of times, the ends of the notes particularly. So how do you avoid that?

Florence: Well, you know, it's interesting because that's actually going a little further than just the basic position, but when you want to get quieter on any notes of the flute, bringing the corners forward into a taper, even in the low register, you're still in that spread position, but you kind of bring the corners forward to control the pitch, to keep it up. So and now that actually takes a lot of practice.

Robert: So that could be maybe another...

Florence: I think so.

Robert: ...another session we could have together. Well, I want to thank you for joining us here at virtualsheetmusic.com and having you as a guest. It's a real pleasure and we look forward to having you back again. Thanks for coming.

Florence: My pleasure. Thank you.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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