THE FLUTE

 
About 5,000 years ago the first real flute, carved out of bone was .found in a cave in northern France, the instrument had an unknown number of holes when intact… This flute was more like a recorder. In China around 3,000 years ago, the first flute that you hold sideways was created. It is also said that the Egyptians had flutes before that. Flutes came from recorders and were once made of wood. In this 1900's the first silver flute was made. Beethoven was the first major composer to include Piccolo's in a composition. The flute is a part of a lot of cultures today. Over in England the Irish Flute and the Penny Whistle are played. in the other part of the world  you can see all types of Flutes, everything from American Indian to Silver/gold Flutes. Music, an integral part of the Cro-Magnon world, was laden with spiritual meaning.
Newsweek, Nov '86.

Singing into your flute is a technique that is most commonly used in jazz band. Jethro Tull uses this technique in the song "Bouree." In order to practice these techniques you need your flute, a place to practice and patience.  When you perform this technique it sounds like the tone and a buzzing noise. There are two different ways to get the tones. The first way is to make an O shaped opening on the lips and hum any one tone. Next take the flute up to your lips and the force of the air through the lips should be enough to make a sound. Make sure that the flute is touching your lips. You know you got it when you can hear the tone you're playing and the buzzing from your lips.  The other way to do it is to play a tone, and then add the humming. This is a little harder to do. Once you have the buzzing sound, experiment around. Try to hum lower and higher while keeping the tone the same.

Try moving from note to note while your humming stays the same.

Multiphonics 

For right now, I am only going to place these two. To play these, use fast air and blow down into the flute, but not too hard.

With multiphonics on the flute first get the lower note

Performance Anxiety

Know your music. - Make sure you have your music

• almost memorized. This way you can be confident that you will be able to play it perfectly.
• Don't worry about messing up. - Don't worry so much. Don't go into the audition room saying "I am doing this to win," Instead go into the audition room saying "I am doing this for fun." Music is not about who is better, or who will you beat, but about having fun.
• Don't focus on one thing in the audience. - One thing musicians will do is focus on one thing in the audience. This works well until that thing moves or gets blocked by something. When you do this you are focusing on that one thing and when something happens to it you lose focus and concentration and mess up.
• Don't eat or drink anything with sugar or caffeine before you play. - When you eat sugar or caffeine it makes your body jumpy and unstable, this extra energy will drop quickly and if it is during your audition then you may have a problem.
• Make sure you are warmed up well. - When you warm up, you get your muscles ready to play. Usually when I get out my flute I don't sound perfect at first, but after 5 to 10 minuets I'm at my standard. Make sure you quit warming up about 15 minutes before you play so that you don't wear yourself out. Keep the instrument warm

Start Playing Irish Music

First Step

The First step is to get an instrument used for playing Irish music. The most common instrument is the Penny Whistle. The reasonfor this is because the Irish Flute is very easy to play and very cheap.

Second Step

Get a method book, this will help you with the notes and it will also give you some Music. To see some Irish Music, .

Third Step

Find other musicians to play with. Find a group of people who like Irish Music, and play with them.

FINGERING