Hi! I started playing the flute a few days ago, but I’ve noticed that my right thumb really struggles when playing G, A, B and C.

I have quite long fingers, and this actually caused me to quit playing the violin in the past at my teacher’s request. They were worried that I might injure or even fracture my finger because of the way I had to position my hand. I was able to give up the violin, but I really don’t want to give up the flute as well.

Do you have any advice for someone w long fingers? Are there any adjustments I can make to my hand position or flute setup to make playing these notes more comfortable?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

I want an instrument that sounds cool, looks impressive and is easy to learn. I think the drone flute is a great contender like those double barrled ones. What key would be the best? Or should i get a bamboo flute instead?

As the title implies. I made this flute out of bamboo, it's rather large, the bore is a bit bigger than a typical Irish flute same with length. So it's possible that it's just going to be naturally airy.

But I'm also extremely new to flute, this is my first flute of this style (side blown) so my embouchure could be bad. I played clarinet for a long time so I have some wind instrument fundamentals just not flute specific.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

(For those curious its a 6 hole in D Dorian)

My flute now makes a weird hissing sound when I play and I don’t know what’s causing the problem. It was fine a few days ago but then I started to notice it when I was playing at our church last sunday morning. I thought that it was just a me problem since I didn’t really warm up properly since I was running late. But the sound didn’t go away days after even when I had warmed up enough. I just had a COA for this a few weeks ago but maybe its something that just happened recently. Could it be the climate cuz it rains then gets really hot on the same day where I’m from, or do I need new pads or something. Should I get it checked out? (In the video I tried to highlight the notes where you can really hear the hissing sound.)

Hi everyone! I love this sub. I've been playing flute self-taught for two years, but lately not so much since I got so tense all over, it was exhausting to play for 5 mins. So I analized my every move and got to relax my posture and better my sound incredibly, nothing hurts or feels too tense now except my left arm. But it's not pain per se as before, it's just that after some minutes I can feel my musles working and the left side of my neck gets weird from being in that unnatural position. I must say I've never had great posture (but I am a professional actress so it's nothing extreme and I have body conciousness overall).

So in summary I want to ask if in general it's normal to build up to feeling comfortable with your left arm lifted all the time, and how is your left scapula when you play. Is it raised or more close to your back? Did your left arm get tired at first when you started playing until you got strong?

Thank you for the help!

edit: typos

This is out of a high school foundations book, and there’s a lot of warm ups in the same style with fingered notes being different from the ones “produced as a harmonic.”

I have no clue what to do with this, please help!

I've beed playing Native American style flutes for a couple of years and I'm mostly self-taught. I do want to practice playing with some music in the background. There are cool artists/djs that play their flutes against background drum and bass tracks and stuff like that. Does anyone know how or where I can find tracks like that to practice to?

This is the place to promote yourself! Whether it's a performance you are proud of, offering teaching, or anything else flute related.

Hello.

My 9 yo daughter started flute this year and is really enjoying it.

We’re currently hiring the Yamaha through the school. Currently paying $320(AUD) a year for hire, but that does include servicing and insurance. We’d be looking at at least another 3 years hiring and then high school.

A friend has offered us the Jupiter to maybe buy/give us. It’s about 25 years old from when he was in high school. It’s missing the crown and will need the pads and stops replaced and a good service.

I have no idea about flutes but just after some direction on if it’s worth taking the Jupiter or sticking to the Yamaha. I read a couple of things about Yamaha being the better instrument but nor sure if the extra cost of hire over owning is worth it at this level. Depending on how much we end up having to spend on the Jupiter will probably dictate if the friend ends up just giving it to us.

Thanks for the help.

looking for pieces with section like this (ideally longer than this one), where they have an anchor note and then move to a different note and then back if you know what I’m saying (I’m sorry I’m not good at explaining lol)

I'm looking for a brass artificial cork, and i noticed the celestine rexonator is completely out of stock everywhere! Is there an alternative? Or know when things will be back in stock?

Hello! I am a freshman in highschool who's been playing the flute since 6th grade. Other than my highschool providing once a week masterclasses to the flute section in top ensemble, I've never had a one on one private lesson before. Anything I should know?

Yorkshire Ballad arr. James Barnes is my favorite piece at the moment that I will be playing at a fall/winter concert as a freshman :DD
Any tips y’all have on my playing greatly appreciated, as I’ve been playing with braces for over a year now.

I have a really hard time playing anything past the G# key that your left pink rests on. I believe it's my embouchure ( I am a self thought beginner so very likely). Any tips?

Hey guys, i am a professional flutist (i already have master diploma, currently doing auditions and freelancing) and i still have a Muramatsu GX which as you know is not the best for a professional.. but the problem is that financially i can’t afford to buy a new flute and last time i was at a summer festival and all the other festival participants had better flutes, minimum Ds (which i want) and i’ve tried their flutes and it is so much better and easier to play on a higher level flute than the GX, and i just feel really down because i deserve better but i can’t afford it, life is so unfair. Thank you for listening my pep talk.

I can generally do slow legato improvisation with a metronome over the circle of fifths but my tonguing is not particularly clean. Right now I'm working mostly on playing with as relaxed an embouchure as I can achieve while maintaining a good sound, as well as playing the higher octaves more quietly. I'm about 2 years into playing regularly and I can't find anyone in my area who will give me paid private lessons, but I have applied and will apply for more!

I often put down my flute for years and am out of shape. The fastest way to get my emboucher back is to pick up my piccolo. 3-5 minutes of piccolo practice will strengthen lips faster than any other technique, I promise.

I adore playing the flute, but playing the piccolo made me a much better flute player. My lips and breath were better, my sound was more precise, and my ability to control my pitch was infinitely improved. While one might think this would only affect the high range on the flute because my emboucher was more direct and focused on the piccolo, I was also immediately better on my low range as well. Why? Because I had more control of both my breath (which you need for low register sounds) and because I had learned where and how to release my lip muscles better.

If you are ever given the opportunity to play the piccolo, go for it! It will improve your flute playing, not detract. And it’s fun too! 🌻

I have a sudden yearning for learning a wind instrument and upon browsing multiple options of instrument to try, my interest was picked by side blow wooden flutes.

I am now hesitating between Bansuri and Dizi flutes, they both sound really good and I'm hoping to be able to play something decent in five years. At first I thought I'd go for the one with the more resources to learn by myself but turns out both seem pretty well documented.

It's a totally new world for me since the only wind instrument I've used is that one year where we played recorder in middle school.

What do you think I should do? :)

Hello! I am a university student in Canada and I want to buy a flute of my own after playing for 4 year in highschool. I haven't played in a bit (maybe 1.5-2 years) but would like to audition for the pit band at my school. I am around beginner to intermediate level and would like a flute that doesn't break the bank.

Thank you so much for the help!

Hi everyone. I work with a nonprofit group who's mission is to support local music/musicians. In one of our programs, we take in donated used instruments (of all types), pay to have them refurbished and then loan them out for free to students. It's gotten increasingly expensive to get instruments fixed, but especially things like flutes and saxophones that need re-padding. Where I'm at it's typically a little over $300 to re-pad a flute. My question is, are there decent beginner flutes that can be purchased in that price range? Unfortunately no one in our group plays flute and is able to make that determination. A quick online search shows plenty of options sub $300, but are they worth putting into the hands of beginning students? Any advice appreciated!

So say I have a page that's D-E-C-D and they're quarter notes, or eighth notes. Should I practice quickly placing my pinkie for those two notes, or is it okay to leave the pinkie up in that situation to facilitate the actual notes? I am having trouble with coordination even at slow tempos except with whole note scale practice.

Hello all. Writing a flute part but I am not a flautist!
At 140bpm.. is this feasible for an intermediate player? I might be absolutely insane 🤣
Thanks in advance!

Flute 1 part
Flute 2 part

I would like to know if the part looks "professional". Is it possible to play in terms of breathing? Is the range of the parts reasonable? And how do you think the flutes play apart in the orchestral context?

If I adjust this, will I still be able to play it like before? Will the sound get affected? It fell from the case and this is my only flute :((

4 months into learning the flute and I’m finally learning twinkle twinkle little star haha. The 2nd octave has been hard for me to learn but I am getting it.. just need to keep practicing.