flute breakthrough

content/blog/2025/01-03-flute-breakthrough/index.md

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+---
+title: "Flute breakthrough"
+date: 2025-01-03
+tags:
+  - flute
+  - music
+---
+
+Today I made a major breakthrough on my flute.
+This 3D printed flute is actually a lovely instrument,
+with a nice tone, and a robust low D.
+I just wasn't playing it correctly.
+
+The thing I was missing was placing the flute under my lower teeth.
+I had been cramming it up into my lower teeth instead of resting it against my chin.
+Somehow this meant that the low D was very weak:
+I was overblowing it into the next octave every time I tried to play it.
+Now that I've sorted this out,
+I can nail the D every time.
+
+Curiously, what I did immediately before this
+was to rotate the flute head a full quarter-circle toward me,
+so that the embouchure was about even with my left thumb.
+This allowed me to blow straight forward into the flute,
+using the side-of-mouth muscles I used to play oboe.
+Once I was convinced it was possible to make a nice low D this way,
+I was able to rotate it back and get it the traditional way.
+
+Maybe there was more to figuring this out than I realized.
+But in any case, I can play two full octaves reliably now,
+which should help quite a bit in my progress.
+Thank heavens!
+