Lisa's Flute Studio Blog

The diaphragm is a muscle at the base of your rib cage, essentially underneath your lungs. To play the flute with full, clear tone, you need to use this muscle effectively.With a full breath, your lungs will expand in such a way that your diaphragm expands downward, causing your abdominal area to expand. Your rib cage will normally expand somewhat while breathing, but many people have been culturally conditioned to take a breath with only the chest and shoulder area expanding, which inhibits power in flute playing. Essentially, there’s no muscle power to support your playing.

For flutist, vocalists, other wind players, speakers, etc, we need to not only allow the air to also expand the diaphragm downward, we need to take advantage of the diaphragm’s power. When you take a breath, imagine that you’re a glass, filling from the bottom up. This is sometimes easiest to feel if you first empty out any existing air, then just allow the vacuum created to refill. You can also get the feeling of where you want the air to go by lying on your back (effectively immobilizing the upper ribs/chest area) – the air will have no choice but to go lower down.

Place your hands on your waist, just high enough to feel the base of your rib cage. Take a full breath (from the bottom of the glass up – feel it start way down in your lower abdomen and work it’s way up – then feel your lower ribs expand. For now, try to keep your shoulders and upper rib cage pretty much out of the picture – very little movement there, if any. (In the long run, you’ll have times you want to fill up as much as possible for long stretches without a breath, but for learning to use the diaphragm as a power source right now, keep the expansion mostly in the belly area into the lower rib cage). Take a few breaths to get the feeling.

Now, put your fingers in your upper abdomen – feel just below the place where your ribs come together in an upside-down V. Take a full belly-breath as described above. Then try saying one or more of the following as emphatically as you can: “hissssssssss” or “HoHoHo” – yes the big fat Santa Claus variety, no small elves here; or perhaps try to bark like a dog. Feel your diaphragm engage – in the spot described above – with these sounds. If you don’t feel a pronounced movement and hardening of your diaphragm muscle you’re probably either not quite putting your hand in the right spot, or you need to enunciate your “H” more strongly, hiss with more air behind it, or something along those lines, so give it another go. Or try to get a genuine belly laugh going – this really gives your diaphragm a work-out!

Once you’ve got the feel of breathing in to the diaphragm area, a good exercise is to practice scales or your music with diaphragm starts: First, identify a small section of music you’d like to work on – maybe just a few notes, or even just a single note, or perhaps a whole scale, a phrase, etc. Then begin each note in that section with no tongue – just a strong “hoo” breath start – with awareness of the muscle you used in the “hisssss” or “hohoho.” Once you’re able to play the note(s) strongly and clearly, noticing a clean beginning and full middle of the note, then (and only then) add the tongue back in. Be aware to keep the power that you had in the breath start, and just add a bit more definition to the beginning of the note with your tongue. This should not substantially change the quality of the sound. It should just lend a small bit of extra clarity to the beginning of the note.

The following YouTube videos might be helpful to further your understanding of the use of the diaphragm:

3D view of the diaphragm in action, with explanation (1:14)

Using the Diaphragm – Brighton Vocal Coach Chip Jenkins (7:35)

Voice Lessons – “Diaphragm Breathing” (3:43)

Next entry will cover: Daily Tone Exercises

You’re beginning on the adventure of refining your tone – congratulations! (If you haven’t yet read introductory comments, please click here).

The first step, and one you’ll keep coming back to over and over, is about the basic set-up of both yourself and your flute. This is without question your most important step – so though it may sound basic and you may be eager to move on to the next step first, please do start here! Your basic position will influence virtually everything else, from diaphragm power and control, to whether the air is actually ending up where it needs  to go, to other technical elements that I won’t address here. Bottom line: posture is really, really important so don’t go past this page until you work on it, and then keep coming back to it for further refinement.

Please note: many professional flutists DO NOT play with the exact position I describe below. As I see it, the key is to understand the concepts of how posture and flute position interact to produce high quality tone – many professionals have developed muscle control over many years to compensate for odd angles, or they have learned to compensate in other ways. If you’re getting exactly the tone (and technique) you want and are feeling comfortable while playing, then you don’t need to be reading any of this! If you are reading this, I’ll just say that it’s my belief, after 25 years of teaching, that following the steps below will help lead you to the tone you strive for in the easiest way possible.

ALSO: One more important note. These recommendations are not intended to be static or constant in exact and consistent detail. These are basic recommendations for set-up and to which you will return. For the moment, it’s ok to be more exacting and stationary, but in reality musicians MOVE. This is a good thing. Rigidity will never help. Be comfortable, loose and free, just strive to keep that movement within the limits of what allows for both maximum freedom and comfort and the maximum chance of getting the air on target consistently with maximum potential for power and control.

1) Basic Posture: Stand tall and loose. Place feet shoulder’s width apart, the right foot at about 1:00-2:00 angle from the left, and set somewhat back. Left toe lines up with knee and nose. Below are some pictures of flutists of different sizes:

In the picture below, the camera caught me with my feet in a position different from what I’m recommending. Please remember: this is not intended to be static – again, musicians do move. Set up in the basic position (as Lucinda, Aurora, and Robin demonstrate above, and Cathy and George demonstrate below) but it’s not intended as a restricting position, but as a comfortable place to start and to return.

Pretend you’re a marionette. A string lifts from the top of your head (slightly back of center), while everything else flops. Throughout your daily routine, practice doing everything with this string in mind.If you can imagine that someone else is pulling you up with this string, it’s really amazing how light you can feel, and how the tension everywhere can just melt away. Remember to keep your knees comfortable and soft, rather than rigid.

I think every tall woman I’ve ever known learned to slouch in junior high. And kids and small adults may think of themselves as small and have a hard time imagining that they can fill up space.  From now on, make it a point to be proud of your full height, whatever it may be, and maximize it!

Regarding foot position: The flute sticks out at a potentially awkward angle. If your feet were too close together, or in line with one another, feel how that would cramp your flute position. With the right foot back and angled, and shoulder’s width from the left, you’re able to have the flute comfortably out from your body, with space between your shoulder and your flute to allow full comfort in the shoulder area (in addition to hands) as well as full use of the diaphragm and, indeed, the whole body as a resonating chamber and source of support.

2) Always bring your flute to you, never bend to it. Set your posture, then float your flute into position in a big open circle. Think of it as a hot air balloon, rising slowly in an arc as it inflates, gradually opening in a relaxed, comfortable, wide circle and rising until it settles into place. Watch in the mirror to make sure you maintain the great posture you set up earlier. Think of your flute as being like a dog – it comes to you! Rather than a cat – don’t let yourself go to it! Your posture comes first, and stays, the flute is added to the posture you’ve established. (Thanks to David Gerry for that analogy!).

Next entry will cover: head joint placement and lining up the air stream with the embouchure hole