How to play the flute in tune

Wondering why you can't always play the flute in tune?

Well, I made you this video to explain the 6 things that affect the tuning of your flute. Each of these 6 things will help you play more in tune.

Learning these tips is a good move that will help you play much more beautifully!

Jane xx

The 6 things that affect the tuning of your flute

I remember going to band rehearsals in the morning before school, during high school. And it was always freezing, mind you not snowing, freezing just cold. And in the band room with no heating, I was always flat.

The whole band knew that they were going to be flat. So they had to push their flute or their instrument in further to be in tune. That has always stayed with me.

And it's actually become really handy because when I remember what temperature, hot temperatures or cold temperatures, do to the tuning of an instrument, I just think of being in that band room and it's cold and having to push in because we're all flat.

The difference between tuning and intonation on the flute

So in this video, I'm going to show you the 6 things that affect where you need to put your head joint to have your flute in tune. Next week, by the way, I'm going to talk to you about the difference between tuning like your instrument in tune and intonation. So in other words, playing in tune, the difference between tuning and intonation that's next week.

I should tell you, my name is Jane Cavanagh. I love breaking up difficult concepts into really easy to understand and straightforward techniques, simple techniques.

So for today, the 6 things that affect where you need to put this, to give yourself a chance of playing in tune.

Temperature makes your flute flat or sharp

The first thing that affects where you need to put this - I mentioned it before, is temperature. If it's hot, you as a flute player are going to be sharp. So you will need to pull out to make your flute longer and lower to compensate for being sharp.

Likewise, if the temperature where you're playing is really cold, you will be flat. So to compensate, you need to make tube shorter and higher so you push it in. Now that's the same for all wind instruments, which is handy.

The flute head joint

Number 2 thing that affects where you need to put your head joint to give yourself a fighting chance at playing in tune. If you are playing with an instrument that is out of tune, you will need to move this, to join them with their out of tuneness.

For example, let's say you're playing with a piano that hasn't been tuned for a number of years, and it's just consistently flat. All the notes on the piano were just flat because the strings haven't been tuned and tightened recently. So they're stretched and they're looser and they're lower, which means the whole piano's going to be flat.

So you luckily, can adjust. So you pull out to make yourself lower and flatter to match that instrument. Obviously, having out of tune instruments, it isn't the best scenario, but we have the luxury of being able to move our head joint, to match other instruments that can't play in tune, which brings me on to the number 3 thing.

The cork in the end of the flute head joint

You have a cork at the end of your flute, it's kind of like a wine cork. It needs to be in exactly the right spot. It's more like here, to have your flute set at the right position to be able to be played in tune. Now you don't need to move your cork. And I recommend that you don't move the cork. This is what flute repairers do.

And I've gotta point out something that you may not know. This head joint is actually tapered it's narrower at the top. So if you were to ever take this off and try and get the cork out this way, you're going to obliterate your cork, probably bend the head joint and ruin your flute.

So don't go down the path of trying to move this cork.

Pulling out the flute head joint

The 4th thing that will affect where you put your head joint, this is kind of a funny joke, but it's also really interesting. If you had your modern flute now, and you lived a couple of hundred years ago, you would need to pull out substantially like this much because a couple of hundred years ago, the tuning, the acceptable tuning for what was in tune was lower, significantly lower, like this much lower

That's where it would've been a couple of hundred years ago, compare the same notes to where it is these days. They were the same notes. Amazing. Right?

And the fun fact in here is that over time, century, by century, even decades by decades tuning, what is acceptable in society is going up a tiny bit at a time, even in my lifetime, in your lifetime. So over time, pitch is getting higher, sort of what's the socially acceptable version of in tune. I know fascinating, right?

So that was my funny little point that if you lived 200 years ago with this flute.

The flute airstream affects tuning

The 5^th thing that affects where you need to put this head joint is the airstream that you are using. If you blow really hard, you're going to be sharp. So let me demonstrate. I'm gonna blow the same way, but I'm just gonna blow harder and this will be sharp.

So if I blew not quite so hard, it's not as sharp. So that's the 5^th thing is if you're blowing too hard, you're gonna be sharp. And it means that to be in tune, you need to compensate by pulling out a bit, but that's not the best solution.

The best solution for you is to learn how to blow in a better way so that you don't need to compensate so that you have a pleasant sound up high. It's not too sharp and it's in tune and you won't run out of air.

Flute embouchure and angle of blowing

The 6th reason is also to do with blowing. And it's not exactly embouchure, but it's more the angle that you're blowing. So if you are blowing like this, so this is normal, but you had it too far rolled in.

Can you hear how that's flatter? If you don't realize that you are rolling in too far, you might just think that this is in the wrong spot. So you are flat. So you're gonna push it in to compensate. And you'll be sort of more in tune like this.

But the problem is you still have that squashed sound. Did you hear how that sound was sort of constricted?

So these last two points, 5 and 6, are about the way you're blowing. 5 was about airstream, how fast it is and whether you're blowing too hard. And point 6 is whether you're too far rolled I. These are going to affect your tuning. It will lead you to think that this is in the wrong spot.

The quick fix is to put that in a different spot so that you're more in tune with the band that you're playing in or the piano that you're playing with.

But the true fix is to learn the real way to blow in a real way to control your air. This is exactly the sort of thing that I do in the flu academy with my students in there.

Learn to improve your flute tone for free

In the meantime, though, if you wanna learn how to set yourself up with, with really good position, like what I showed you there, not too far rolled in, come and do the 3 day free mini-course with me called How to Instantly Improve your Tone. And it's through learning tiny things like that.

Tiny changes that set you up to be able to play with a really good tone, set you up to be able to play with good intonation and set you up to be able to play with lots of air, basically become a good flute player. So join me at www.flute.school/free. And I hope to see you there.