LFP 013 | Tips to Line up A Flute

Hey y’all it’s me, Rebecca from Learn Flute Online with episode 13 today!

Welcome everyone and thanks for tuning in here to the Learn Flute Podcast. Again, my name is Rebecca Fuller and I am the expert of all things Flute and especially Learning How to Play the Flute at Learn Flute Online – which is the companion site to this podcast. You can hop on over there to read these show notes and join in on the conversation in the comment section.

We have a large community there of flute learners, and we’d love YOU to join us.

Today in this episode, I’m going to answering a question many beginners have, and especially if you are self-taught or are re-learning how to play the flute, you’re going to enjoy the information I’ll be sharing with you today.

The question is: How should I line up my flute?

Lining up your flute isn’t really as common sense as we’d like it to be, so it’s no problem for me to shed some light on it.

It’s important to know that it doesn’t really matter which pieces of the flute you decide to put together first, it’s just important that you do each one correctly. This will maximize your efforts when you are practicing and keep your flute problem free.

Let’s start first of all with the head joint.

Head joints are just a cylinder with one end capped, and the other end open. We have a lip plate and a hole where you do all the blowing. I call that the tone hole or the embouchure hole.

To answer the question in this episode of How to line up a flute correctly, you’ll need to know where to position the head joint as you slide it into the barrel of the body of the flute. By the way, in case you didn’t know -The body is the longest part with all the buttons and keys on it.

As you twist the head joint into place (you’ll notice I said twist – that’s a whole other subject, but just know that it’s important not to shove your head joint into the body – you must twist in order to keep those joints from stretching out of shape. 

Well, anyway what we need to look at here is the tone hole or the embouchure hole that’s up there on the lip plate. What we want to do is line up the little hole with the majority of the straight keys on the body of the flute.

I always kind of hold my flute in front of me kind of pointing down at my feet – then I peer down it as if it were the barrel of a gun – that’s how I can see if I have the lip plate lined up well or not. it doesn’t take very long, its very quick and it’s just as I am twisting the headjoint into the body.

Now, do you need to do this every time you put your flute together? Well, yes. you do. Unless you have marked your flute and can just line up the markings.. I have an article I wrote about this if you’d like to read more. But just know that I do not suggest you scratch your flute in order to mark where it should be lined up. And the reason for it is that as you advance and learn and grow you’ll have a slight different place you’ll want to line it up. 

Now, this particular subject is a little more complicated so I’ve decided to keep this episode more simple and just say that you should line up your embouchure hole with the majority of the straight keys on your flute. If you look down your flute as I’ve suggested here you’ll know what I mean. Now another reason I should mention here why we want to line that hole up straight with the keys is because pulling or twisting that headjoint so the hole is pointing more towards your face or more away from your face could cause a lot of issues with your tone and especially a lot of tension in your face. 

Tension is something you do not want for good tone on flute. so be careful of that and learn by lining the hole nice and straight.

Now, let’s move on to the foot joint. It’s pretty important to get the placement of the footjoint right since it can save you from a world of hurt in your hand and wrist.

If you take your footjoint and go to twist (notice I said twist again) it into place on the end of the body you’ll naturally want to stop it so the round keys are all lined up with the round keys of the body. This is where we need to have a little chat because this isn’t going to be what you want to do.

You’ll actually want to stop for a second and think about something here. If you hold up your right hand in front of you and check out the size of all your fingers, you’ll notice that your digits aren’t really all the same size. But, the keys of the flute are all up there lined up straight on the top as if you have fingers that are all the same size. 

Now this causes a problem for a few of them, especially your pinky – that little finger down there on the right. It’s super short compared to the rest. So, we’re going to treat it differently as well.

Getting the right position of the foot joint gives you a chance to get your hand aligned correctly while you are playing. And, we really do want to find the most natural position possible to discourage any overuse injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome or tennis elbow type injuries.

So, here’s what we’re going to do; we’re going to place our right hand first, second, and third fingers on the correct keys of the body and then we’ll wiggle our pinky finger up and down and notice that the foot joint will need to be set on an angle so that the pinky reaches naturally.

If you’d like a visual demonstration of this, you may have already seen me show you all about this in the learning modules over at Learn Flute Online in module number three where I have a video of me talking and showing all about it.

I also get this question often enough that I uploaded that same video to my youtube channel. If you’re not already a subscriber, I encourage you to get over there and click subscribe on the Learn Flute Online youtube channel since each time I upload a new video you’ll get an email notification.

Well, that about does it for today. I’m excited you’re here and really love the fact that you are interested in learning more about playing the flute.

As usual I welcome you to come over to the Learn Flute Online dot com website to check out the show notes from this episode. You can find them by typing in Learn Flute Online dot com forward slash and then the number 013 – that’s for episode thirteen.

I already have a few awesome flute learning subjects lined up for the next few podcasts, and I’d like to remind you all that your questions are more than welcome here. You can record your voice asking your question over at: LearnFluteOnline.com/feedback where I have a fancy little system all set up for you to just click a button and talk right at your computer. It’ll email me your vocalized question, and you may hear it answered on air someday. Pretty cool, huh!