Music by wire

Flute basics

First things first, and the first thing you do with a flute is put it together.

A flute consists of three parts, the head joint, the body joint and the foot joint. When you connect the body and the foot, you should align the edge of the two keys with the rod that runs along the body joint. Here’s a picture to show you what I mean:

This depends a bit on how long our fingers are. If you have a short right little finger, you’ll need to align the foot joint a bit differently to make sure you can reach the keys easily enough.

Next, you should connect the body joint and the head joint. When you do this, do not grab the head joint by putting your hand around the lip plate. The lip plate is not very sturdy, so if you grab it like that it might bend and eventually fall off. Also, try not to grab the body joint by putting your hand around anything that sticks out of the actual tube. Keys and springs bend easily too, so grab the body joint by the actual tube. When you’ve done that, you should align the head joint and the body joint. One way of doing this is by looking along the flute with the head joint pointing away from you. If you hold it so that the keys on the body joint are pointing straight up, the hole you blow into on the head joint should be aligned with the keys. Here’s a picture:

Ok, now you have the flute all set up. Next, let’s look at posture.

When you pick up the flute to play it, you should always try to be as relaxed as possible, especially if you’re practising a lot. Holding a flute is not a very ergonomic position, and it’s easy to strain your wrists or shoulders if you’re not relaxed. When you hold it up to play, the flute is supported by your body in three points: your chin, your right thumb and the base of your left index finger. Turn your head just a little to the left, and try to point the foot end of the flute a little bit out in front of you. Here’s a picture of a person seen from above to show you what I mean:

Holding the flute like this makes it easier to relax your shoulders when you’re playing. Some teachers tell their students to hold the flute parallell to their bodies, but to manage that, you have to pull your right elbow behind your body, or bend your right wrist a lot. That’s a difficult position to relax in, and there’s no particular point in holding it like this. It doesn’t sound any better than the more relaxed position.

I have also heard flute teachers tell their students to hold the flute parallell to the ground a couple of times, and I’ve never understood why. This will just make your shoulders hurt if you play a lot. Here are two pictures to show you the difference:

Many flutists tend to bend their upper body over to the left when playing, in order to counter-balance the weight of the flute and their arms on the right side. In most cases they haven’t noticed that they are doing it. A bent posture like this constricts the upper body and makes it a bit harder to breathe freely. If you have a large mirror, have a look and try to make sure your spine stays straight when you’re playing.

The position of your hands is quite important too, since a bad hand position can hurt your wrists. Let’s start with the right hand. First, drop your hand and let it hang freely next to your body. Try to relax it as much as you can, you could even shake it a bit to make sure you’re completely relaxed. Now, normally your fingers will bend a little bit and your thumb will be more or less opposite your index finger. Still relaxed? Ok, now just lift your arm and keep your hand relaxed. Try to keep that same, relaxed hand position, and just put your flute between your thumb and your other fingers. That’s usually a pretty good position for the right hand. When you’re playing, try to not bend your right wrist too much. If your wrist is too bent, it can strain the tendon that goes from your thumb and down over the side of your wrist.

Now the left hand. The same trick as with the right hand works here too. Relax your hand and then just lift it up and put your fingers around the flute. But here, make sure your wrist isn’t completely straight. Keeping your wrist too straight puts more strain on the thumb, so keep the wrist a little bent. But if you bend it too much, you’ll have to bend your index finger a lot to be able to play, so bend it just enough. Try to find a position that is relaxed, and try to keep all your fingers slightly curved when you’re playing.

Here’s a picture of both hands. I added a red line to show how the left hand should be a bit bent.

And finally, how to position your feet. This can vary a bit, but something like the picture below is pretty good.

Keep in mind that the pictures shown above are approximations of a good posture. Different people have different bodies, so there’s no exactly correct posture. Just try to keep your body as relaxed as possible when you’re playing, and try not to play for more than 30 minutes at the time. A lot of people underestimate how hard it is on your body to play an instrument. If you play a long piece, your fingers move up and down thousands of times. It’s like the equivalent of a marathon for your fingers, and they do get tired.

If your wrists or fingers start hurting when you’re playing, you need to stop playing. If playing makes your body hurt, playing more will not make it go away. If you’re not careful, you might end up with serious injuries. Pain can arise for many different reasons, but the most common ones are probably that you are either too tense and straining your tendons and muscles, or not taking enough breaks when you play. Stop playing for a few days. If the pain hasn’t gone away by then, go see a doctor.