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The BlogImprove your sound – Play with air in your cheeks
Ory’s Flute Tips
Improve your sound – Play with air in your cheeks
We all wish and aim to have better, richer tone quality. Your teachers have probably given you many exercises already in order to work on and improve your tone, but have you been given as well technical instructions of what can really improve it? I believe that playing with air in your cheeks can make wonders to your tone quality.
What are the benefits of playing with air in the cheeks?
If you are able to play with air in your cheeks, you will:
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reduce muscle tension at the corners of your lips and use rather the central muscles of the lips
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gain more resonance, by making your cheeks as a resonance box
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play with the right air pressure
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get an immediate indication that your air pressure is correct
Here is an excerpt from the first movement of Prokofiev’s Sonata that can help you understand how you can benefit from playing with air in your cheeks:
👄 Reduce muscle tension at the corners of your lips
Playing with air in your cheeks is like a cure for playing with your corners of your lips stretched (like a smile). Have you ever tried to blow up a balloon and smile at the same time? I bet you haven’t. It is just unnatural to do and far less effective (if even possible at all).
Imagine you would have a balloon now and try to blow it up (or use a real balloon if you have). Can you feel what happens to your cheeks? They get filled up with air, as there is some pressure inside your mouth, because of the resistance of the balloon (or your lips if you do it without a balloon). Notice as well that you loose all tension in the corners of the lips while blowing this way.
Practice tip: Simply play a long first octave B or Bb and figure out what happens when you allow your cheeks to be filled up with air.
🔊 Gain more resonance
String instruments, as violin, cello and guitar, have their resonance box in order to gain more resonance to the sounds their produce. We flutists use our body in order to achieve the same effect. Allowing the cheeks to swell and be filled up with air will make your resonance box bigger and your sound will benefit from that. You can easily compare your sound by playing the same note with or without air in your cheeks. I’m sure you’ll notice the difference.
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🗣 Play with the right air pressure
Your cheeks will not be able to swell unless you play with a certain air pressure. Only when the pressure is relatively high, the air you blow will look for a way to get out of your mouth, but since it cannot, it will make your cheeks to swell. Not only you’ll create a bigger resonance box, your air pressure will be higher and it will immediately improve your sound. That also leads to the last point:
✅ Get an immediate indication that your air pressure is correct
This is just logical, if your cheeks are swollen and filled up with air then it is more than likely that the air pressure you use has the minimal pressure that you need in order to get a good sound. It’s a clear sign for you that your pressure is high enough.
Try it out and let me know how it feels. If you have any question, you are very welcome to leave your comment and I will gladly answer.
Enjoy experimenting,
Ory
Ory Schneor is a principal flutist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Tongyeong Festival Orchestra and member of the Geneva Camerata. He is teaching masterclasses around the world and he is the founder and instructor at FLUTEinWIEN
I frequently notice that I’m playing with air in my cheeks at times and worried that I had weak cheek muscles. I too thought it might improve resonance but thought I should try to stop doing it as it wouldn’t be considered proper technique. I was so happy to read this blog as it’s really given me some positive affirmation! Thank you
Dear Micheal, thanks for your comment. I do believe the cheek muscles should be rather free. It’s a bit hard to be sure how you do it without watching you playing, but I do believe it can help your sound. Ory
My cheek muscles and embouchure are definitely free. I probably should spend more time noticing what is going on when it happens as I am not doing it intentionally, my cheeks often end up just blowing out, and more often just the right side. It happens not only when playing forte but I suspect it’s because I’m using too much air speed perhaps but it also occurs more often when dropping my throat for more resonance. I will try to look at this aspect more closely so I can make use of it with intention.
Ori – good articles! Do you mean that the cheeks will not be able to “swell”, instead of “swallow” (maybe a mistake in translation?)?
Hey Wendy, thanks for your kind words. Yes, of course, silly mistake – now fixed. Thanks for letting me know. Ory
Thank you so much for this usefull article !
My pleasure!
Ory, whenever I use more air and my cheeks swell, it feels the me as if my lips do the opposite of what you describe – they get pulled apart and I lose control of my embouchure, or my tone diminishes. Could you weigh in on this?
Hey, thanks for your comment. This of course should be well balanced. If you use too much air in your cheeks, you start adding tension on the lips, and that’s not what I’m aiming at. The ideal situation would be to be able to allow the air to be in your cheeks, while keeping the lips rather relaxed. It’s definitely possible!
Thanks a bunch for this. I will try this out and give feedback latter. I have been struggling with the clear sound for a while.
Thanks Ademaria for your comment, I hope that will help! Let me know how it feels. 🙂
Hi Ory
Thanks for your post, really appreciated!
Are both cheeks full of air ? I seem to favour the right mostly (this also happens for me when circular breathing) and also generally it feels harder to control the escaping air sound, could you comment on that?
And secondly are your staccatos tounged or ‘”huh’s”?
Dan
Hi Dan, sorry, took me a little while to get to your reply but I’m really happy you’ve asked!
So, to answer your questions, yes, idyllically both cheeks are with air. If you are having hard time with that, then most probably you pull one of your lips’ corners and by that preventing the air from reaching both cheeks equally. I’d encourage to try and figure out how you can manage to relax the corners and allow the air equally.
As for the staccatos, I’m not totally sure what you meant with your question…which staccatos? Single/double tonguing? In which case? Let me know and I’ll be able to answer the question better. 🙂
I believe he meant the rapid triplets on the same pitch, which are articulated so beautifully.
(“Huh”: Modern recorder technique for staccato notes involves opening the mouth to let each note end without stopping it with the tongue, which looks like “huh” or perhaps “buh”)