The Benefits of Puffing
One more thing to put in your bag-of-tricks!
Pros
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Cons
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Puffing is a controversial topic. Everybody has an opinion. I am a puffer. But I'm also a frowner, and smiler, and any number of other things.
I consider puffing just another tool for my tool box. While I believe it is very important to learn, I don't believe that it should be used to the exclusion of all other techniques. As a flutist it is important to have the ability to be flexible. A flutist needs to have a variety of tone colors in their repertoire and the ability to play softly and loudly using different tone colors.
What exactly is puffing?????
Puffing is when you allow air to inflate your cheeks while you are playing. Once one is proficient at puffing you can barely notice the inflation most of the time, the inflation becoming most noticeable in the high register and with vibrato.
Teaching puffing
I believe that beginners and young players should learn to puff first. There are a couple of reasons for this: first, its natural. When a beginner first picks up the flute they will usually puff. Why train them not to, only to train them to do it later when you feel they are ready? Secondly, it is much harder to teach a student to puff if they have a tight emboucure and are used to the sound they produce. When a student first begins to puff it might sound better right away, however, it usually sounds very coarse and then the students don't want to sound that way. It is very hard to convince a student to continue practicing something that they feel makes them sound worse, not better. You have to convince them that if they continue to practice they will end up sounding better in the long run.
I also feel that beginners and intermediate students shouldn't learn to play softly until they have mastered playing with a full sound and are able to support their sound. It takes a lot of control and a different embouchure to play softly. I don't believe in confusing young players until they can produce a good tune with beautiful vibrato and appropriate support without having to think about it. Once all these are automatic, then it is the appropriate time to start introducing how to play softly, how to bend pitch, how to achieve different tone colors.
Teaching students to puff also corrects "smiley" embouchures. When a student is puffing there is no way that they can smile at the same time. Once they are comfortable with puffing then you can teach how to focus and control the sound using the upper lip.
How do you overcome the "cons" of puffing????
First of all, you wont be puffing ALL THE TIME. Its a tool, use it when you need it and put it away when you don't. If you are playing in the high register puffing works great...it lowers your pitch and warms up your sound. When you are playing mf-ffff it provides you with the dynamic force that you require. When you are playing softly... puffing won't work. You need to be flexible and be able to pick and chose the "right tool for the job".
Puffing can work in the low register....if you are playing with a very full sound. But the air has to be sharply focused to the edge of the embouchure hole for it to not sound tubby. The lower register will require more control and tension in the embouchure than the upper register (at the same volume-tension increases in the upper register when playing pp). The increased tension in the lower register and the decreased tension in the higher register (with the help of puffing) will help maintain an even tone through-out all the registers.
I consider puffing just another tool for my tool box. While I believe it is very important to learn, I don't believe that it should be used to the exclusion of all other techniques. As a flutist it is important to have the ability to be flexible. A flutist needs to have a variety of tone colors in their repertoire and the ability to play softly and loudly using different tone colors.
What exactly is puffing?????
Puffing is when you allow air to inflate your cheeks while you are playing. Once one is proficient at puffing you can barely notice the inflation most of the time, the inflation becoming most noticeable in the high register and with vibrato.
Teaching puffing
I believe that beginners and young players should learn to puff first. There are a couple of reasons for this: first, its natural. When a beginner first picks up the flute they will usually puff. Why train them not to, only to train them to do it later when you feel they are ready? Secondly, it is much harder to teach a student to puff if they have a tight emboucure and are used to the sound they produce. When a student first begins to puff it might sound better right away, however, it usually sounds very coarse and then the students don't want to sound that way. It is very hard to convince a student to continue practicing something that they feel makes them sound worse, not better. You have to convince them that if they continue to practice they will end up sounding better in the long run.
I also feel that beginners and intermediate students shouldn't learn to play softly until they have mastered playing with a full sound and are able to support their sound. It takes a lot of control and a different embouchure to play softly. I don't believe in confusing young players until they can produce a good tune with beautiful vibrato and appropriate support without having to think about it. Once all these are automatic, then it is the appropriate time to start introducing how to play softly, how to bend pitch, how to achieve different tone colors.
Teaching students to puff also corrects "smiley" embouchures. When a student is puffing there is no way that they can smile at the same time. Once they are comfortable with puffing then you can teach how to focus and control the sound using the upper lip.
How do you overcome the "cons" of puffing????
First of all, you wont be puffing ALL THE TIME. Its a tool, use it when you need it and put it away when you don't. If you are playing in the high register puffing works great...it lowers your pitch and warms up your sound. When you are playing mf-ffff it provides you with the dynamic force that you require. When you are playing softly... puffing won't work. You need to be flexible and be able to pick and chose the "right tool for the job".
Puffing can work in the low register....if you are playing with a very full sound. But the air has to be sharply focused to the edge of the embouchure hole for it to not sound tubby. The lower register will require more control and tension in the embouchure than the upper register (at the same volume-tension increases in the upper register when playing pp). The increased tension in the lower register and the decreased tension in the higher register (with the help of puffing) will help maintain an even tone through-out all the registers.