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How To Play Irish Flute

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How To Play Irish Flute
Credit: Shanta Roy

Have you got an Irish flute? You must be thinking about playing it. As you have just bought the flute and you are entirely new to the flute.

Here, we have instructions for the beginner to play the Irish flute. Give the details a read to be aware of the things you should remember to play an Irish flute.

It’s not necessarily a step-by-step guide. But we will talk about the things that will gradually take you forward to playing an Irish flute.

Thus, we will start with the most basic ideas regarding playing the Irish flute. And, you can consider the details you remember as the steps for playing an Irish flute.

Let’s start the discussion about playing this fantastic flute.

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Placing The Lip On The Flute

Unlike classical flutes, Irish flutes don’t have any lip plate. That’s why some players can be a little tricky to relax their lips on an Irish flute without a lip plate. But we will provide you with techniques to place your lip. Carefully read and follow them.

1/3 of the embouchure hole is supposed to be covered. Try to perch your lip on the mouthing hole or mouthing hole so that your lower lip covers only 1/3 of the hole.

Here is one more detail to make it clearer to you- place the flute right on the labiodental crease under your lower lip. If you don’t know which part of your face is called a labiodental crease, kindly look it up on the internet.

If you cover too much of the hole, the air you will be blowing won’t the directed in the embouchure hole. As a result, the flute is not going to sound the way it should sound.

So, try to place your lip the way we have just explained. And, it’s one of the first lessons for playing an Irish flute.

Also, know that the lips’ shape varies from person to person. Hence, with our directions, you have to find out your comfortable position for placing the lower lip on your flute.

Forming The Lips

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The structure of the lips is another crucial aspect of playing the Irish flute. To create a good sound with an Irish flute, you should keep your lip as relaxed as possible.

It’s a great challenge to keep lips relaxed. It is very common for people to get more tense at the thought of keeping their lips relaxed.

Learning to relax muscles for playing the flute is whole another exercise. And, you need to practice by relaxing the muscles and playing the flute simultaneously.

Also, it not just about relaxing in your place. You aren’t supposed to gather your lips forward. You just need to tighten both sides of the upper and keep the lower lip relaxed on the flute.

Next, you need to make the opening of your lips small. If it’s too much open while blowing into the flute, the air will mostly be going outside. Your aim is to keep the mouth opening small, which will direct the air right into the flute.

Holding The Flute

Holding the flute has a lot to do with playing it accurately. In terms of holding the flute, there are mainly three pressure points. Let’s discuss them below.

First, you will be holding the flute under your lower lip, that one pressure point—next pressure point in the index finger of your left hand. The third pressure point is the thumb of your right hand.

So, the entire holding process is- after holding the flute onto your mouth (first pressure point), next hold it with the left hand. Keep your index finger (second pressure point) of the left hand wrapped around the flute and the other fingers on the hole. Then, place the thumb (third pressure point) of your left hand under the flute. Finally, put the fingers of your left hand on the rest of the holes.

Tuning The Flute

The very basic way everyone tunes the flute is by pulling the head joint from the connection point of the body and head joint. You need to pull the head joint by a couple of centimeters to tune the flute in the right pitch.

If you are a beginner, you might not think about how an Irish flute should sound like. As a solution to that, you can watch people play an Irish flute and identify the right sound.

Next, for preparing the flute for the right pitch, you need to keep the holes in a straight line. But, people gradually start to change the positioning of the holes conveniently. Initially, it’s better to keep the holes in the same line.

Playing The Notes

Experts suggest o start with a mid-register. For beginners, it can be challenging to attempt to play both high and low registers.

In order to play the mid-registers, start with B. Keep the very first hole shut with the index finger from the left hand. And, try blowing into the flute.

Next, cover the second hole, and place note A. Then, block the third hole and play the G note. All the holes in charge of the left hand are closed.

Now, there are three other fingers that are in charge of the right hand. Close the first hole from that group and play the F sharp. Then, close the second hole, and play E. In the end, close the third hole, and play the low D.

More On Playing The Notes

Irish flutes are inherently in the D major. In Irish music, you will be playing a lot of music in D. There is one more note that you need to play a lot in Irish music is the G note. You can now try playing some higher notes, and those will help you with playing D and G notes.

To practice higher notes, you need to start from G. Then play G; you have to keep all the fingers of your left hand down on the holes.

Next, try practicing with these details. For higher notes by keeping all the holes for the right-hand finger open. No, pick up the 3rd finger of the left hand, and play the note A. Then, lift the 2nd finger of the left hand. Keep both 2nd and 3rd fingers lifted and played B. After that, play C naturally by keeping all the fingers down from your left hand.

You can play high D now. Place all the fingers down from both hands except the index from the left hand. Next, try to play E by lifting the 3rd finger from the right hand and by keeping all the other fingers down.

After that, lift the 2nd finger from the right hand with the 3rd finger, and all of the fingers down to play F. Finally, play G by lifting all the fingers from the right hand and keeping all the fingers down of the left hand.

You can learn to play higher notes by blowing harder and playing the notes mentioned in this section.

Final Thoughts

The playing process, holding fundamentals, and embouchure formation for the Irish flute is no different from the classical flute. They are different only in structure. In that regard, classical flutes have keys on them, and Irish flutes originally don’t have any keys.

But you will see some people playing the Irish flute with keys. And, some companies make Irish flutes with keys on them. Some players choose to buy an Irish flute with a key, and some don’t. The keys have nothing to do with tones. You can get yourself one with keys if you want as well.

Anyway, we hope our guide is helping you. Written instruction could feel confusing, but read carefully, and you will get the idea. Practice playing the notes individually, then try some simple Irish tunes.

Have an excellent time playing the Irish flute!

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Table of Contents

Toggle
  • Placing The Lip On The Flute
  • Forming The Lips
  • Holding The Flute
  • Tuning The Flute
  • Playing The Notes
  • More On Playing The Notes
  • Final Thoughts

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Who Am I?

Shanta Roy

Allow me to introduce myself as Shanta Roy, a proud mother to a wonderfully beautiful daughter named Orelia Chowdhury Adira. In honor of her, I have chosen to name my website oreliatune.com. In my professional capacity, I excel as both a sewing and music blogger, while also serving as a music teacher within our local community. Moreover, I actively engage in social work and strive to fulfill my role as a devoted wife.

shanta roy

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