Learning How to Taper - FluteTips 174

Learning how to taper can be really annoying. But it's beautiful when you learn how to do them. Tapering is simply how you end your notes. No matter how long or how short, they need to have an ending. It's this little bit of a pull at the end of your note that makes a beautiful ending.
There's a short tone exercise in Moyse’s De La Sonorite that I like to use for short tapers that still have resonance. It's where I learned how to do short tones and short tapers.
Tapers are a mechanical thing, not a throat thing The mechanics are:
Maintain support
Keep that vibrato going
Bring your jaw up and out
Twist your lips to the side
Tapers will make your music so much more beautiful.
Watch me demonstrate eighth note tapers in the Hindemith Sonata!
Read my Blog on this topic:
DoctorFlute.com/tapers
Have fun!
DoctorFlute
Learning How to Taper - FluteTips 174
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[@brianrhodes9687]

You must be the most practical flute teacher around…you have so much to make a flutists life more simple…’most’ teacher can do certain things but they themselves don’t seem to really know how they do it themselves or to pass it on to a student…thanx for your practical tips!

[@DoctorFlute]

High praise Brian. Thanks so much!

[@Freedommeadow]

I've always wondered how to do that, or if I'm doing the right thing. Looks like it is back to the drawing board for me, lol. Never stop learning. I enjoyed this lesson very much. And I also learned how to properly pronounce Moyse 😏.

[@DoctorFlute]

Yay! I want to never stop learning either! I used to pronounce his name sort of like the moist. 😂

[@rlaflamme865]

Great tip! Thanks Doc

[@DoctorFlute]

Thanks!

[@rodterrell304]

So helpful Dr

[@DoctorFlute]

Thank you Rod!

[@yvonneburdine670]

Thank you so much for the excellent points to work on. I am currently playing a capella at church, so you can imagine how important it is to end a song (or simple hymn) gracefully. I appreciate your flexible approach suggesting an alternate way to taper (off to the side) as my emboucher is off to the side slightly. I have the Moyse book you mention, and the long tone exercises have improved my tone exponentially. I will now check out his short tone exercises. Thanks again!

[@DoctorFlute]

Great! Playing a capella in church is very exposing! So glad that Moyse is helping you.

[@kryzak123]

Super helpful as always! Though my teacher is trying to get me to NOT move my lower jaw out for mid to high registers (I have a tendency to do that to get the embouchure needed for the A to C#), so I've been very conscious of my lower jaw movement. I can see how this is different than what I'm trying to fix, but it's going to be hard to keep them separate. 😂

[@DoctorFlute]

Hi Bernie, I think you have the right perspective. I teach a lot of lip/jaw movement at the beginning but as you get better and better the movement becomes less and less so I see where your teacher is coming from.