4 tips for releasing throat tension

Improve your tone almost instantly by releasing the tension in your throat. This is an often unknown enemy of flute playing. It can affect your tone, articulation, and breathing. Get a better tone and release the tension holding you back!
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Videos mentioned in this video:
Singing and Playing: • Mastering singing and ...
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[@spacecoffee5168]

I've been playing flute for six years now, and this was super helpful. I had gotten in the bad habit of pushing the air into my mouth using my throat to get stronger air instead of using more of my diaphram and this can help me to stop doing that.

[@projectx5154]

I think these are excellent tips for any wind instrument player. I'm learning clarinet and throat tension is killing me. This topic is covered very little (that's why I'm on flute channel informing myself on this😃) and I feel like it's quite a common problem in all ranges of skill

[@gabbym.8154]

This was very helpful! Thank you!

[@carynbrame4904]

You know me so well! Thank you for the tips, gonna be more aware this when I practice

[@rachelm79]

Excellent- so helpful, thank you so much.

[@carolinafluteman6598]

Working on my breathing is one of the first things I do when practicing my flute, so I know this is going to be a big help!

[@Card-vt7yl]

Right on! I knew the first exercice from a former teacher but the other exercices puts it all in perspective! Thanks for sharing!

[@rezajamshidi5615]

Thanks very useful

[@SatejFlute]

Thank you! It really helped me in my practice. I was struggling with throat noises for quite a few years and I never knew how to get rid of it, until now.

[@MrsDallimore08]

Thankyou so much for this

[@TheFlutePractice]

MrsDallimore08 hope it helped!

[@canneddirt]

here I am singing a straight G. Getting odd looks from my cat.

[@TheFlutePractice]

canneddirt 😂😂😂😂

[@k.ravishankar5063]

Awesome

[@goukifafa]

Thank you for this. It helped me when I couldn't sleep.

[@danaleonie7844]

Thank youu

[@shipsahoy1793]

Oh Man, all these great videos lately about how to improve your sound, so now I have to keep getting worse before I can get better, but thank you !! 😉😘

[@TheFlutePractice]

Ships Ahoy let me know how it is going 💪🏼

[@frhidmanuni]

Really cool tips yo work on! So I have this problem that when I breathe I feel that my right shoulder muscles lock up, and I feel tension to the point it hurts a little. I do have tension problems in that shoulder alredy, do you have an advice to work on that? thanks!

[@TheFlutePractice]

Hey! Yes, I would really look at 2 things. Firstly you will want to really look at how you breathe and focus on the in breath being a releasing and relaxing feeling rather than having to lift your chest and shoulders to ‘actively breathe’. And then I would look your general body position and balance when you are standing or sitting and playing. You may even want to work work with a body mapping specialist or Alexander teacher ( or find some on KZbin and watch their content!). Often we have a wrong concept of how breathing happens both in our mental image and our experience of it and this needs time and patience to change.

[@blackcat3289]

I really love your videos, thanks for them! As an experienced flautist who can’t afford lessons any more but knows what she’s doing, these videos are often enough to sort the issue out or give a good clue. I’ve guessed for some time that my throat is way too tight but singing and playing hasn’t eliminated it. This trick with playing and feeling the throat however is amazing 🤩 wow, now I can feel how tight it is and more importantly what it SHOULD feel like relaxed, which I never knew before 👍👍

[@blackcat3289]

Also my sound is now SO BIG in lower register and embouchure naturally relaxed as well through feeling throat just for 10 minutes 😳

[@TheFlutePractice]

Day made!!!! How cool is that and exactly why I love making this information available here 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 excited to see how it comes along!

[@alvin8391]

I play two recorders as an amateur, soprano and alto. My experience with soreness seems more from playing the alto than the soprano. The alto does require more forceful air flow, most especially for producing the higher notes (above C5 or C'''). Writing as a physicist, my opinion is that the vocal chords may be irritated as they resonate with the backward propagating tones from the recorder. These are forced vibrations. The same experience may be had by flute players. Both types instruments have no reeds that vibrate to produce the sound and, perhaps, limit backward propagation. I do not know if oboe or clarinet players experience hoarseness, but I would not be surprised if they were not so affected.

[@rezajamshidi5615]

Anothervtip to release throat can be feeling cool air how much is deeper first i was feeling cool air in the roof of the mouth but now after focusing i feel it deeper in my throat area as im breathing in

[@TheFlutePractice]

Reza Jamshidi oooo....I like that! Thanks for sharing!

[@jarofjam3967]

I have a very important question! Recently I've been working on tone color, and I've read that using your throat can help change colors. When I close my throat a bit, I find I can get the purple color in Trevor Wye's practice book on tone. But when I discovered this I was kind of scared because I've heard closing your throat is bad. So I wanted to ask, is it necessarily bad to close our throat a little? Is there a difference between a slightly closed throat and a throst that's overly closed and tense? If there is a difference and it's okay to close it a little, is there a way I can figure out if I'm tense or closing too much? If it helps, before I was doing this I had already been practicing opening my throat. Everyday my warm up consisted of singing and playing to open up my throat and I often yawn constantly throughout my practice to check and make sure my throat is nice, open, and free. I began to do this because I would hear those throat noises in my phrases, but after that it's gone away (thankfully) . If you were wondering, when I practice my purple tone and close my throat slightly, I don't or at least haven't heard or felt those throat noises yet (I've only been working on it for about two days so).

[@TheFlutePractice]

Hey! This is such a great question so thank you for posting it. I definitely think there is a difference here although maybe changing the language around it might help. When I think of tone colors I like to think of changing the shape of the inside of my mouth. So instead ah thinking or oh I think more of a oooo. Of course this will change the feeling in the throat and that is okay. But generally I don’t think so much ‘throat tension’ as much as I think of shape in the mouth. Not sure if that helps a bit? Also remember that Sometimes we can and do move to extremes for tone colors and effects and that is great. But our basic sound should be open and free so that we can move to those tone colors and possibilities. I think awareness is key and being in control of what you are doing ( which it sounds like you are!) I actually hope to do a video on tone color soon. Katherine Kemler had some very interesting ideas and exercises on this which worked a lot more with the lips and the position of the lips as well which I think is also useful!

[@jarofjam3967]

@@TheFlutePractice thanks so much, I'll keep that in mind! And it would be amazing if you could do a tone color video because honestly there's not enough tone color videos (at least I couldn't find much). Love your channel and honestly got really excited when I got the reply😂

[@TheFlutePractice]

I’m very bad with answering comments at the moment so I’m sorry if I haven’t responded to other comments! Trying to get better at it 🤦🏻‍♀️ I love them all though!

[@jarofjam3967]

The Flute Practice it's fine, and I think you've replied to me all the time in the past, just got excited because it's cool to get attention from a professional, you know?😊

[@nicole_5377]

My flute teacher told me that I have to open my throat when I play but it's really difficult for me to understand how to do it. When you open your throat, does your tongue go 'in the back' ?