High notes on the Pan flute

This post is to explain how to play the high notes on the pan flute accurately and in tune, I guess after you have been playing for a while, or when you learnt to make your first sounds, you gave a try to play the short pipes on the pan flute and heard that the notes don’t come as easy as the rest of the pipes. Don’t panic, this is completely normal, to start with , this short pipes requre different “treatment”, not only the are shorter and less stable , but the hole is much much smaller, and unless you are still a child with tiny lips, you will probably find harder to make a decent sound on them.

Pan flute short pipes

Focus the airstream, redirect

This is the kind of sound or something similar everyone gets the first time one attempts to play a high note

Clip 1 (don’t do this)

You can notice  two things here, one is the tuning, the notes come out of out tune, second they sound like there’s not enough air, but in fact, there’s not enough pressure.

In this clip you can hear the difference after we add some pressure.

Clip 2

The short pipes have a beautiful sound actually, but they require more practice, also it’s good to practice long notes on this pipes, specially in the top one, because it will help the muscles of your lips to adapt to the size of the hole, after a time it comes naturally and then you remember, this is called “muscle memory”

Listen to this clip 3 to demonstrate how you can put into practice this theory..

Clip 3

So, I will give you some useful tips.

• Start by putting into practice a proper breathing, this is crucial, because these pipes are very sensitive to the amount of air
• Practice long notes and try to include them in your playing, one good way to do this , is playing songs you know in an octave higher than it’s written.
• Try not to blow too hard, in fact it’s not about blowing  much harder, but giving the right amount of focus, yes! It’s pressure, that’s the secret, it’s pressure what it makes the pipes sound correctly, the airstream has to be focused

By adjusting the pressure you will force the airstream to make the pipe vibrate and produce a round sound

It’s worth to point out that, these notes can be easily played out of tune, this is due to the fact that since your mouth, the mouth of an adult supposedly, is big enough to cover a quarter of half of the pipe, making the note go flat, this is good for the other pipes to make the sharps and flats, but to produce a note in tune,you need to be aware of that.

To sum up, pressure and the right amount of air is what it makes the support for a clean, crisp and beautiful note, without sound too shrilling, to adjust the pressure you don’t have to blow harder, that will make the note go sharp, you have to adjust the opening of the lips and blow in a constant manner , mainting the pressure, to build up the pressure, try blowing slightly louder but not much, and your lips clench a little bit but still relaxed and natural, this is what it makes the pressure going constant, like a long held note.

Practice long high notes and with the time you will master them, it’s worth the effort as these notes are the prettiest ones.

Use the comment form below and tell me how it went! do you agree with the stuff above?, use the comment section down below as a forum for your answers, ask any question if you are stuck, chances are you are not the only one, but have fun!

high notes on the pan flute practice exercise

Out of tune notes ; S

It happens sometimes specially in short passages where the very top notes are involved, that you may push your jaw forward a little bit, or you just play too loud, and this has made the picth go sharp or flat, to correct that, play slowly and listen mindfully, record yourself and listen to the note or even with a tuner it’s a good tool.

But basically when a note goes out of tune, it can be because the stopper is found in the wrong placement, or the covering of the lips has gone too far to cover half of the hole, as I said before the holes are small and even the slight movement forward can cover half of it, making the note flat.

The good news is that the high notes are the perfect place to start practicing sharps and flats!

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