How to line up your flute's headjoint to make it easier to play (and to avoid future hand and arm tension.)
For example, aligning the center of the blow-hole to the center of the keys, often given in band books as a standard flute alignment, can cause:
- key tops rolling backward and making the flute roll in your hands when you take fingers off
- uncomfortable wrists and arms from "cocking" the wrists back, which can lead to wrist, forearm and hand tendon inflamation over time
- gripping the keys to stabilize the flute in the hands, which causes slow, labourious fingerings.

Also in this video:

1. Pencil grips for easing the pressure on the left hand index finger where the flute rests.

2. The Thumbport by Ho Fan Lee which is about $20 and widely available. The Thumbport derived from Roger Holmann's Thumbalina, which came directly from Jen Cluff's cork "roll-bar" which came from an email about Jacques Zoon's thumb-button, which came from Boehm's and Moyse's thumb shelf for the RH thumb.

3. A reminder to teachers to put alignment stickers (or ink, or nail polish markings) on your student's headjoint and barrel to show their best possible personalized alignment so that you don't have to take aim like an archer with a bow and arrow every time you put your flute together (very annoying to some of us...don't know why...but there, I vented. ooops, grin.)

4. A reference to the marvellous books "The Art of Playing the Flute" by Roger Mather, avail. in libraries and from Fluteworld. Mather totally rocks. All teachers should read his carefully researched books on flute playing.

Best, and hopefully this will help the teacher who had two students who cannot bend their fingers backward.
P.S. Anyone interested in my wooden key extensions just go to my website and use the search box to find a pdf on how to make wooden extensions. Search for the word: extensions .
Jen Cluff



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