Beginner’s head-wobbling question

Hi Everyone🙂

Just read the thread on head-wobbling, and I started to look at myself. I’m a beginner’s flute player and I seem to wobble without knowing it when I flow into a tune. However, when I’m learning a new tune, my head and torso stiffens, and I’m almost rigid as I concentrate on the fingering and stringing the notes together - only when I feel comfortable with the tune do I relax and wobble again. Also, I can close my eyes because it makes me feel I’m flying with the tune - it’s a lovely feeling so I can do that deliberately when I want to relax - and when someone else for example my tutor is present I can close my eyes too because it somewhat eases my anxiety of playing in front of another person - you see I am a beginner and I make tons of stupid mistakes🙁. So, I’m wondering, do you think I need to consciously try to stop myself from wobbling and closing my eyes because it could be seen as an irritating habit or worse - an act?

So you stand still when you concentrate.
And wobble about when you feel comfortable.

I think you’ve answered your own question.
It seems you are not comfortable when you concentrate.
This is what you need to work on.

I tend to close my eyes when playing a tune I haven’t played in a while. I also find I can’t tape my foot while learning a new tune and sometimes I grip my Flute really hard while learning a new tune.

I don’t think you need to do anything, just as long as you become more relaxed while playing tunes you know. Of course as Gill (spelled backwards) states, you may want to relax more when you concentrate, it can’t hurt.

As the intitiator of the head-wobbling thread, I don’t think that head-wobbling should be a cause for concern. I imagine that for a flute player the danger of head-wobbling is that it might alter the relation of your embouchure to the flute and affect your tone. If you feel comfortable wobbling and your playing is as good when wobbling as when not wobbling then why stop yourself? I have yet to see a flute player who is a vigorous wobbler, and I imagine it is the embouchure factor that stops them doing it, although they do of course tilt their heads forwards and back when searching for a tone or bending notes.

Question:
Nick, are you classically trained?

I once saw a Box player breath louder then his highest b’s.. I dont think I ever seen anything like it until I watched a flute player from Cork eyes roll up in to his head .

Both were top notch…. wobble on if it makes you feel right…

shannon heaton gave me good advice. set 2 minutes, no more, every practice time to work on the habit you are trying to break. so, for 2 minutes every practice session, do not wobble your head! after that, revert back to your old habit; like water at stone, you will chip away the bad habit over weeks and months.

of cousre, if you like the wobbling, then work on what gill suggests… spend 2 minutes a day being comfortable when you concentrate.

Vanessa - It is a good idea to keep your eyes wide open, when playing the Flute - especially during the ‘Marching Season’! 🙂

Surely wobbling the head is how the Flute player gets his or her vibrato - wobble on Tommy! 😀

To imahappycamper: maybe your question belongs in the other head-wobbling thread as it seems not to be related to Vanessa’s flute question. If you are asking whether I am a classically trained flute player who by virtue of that feels entitled to offer an opinion about embouchure and head-wobbling, then I am not. My comments on embouchure were based on some knowledge and a little experience of flute-playing which says that the shape of the embouchure and the angle of the air stream into the mouthpiece are critical in tone production, and it is likely therefore that head-wobbling would have an effect on that, unless of course a compensating movement was made with the whole flute, which in the case of the more energetic head-wobblers would require a continuous waving, stirring and jerking around of the flute.

i seem to jut my jaw out when i play the uilleann pipes…i dont know if this is my mate winding me up, but now i’ve developed the habbit of practicin infront of a mirror haha