Why do I keep cracking when I play high notes?

Question

A lot of times when students play in the upper register, then tend to clench their jaw. This then effects our air, and causes the crack in our sound. Keeping our jaw relaxed, and opening the back of the mouth/throat, will help you play much more easily in the high register without cracking!

Answer 1

I'd have to see you to diagnose what's causing the cracking, but I can tell you my go-to solution: overtones. Playing all the notes that can be produced on every fingering, from lowest to highest, teaches us what we have to do to produce each distinct sound. When you practice this on high-note fingerings, most of those "overtones" are actually going to be lower than the 3rd- or 4th-octave pitch. The important technique to apply is to start with an unexaggerated relaxed embouchure, support the tone well, and move from overtone to overtone solely by gently raising the larynx, as though swooping up with your voice, while doing absolutely nothing with your jaw or lips and little to nothing with your tongue. This is related to the technique of "throat-tuning" that great flute writers like Robert Dick talk about. You'll quickly develop killer control!

PS. I recommend starting with the French vowel /y/ on all pitches.

Answer 2

Upper register notes can cause stress and tension in the body of a student from fear that the note will not come out. The student should not hold any tension in the throat or jaw, instead keep the throat open similarly to a yawn. The jaw should be relaxed with the bottom and top teeth separated. The embouchure should shaped as though you are blowing across a glass bottle. Lastly with enough air and support from the core/diaphragm the high note will surely sound clear!

Answer 3

Cracking has a simple cause: air speed. A flute note will crack down to a lower note if the air is moving too slow, or it will crack up if the air is moving too fast! Since you're talking about cracking during high notes, I'm going to assume you crack downwards.

There are three ways to increase your air speed so that you'll never crack on high notes again:

1) just blow tons more air (I don't like this solution, but it would technically work)

2) squeeze your aperture while blowing the same amount of air you have been (I don't like this solution either!)

3) move the corners of your embouchure forward so that the fastest part of the air stream is closer to the far edge of the embouchure hole (BINGO!)

Answer 4

I agree with all these comments, something that really helps me with the upper register is to engage the core. But don't flex the core, flutes need no tension, the more relaxed you are the more open and resonant the sound will be. So try to think about making your stomach as fat as you can make it. You want the air all the way around your torso, enough that if you were to poke right below the center of the rib cage it would almost feel like you are flexing backward. A way to find how this may feel for you is to sit halfway on a chair, so bottom half on and half off, then cross your legs at the shin and lift your feet off the ground using your core. This should be about the engagement you have in your core when you play. using that type of core and then as the others said keeping your jaw and throat relaxed, your upper register will be much easier to hit as well as it will open the sound up and give it more resonance.

I hope this helps :)