Extended Flute Techniques: An Overview
by Sarah Smith
Extended flute techniques are becoming more standard than ever in the flute world. They show up in orchestral and band music, competition pieces, and even in beginning flute solo books. These techniques are used as exercises to enhance tone and flexibility. Nearly all of the current composers are aware of these techniques and many of them employ extended techniques on a regular basis.
Robert Dick often argues that these methods of playing should not be called “extended” at all, because they are not new and the word extended implies newness. He also argues that the word suggests the techniques to contain something beyond normal or something unnecessary. For the purposes of this paper, the term “extended techniques” will be used because it is currently the most commonly accepted term.
If these techniques are not new, are in fact normal, and are being used constantly, why aren’t more flutists using them? There are a couple of reasons for this. Some flute players simply don’t like the techniques and want to focus on more traditional styles. Others may feel intimidated by them. Some may feel like they have missed their chance to learn extended techniques, or they won’t understand how to play them, or that it will take too much time and energy to start.
Any flutist can learn extended techniques with a desire and some patience. This paper is intended to be a quick guide to playing extended techniques and aims to familiarize flutists with the basic concepts behind them.
Altered Tones or Diffuse Tones:
This technique changes the clear, focused tone to be more pale, thin, and unfocused. This can be achieved by loosening the embouchure and changing the angle of the air, or it can be produced with the use of altered fingerings. The fingerings are usually supplied in the music, or can be found in guidebooks. This technique creates a tranquil and quiet mood.
Circular Breathing:
This technique involves exhaling to produce flute tone while simultaneously inhaling to fill the lungs. The resulting phrases have no breathing spaces but are continuous. It takes a lot of practice to master this skill. It is not often called for in music, but can be very flashy to an audience. The technique has become fairly popular and many flutists employ it. There are many articles written on the subject and a couple of in-depth books are available to help aid in the learning process. Robert Dick wrote a particularly useful guide to circular breathing.
Flutter Tonguing:
Flutter tonguing is produced by rolling the “r” syllable while blowing through the flute. The sound can also be produced by gargling in the back of the throat while playing, although the production can be more painful and the effect is not as clear. This technique requires a balance of the air and the tongue effect and can be difficult in the low register.
Glissandi:
Glissandi are produced by sliding the fingers off of the tone holes in a successive manner to produce a continuous rising or falling pitch activity between two points. Unlike a chromatic slide, this technique avoids the establishment of any one pitch. It also requires precise timing and coordination in venting and lifting the key rings.
Harmonic Overtones:
Harmonics are produced by overblowing regular fundamental fingerings. A unique tone quality is created. Increased breath pressure is required, along with a smaller aperture and a change upward in the direction of the air. Harmonics are good exercises for the manipulation of breath pressure, tone, and ease in the third register of the flute. They can also be used in place of regular fingerings to eliminate difficulty.
Harmonics are produced by overblowing regular fundamental fingerings. A unique tone quality is created. Increased breath pressure is required, along with a smaller aperture and a change upward in the direction of the air. Harmonics are good exercises for the manipulation of breath pressure, tone, and ease in the third register of the flute. They can also be used in place of regular fingerings to eliminate difficulty.
Jet Whistle:
This technique requires the flutist to place the mouth over the entire lip plate and blow a large amount of fast air through the flute. It is similar to blowing into the flute to warm up, only much more vigorous. The resulting sound is a noisy rush of air, a whoosh-like sound. It can also be produced by strong inhalation through the flute. Hector Villa-Lobos introduced this technique in The Jet Whistle (1953) for flute and cello.
This technique requires the flutist to place the mouth over the entire lip plate and blow a large amount of fast air through the flute. It is similar to blowing into the flute to warm up, only much more vigorous. The resulting sound is a noisy rush of air, a whoosh-like sound. It can also be produced by strong inhalation through the flute. Hector Villa-Lobos introduced this technique in The Jet Whistle (1953) for flute and cello.
Key Clicks, or Slaps:
This technique was first used by Edgard Varèse in Density 21.5 (1936), and involves slapping the keys down to produce a percussive effect. This exaggerated technique produces a pitch and mechanical noise. Key slaps can be enhanced with the use of articulation and air. They can also be performed by blocking of the embouchure hole with the mouth or tongue and then slapping the key.
Microtones:
Microtones are intervals that are less than a half step in size. The most common of these are quarter tones. They are produced by venting the open tone holes on the flute and using other alternate fingerings. This technique requires a good ear and experimentation to find the best fingering and the specific degree to cover or uncover on the tone holes. Robert Dick and James Pellerite supply fingerings for this technique in their books.
Multiphonics:
This technique involves playing two notes at once, similar to performing a double-stop on a violin. It usually involves an alternate fingering, unless one is blowing in octaves in the lower register. The technique can be difficult to produce because the air has to be compromised to hit both notes. It requires practice and repetition to remember the alternate fingering and to remember how to blow the air for each multiphonic. Three main guides exist: The Other Flute, by Robert Dick, A Modern Guide to Fingerings for the Flute, by James Pellerite, and The Avant-Garde Flute by Thomas Howell.
Pitch Bending:
This technique alters the pitch of a sustained note by rolling the flute in or out to produce a note that drops or raises in pitch. It is similar to rolling the flute in or out to adjust intonation, but is extremely exaggerated. Raising and lowering the head may also help in the production of the bend.
Singing and Playing Simultaneously:
This technique involves humming into the flute while playing. It can be done in unison, octaves, or intervals with the flute-produced pitch. The effect is somewhat coarse and slightly buzzy because the tone has to be compromised to allow for the singing. It is another way to produce two pitches at once on the flute. It can also be used as an exercise in ear training, intonation, and tone.
Tongue Stops or Rams:
This sound is produced by placing the embouchure plate between the lips and quickly closing it off with the tongue. The resonance that sounds is similar to a key click but doesn’t have the mechanical noise associated with it. The range of dynamics for this technique is very wide depending on the force of the tongue on the embouchure plate and the amount of exhaled air that aids it.
Whistle Tones:
Whistle tones are excellent tools for practicing breath control and embouchure flexibility. They are produced by fingering a regular note and blowing a slow, gentle, round air stream across the flute until a quiet whistle is heard. This technique requires very little air, but a large amount of patience.
Whistle tones are excellent tools for practicing breath control and embouchure flexibility. They are produced by fingering a regular note and blowing a slow, gentle, round air stream across the flute until a quiet whistle is heard. This technique requires very little air, but a large amount of patience.
Notation for these techniques does provide some amount of confusion for musicians. As extended techniques are relatively new, there is no standard notation and each composer has a unique preference. Most contemporary music that employs extended techniques includes a chart toward the beginning of the piece that displays the symbol and the technique that is represented by it. There are also articles and books on contemporary music notation that can provide some guidance. Some of these include:
Cage, John. Notations. New York: Something Else Press, 1969.
Risatti, Howard. New Music Vocabulary: A Guide to Notational Signs for
Contemporary Music. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975.
Stone, Curt. Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook.
New York: Norton, 1981.
________. “New Notation in Music.” Music Educator’s Journal 63 (October
1976): 48-56.
The techniques presented are some of the most common extended techniques available to the flutist. There are many more, and the infinite possibilities for extended techniques are being expanded all the time.
