How to Hold Your Flute
Holding the flute correctly can greatly increase your ability to play as well as the length of time you can play. Holding it wrong can lead to painful practice times while muscles and tendons are straining to accomplish what you are asking them to do. Everyone will hold their flute slightly differently because no one is built the same and what is comfortable for one person may not be right for another. I have a few guidelines to follow that will help in finding this comfortable position.
Hands and Fingers:
When your fingers are relaxed and hanging at your side, they are naturally slightly curved. You will want to imitate this while holding your flute. In order to take pressure off of your wrists and hands, play the flute with the pads of your fingers. Playing it with the tips will create extra strain on the muscles and tendons in your wrists and arms. If you try to play with straight fingers, it is difficult to play as quickly as you may need to for an up tempo piece. Your fingers are not as strong when they are straightened all the way., but bending fingers too much causes friction within the muscles in your forearms and slows down your fingers. In flute playing, this is the last thing we want to do (we are always the little birds flitting about the orchestra playing the fast passages).
Wrists:
Ideally, your wrists should be at about a 20 degree angle. Moving your fingers fast, like flute players are often called upon to do, creates a lot of friction in your arms when your tendons are rubbing against each other. To find the perfect spot for you, wiggle your fingers, quickly, while moving your hands up and down at the wrist, you will feel a spot (at about 20 degrees down) where the tension is the least. In order to play quickly, this tension should be as little as possible, thus a 20 degree angle is perfect. You can achieve this while playing by lifting your elbow on your right arm (if you are bending your wrist too far down). I have seen many beginning flute players who have closer to a 90 degree angle in their right wrist. This is a good way to get tendinitis in that wrist.
Practice while looking at yourself in a big mirror (bathrooms usually work pretty well) where you can see your whole upper body. Make sure your wrists isn't too bent (again by lifting up your elbow) but also be sure you don't go too far; too straight of a wrist also causes friction.
For your left hand, you will want to get your wrist as straight as possible because here, the wrist is usually bent upwards while we play. That is just how the flute is designed and many flutists (myself included) have some pain in this wrist because of too many years of it being too bent. Try to relax your left arm down as much as possible to get your wrist straighter. Something that might help here too is to make sure you are playing with your keys parallel to the floor. I used to be victim of rolling out too far because my left arm was up really high and it would get tired and slouch, causing me to roll my flute out and adjust only my head joint to play. This, however, creates a huge amount of tension and friction in the left wrist and can lead to really big problems.
Balancing Your Flute:
There are three points of pressure you want while you are playing.
1. Embouchure (lower lip/chin area)
2. Left index finger, just above the knuckle
3. Right thumb
Pretend your flute is a seesaw. Your right index finger is acting like the fulcrum of the see-saw. In theory, you should be able to balance a flute on your index finger without needing to hold it. This is, of course, theory and it usually doesn't happen because the keys weigh it down. Your right thumb should be pushing slightly against the fulcrum to keep the balance of the flute. Many beginner flutists have their thumbs sticking out past their flute, you do not want this. Your thumb should actually be closer to being underneath the bars and pushing out (towards the audience) more than up. You do not want to be touching the bars though. You should be pushing somewhere between the pad of your thumb and the tip. Play around with this and find a spot that feels comfortable. Everyone has different hands, so what works for a friend, might be uncomfortable for you. You should be able to wiggle nine fingers once the flute is against your lip (all of your left hand and all but the thumb of your right hand). If you can wiggle your fingers, you are doing it right.
When holding the flute up, you want it to sag a little bit. Only in marching band should the flute parallel to the floor. This creates a lot of tension in the shoulder and back muscles. Flute playing should not be a painful experience, allowing the flute to sag a little takes tension off the shoulders. To compensate for this sag, though, you will have to tilt your head a little to the right so you are still blowing straight towards the strike edge (the far edge of the embouchure hole) and creating the point of maximum resonance (the angle where your tone is the best it can be).
These are just some starters for you to find where you can play most comfortably and relaxed. When you feel great while playing, you will sound great.