STANDING
If you'd like to try something different than what you might be doing, read on. Contrary to what seems natural to do, try the following instead of standing parallel to the music stand:

Have your left foot in front of the music stand and have the right foot further back, in the angle you see in the photo here. Now feel how you can shift your weight either forward onto the left foot, or back on the right foot. So now we're able to move by shifting our weight like this and maintain a feeling of groundedness and stability at the same time, without feeling stuck. Try to let much of your weight fall onto your feet and lower legs, thus the knees slightly bent. Let everything drop downwards, avoid locking your knees straight since that'll pull tension upwards.

Feel the contact of your feet and toes with the ground, imagine they go even underground like a tree with deep roots spread underneath, so that your weight/tension is evenly spread. This is why I could never understand how people perform in high heels!   To each their own.

So this is how we can accommodate the necessary playing angle of the transverse flute as well as incorporating freedom of movement, and shifting our weight and tension downwards.

SITTING
So you see here that I have my chair angled towards the music stand so that I can have my feet and legs in the similar position I'd have for standing (not parallel to the music stand). You can still move by shifting your weight forward/backward, you should feel your pelvic bone and shifting between the "halves of your bum" is basically it. Again here as well, keep the weight downwards, feel grounded to your seat and extending through the legs and feet onto the ground.

A thing about CHAIRS and MUSIC STANDS - make sure your chair isn't too low like you're sinking into it. If the seat makes you slouch you'll want to avoid that. I'd sit also within the front half of the seat and not leaning on my back. You want to be UP and READY at all times. 

MUSIC STAND – You'll want to have it high enough so that you're not aiming downwards. This photo is a little distorted, but the music stand was a little higher than it appears here.

PLAY TO THE HORIZON. Besides the height of the stand itself, experiment also with the ANGLE OF THE DESK.Please use only music stands where you can adjust the desk angle freely!! If you lay it a little flatter (point more upwards instead of a steep angle), that'll also encourage your head to stay up and not be buried in the music stand. In a performance situation, this will also encourage better stage presence and communication with your fellow players.

​Let me know how this all goes! 

So after my last post talking about Wilbert Hazelzet's idea of "don't play", I thought to follow up with this list of common issues we encounter when playing the baroque flute. Just off the top of my head, these are movements or tendencies that are unnecessary and prevent us from playing in an efficient way. The more we can reduce, the easier and more enjoyable playing becomes. Go through this checklist as you play - maybe you'll discover more and I'd love to hear from you! 
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✅ 1. The baroque flute takes less air and slower air compared to the modern flute.
 
✅ 2. When moving upwards to the mid and higher register, keep using the slowest air possible and avoid overshooting.
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✅ 3. You can influence intonation by adjusting angle of air and/or the airspeed. Sometimes you'll need to do both, but sometimes adjusting air speed is enough and also a better choice than adjusting angle. Adjusting air speed is the more subtle way and there are times when that's all you'd need. 

✅ 4. Lips should remain stable when doing staccato or accents. Refrain from air kissing! 

✅ ​5. In an ensemble (starting with a duo), you'll often have plenty of time to prepare yourself for an upcoming passage. Take advantage of that. You have to check your air, lips, tongue, and also maybe cueing in your fellow musician(s) - that's A LOT that needs to happen! Is it a high note that needs to be soft? Is it a note like F natural or Gb that requires attention in terms of intonation and/or focus? Start taking in air way in advance and don't wait until right before you play to breathe. You can still take a kind of small, "symbolic" inhale to help you be in the movement of your cue (or even none at all but just cue with your flute), but keep your movement simple and precise. 

✅ 6. Avoid breathing right before your entry with your mouth open. Breathe through your nose so that your embouchure is ready for the coming passage. 

✅ 7. Watch out if you're approaching a rather high note, say like F#3 or G3  (or any note that feels unfamiliar to you) to not tense up in the body and literally "shrink" with your flute. Instead stand steady and tall, imagine to release the sound from your hands rather than clamping down on the flute.

✅ ​8. Watch out to not squeeze with your lips to produce high notes. If you're feeling tension in the lips for high notes (signs include when you feel the outer edge of your lips, or when they tremble or produce buzzing), that means they're not quite strong enough yet to handle the slightly faster airstream needed. 

✅ 9. We achieve brilliance and strength with forked fingering notes like F natural, G#, Bb etc. by being able to play them with a focused tone and in tune. They don't gain strength by us blowing more (too much too fast air), although it's very easy to do so, especially due to stress.

✅ 10. Tonguing is more about precision than tonguing hard. Use less tongue surface but back the note with air to create accentuations when needed. 

✅ 11. Explore more the softer dynamics, creating more diminuendo/lightening effects to create contrast. The baroque flute is not known as a loud instrument, but you'll have much more success in creating a rich dynamic range by widening your middle to soft dynamics. And in this way, a beautiful resonance is achieved which shows off the instrument at its best.

Less is more, achieve the maximum with the minimum.