Flute lip plate engravingFlute lip plate engraving adds to the beauty of the instrument as well as serves a functional need. Quite often flutists experience difficulty with the flute slipping on their chin while playing. Obviously this is quite annoying. When I was a student, the standard "fix" was to put a piece of tape with an abrasive surface on the lip plate, or even uglier, a band-aid. This served the purpose of preventing shifting on the chin, but it was sure ugly having a hunk of white bandage tape or a band-aid on the flute. Then flute makers started engraving the lip plate of the flute. This also help to stabilize the flute against the player's chin, but the engraving process added to the beauty of the instrument.
My flute didn't come with an engraved lip plate. I don't even think that was available in 1977 when I bought my Muramatsu flute. In 1997, I bought a new head joint made by Alton McCanless, a flute maker in Oskaloosa, Iowa. It had the new style of embouchure hole that helped produce a more responsive, bigger sound--a rectangular shape with rounded corners. The embouchure hole on my old head joint was oval in shape. Tone production was indeed more responsive on this head joint, but I also loved the engraving on the lip plate. The engraving had texture to it as compared to the smoothness of the plate lip plate and this allowed me to hold it securely against my chin. And it is so beautiful! Just knowing how lovely it makes the flute causes me to play better. Sure, it's psychological. After all, no one sees the lip plate while I'm playing. But our state of mind influences our playing.
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