I see it all the time! Every time I visit a school to work with the flute section. Most of them are sitting in their band chairs playing their flute with their right arm almost behind the chair they are sitting on. The flute ends up being parallel with the shoulders. The result is the right hand is all squeezed up against the flute. The fingers are bunched up. The left hand can barely reach the keys because of the position.
See picture 1 (Sitting in chair hold flute to back of the chair)
I bet you 75% or more of the young flutists are playing this way. When they have to play anything beyond quarter notes their fingers have a very hard time doing much of anything.
What if I were to tell you that by making one small adjustment you could instantly feel much relaxed n the hands/should/arms! What you want to do is hold the end of your flute 45 degrees away from your right shoulder.
Pic 2 (pic of me hold flute correctly 45 degrees from right shoulder)
By holding your flute away from your right shoulder 45 degrees your hands are now free.
Pics 3-5 (Picture of both hands, pic of right hand, pic of left hand)
Now what I do is to turn my chair 45 degrees to the right of my music stand. And then when I sit down facing 45 degrees away from the music stand, I turn my upper torso to now face the music stand. Immediately my upper body, hands, arms, flute posture is now perfect for a much more relaxed performance experience.
Go ahead and try it! It will immediately increase you technical and musical flexibilities on the flute!
Last pic of me sitting holding the flute facing the music stand.
For a YouTube video demonstrating the proper alignment of the flute click here
