How does a flutist maintain a grip on the flute when the stops are open?
Per title, how does a flutist maintain a grip on the flute when the stops are open?
If the note requires holding down the stops, I would think that grip is between the closed fingers and the thumb, but if all the stops are open (or the note otherwise requires all fingers to be lifted), then how can the flutist maintain a grip on the flute?
(PS to readers in the UK: please don't change my spelling of flutist, I am using the American spelling)
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If the flute tends to roll inward, toward you, when you have most fingers raised, that is probably due to the heavy key mechanism on top of the flute being tilted too much toward you. Roll the flute out so as to balance the heavy part more toward the top of the flute as you hold it. Since you'll have to adapt other aspects of your embouchure to compensate for rolling the flute out more, you may have to make this change by small degrees.
The support of the flute is primarily a balance between the lip plate as it contacts your face and the rest of your fingers on the keys, using the heel of the first finger of your left hand as a fulcrum.
One of the "key" things to understand about this is that there are no notes on the flute with a completely open fingering. The right hand pinky rests on a lever which opens a key when the lever is depressed. This means the "resting state" of your fingers involves depressing the right hand pinky key, which is enough to keep the flute in place against the other two balance points. When the right hand pinky is lifted for a fingering, there are enough other keys depressed that the instrument will stay steady.
Per a tutorial on Youtube, "How to Hold the Flute" (by OnlineBandTeacher):
...hold the flute with your right pinky, right thumb and left thumb...
You can see him demonstrate this right around 4:05 in the video (though, it looks like he is holding it with both thumbs and both pinkies).
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