Reccommendations on keyed flutes, anyone?
Sarah Caffee
Greetings!
About a year ago I bought a Ralph Sweet no-frills, no-keys flute and
since then I've been teaching myself how to play. I've gotten to the
point of being "OK" (though I *still* can't play as fast as they do in
the session here in Houston <G>).
Now I've decided that this flute thing is more than just a passing fancy
and I'd like to get a nicer instrument. One with enough keys to make it
possible to play a full chromatic scale since I also enjoy classical
music of all sorts.
Does anyone have any particular reccomendations?
I've been looking at Ralph Sweet's 6-key flute because of a) the price
b) I've been quite happy with the flute I have. Are six keys enough to
play all (or most) notes in the chromatic scale? Does anyone have any
experience with this flute?
--
Blessed Be!
Sarah Eris Horsley Caffee
http://users.accesscomm.net/~scaffee
Don't forget to remove the SPAMNOT from my email address.
"...to help and heal..."
Lawrence E Mallette
Sarah Caffee (sca...@accesscomm.netSPAMNOT) wrote:
: About a year ago I bought a Ralph Sweet no-frills, no-keys flute and
: since then I've been teaching myself how to play. I've gotten to the
: point of being "OK" (though I *still* can't play as fast as they do in
: the session here in Houston <G>).
: Now I've decided that this flute thing is more than just a passing fancy
: and I'd like to get a nicer instrument. One with enough keys to make it
: possible to play a full chromatic scale since I also enjoy classical
: music of all sorts.
: Does anyone have any particular reccomendations?
Yo, friend Sarah!
The three best makers whose keyed flutes I've played are (in no
particular order), Chris Wilkes (I have an 8-key Rudall-Rose
style by Wilkes), Sam Murray (his flutes have a wonderful, big
mellow sound that I quite like), and Hammy Hamilton (closest
to the great big sound of the Murray flute, and also very
finely crafted). I'd suggest writing to (or calling) these
makers for waiting times and prices. Patrick Olwell also makes
excellent keyed and unkeyed flutes, but his wait for keyed flutes
is (last I heard) over 4 years.
: I've been looking at Ralph Sweet's 6-key flute because of a) the price
: b) I've been quite happy with the flute I have. Are six keys enough to
: play all (or most) notes in the chromatic scale? Does anyone have any
: experience with this flute?
I too learned on a keyless Sweet, but haven't tried his keyed flutes.
Six keys usually means omitting the two keys on the bottom joint. These
latter two keys give you the low C# and low C, notes not much used in
Irish music, but useful if you are planning to cross over to other
music. Most folks I know who do only Irish music say these are really
not very helpful and that a six key flute will do nicely. Does cut
the cost a bit as well.
Another possibility is Skip Healey, a long time maker of fifes in
New England, who happens to also be one of the best Irish flute
players I've heard. He started building flutes a couple of years
ago, and I would have bought one of his if I hadn't already
committed to the Wilkes. He has developed a new system of mounting
the keys that he thinks will be big improvement. Don't know if
this is ready yet, or the cost, but might be worth a call.
The pertinent information on all these makers is in the flute
guide put together by Brad Hurley and posted on the Ceolas
Celtic web site.
Happy hunting,
Larry
mall...@bcm.tmc.edu
Have a nice tune!
PS
See ya at session.
nobody@nowhere
In article <3442C9A6...@accesscomm.netSPAMNOT>, Sarah Caffee <sca...@accesscomm.netSPAMNOT> wrote:
>Greetings!
> (snip)
>Now I've decided that this flute thing is more than just a passing fancy
>and I'd like to get a nicer instrument. One with enough keys to make it
>possible to play a full chromatic scale since I also enjoy classical
>music of all sorts.
>
>Does anyone have any particular reccomendations?
>
I am in exactly the same situation of looking for a reasonably cheap
keyed flute. (Actually, I'd settle for an F natural and a G#, but a
fully chromatic flute is my goal.) Any suggestions on where to
look would be greatly appreciated.
Meanwhile, I have at least part of a datum to contribute...
I recently played a fully keyed flute by the Irish Flute Company, and
was not much impressed. My failure to get an acceptable tone in
the bottom half of the bottom octave might well be a result of my
unfamiliarity with the instrument (read incompetence), but I suspect
that the rough bore and rather approximate-looking keywork played
at least as big a role.
I'm not willing to give up on them entirely on the basis of 20 minutes
looking at one example of their work, particularly when the keyless
version I tried sounded quite decent. I'm waiting until the
importer I've been dealing with has another keyed one on hand, at
which point I'll bring along a more experienced player to give his opinion.
Does anyone else in the newsfroup have experience with the
flutes from this company?
Les Smith
In article <EI1zE...@ccc.amdahl.com>, nobody@nowhere wrote:
>
> A number of things, terminating with:
>
>Does anyone else in the newsfroup have experience with the
>flutes from this company?
I just noticed that my newsreader wasn't set up, and didn't
include my name in that posting. Sorry for the inadvertent
impoliteness.
regards to all,
Les Smith
Lawrence E Mallette
nobody@nowhere wrote:
: Meanwhile, I have at least part of a datum to contribute...
: I recently played a fully keyed flute by the Irish Flute Company, and
: was not much impressed.
Are they by any chance located in Pakistan?
Don't believe they are listed among the makers in the Irish
Flute Guide on Ceolas, so don't have their address or any
knowledge about them.
Lawrence E Mallette
nobody@nowhere wrote:
: Meanwhile, I have at least part of a datum to contribute...
: I recently played a fully keyed flute by the Irish Flute Company, and
: was not much impressed. My failure to get an acceptable tone in
: the bottom half of the bottom octave might well be a result of my
: unfamiliarity with the instrument (read incompetence), but I suspect
: that the rough bore and rather approximate-looking keywork played
: at least as big a role.
If the entire bottom half of the bottom octave was weak, there is
likely a problem. But on a conical flute of the Pratten or Rudall-
Rose type, the low E and D will be quite different, in that they
are intrinsically very weak notes. The conical bore puts the
hole at the end of the flute down to a small diameter, and the
D hole (bottom hand ring finger) is quite small. This lets not
much reverberation occur on these notes (doesn't let much sound
out). To compensate for this and get more volume, one must
overblow these two notes to get that extreme burr on the tone.
But this takes a slightly different embousure and breath pressure,
and will tend to make the note go sharp. The flute will be designed
the low D (and possibly the low E as well) will play a bit flat if
blown with the same technique used for the upper half of the register.
Then overblowing brings it back up to pitch. This clever device
to get the low notes loud and "brilliant" enough was discovered
by the original makers back in the 1800s and will still be
incorporated into the flutes of this design made today.
It took me more than 6 months of further practice and experimenting
with a tuner and various embousures to get to where I could blow
the low D up to pitch on my Chris Wilkes Rudall-Rose style flute.
I orignially thought the lower section had a faulty design, but
was encouraged by the maker to keep working at it. Much later
(last summer, to be exact) at a flute workshop I attended in
Riverstown, Co.Sligo, Seamus Tansey spent a lot of time
explaining how important it is to practice the low E and D to
get that real fat loud tone. "If you don't have a good bottom D,
you haven't got anything", or words to that effect.
: I'm not willing to give up on them entirely on the basis of 20 minutes
: looking at one example of their work, ....
Wise....see above.
: Does anyone else in the newsfroup have experience with the
: flutes from this company?
Sorry, not me. What do they have to say about how well aged
the wood they use might be, and what sort of a warranty do
they give? A flute made from less than well aged (i.e. several
years of aging) blackwood will tend to be unstable and is more
likely to crack. This was the experience of a local instrument
store when they stocked a couple of "mass produced" flutes
from a certain west-coast (of US) supplier (who would not name
his source and who shall remain nameless this _morning_).