Chiff and Fipple Forums

I've got a Howard as well. I have the previously-mentioned problem with the difficult (high) a and b, as well as intonation, the high a and b are fairly sharp. Someone recommend adding a few fingers (crossfingering) to flatten, and that works, but eh! I just play my flute now, when I want to play in...

I had the same trouble. If you keep at it, working on relaxing, it goes away in a month or 2.

joe

And another thing: I now find the flute easier to play fast on (compared to the whistle). Drumming hard with the fingers seems to help me keep rhythm, and with speed. But that's very difficult with whistle, because the durn thing is so tiny and light weight; it bounces all over the place. So now I'm...

I'll weigh in here, maybe playing devil's advocate to some of Lee's points. Understand that he's correct: Tone should be first priority, rhythm next. Not sure I agree that you need to focus on tone (to the exclusion of all else) for the first year. (I'm still in by first year, understand, been playi...

All of the comments above I'll agree with. My additional contribution: RELAX!!!! My guess as that when you practice, you're relaxing pretty well, but when you try to nail it in the tune you tense up. My own capabilities vary wildly, depending on whether I'm relaxed. For instance, when relaxed, I can...

I know you already bought the Seery, but I'll tell you a couple more things I like about the M&E, as well as another thing I don't. In addition to the nice intonation on Cnat, you can get a pretty good lower octave G# with xx0 xxx and on the 2nd octave G# with xx0 x0x. It's a little sharp but ju...

One more comment: The M$E is massive. This never bothered me, after I got my hands used to playing flute in the first place, but I have large powerful hands (used to play acoustic bass). I actually like the mass of the M&E because I like to pound pretty hard with my fingers. The rhythmic pulse h...

I have an older M&E and have tried a Seery. I like them both. My comparison is: M&E: More optimized for lower octave. Seery: More balanced across the lower and upper octave. Note: It took some work, but I have learned to easily get the upper octave on the M&E. I'd imagine with the Seery,...

On 2002-01-18 15:43, MikeClem wrote: Dittos to everything jomac said. That has been my experience exactly. Besides, I've never heard anyone say "D#@%! I wish I didn't know how to read music!" :grin: No, but I've heard (among Bluegrass types): "Well, I read music a little, but not eno...

My take on this issue comes from my first musical love, Jazz, and all of the insanely awesome jazz musicians I've played with. Jazz has almost exactly the same aural (by ear) tradition as IrTrad. Yet, jazz musicians, from the late '20's on were also expected to be killer readers, so they could play ...

On 2002-01-16 07:36, hillfolk22 wrote: I went to one of Christopher Walkers workshops at the NPM covention in Pittsburg. A great sence of humor. I take it the showcase you mentioned was at a NPM convention. I missed the one in DC. Laura No, this was a concert put on at a church in the Redondo Beach...

Steve: Yer right. The only thing that varies between dorian and aeolian (natural minor)is the 6th.

Joe

Now I'm wondering if it's the same tune I know - I thought it was in A. BTW, I had the opportunity of doing a couple of gigs with Christopher Walker conducting (not playing whistle; I played bass). Fun. We didn't do the Celtic Alleluia, though; it was a showcase of Lit. music from "new" co...

I play a standard model, and the finger holes on it are fairly tiny; smaller than on any other flute I've seen (though I haven't seen all that many).

Joe

I brought my mando to my regular session once. It was nice, because I could follow the guitarists, playing chords, and every once in a while, when I knew the tune (or more often, a snippet of the tune) I would pick that out, going back to chording when I found myself over my head. I'll probably brin...