Practice flute

[Doug_Tipple]

This topic was initially about suggestions for a practice flute, or an inexpensive flute for beginners, and the ones that were suggested were cylindrical-bore flutes. Several people have mentioned intonation issures with cylindrical-bore flutes, namely that the upper part of the second octave tends to play noticeably flat. I find that this is only problematic for the last two or three notes of the second octave, as the other notes of the scale can easily be brought to pitch by undercutting of the finger holes and good embouchure control.

There are several remedies to improve the performance of these flutes, and most of them have already been mentioned, but I will reiterative for the sake of summary. First, it is possible to have a short headjoint and to taper part of the inner diameter, as Hammy has evidently done with his practice flute. Secondly, there are alternate fingerings for these notes that bring the notes easily into pitch. Personally, I don't find it a problem to use the alternate fingerings, as the uppermost notes of the second ocatave are notes that are not used that frequently for most folk melodies. I give a few suggestions for these fingerings on my flutes at my website.
http://dougsflutes.googlepages.com/iris ... eringchart

The last way to correct the intonation of cylindrical-bore flute that I will mention is to put either a spike (Shandler) or a wedge (Fajardo) in the headjoint to simulate a Boehm taper.
I have found that using a wedge that doesn't have a flat exposed surface in the bore of the flute causes more turbulence, which can be a good thing. While the presence of such a wedge in the headjoint may make the flute harder to blow, it does add complexity to the tone of the flute once the embouchure requirements are mastered. The internal wedge accomplishes two objectives: it corrects the intonation of the second octave, and it adds complexity to the tone, making the flute sound more like a wooden conical-bore flute.

[Maihcol]

Thanks for the explanation, Garry - very helpful. Not being a turner myself, though, I kinda wonder why, once one has the design sorted/made an appropriate reamer, making a full length delrin or ebonite Bohm head with a socket to fit over the aluminium tube should be significantly more expensive than making a diddy-short one? - About the same operating time, I'd have thought, and only marginally dearer in materials.

It's a good question. Since I haven't done it both ways myself (with a short simple taper as well as the full Boehm taper), like yourself I can only guess what the relative difficulties and costs would be...I presume Hammy makes heaps of these for schools and I'd say that once you get into it on that scale, small differences begin to matter a lot in terms of time and cost...I already happened to have a Boehm head-joint reamer which I made for flutes based on a 19th century, simple system Boehm bore flute I have - so I just needed the aluminium body. I normally make these with a full thickness delrin body.

In terms of the construction, the full length Boehm taper makes for a long head which is too heavy for the thinner aluminium body, so you either have to shorten the head a lot, losing some of the tuning benefits, or add weight to the foot end to balance the heavier head - or you can compromise by shortening the head a bit and also making the foot area a bit heavier. For small children, of course the weight is important - as is the balance between head and body and that could well be a factor in deciding to make the head as short as possible, so that the overall weight of the flute can be kept to a minimum while sacrificing some of the tuning benefits of a longer taper in the head. Obviously it also takes longer to turn, bore and ream a longer head than a short one. I once tried reaming a long piece of nylon - maybe it was for a Pratten mid-section...I remember it was very hard work - very sticky and didn't ream well at all - a short section would probably be ok though.

Garry

[sergiocorriero]

... 2 cents... in my experience with teaching guitars, the single greatest contributor to a student not following through with guitar playing was have a "less than very good" guitar as a first guitar. if the instrument was difficult to tune... or didin't hold tuning... or had bad intonation.... or was difficult to finger because of action height... or any other of a myriad of things that go wrong with less than very good guitars.... students get frustrated and give up. however, if their first instrument is a good one, they tend to remain excited not only about the instrument but about the music as well.... and the cost of a good instrument becomes an investment rather than a loss.... i cannot say with certitude that this applies to flute, as well, but it might.... 2 cents.

be well,

jim

I agree with you, jim.
I personally started playing at nine with difficult guitars.
After about 45 years of playing, my opinion is that, if possible, it's much better to have a good instrument and focus on learning than struggling against a poor instrument.
In guitar, it's not simply a matter of a single issue....action or saddle or nut... ..it's a matter of quality in the whole, depending on the material, but mainly on the maker and its skills as a musician first and as a maker then, and how much he/her value his skills and his work...
As example, Art&Lutherie could be a honest guitar, made with laminated woods.
The quality level is quite always the same. There are no arguments that, being hand made, you could be lucky or not and get an instrument different from another one, and that, being cheap, you don't deserve a better one, like with some flutes...
But you won't ever have the same push to learn playing a guitar like with a Taylor or a Larrivee.
I think there is a minimum quality level under which you don't learn and don't play music, but just waste your energies for correcting issues you'll forget with a good instrument. Letting the cheap one alone in a corner.
The same i think is with a flute, that costs much less than a guitar....
I think music deserves a little effort; better to wait and buy a good pair of shoes rather than having easily an uncomfortable one..

Sergio

PS forgive my poor english...

[plamas]

Hi All,
Just noticed this thread and thought I'd clear up the confusion about my practice flutes. The current model, which has been around for a few years now has a taper in the head that is shorter than a full Boehm taper, but longer than the short head I used to do. What I think is causing confusion is that my original practice flute was cylindrical, but that was many years ago, and I quickly moved to a head with a short taper, and then the long taper that I use now. For my way of playing at any rate, this enables the flute to play in tune ( given the restriction of simple system holes) up as far as G in the third octave.
The hole sizes and spacings are as close as I can get them to a standard cone bore thick walled wooden flute, the idea being that beginners will find no great change in that area when they progress to a "real" flute.
For about the last year or so, they are also basically tunable, in the same way as moving the head on a Generation whistle allows basic tuning.
The embouchure is a very basic cut, but is also designed to allow the beginner to progress in that area, in that it responds to a loose beginners embouchure but also, with a better tone, to a developing one.
Hope that clears things up. ( BTW new website coming shortly, current one very out of date)
All the Best
Hammy