Chiff and Fipple Forums

How does one do them? Even my musician friends who play
Boehm flute with keys without the little holes in them, say they
can slide or duplicate the effect. How?

Not having been a Boehm player I can only surmise, but I was able to slide certain keyed notes upward on the uilleann pipes. The how of it was that one does it with care and attention, controlling the key so that it opens gradually from the slightest opening possible until fully open. Painstaking at first, but you get the hang of it. Never tried sliding downward, so I can't speak to that.

Makes sense

From a finger-slide standpoint I found the keyed slide to present slight difficulties and limitations, but with practice it's close enough to be perfectly respectable. Might depend on the instrument, too.

It's pretty hard to do even with french keys. slowly letting the key up is the best way I have found and I have french keys.

If I had to hazard a guess, your friends who say they can do this (and this seems to have been reported to you, not demonstrated) might be referring to playing slow airs and such. On an open-hold Boehm, it is difficult. In a slow tune, it's manageable (and can also be lipped instead of using a finger slide). So maybe the question to them is if they can do it up to tempo and cleanly in a fast tune. And if they say yes, ask for a recording as proof...

Grey Larsen mentions it as doable in his book. I just wonder why anyone would want to put so much effort into doing it - there are many reasons the Boehm flute came into being, and playing slides was not among them!

Someone here must have a sense for whether Joanie Madden does slides more or less than simple system players. And of course, "Joanie Madden does it" doesn't really mean it's feasible for people like me with a more mundane skillset.

sjpete wrote:If I had to hazard a guess, your friends who say they can do this (and this seems to have been reported to you, not demonstrated) might be referring to playing slow airs and such.

Indeed, I forgot to mention that so far as I can recall, I only did keyed slides on the chanter when playing airs. For dance tunes, there wasn't nearly the incentive for it, if any.

I've tried many times to slide notes on my Boehm flute but it's nigh on impossible. The reason it's so hard on a keyed flute is that even if you let the pad up slowly the entire hole is being exposed at once so it just jumps to the next note. Maybe on an open-holed Boehm it's a bit easier but I don't have one so I can't speak to that.

On an open-holed simple system flute you slide your finger off of the hole slowly exposing more of the hole so you get a gradual transition between notes.

Kirk

Alternative to partial covering of a tonehole (on open-hole french key Boehm):

Mel Bay's Complete Irish Flute Book wrote: The effect of a slide can also be produced by starting a note with the flute rotated inwards with maximum coverage of the embouchure hole. A rapid turning out of the flute while lifting the head to expose more of the embouchure hole creates a pitch modulation and sliding effect. The sliding motion over keywork on Boehm flutes may cause the flute to need periodic adjustment to assure adequate coverage of the key pads, It is for this reason that rolling the headjoint may be a preferred method of sliding. One advantage of this method is that any note throughout the range of the instrument may be affected, although it does require much control over hand position and embouchure.

Joanie Madden plays a Boehm flute so it is possible.