Chiff and Fipple Forums

I think it is wrong to think of a dichotomy between piper's grip and curved right hand fingers with nothing 'in between'. Many players, e.g. Catherine McEvoy, Kevin Crawford, Conal O'Grade, Matt Malloy, etc. cover the holes with the pads in the middle of the first joint of their right hand fingers, and sometimes their fingers are fairly straight. On the other hand, Emer Mayock has a 'standard' piper's grip and her fingers can really fly: listen to her playing The Maids of Selma on her album Merry Bits of Timber. There is no reason for you to change if speed is what you're worrying about. But if you must, then experiment with using only the pads of the first joints of your right hand fingers.

cac wrote:I think it is wrong to think of a dichotomy between piper's grip and curved right hand fingers with nothing 'in between'.

Yes. This is why I said 'I've gone more flat-fingered', not 'I've gone flat-fingered'.

On flutes, pipes, whistles I think that in theory at least the fingers should be relaxed.

When we relax our hands the fingers aren't ramrod straight, neither are they strongly arched, but have a slight curve, and this probably should be the model for how we "grip" any woodwind.

Of course there are loads of great players who have their hands in obvious tension, straining to be artificially straight or curved, and they play just fine. Likewise I've seen great fluteplayers with their heads, necks, shoulders, and wrists twisted into un-ergonomic poses. (I do wonder how they will feel when they're in their 60s.)

A case in point is Matt Molloy's unusual lower-hand flute grip. The three long fingers are held stiff and straight, yet all three holes are sealed with the end-joint pad. Due to his middle finger being longer than the other two, he has the middle finger held in the un-natural posture __/\__

This is an interesting thread for me as a beginner to simple system flutes - I am trying all the different ways to find what is comfortable & effective for me, as I think if you are comfortable, you will improve quicker, at least, I hope so.