Flutemaking forum

[Geoffrey Ellis]

How difficult would it be to create a dedicated sub-forum that is just for instrument making (just flutes, pipes and whistles perhaps)?

Not difficult at all. It's just that C&F went thru a period of adding special interest forum upon special interest forum until we had a bunch no one seemed interested in; in time we decided to rein it back and simplify (we've retained a couple for nostalgia's sake). As you might imagine, after such a cleanup the idea of a new forum would have to be compelling indeed for us to consider it. But I'm more inclined to be sympathetic to the idea of a consolidated, general instrument-making forum. Any reason not to include strings, drums or reedmaking, etc.?

Anyway, let's talk about it some more. Run it up the flagpole, as they say, and see who salutes.

Solid point. That actually did happen to my forum. I created a bunch of discreet maker forums for each type of flute (maybe about four total) and it happened exactly as you described. Too spread out. A consolidated forum dedicated to all instruments would make more sense.

[Nanohedron]

And I would be interested to hear how Chiff is planning for a day where they might conceivably lose operational dollar support. Any plans for preservation of knowledge?

C&F is adequately supported by the banner ads, so we don't anticipate a financial cause for loss of operations. The question of knowledge preservation is a good one, though, and we haven't really discussed it. A Maker's Forum would make the issue more compelling.

A consolidated forum dedicated to all instruments would make more sense.

It might be possible to have categories within the forum, just to keep things tidy. I'll bet Ben could answer that question.

[Geoffrey Ellis]

I can't seem to find any forums for flutemaking on the internet where one can discuss things like Boehm's exact headjoint curvature...

Just FYI, if you get Boehm's book (The Flute And Flute Playing) it contains a drawing of the headjoint taper along with an incremental scale. Using that you can chart out the parabolic curve.

[Terry McGee]

Try this:

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=kH ... ng&f=false

Scroll down to page 18.

[Nanohedron]

(from recent discussions I find I am not allowed to call them Irish flutes )

"Simple system" seems to ruffle the fewest feathers. Around here, most of the time I just say "flute"; the "Irish" (gasp!) part is already understood. If I mean a Boehm flute, then by God I will say so.

Should there be a makers' forum topic on C&F?

Admin's been mulling this over a bit, and while the idea of a general makers' forum looks attractive at first glance, we also take into account the fact that there's comparatively little activity in the way of construction topics, and nothing from pipemakers or luthiers - just to name two - and we don't see how a new forum would change this. The Trad Strings and Free Reed Forums get almost zero activity as it is. So, it's going to take some convincing if we're going to take the idea of a new forum seriously.

IIRC, I believe someone in this thread said that makers' topics seem a bit out of place in the regular forums. Such topics never looked out of place to me, so I'm wondering why that should be so for someone else.

[fatmac]

The Trad Strings and Free Reed Forums get almost zero activity as it is.

I'd be more inclined to use it if it wasn't ITM focused, but that's just me, I already have a very good chromatic harmonica forum that I belong to.

The Trad Strings

Not sure what that is really about to be honest, I used to play ukuleles, still have them, but I pick melodies rather than play chords & sing.

[Nanohedron]

The Trad Strings and Free Reed Forums get almost zero activity as it is.

I'd be more inclined to use it if it wasn't ITM focused, but that's just me...

Focus is up to you. However, if you want to post about slack-key guitar, I agree that the odds of a response are slim around here; people would think you got lost on the way to the luau. Every now and then you get someone posting about Kwela music on the Whistle Forum - it's an old topic of interest with a history going back to the beginnings of C&F, so it still drops by now and then to say hello - but it's seldom, and getting seldomer. The uncomfortable truth is that Kwela simply never caught on here.

I already have a very good chromatic harmonica forum that I belong to.

That's the thing, isn't it.

The forums for other than whistle, flute and pipes are here for those who want to cover those topics, but the context tends to remain within the Trad sphere. We don't insist on that; that's just the general interest around here. That being the case, ChiffCo naturally supports it.

The Trad Strings

Not sure what that is really about to be honest...

Fiddles, guitars, bouzoukis and citterns, mandolins, harps, banjos...again, Trad-type instruments, mainly. But not necessarily. Still, good luck to you if you want to expand the horizons. We've had people discuss psalteries in the past - ukes, too, and others - but it was always limited and brief, so maybe they've found likelier websites elsewhere. OTOH, that forum's been sparse for activity no matter what; IIRC, picks were the last big topic, and that was a while back.

Sometimes people with non-Trad topics seem to take silence as disapproval, but I don't think that's really right. I can't speak for everyone else, but it's just because I have nothing to say. I am tempted to go out on a limb, though, and venture that that is probably the reason that applies to most of us in general. I wouldn't have anything to contribute to a duduk thread, after all, even though I think it's a way cool instrument. We had a flurry of fujara action for a time, but that's mostly fizzled, too. Trad's really the only genre that's kept its steam up in a visible way around here.

When C&F began it was only a whistle forum, and nothing else. This was also a time when Riverdance had just taken the world by storm, and suddenly Irish traditional music was on the map in a way it had never been before. Whistles of course figure prominently in ITM, are typically associated with that music far more than any other, and since ITM was all the rage in those days, it's no surprise that whistlers with these Trad interests came together here in force, and the climate's never really changed since. To be honest, when Dale started this site I don't think Trad was even on his radar, or at least it wasn't his main purpose; it was just about whistles, pure and simple, not so much about what you play - and officially, that's still where we're at. Nevertheless, the Trad climate just sort of ... happened. I'm not 100% sure but I think the Pub came next, before the other forums; whatever the case, it was clear that there was more and more off-topic Trad stuff increasingly cluttering up the poor Whistle Forum, and all this various stuff needed a home. So, then came the flutes...and then the pipes...and then the other pipes...and so on. It was like gravity. I've never asked, but I'm guessing Dale never imagined that a sweet and probably ephemeral little website about whistles would ever grow into what it is now, and I'll bet it blew his mind.

So here we are. By the time I joined the Board, the Trad climate was already established - so much so that if people recommended C&F, it was as a site for Trad interests. It had become a given, and anything else was a footnote. And sure enough, Trad's what I came here for. That, and the craic.

[fatmac]

Thanks for the explainations, I like the site for its whistle & flute content, so no problems there, & I like the social aspect of the posts, so I'll be around for some time to come, I reckon.

[PB+J]

I’m unlikely to ever make a flute—well maybe I’ll venture a tipple style flute someday—but I’d be delighted to follow a flute,Akers forum, the details are fascinating, and to my mind the pleasure of making music only increases when empirical fact and study merges with creative expression. So I’d read it for sure, and ask dumb questions

[Nanohedron]

I administer another popular forum on a similar platform to Chiff (SMF)...

SMF = Simple Machines Forum?

[hpinson]

Simple Machines Forum?

Yes, that's the software platform we use. Similar to phpBB.