Chiff and Fipple Forums

Purpose-built... Muscle it in... Yada Yada...

The first flutes or flute like instruments were made from bones or branches. They seemed to do the trick. Current bamboo offerings are often simply amazing. ie... Olwell, Billy Miller.....

Cylindrical v conical... Seems to me the Boehm flutes do okay. The body is a cylinder. The headjoint is not cylindrical. If I recall, it is parabolic or some such. My Tipple has a Fajardo wedge in the headjoint to achieve the same purpose.

Muscling - the embrouchure required to play any flute will vary from instrument to instrument. Even on a specific instrument, the embrouchure will vary between, and sometimes within, an octave. There is no such thing as "only one embrouchure is required for this flute." From that perspective, I'd say that every flute must be muscled in to some extent.

Every flute is different. Every player is different.

2¢

I want to add that i think the Shannon flute is very well made and a very good value. The M&E just got me closer to the "sound in my head" more quickly. As mentioned above, flutes seem to vary a lot and I suspect it's because mouths (head/jaws/teeth/lips etc.) vary a lot.


You can also look at the Irish Flute Store--they have stock on hand.

I thank everybody for their thoughts and advice. As you can tell I don't have a lot of experience with this particular type of instrument, so I'm just guessing and going on the few samples that I do have and have played

As PB+J mentioned, there is a new Shannon at The Irish Flute Store at the usual price.

Best wishes,

Steve

Steve Bliven wrote:As PB+J mentioned, there is a new Shannon at The Irish Flute Store at the usual price.

Best wishes,

Steve

Thanks for the clue. Can't take advantage of that until the first of the month...IF it's still there.

I have a very slightly used Shannon flute that I am selling. You could not tell this from a new flute. It plays very well.

I only used it a few times to play along with a student of mine who was also playing a Shannon flute.

The price is $250 including shipping. Please add $10 if you pay by Paypal. Otherwise check or bank check is fine.

Let me know soon because I'll be out of the country (in Ireland) for a few weeks.

Best wishes,

David

MichaelRS wrote:I thank everybody for their thoughts and advice. As you can tell I don't have a lot of experience with this particular type of instrument, so I'm just guessing and going on the few samples that I do have and have played

Me too! I've only been playing for a few months. A lot of things transfer over from the whistle. For me, the fingering is easy; the breath control is killer. I started it partly because I assume as an older guy it would be good for me to have an activity that demanded breath control and more "wind," deeper and more diaphragmatic breathing. It's all about learning effective phrasing within the limits, and expending the limits where I can. Also it's really fun. The flute has a cool "feel" under the fingers

Well now there's no need for alternative for a Shannon for me, because my actual Shannon flute should be here very shortly.

It was the one recently listed for sale and I was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of it.
I'll report back with my thoughts on it in a day or two.

I think it's always good to refresh a topic like this, or a similar one, becsuse I know there are other people out there like me who probably have the same questions and it's nice to have recent opinions in the forefront, as opposed to some threads that are older.

I also found the flute makers like Walter Sweet and others suggested here, such as Rob Forbes and Dave Copley, to be very responsive to and helpful with inquiries. Others may be as well, but I did not reach out to them because I believed those three best suited my needs at the moment.

Once again I thank all of you for your help and guidance in this matter. Lots of great people in these forums.

I'd just like to express my appreciation for the word 'nebulosity'.