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Living near Ibrox I’m fixed for hearing what remains of Scotland’s flute band scene both Republican and Loyalist. Interestingly I’ve not seen a non Bb flute in any of the bands. Mostly I see Miller Browne’s and Mullans or the metal ones (can’t recall the brand). I think one band had new shiny Peter Worrell flutes.
Music certainly is secondary to pageantry (no offense to anyone involved but that’s certainly my take and I hear all the bands that pass whether I go out to look or not).

Once I was playing piccolo in a session in Glasgow and someone came up and said,
“Don’t you need a permit from the council to play that in here.”

That is a bit of a different scene perhaps.



These guys (The Hounds of Ulster) were bloody good though.

But the old style fife/flute drumbands, eg the old Kilfenora one, may have had a slightly different angle/instrumentation than the Orange bands.

I am confused -- what is the difference between a fife and a marching flute?
In Germany basically every marching band plays the piccolos and flutes (which go down to tenor which is basically a low D) made by Sandner. I never saw anything else but it has been a while since I saw any marching bands at all. But the fingering is different. I wouldn't even know what they call their tenor model. They just call them flutes on their homepage.
http://www.sandner-floeten.de/floeten.html

Here is a nice article explaining a real fife
http://www.oldflutes.com/articles/fife/index.htm

There are many things in between. Some people call small conical flutes ‘folk fifes’
Cylindrical metal flutes, slightly tapered single keyed fifes in France.
But in general the above article explains its well. In general use though people call small flutes fifes.

Peter is that the Kilfenora Fife Band in the photo.
They certainly seem to have Bb band flutes in the photo.
I think the band flutes kinda supplanted fifes at some point.
Though obviously fifes are still about for playing with the Lambeg.
And you have people like Davy Angus still making c# ones.

Thank you for the article link, dunnp. I purchased what was described as ´une ancienne fifre´ on ebay.fr. It is a lovely example of what the military used for drill and marching. I would however take exception to the description, ´slightly tapered bore´. More than slightly. It has one key, Eb, a tuning slide, a lovely mellow first octave, and can be played at A=440 hz. I call it my ´simple piccolo´.

Bob

Hi Bob,
Does yours have the tuning holes at the bottom after the key?
Like this example
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Flute-Piccolo-b ... SwZ4RcJQkI

I’ve never played this type of French Fife/ piccolo.
Been watching them go by on eBay France for years.

Indeed an interesting read. That means that the German marching band flutes are more like fifes because they all have a completely cylindrical bore and no keys -- but they have 7 holes. The octave tuning is adjusted by a tuning rod in the head (I have used those plugs to make well tuned cylindrical keyless flutes).

In reading your description Bob what you do have is a simple system one keyed piccolo.

The French keyed fifes with a slighter taper are the ones I showed in the eBay link.
I was always curious about the two tuning holes at the bottom of the thing.

Yes, dunnp, it would appear what I have is simple piccolo. No tuning holes. Has a fully lined head with tuning slide/tuning barrel. Very much like a miniature simple system modern flute with one key. Its a lot of fun to play. Fully closed it plays at A=440hz. The same scale as a D whistle. The f# shows a very slight French predilection to flatness. It is unmarked, but I marvel at the craftsmanship. Done in what appears to be Ebony, like a modern Orchestral piccolo, rather than Palisandre. I believe I paid 25 euro.

Bob

Do those with just one key have the same fingering as a baroque flute?

Whilst looking around yesterday, I put in a bid for a 1key, (but lost), & below is the tuning chart that I found for it, (it seems to be the same, or similar).

http://www.oldflutes.com/charts/onekey/

I found that chart too. The question is, is it really the same between one-key marching flutes in Bb and a baroque flute in low D? Best would be if someone can try it on his one-key marching flute. I couldn't really find a fingering chart especially for those. And the ones I found didn't include the accidentals. So for example would F (in relation to the D-scale, since all the scores for marching flutes are written in D anyway) be fingered like: xxx xox? That note is normally sharp on a baroque flute but on a normal tin whistle or even conical keyless flute, that fingering doesn't really work at all because the holes are too big, mainly the F#-hole which is much smaller on a baroque flute. Therefore I have my doubts if the fingerings are really the same. Measured against the bore, the marching flutes in Bb seem to have rather large holes. So I suspect, a fingering like the one above wouldn't work. But we won't know until somebody tries or comes up with the right fingering chart for a Miller Browne (or other make) marching flute with one key.
I suspect that my plan to use a marching flute as kind of a cheapo alternative to a baroque flute won't work at all. But I might still get a fully keyed one.

As an aside, here's the Kilfenora F flute I mentioned earlier on this thread. Played by Brian O'Loughlin.

Very interesting. Do you have a link where he plays it? I stumbled across an F marching flute from "Miller Wicks". Made from African blackwood, 6 keys. For 490 GBP. Seems a good price if it could be used instead of a "proper" simple system F flute (not even sure how to distinguish between them because basically they are both "simple system").
http://www.millerwicks.com/

Not a fife, but, I regularly play a wonderful flute in the key of F made by Barna Gabos. Because it is easier to fill than my D flute, it is fun and relaxing to play. However, I find it does require me to really focus my embouchure. It's light, nimble and fun to play.