Chiff and Fipple Forums

I have an excellent keyless flute, made by Geoffrey Ellis, and a quite decent no-name six key flute I got from the Irish Flute Store. If I put the Ellis headjoint on the keyed flute, it's a little better. And here I am working on Paddy Fahy's jig, this paddy Fahy's jig, as played by Hayes:

https://youtu.be/G05uOBvzsOI

So at this point I can play it about as well with keys or without: meaning not that well. Both the keying and the half holing are clumsy yet. I feel like I should commit to one or the other. The half-holing feels a little better but would probably always be a bit sloppy and not as crisp. A six keyed flute would be more easily chromatic. But if I really want chromatic, i have a reasonable old silver boehm flute. With a different keying scheme, of course.

Decisions, decisions

It's a tough choice because it seems to be about choosing between an excellent keyless and an OK keyed flute just as much as between half-holing and using keys. One option to consider, if your budget allows it, is to have keys retrofitted to your keyless flute by Maurice Reviol, now or later. There was such a flute on the Irish Flute Store a while ago, I don't remember if it was a one-off or the start of a collaboration but you could ask Geoffrey Ellis or Maurice Reviol. Maurice's keywork is very good and his prices are not very high (by Irish flute standards). The advantages of this approach are that you get to keep a flute that you like and are familiar with, you get a chromatic flute, and it would cost less than buying a good keyed flute.

Personally, I'd stick with keyless, easy to maintain & not much to get damaged.

I do have both Boehm flute & piccolo with keys, but seldom play them, whilst I have low 'D', low 'F', 'A', high 'C', & high 'D' keyless that do get played at various times.

I think that Ellis was a one and done--I understand he has no plans to make more. I saw that and it was tempting but that's a lot of dough. But yes I have an ok keyed flute and a keyless flute that's a joy to play. I like the conical bore flute a lot--I like the way it feels to play it and I like the sound of it and the simplicity

If you're going to play tunes in Gm I would suggest you play them on a keyed flute, you want your Bb and Fnat for that. On the keyless I'd just transpose the tune up a step.

FWIW, in the recortding Martin Hayes dofs his cap to Martin Rochford, the tune was one of his (Rochford's) pet tunes. If you don't think the key of the tune should be changed, bear in mind another of Rochford's pet tunes was The Mist covered Mountain which he played in Gm (Gdor, if you like) also, just as Junior Crehan originally composed it. That one was taken up by just about everybody transposed a tone up and that became so common even Junior ended up playing it that way. So there's good precedent for the approach.