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Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 2:30 pm
by Pickles
Hi, I've been playing the tenor recorder for 3 years. Certain limitations of the instrument are beginning to become apparent to me. Most noticeably, its range. I have a Yamaha maple from Von Huene workshop...so I think that is about as good as you can get. Would be nice to have 3 chromatic octaves plus low B (B3-C7) to be able to play concert flute literature. I know I could get a bell key, but those are prohibitively expensive, since they have to be custom made (Yamaha doesn't make a bell key for it already!)

Is there some other fipple instrument out there with the range I'm wanting??? I've done a lot of googling, and the closest thing I found is the 10 hole Morneault whistle (http://www.sweetheartflute.com/whistle10.html), but it just goes to 'low D', not sure if that's D4 or D5. Thanks for any ideas!

Re: Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 7:25 pm
by Peter Duggan
Pickles wrote:Is there some other fipple instrument out there with the range I'm wanting???
A flute with an Educci head. See viewtopic.php?p=1170105#p1170105 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_FcyC6fco (also linked from that post).

Re: Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:14 pm
by s1m0n
In general, when it comes to wind instruments, you can either have a chromatic 1.5 octaves or you can have 3 diatonic octaves. Or you can have a compromised blend of the two.

Re: Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 3:18 pm
by BobRychlik
Slovak fujara has range over 2 octaves and one extra octave above that in overtone range.
2 octaves are diatonic, and with exception of single tone also chromatic (for G fujara the missing tone in chromatic scale is C#.
Bob

Re: Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 11:54 am
by JCortese
I don't know if you'd count this as a fipple instrument, but there's a guy on YouTube named David Erick Ramos who is the king of all ocarinas, and plays some of what are called multi-chambered, "double" or "triple," ocarinas. They have a substantial range and are at least mostly chromatic. Might be worthwhile to look into some of his videos. He seems to be doing for the ocarina what John King and Jake Shimabukuro have done for the ukulele, really bringing it into its own as a much more than a cheap toy.

Re: Looking for a 3 octave recorder-ish instrument

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 12:42 pm
by Tunborough
The fixed geometry of a fipple flute windway limits you to not much more than two octaves. In the third octave, the air is moving 4 to 8 times as fast across the windway as it is for the bell note, which translates to a significant difference in volume. With transverse flutes, and rim-blown flutes like the quena, you can compensate by shortening the air gap and blowing a finer stream of air.