Beginning irish flute for an 9-year old

[tscaltz]

I have a 9-year old Open Champion Irish dancer that wants to play the irish flute. I recently bought an Irish flute for myself (as I played the silver flute throughout school bands 20+ years ago) and I do find it more difficult to play. I want an instrument that will not break the bank, but has a nice tone and accessible for small hands (I might purchase two because my hands are tiny as well!) I want to be certain that the fingerings follow the tin whistle as I have purchased a handful of books with traditional irish songs as well as holiday favorites. I want to get a head start on the holidays this year and want to find her something that she can play, enjoy and isn't a whistle. I will likely transition her to the silver flute in a couple of years when this becomes available in her school but know that I won't be able to captivate her interest on the silver traditional flute alone....thanks!!!

[kkrell]

How big is your bank? We can more easily make suggestions if we understand your budget.

[tscaltz]

I would like to keep it under $800 if possible.

[Katharine]

Does it need to be a D flute? Or would something smaller like G or B-flat be okay? (I'm not 100% certain what you mean when you say the "fingerings {must} follow tin whistle"-- I don't know if you mean you need to be able to play along with a D whistle, or simply that it needs to be a simple-system flute.) What about a high-D piccolo?

[kkrell]

Congratulations to your 9-year-old on the Irish dancing achievement.

As your budget is in US dollars, I'll assume you're primarily seeking from U.S. makers, although there are inexpensive options to bring in from afar.

My suggestions for quality instruments that are also suitable for small hands would be:

Washington State: Casey Burns Folk Flute (I believe he still has some available). He specifically has a Small-handed model. Currently these are wood flutes, priced at US $450 each, of which the blackwood would be the most stable. Casey is experimenting with production of high-quality 3D-printed instruments in the future at this price level.
http://www.caseyburnsflutes.com/ff.php

Ohio: Dave Copley sells Delrin (an extremely durable acetal resin) flutes well below that price range, and I think in the past has been accommodating regarding offering hole placement that can assist those with small hands. His Delrin flutes run $360-$440 depending on options, and are somewhat tunable on a long tenon. Much more expensive with a tuning slide. He even has blackwood models starting at $495 (again without slide, not sure if there is any tuning range otherwise).

Galway, Ireland: Vincenzo Di Mauro offers a Student flute "Lighter in weight, customized tone-holes on demand, for short or small fingers." 300 Euros. No tuning slide, although I suppose you can ask if it's a possible upgrade.
http://www.vdmflutes.com/UK/Delrinuk.html

[Jeggy]

I would add Francois Baubet who's in Co. Clare I believe. Delrin flute with tuning slide at €350. I have one with a short D foot which makes is shorter and lighter which might be useful. Absolutely fantastic flute, powerful and sweet tone, but a rudall model so very efficient in terms of air.

[fatmac]

Small hands will normally equate to short reach, therefore I imagine a low D will be out of your reachable area.

That said, either a keyless F or a G might fit the bill, whilst a Bb fife or a keyless high D piccolo would be easier to finger, & likely cheaper to purchase.

(Personally, I quite enjoy playing a high D piccolo.)

[tscaltz]

Wonderful recommendations! Do you have any guidance on purchasing a high D piccolo? I want to make sure that for the most part it is a simple system flute so that when she transitions in school to the silver traditional flute she is not learning all new keys and finger positions for notes. I own a Casey Burns...and love it, but even for me, I find it heavy and hard to cover the holes (standard holes). I will likely be teaching her myself to start and have a few books to follow that show which holes to cover for each note of the scale and I want to be able to use these with her until I can get her more formal training. I apologize that I am far from a seasoned musician and find it difficult to describe in technical terms what I am seeking. Should she decide to eventually join a session, I want whatever instrument I select for her to be able to play the majority of the music played. I hope this makes sense...I received a recommendation also from Walt Sweet regarding Jeffrey Guo's mini flutes in G above C as well as the modern Boehm C piccolo...honestly, I'm not quite sure what that means. Is this different from a piccolo that one would play in a school band? Thanks again for helping me on such a confusing journey!

[jim stone]

Casey burns makes an affordable, playable small-hands D flute. It may very well be
just what the 9-year-old needs. The D flute will be very helpful to the child, because most
every Celtic tune is playable on it. Not so for other keys. Perhaps best of all, you can
e mail (or maybe call) Casey and give him measurements on the child's hands and reach,
etc. Also the flute, while made of wood and good flutes, are not terribly expensive.
This is the place I would start for a really useful D flute for a child.

[PB+J]

The Walt sweet "Shannon" flute it seem to me ticks all the boxes. It's not expensive, it's made of delrin so it's indestructible; it has smallish holes, close together, so it would be easy for small hands. There's one used at the Irish Flute store for very little right now. I have one and it's easy to play and very nimble



A wooden flute would take some attention and care

[david_h]

The Casey Burns small-handed folk flute hole spacing is close to that of a Bhoem flute and the holes are small. It's about as far as I would want to reach - but a smallish ten year old lad who played the silver flute picked it up and played it no problem.

[tscaltz]

Thank you, all! I have decided to go with a Casey Burns small-handed blackwood...hope this does the trick!

[busterbill]

The piccolo is a tough instrument to start on. The embouchure required is quite controlled. I would definitely not start on a piccolo.

As for fingerings... The simple system flute and the boehm flute have different fingerings for a number of different notes. Many people play both, but it does take a bit of thought.

The brain of a nine year old is likely pretty flexible. I switched from flute to Bb clarinet back to flute and later to simple system flute. It isn't as hard as it sounds.

As for the future... A child with small hands is likely to grow. If they can't reach a D flute this year, they may the next. Putting time in on an F flute might be good if a flute for small hands is too big.

But unless she has access an experienced teacher who can teach the ornamentation made possible on the simple system I'd go with Boehm for now. Then she can switch to simple system when her hands are bigger. Nine year olds can easily handle the stretch. And if she is particularly small, with a short arm reach there are curved head joints for smaller kids. There are a lot of basic note finding and tone production skill building a kid does in the first year. You can perhaps inspire her with videos of Joanie Madden.

I'd contact Casey Burns to see if he thinks her hands are big enough for one of his flutes for small hands. He will have you measure her hands. If it would work for her that would solve all the problems.

I also saw a Carbony for small hands on the Used Instrument Exchange that may be fine.


If you are having trouble with the reach on your flute can you get together with a ITM flute teacher in person or online? Often the issue for adults is finger placement. Lots of people who switch from the boehm to the simple system can quite figure out how to place their fingers. Over the years I've had many people tell me they couldn't possibly play the simple system flute because their hands were too small. We'd put our hands together palm to palm, only to find mine were smaller...

You may have small hands and need a flute set up for small hands. In which case getting advice from someone who can look at your hands could be useful.

[Stuporman]

I can see that you've made your decision, and having played one, a good decision. A young flute player who I helped teach started on boehm at school, and then, a bit younger than your daughter, started playing an M&E ebonite flute. While it was heavy, it was an excellent flute. Kids pick up embouchure very quickly, and her small fingers were playing any flute that she or her friends had very quickly. She then obtained a Baubet medium holed keyed flute and makes impressive tone with Irish music from it, still with small fingers. Often parents ask what kind of flute that is, only to have the young player play their own child's flute and get the sound they're looking for.
The young ones pick up the music and adjust to flutes very quickly. She now plays with some of the most talented and .advanced young Trad musicians. Few are concerned about what maker of flute they are playing. The parents are. Moreso than with adults, the player matters much more than the flute.