Chiff and Fipple Forums

The standard way to do this may be just bare cork, but apparently some modern flute makers depart from the standard method in various ways. The stopper ideas are so different that I doubt there is a significant difference between natural and synthetic cork. For example, the three flutes I've owned h...

Most of them were expats but not all. Most were born just around or after the famine, when economic conditions were somewhat different. They are mostly O'Neill's generation Yes, and my point wasn't about where they obtained the instruments. It's possible that many of those in the photo were America...

They were not for the poor. But affordable by middle to lower-middle class tradesmen perhaps, and not just the wealthy. The Irish Music Club of Chicago was established in 1901. Here's a photo of the members. Look at how many were pipers, over half the group! And look at their ages. https://www.itma...

It has long puzzled me that anyone who could make a set of pipes could make a flute (I've done both, so it must be true!) And you'd think there would be a more ready market for the flute than the pipes, of either persuasion. So why wasn't Ireland up to its ankles in locally made flutes? Again, we h...

I did a similar test a few months ago comparing my Tom Aebi Rudall-type flute to my Peter Noy Nicholson-type flute. Tone hole measurements: Aebi Rudall hole #4: 7.70 mm, hole #5: 9.10 mm Noy Nicholson hole #4: 9.10 mm, hole #5: 10.40 mm The bore at the end of the Noy is noticeably wider than the Aeb...

Regarding lined vs. unlined head joints, IIRC from posts here, Olwell Sr. and his son differ on preference with one liking the lined version and the other unlined. I don't recall which was which. Also remembering from conversations here on C&F I don't think there is a consensus on which is bette...

I confess that I was intrigued enough about the potential flute benefits of the PowerBreath gadget to order one. Of course because it was featured in an NPR (USA) story, I got an email a few days later that due to heavy demand it wouldn't ship for a while. So don't bother ordering one any time soon....

I've played a keyless Windward Pratten-ish flute and I now have a keyed Aebi medium hole Rudall-ish flute, and a keyed Peter Noy Nicholson type which leans more in the Pratten direction. Regarding air requirements, I don't notice a huge difference among the different designs. I started on the Windwa...

She also played a few notes during her concert in DC, where the flute was brought (carefully) to the stage and then taken back to the Library of Congress. The NPR web site has an article about it, with a video clip. Warning , possibly not safe for work depending on how you feel about her stage costu...

Wooden keys? Why Aesthetics I guess, I was just writting whatever came through my mind at this stage. Right now, I'm leaning towards making a flute out of unusable wood. We have some studies in progress in my school, they're basically turning rotten wood into something that can be used in instrumen...

I can't say if playing flute all by itself has health benefits beyond what Terry mentioned (which are true!), because we're probably all different in how much we focus on deep breathing with diaphragm, all the "right" ways to do it compared to just leaning back and playing flute as if we'r...

- Making a bass Irish flute The main things you'll be dealing with for an Irish bass (or even alto) flute are finger stretch, weight, and size. With finger stretch on open tone holes probably the main limitation. There is a reason most modern Irish flute makers don't offer anything lower than a Bb ...

One idea I've heard somewhere but never seen in the wild is bending a flute tube in a serpentine fashion to allow easier fingering on open tone holes with very low pitch flutes. Something like the Renaissance "Serpent" horn but not as large, for an extension down to low A or low G with com...

If you amortize a $3,000 keyed flute over a lifetime it is far cheaper than other hobbies like a digital camera, skiing, a computer, or an ever-upgrading cycle of cell phones! Oh, definitely! Even among musical instruments as a hobby, what we use is relatively inexpensive. My Significant Other is a...

This looks like a good way to try a keyed flute before investing in the fairly high cost of a more traditional one. When I got my first keyed flute I was never really sure that I *needed* keys, and it was a leap of faith to spend that much money on a keyed flute from a modern maker. It turned out th...