OK, I have now acquired an 8-keyed flute. Some of you know how to play these,
and I appeal to your wisdom.
First, I take it that my rt pinky should probably rest on the Eb key, or anyone this is the way it’s usually done. Is this so?
It’s a bit weird cause the key is moving. I take it one gets used to this.
Second, I can get the C sharp OK, mostly, but can get very little (next to nothing or, more often, nothing) out of the C natural key. The fellow who sold me the flute played these notes easily. He demonstrated that they do sound. So what can I do to get the note (short of trying repeatedly, etc). Is it possible to play these at speed?
I know some of you play these routinely and would be grateful for any advice. Best wishes.
Hello Jim, congratulations on your new acquisition, I hope you get plenty of fun playing it.
As for the right hand pinkie finger, you do not have to rest it on the Eb key touch, unless you are playing classical music and using historical fingerings. (Ie, keeping the Eb key open for all notes other than D, low C# and C notes.)
When playing Irish Traditional Music, I tend to rest the pinkie finger on the wood around the Eb key touch. (I have fairly long fingers) Ideally, rest your pinkie finger where you find it most comfortable, you don’t have to make physical contact with the pinkie and the flute at all if that feels best. (we all have fingers of varying lengths and flexibility)
You probably already know this Jim, but it is important to get the low D as clear and as strong as possible before attempting to sound the C# and C natural keys. It is also a good idea to rotate the foot joint of the flute to the optimum position so your pinkie can get maximum purchase on the low C key touches.
Additionally, you may find it helpful to adjust the trajectory of the airflow slightly. Keeping a steady airflow when moving from the D to the C notes is also beneficial. ( it is can be very easy to over-blow the low C notes if you use too much air pressure.)
I hope you find this helpful. It took me a good few days to get the low C natural sounding cleanly.
Yes, Jim, your R4 should not just “rest on” but actually hold the Eb key open except for notes where that is inappropriate. You can do as Uniflute suggests and mostly ignore the Eb key, but I don’t think that’s a good idea - better to learn to use it properly. For a start, low E needs the key open for strength and tuning (though 2nd 8ve E may be better without Eb venting), plus, to have the C touches where they are correctly and conveniently positioned for your hand will put the Eb key where it will be more awkward to avoid than to use!
The low C# and C take some getting used to and you need to find the exact right-for-you rotation of the footjoint so that your little finger accesses their touches conveniently. The most common reason for failing to get these notes is leaking the R3 finger as you move your hand excessively to reach for the C touches. A photo of your flute might help me to say more, a video of you playing it ditto. Remember you push the Eb key inwards with your little finger rather than pressing it down as with other keys or a Böhm system Eb key.
Many of my own YT videos show use of the footjoint keys on a variety of different flutes with different key designs. This one (https://youtu.be/x-YtURdkyck) doesn’t use the low C#/C but does show use of the Eb key clearly, amongst other things. Likewise this one (https://youtu.be/qPD1GFRKTZo). For fairly swift use of low C (not so visible in terms of fingering, but you can see enough to match with what you hear), see this clip (https://youtu.be/cCa1og_ZZ74) from 9m58s. This one ( https://youtu.be/L8PfPSsgPao) uses down to the low Bb on my long foot R&R! In this one (https://youtu.be/dZan0UM4XLI) there are some pretty swift low Cs and C#s in the first and second tunes. In this one (https://youtu.be/j1bUtI9CiG8) from 4m46s there’s quite a bit of full speed reel hitting of both low C#s and Cs, and it’s fairly visible what’s going on. Plenty more, I think, if you go browsing around my other YT stuff.
Aha. Here’s another clip of a set of reels using the foot keys extensively - a set already mentioned in the clips I linked above, but this one’s on a different flute (so no fluke!) and you can see a bit better what’s going on: https://youtu.be/FtLtz2UWiuI. This one (https://youtu.be/dIUB-CV9ri8) from 7m45s has another set also with plenty of foot key action, although I fear the audio and video are desynchronised (“old days” problem with YT!), so while you can see my fingers quite well, they don’t match the sounds.
Thanks to all. I have to run out the door to secure our busking spot (it’s five AM here, if you can imagine), but
I will study all this later. The flute, by the way, is the J. Gallagher that Jem and others found for sale
on Craig’s list, Peoria, Ill. I drove two and a half hours one way to check it out. Lovely people, in fact. They took a check
and gave me the instrument. I had offered to return after the check cleared.
And more - some old clips specifically dealing with foot keys. This one (https://app.box.com/shared/ymil1742bm) is not about posture/technique, but you can see quite a bit which is relevant on that front.
There’s also this (https://www.facebook.com/jemtheflute/videos/10150629335144271/?l=2465856608965005250) detailed exploration of the foot keys of my Bb foot R&R - you can see the postural issue with the R3 and how easily it could creep off its hole as it inevitably moves somewhat as you operate the R4 keys. Getting the keys positioned optimally for your hand and getting your hand/finger movements right is critical, even on a basic C foot!
Jim, I’m also struggling to gain proficiency with the foot keys. I think Jem and others have touched on most of the issues I run into. The leaking of air at R3 is a pathology I suffer from a lot! But there are other problems I have experienced that have to do with adjustment issues and leaking air from the low C# key pad when trying to play low C. Whether this might be happening on your flute or not is influence by several factors:
(0) How well does low C# play?
(1) Are you applying equal pressure to both C# and C key touches when you try to play the low C?
(2) When equal pressure is applied, does this result in both key pads closing properly?
(3) Are your key pads padded or does your flute have pewter plugs?
(4) If they are padded, are the pads seated properly, so that they seal well with the amount of pressure you naturally want to apply at the touches?
(5) If the pads are not sealing well, you might check for all the normal issues with leaky key pads, and try to refloat them for a better fit.
(6) Foot keys, that are normally open, but close under pressure from the player, don’t behave quite the same as keys that are normally closed, under the control of a spring, and are opened by the player. With foot keys, sometimes pressing the key touch too hard causes the pad to start leaking again. This has to do with how the pivot in the keys work, and its effect on the level of the key pad. It also speaks to point 4 above.
(7) If the key touches are interlocked, you might have to experiment with inserting a thin bit of cork between them to get the right balance of pressure on the two key pads when playing the low C.
I do some antique flute restoration work, and I run into these kinds of issues a lot. I find foot keys to be a major source of frustration in terms of ironing out these problems. I’m sure there are a few tricks that I still need to learn, but right now it takes me quite a lot of trial and error to get them functioning well, and sometimes it is quite illusive. When they are functioning well, though, it is a whole different experience for the player! If your keys are not well-adjusted it will be pretty much impossible to play fast sequences of notes that involve the foot.
Thanks. Was busy playing the flute this aft, a hammered dulcimer group (also with fiddle, mando, guitar…) and didn’t try to work the bottom keys. The Gallagher small holed Rudall sure sounds good in the ensemble. I’ll get on with playing the bottom keys
in the next few days. All failing, I’ll contact JG and ask him to look things over.
I had a Grinter once for a few weeks, and
the bottom keys (it was an eight key) worked automatically right away. No problems at all. The Grinter was so precise that I felt I should be playing classical music on it, not folk music. (Gee I was silly.) The Gallagher, except for the bottom keys, has something of the same precision. My other flutes are much more ‘rough and ready.’ The grinter had silver channels in the blocks that guided keys,
to make keys work smoothly, which added to the flute’s weight. I rather expected to find them on the Gallagher, which is heavyish (though not prohibitively) but thankfully they are absent.