Hey guys, by a stroke of luck (my dad taking up the accordion and wanting to buy me a flute to trade for my concertina) I’ve ended up with a 5 keyed Bleazey in blackwood (The one recently posted on the UIE by Serena will soon be on its way to me from Germany!). 5 keys will be great for me as I play duduk and middle eastern percussion so I will need a fully chromatic range to be able to play the scales associated with these traditions. I play whistle to I’d say somewhere between beginner and intermediate standard and was wondering if anyone has any advice for transposing these skills to the flute? Any fundamental rules, techniques or rules of thumb I should follow to avoid learning the wrong way? I have a grasp of ornamentation on the whistle, is it the same on the flute? Is tonguing the same too? And any do’s and don’ts when it comes to caring for the thing?
The key difference between playing flute and whistle is the, relatively, steep learning curve for the required flute embouchure needed for tone production. Lots of good info on that on the web, but you might want to pay particular attention to Fintain Vallely’s, JemtheFlute and Terry McGee’s guidelines for “Irish” flute tone production. It is different from that typically used for the concert Boehm flute, so you are probably best looking in that direction.
As far as ornamentation goes, they are quite similar, but most flute players tend to use significantly less tonguing than whistle players. Often cuts or taps are used instead of tonguing to articulate sets of the same notes.
Best suggestion for care on your wooden flute I can give you is as follows:
Rotate joints carefully on assembly and disassembly, don’t torque the keys while you are doing this, don’t force it together - use cork grease if not a smooth movement.
If you aren’t playing the flute for a significant amount of time (say over an hour or so) dry the interior and disassemble it.
Keep your flute stored in a container at no lower than 45% RH. Low humidity shrinks headjoints and has cracked may headjoints and barrels.
Protect your pads if you decide to oil the bore.
Don’t ever leave it on a chair (don’t ask me how I know this)
Also does anyone know if in this video Mr.Finnegan is triple tonguing as in t-k-t or rolling his tongue like a scotsman pronounces his r’s? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW18di2WhL4
