Flutes you have, flutes on order and dream flutes...

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:40 pm

Don't talk to me about dreams....I've written a few of my best songs when I've eaten cheese and had odd dreams! Once, I even dreamed what key the new song was in, where the capo was on my guitar, and what accompaniment I played on flute. (I now sleep with a pen and paper on my bedside cabinet!...just incase.)

...I find goats' cheese works best....

Cass.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:44 pm

Chick peas only 90% cooked work pretty good too.

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 5:48 pm

Hmmmm! I'll have to try that one!

Cass.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:09 pm

talasiga wrote:Chick peas only 90% cooked work pretty good too.

A quick aside that I much like your bamboo flute playing.
On the CD you linke to, I mean.

Aanvil · Post by **Aanvil** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:50 pm

talasiga wrote:
Aanvil wrote:.....
Sometimes a flute is just a flute you know.
Yes but is a dream flute a flute?
Can you pick up and play your dream flute right now? Hmm?
See?

No, but I need not sleep perchance to dream... ay, there's the rub.

I have to actually climb a mountain to do it.

brianormond · Post by **brianormond** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:12 pm

-Flute I have: Casey Burns blackwood with silver rings & tuning slide, slight hole offsets.

-None on order

-Dream Flute: Rudall-style, undecided on maker, keys, or hole size. Prefer blackwoood. May never decide as its a dream instrument.

-I live near a noisy dog day care and might want an ultrasonic key installed to hush'em on occasion. Otherwise I kind of enjoy their garrolous barkishness.

Jon C. · Post by **Jon C.** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:06 pm

brianormond wrote: -I live near a noisy dog day care and might want an ultrasonic key installed to hush'em on occasion. Otherwise I kind of enjoy their garrolous barkishness.

I have a high G antique whistle made by BS Dulcet, might just do the trick...

Wormdiet · Post by **Wormdiet** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 10:12 pm

I own a lefty 6-key Murray. After I get some of the keys adjusted, it will be a dream flute. Or, more of a dreamy flute.

I have a low A McGee with some nifty bells and whistles on order. I plan on using my wrists to play them, much as a piper would a set of regulators.

O_Gaiteiro_do_Chicago · Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:18 pm

My dream flute(in regards to Irish flute, don't get me started on bansuri or quena) I more or less own..... a 6 key Hawkes copy by Paddy Ward. Debating on getting another footjoint made, so it would be an 8 key....just can't figure out if the 1k is worth it just to get a low C. I do sort of have another dream flute...an 8 key Grinter or McGee in Bb.

Lee Stanford · Post by **Lee Stanford** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:58 pm

Flutes I own(ed):

-Dixon polymer flute
-Gemeinhardt w/solid silver headjoing and B foot

-Pakastani flute that looks really cool but serves no purpose but to look really cool. Actually it doesn't really look that cool.
-Hariprasad Chaurasia Bansuri made by Jeff Whittier
-Tipple D (now en route to California)

Dream Flute:
-Six Key Olwell in Blackwood
-Fujara (if you don't know what a Fujara is, click here

Berti66 · Post by **Berti66** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:14 am

have:

aebi keyless D blackwood
aebi one key Bb blackwood
bamboo Eb that I made together with a friend at his workshop

on order:

none

dream:

a real nice keyed one....liked the cocus clementi 7 key I came across one that I still have to try yet again, there was something in the sound...
but I guess when time comes I will be happy enough if I find the flute that comes closer to the sound that I like ....

gosh it must be handy to be a flutemaker and "just whip one out" that you are dreaming about

berti

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:30 am

Thanks for the kind words Jim. That is my dream bamboo flute and its not even a bansuri. It gets better on the rest of track 6 which is the only track I really like from my personal angle. I asked my friends who did that CD to sample the whole of track 6 on the internet but I don't think they want to place whole track samples.

My dream is to release my own album with my own music on it.

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:10 am

Wormdiet wrote:I own a lefty 6-key Murray. After I get some of the keys adjusted, it will be a dream flute. Or, more of a dreamy flute.

That one might just be my dream flute as well. How do we settle this?

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:36 am

talasiga wrote:Thanks for the kind words Jim. That is my dream bamboo flute and its not even a bansuri. It gets better on the rest of track 6 which is the only track I really like from my personal angle. I asked my friends who did that CD to sample the whole of track 6 on the internet but I don't think they want to place whole track samples.

My dream is to release my own album with my own music on it.

That would be nice. I would have liked to hear a good deal more
of your playing on those cuts.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:32 am

I'll divide this up a bit:

Flute I learned to play on
-----------------------------
an old Artley silver-plate Boehm-system beginner's flute, most of the plating etched away by my acidic skin. This flute still exists and is currently in a closet in my brother's house...it's not actually been played since I was in the marching band in college. Not a particularly good flute, mechanism won't stay adjusted for over a few hours at a time.

Flutes I used in college (but not marching band!)
--------------------------------------------------------
Gemeinhardt 3SSB hand-crafted solid silver flute with low B. This has been my main Boehm-system flute for many years and feels like a natural part of me. I have the pads shimmed and seated just so on this flute, and it is so responsive that it feels like you just think about it and it plays it.

Sweet Baroque flute in maple--I got this in college because of my fascination with early music and early instruments, and took some lessons from Dr. Foss on its playing.

The Flute that got me into Irish music
-------------------------------------------
An anonymous 8-key in blackwood, probably German. Had many many leaks and cracks, including some that were a real challenge to find.

I did some awful recordings of myself butchering Irish tunes on this wheezy old cantankerous instrument, which Michael Cronnolly heard on my first rather pathetic website.

(By the way, once all cracks were found and sealed, this is quite a solid flute, and predictably plays quite well now.)

The flute I was sent because Michael Cronnolly took pity on me
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Cronnolly sent me a prototype of his original model polymer flute with his "split-front" embouchure mod. I liked this flute and started performing publicly with it, playing Irish music (badly) with a couple of friends.

I wound up liking this flute so much that I sent it back to Michael to have keys added (which I payed for). It's now a 6-key and is my keyed flute of choice for playing in conditions which I don't want to expose a find wooden flute to.

(About this time I started taking the Scoiltrad lessons from Conal O'Grada and began to play a little better, and also started gaining an understanding of just how far I really still had to go.)

After I started playing better, which Michael was bringing out his Rudall & Rose-based flute, he sent me one of the prototypes, which is a fine flute with a lovely buttery, rich tone.

So I credit Michael Cronnolly alongside Conal O'Grada for my actually having started to learn to play Irish flute a bit for real.

The Seery Pratten
---------------------
I bought the Seery keyless Delrin flute because I was fascinated with the sounds Matt Molloy could pull out of his old Pratten flute on his recordings.

This is a different kind of flute, with some real resistance and projection. It takes a well-centered, muscular embouchure to play it well. I played this flute almost exclusively for months before my Hamilton arrived to "build up my chops."

It must have worked--I've heard other folks describe Hamiltons as being challenging to play, but mine sang for me from the first day.

My Dream Flute, and I'm lucky enough to own it!
--------------------------------------------------------
My dream flute, and my main session flute, is a Hamilton 6-key that was a present from my lovely wife.

It's just a great flute in every way.

Other Flutes and Flute-like things
--------------------------------------
I have a couple of Boehm-system flutes I'm in process of restoring, an Emerson open-hole silver-plated flute (I'm not sure of the model), and an old Conn "wonder flute" model made in about 1920. These are both works in progress; although both are playable at this point, neither one is as good as it will be when I'm done with it. Both of these came from Ebay. The Emerson is pretty handy for folks who like to play about A=440; it seems to be about A=445 with the head all the way in, and the scale has been altered to fit the higher pitch. The old Conn is actually an A=435 flute and although it's looking like it's going to be a great flute, that will limit its usefulness for public play. (By comparison, my Gemeinhardt is just precisely A=440 with the head all the way in, using a moderately turned-in embouchure.)

Also have a Hall "crystal" (i.e. Pyrex) flute which also came from Ebay many moons ago. It's mainly a "musical toy;" it does play, but not easily or particularly well.

At one point I had a perfectly awful Pakistani flute-like-object from Ebay, which I gave to Alan. "Drek" is too kind a word. "Horrible" doesn't even come close. My advice on these: don't waste your money. Offensive even as a wall ornament as it had an unpleasant odor.

For flutes, I guess that's it. Sorry for the long, rambling post.

--James