Five-keyed flutes--long F natural key

[jim stone]

Question: I have a five-keyed flute, no long F natural key. How does one move from low D to F natural? I have two methods now--I try to move my ring finger from the D to the short
F natural key as quickly as possible. Alternatively I half-hole the e-hole. Neither works particularly well. Any advice? Why did makers make five-keyed flutes of this particular sort? (I understand leaving out the C-natural key, the note being easily cross-fingered.)

[cac]

I agree with you that there is no good way with a 5-key flute lacking the long Fnat to play tunes that have D-Fnat shifts. One just has to resign oneself to not playing tunes such as Julia Delaney. Fortunately there aren't too many of these. I have no idea why someone would want a flute lacking the long Fnat although I don't like it myself -- it is ugly and noisy. Many flute players find the long Cnat key very useful for the second octave C natural and in some instances for the lower C natural even when using the more usual cross fingering most of the time. Historically, the great 19th century flute player Nicholson is said not to have liked the long Fnatural, but most of the flutes bearing his name have long Fnat keys. Chet

[david_h]

I only have the short F. I find all the solutions sub-optimal. For a slow tune I can make an awkward roll of my hand to start pressing the shank of the F key before the bottom hole opens and then slide onto the touch. I think some old flutes had a roller on the touch to ease this. If that's not possible I either half hole or gently tongue between the D and the F if I need to quell an E. As I only ever play in sessions or with friends and mainly not in flat keys it doesn't bother me enough to change the flute. For tunes in C not having a keyed long foot is usually a bigger issue.

[pancelticpiper]

The famous flutist Charles Nicholson played flutes having only the Short F, and he played all the Classical repertoire. He's said to have mastered a way of sliding his finger on and off that key.

I always played vintage flutes with both F keys and I used them both. What's interesting is to hear Matt Molloy play tunes with F naturals using only the Short F (on flutes that have both F keys) and restructuring the tunes slightly so that he doesn't go from D to F natural directly, but with an E passing note in between.

For me that's easier than sticking to the tune as written for fiddle or box and using Long F to go directly from D to F natural or visa versa.

[Jayhawk]

While I use both F keys, I have tiny pinkies so the long F is more difficult for me to use quickly...it requires a lot of thought process but becomes more natural with practice on certain tunes.

I may have to try that Malloy trick...it might make my life a whole lot easier!

Eric

[pancelticpiper]

I've been searching through some Matt Molloy videos, I just can't think of the name of the reel I have in mind.

On fiddle or box it would jump between D and F natural, it's more of a fiddle tune, and Matt rather than doing that does a run up like D E Fnat G.

It will come to me sooner or later.

Paddy Carty would have played it just as the fiddlers do, sure enough.

Paddy O Donahue was another fluter along the lines of Paddy Carty, he used a Boehm flute, and he'd play all those D minor and G Mixolydian and G minor tunes.

Here, at 2:00 he goes into a set of reels which to play note-for-note would need Long F.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjspnhlW_w4

(I learned this set but worked around using Long F as much as possible.)