long and short F

[tin tin]

How truly necessary is a long F key?
I am switching to keyed wood flute after 15 years of Boehm playing, and the long F is the one that fingering/brain-wise is hard for me to imagine incorporating. I know that not having it makes D to F slurs hard to impossible, but aside from that, how useful or necessary is it?
Thanks for any input,
Micah

[johnkerr]

If I could only have one F key, I'd take the long one over the short one. There's nothing you can do with the short F that can't also be done easily enough with the long F, but the opposite is not true. D to F and F to D patterns occur pretty often in Irish tunes, and they're difficult if not impossible to do cleanly with the short F key. C natural to F natural is another one that I find easier with the long F. Come to think of it, I favor the long F pretty much all the time except for passages like DEFE that fall right into the short F fingering. But maybe that's just me. (And I don't play Boehm flute, either.)

[BMFW]

Well, my Prowse is missing the long F key - but there are only a handfull of times that I miss it. One of our session tunes is "The Cook In The Kitchen" and DGG GAG|FnatDE Fnat.. is virtually impossible to play with only the short Fnat, as mentioned above.

So, I don't miss it that much but if I was ordering a new keyed flute, I'd definately go for the long Fnat as well, just to give me the option when I need it.

Cheers

Graham

[peeplj]

As already noted, you have to have the long-F to handle f-natural to D passages.

You have to have the short-F to handle f-natural to A-flat passages.

--James

[johnkerr]

There's nothing you can do with the short F that can't also be done easily enough with the long F, but the opposite is not true.

Well, after thinking about it for a second, I take that back. Ab(G#) to F would be tricky with the long F key. But Irish music (which is what I play) is not played in the kind of flat keys where that passage would ever show up.

[glauber]

If i remember right, Nicholson didn't like the long F. If you put a roller on the short F, you can slide your finger from the E hole to the short F key without much disruption, and i think that's what he preferred.

But i find myself using the long F as much if not more than the short F. It's good to have the option, if you need it.

[pandscarr]

It really depends if you're happy to sit back and just watch rather than playing the odd tune that has a lot of F natural progressions.

I use the short F by choice - and only resort to the long F when there's no other option - but in reality, I can go several weeks playing at our sessions without needing to use either... I don't play Boehm flute, but I prefer the feeling of the short F to the long F.

Pamela

[eskin]

If I had my choice of one, it would be the short F over the long. Just seems like for the tunes where I need the F natural, its generally coming into it from an E, but it really depends on your repertoire.

Michael

[glauber]

If i had to choose one, it'd be the short too, but i like having the option.

[msheldon]

For me, the short F is awkward, due to my thick fingers. I use the long F exclusively.

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Ah loves my long F key.

Use it far more than the short one. If I had to choose between one or the other, I would definitely choose the longer one (which is why, it seems, many makers put the short one and not the long one as an option for four or five key flutes--a sneaky trick to get you to just bite the bullet and order six). I can only think of three tunes where I tend to use the short F rather than the long one. Then again, variety is the spice of life.

[Henke]

According to the oppinions in this thread, I think I'll go for both keys when I upgrade in a while