Why not a 1-key (Eb) flute

headwizer · Post by **headwizer** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 3:50 pm

I did contact Terry McGee. He told me that his Pratten Perfected most likely had the widest range (four octaves from C4 to C7) as the PP came after the Boehm flute and had to cover the same range.

MichaelS, is this the McGee model that you have? That is good advice to keep in mind: G# and Eb as the minimum keys for versatility. McGee's keys are block-mounted, so I assume that means the flute must be ordered with all desired keys installed.

I have read that the Pratten holes on the McGee are huge (patterned after the original)! Does anyone know if they are larger than the holes on a Casey Burns folk flute?

Speaking of CB, he does have a Pratten in his line. I don't know if it has the same range as the McGee Pratten though. CB has not replied yet to my last 2 emails or I would contact him on this matter.

michaelS · Post by **michaelS** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:12 pm

Hi everyone,
yes, my McGee flute is the Pratten Perfected model, in the six key "irish" configuration. I think if you want to play mainly ITM, with the occasional "other stuff", you could be quite happy with the G# and Eb key (it is quite ok to half hole the f and Bb with a bit of practice), but if you want to really be able to play chromatically in 3 octaves, you need the 6 keys (5 if you are happy with one F key).
regards
Michael

headwizer · Post by **headwizer** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 11:32 am

michaelS, on McGee's site, it says that the 5th hole is almost 1/2" in diameter. Do your fingers have any trouble playing the larger holes? What about the hole spread - does it tax your finger span?

(I need to measure the width of my fingers. On my CD folk flute, I sometimes have to press down harder with my right hand to get the low D to sound.)

Did McGee include any fingering chart with the PP?

With your keyed flute, did you have to change your playing at all to avoid accidentally pressing a key?

michaelS · Post by **michaelS** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 12:53 am

headwizer wrote:michaelS, on McGee's site, it says that the 5th hole is almost 1/2" in diameter. Do your fingers have any trouble playing the larger holes? What about the hole spread - does it tax your finger span?

(I need to measure the width of my fingers. On my CD folk flute, I sometimes have to press down harder with my right hand to get the low D to sound.)

Did McGee include any fingering chart with the PP?

With your keyed flute, did you have to change your playing at all to avoid accidentally pressing a key?

Hi headwizer and everyone else,
I found adapting to the simple system flute took a while, in terms of a pain if I played too long, at the beginning (on a Seery). I was told years ago, if it hurts, stop, so thats what I did. After a while (a week or so), my body adapted and it didn't hurt. This was more getting the fingers to where the holes were, I had no real problem covering the holes. When I got the McGee, I had no trouble adapting from the Seery. The sise of the holes is almost the same. The keywork was also quite easy to get used to, but I worked on it during the playing in period, and was quite painless.I didn't really have to change anything, but my technique mainly comes from Boehm playing (no pipers grip etc.) so other people may have more problems adapting to keys.
There is a fingering chart on terrys site, but it only goes up to A. I found some of these wern't so good on my flute, so I messed around with it and finally settled on the fingerings I posted recently. I have found that this flute works very well, and I am very happy with it, except I can't play it well enough!! (I regularly play Eldarions Olwell, Murry and Grinter, and the McGee compares well with all of them (they are all keyless)).

headwizer · Post by **headwizer** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 5:22 pm

Can you post the distance between the holes on the McGee Pratten? The finger spread doesn't look that bad from the picture (what a lovely flute), but descriptions of Prattens always mention the large hole size and spread.

Is it very difficult to play the 3rd/4th octaves?

michaelS · Post by **michaelS** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 9:27 pm

Hi headwizer,
I didn't bring it to work today, so I can't measure it. I'm sure Terry would have this available, (if not I'll measure mine).
As to how easy it is to play the 3rd and fouth octaves, that depends on your embouchure and background. I find it very easy to sound all the notes up to the High C (actually I only discovered the high C the other day, and havn't discovered how to go higher (yet)). What I find difficult is remembering the fingurings when "under pressure", as I have 30+ years of boehm playing, which is completely different in the 3rd octave and I hesitate. I'm sure if I only played the McGee it would all come togther very nicely, but I actually need to play the boehm most of the time in the groups I play in.

michaelS · Post by **michaelS** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:14 am

here is he hole spacing of my mc gee praten perfected. The measurements are in cm, and are the distance of the center of each hole from the center of the first hole.
hole 1 0
hole 2 3.5 cm
hole 3 7.1 cm
hole 4 12.8 cm
hole 5 15.9 cm
hole 6 19.7 cm

I hope that is useful

headwizer · Post by **headwizer** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:42 pm

MichaelS, very useful. Thanks. I have to try out the finger spread to see if my joints will like it.

BTW, how did you decide on McGee's Pratten in the end? Did you look at any of his Rudalls? I don't know the upper range of his Rudalls, but some of the originals that he used as models were post-1850 (after Boehm) like the Pratten Perfected.

michaelS · Post by **michaelS** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:57 pm

Hi everyone,
I visited terry, while back in australia on holiday, and tried a number of his flutes. I just found that my embouchure techhnique seemed to adapt better to the pratten flutes than the rudall, in terms of fine control of tone color, and power.
regards
Michael

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 7:48 pm

glauber wrote:The problem is the following: in order to make all the cross-fingerings work, you have to keep the fingerholes and blowhole small, and this creates flutes that are very nice sounding but not as loud as the Irish flute market expects them to be.

I thought the same thing until my flute lesson today. I play an Olwell bamboo which has huge holes and big sound. My instructor said the crossfingered G# and Fnat were very good and they sounded pretty good against his Noy. It's pretty easy to half-hole a Bb on it too and for Cnat OXXOOO sounds nice and traditional while OXOXXX is nearly spot on "true" Cnat. Which just leaves Eb. So maybe it's just a cylindrical thing or maybe it's an Olwell thing but you can get good cross-fingered accidentals on a big-holed flute.

Cheers,
Aaron