Do you attribute godlike powers to your flute

[Kelpie]

Tool or something a bit more special - where do you stand?

[Wormdiet]

A good day in the park down the street with my flute... priceless.

[Danner]

I always feel strange when someone else plays or even holds one of my instruments. It also feels weird to go somewhere without any sort of instrument. I feel empty without a piece of wood or metal tubing in my hand. I think almost everyone who is dedicated to playing feels that their instruments are something special.

[mrosenlof]

No godlike powers, just a little simple magic.

[I.D.10-t]

I would vote tool, but not because I think that it is nothing more.

I look at the traditional tools like saws, hammers, and chisels and see
what they could make in the hands of a craftsman. All of them developed
over a long period of time being slightly modified for generations to try to
make them better suited for what they were designed to do. When nail
guns, buzz saws and other “power” tools were made, it did not seem like a
progression of the tool, rather a total redesign. They may create the
same piece of furniture in a shorter amount of time, but the methods lack
some kind of craftsmanship that I look for. After a certain point it seems
that a tool stops being a tool when it does most of the work for you.

I wonder how the flute makers feel about their tools. Even as a chemist I
have seen people become attached to “their” graduated cylinders and
other glassware (you would think if any one was to be logical it would be a
chemist!).

So, like a tool, I see the flute, I could just plug the notes into a midi
player and have it play flute like sounds, and it would play better than I
currently do, but the sound lacks something, and I do not feel that I have
created the sounds, but that a machine has.

This is also why I hate keys. I realize that it was a time honored
progression, but hey, I never claimed that I was rational.

[Byron]

I decided that my flute is just a tool. It doesn't have a name.

However, I believe that, by some happy accident, a flute can be made that matches me so perfectly that it may well deserve a name.

Aquisition obsession is the search for that flute, and I think I may have just contracted the disease.

Byron

[Kelpie]

I'm with you - they are tools but like you say Byron, one can find a flute that suits you pefectly. When you're romping through a set and doing the business it's down to how much work you put in and nothing else. That said, a well made flute is a joy to play

[seisflutes]

A third arm. Or something like that.

[Band Nerd]

Your flute is your friend!

[Unseen122]

It is not the instrument it is my abillity to play it so it is a tool but like any tool the better it is the better it will work. It is my passage way to let out my emotions.

[BillG]

So, like a tool, I see the flute, I could just plug the notes into a midi player and have it play flute like sounds, and it would play better than I currently do, but the sound lacks something, and I do not feel that I have created the sounds, but that a machine has.

This is also why I hate keys. I realize that it was a time honored
progression, but hey, I never claimed that I was rational.

Now that WAS good! I've been on a "flute vacation", so to speak, for the last month and have gone back to my first love, chromatic harmonica. The chromatic and the low D whistle have been my toys for that period. BUT, your statement above, and the rest of it, rejuvinated and rekindled my desire to carry it with me again and get back on track as Danner said:.

It also feels weird to go somewhere without any sort of instrument. I feel empty without a piece of wood or metal tubing in my hand. I think almost everyone who is dedicated to playing feels that their instruments are something special.

Beautiful statement as well - puts me back to that piece of wood with my breath for life. The chromatic harmonica is the most carryable and versatile instrument I can think of - like having a piano or Boehm flute in your pocket, and that's great. But I miss the wooden simple system flute. I need to play other genres than Irish Trad as I'm not from there and have a hard time with. But the instrument speaks for itself.

Thanx, Guys,

BillG