Tony Dixon Low D Combo-hard playing?

[longbranch]

Hello all:

Anybody else out there have one of these. I received one in the mail yesterday and I find that it is very difficult to play. Perhaps it is only due to that I am mostly used to playing a 6 hole fife and not used to playing so low in a scale although it does seem difficult to play.

Anyone else out there have the same feeling. My wife complained that it is difficult to hold as well but may well be as a result of her small hands and this flute being large in dia. and the finger spacing being large.

Any comments??

Thanks


Brock

[michael_coleman]

I had mine for about 15 minutes before I shipped it back to the seller.

[Cathy Wilde]

I still have mine but I never play it. (I think I last saw it in the car.)

[scooter587]

As a low D whistle, the Dixon Duo works okay, although it lacks volume. As a flute, it's a challenge at best. I can play tunes on mine, but only after two years of playing on real flutes, developing a nascent embouchure. Still, the tone is weak and fuzzy. At best, it sounds like a flute kazoo. In short, *not* a good instrument for a beginner (because it demands a focused airstream), and not well suited to a more experienced player either (because the tone is so disappointing).

I also have a polymer 3-piece Dixon flute as part of an instrument lending library for local session musicians. Much better tone, easy to fill, good for small hands. Not a bad beginner instrument for people who want to go as low cost as possible (and a step up from most cylindrical pvc flutes).

[fyffer]

I also have a polymer 3-piece Dixon flute as part of an instrument lending library for local session musicians. Much better tone, easy to fill, good for small hands. Not a bad beginner instrument for people who want to go as low cost as possible (and a step up from most cylindrical pvc flutes).

Pardon the thread creep here, but there are "instrument lending libraries"?? Tell me more, please! I would kill or die to find one near me. Anyone else have such a thing in their neck o'the woods?

[scooter587]

Ours was an idea my wife had, after I mentioned the "problem" of what our local session should do with all the tip money we accumulated. (The pub owner insisted on setting out a tip jar, against our better judgment. We crammed much of it into the waitresses tip jar, but still the green stuff added up over the years.) So we now have 6 fiddles, a flute, assorted whistles and low whistles, a bodhran (being kept safely out of circulation ), and a practice set of uilleann pipes. The pipes and the flute go out most often, with the whistles close behind. There's no fee, and instruments can be borrowed for as long as anyone wants, or until someone else asks for that particular instrument. Limited to people in our local area (small town in the middle of no where).

I've heard that there's a handful of practice sets available in the Vancouver BC area, and something similar affiliated with a learning session somewhere in southern CA. But that's all I'm familiar with.

[I.D.10-t]

I started a thread in the Pub called “Instrument lending library”

Scooter587, that is the coolest thing I have heard of.

[Lambchop]

I have one. It's very difficult to play. I think it's particularly poor for beginners. You'd do better with a Tipple, or with a Steve Cox or Olwell bamboo.

If you can, send it back.

[Henke]

Yes, very hard. But even more rewarding than hard. I played mine for probably two months, it was my first flute. Difficult to learn on but I stuck with it and had patience with it (unlike many others) and I think I'm a much better player because of it than I would have been if I'd played a different flute. Stick with it, don't give up.

[longbranch]

Well, I wouldn't put myself in the "beginner class" as I have been playing a fife for 25 yrs but its just so different than anything else that I have played before. I'll just stick with it and see if I can get better tone out of it.'


Thanks to all comments

Brock

[Henke]

Well, I wouldn't put myself in the "beginner class" as I have been playing a fife for 25 yrs but its just so different than anything else that I have played before. I'll just stick with it and see if I can get better tone out of it.'

I don't really think it matters if you're a beginner or not. Sometimes I pick up my ol' Dixon after months of playing M&E exclusively (the M&E being a pretty easy blower) and I find it incredibly difficult to play. After spending a few hours with it I put it down and feel like a new fluter
It's an exceptionally good practice flute in that regard, it develops and strengthens your embouchure more than any other flute I've tried.

[Andrew Hollom]

I tend to agree with Henke. I find that, if I blow the Dixon PVC flute 'just right', I get good tone and volume out of it, but it does have to be blown spot on. When I play my Bleazey flute, it is louder and easier to play, but I have a bad habit of subconciously getting lazy with my technique such that the tone suffers. When this happens, if I then play my Dixon PVC, it is initially terrible, but is so exacting that it puts my blowing back on track quite quickly, so much so that the Bleazey becomes a metaphorical fog horn again.

Andrew.

[scooter587]

Okay, so I've gone back and really focused on my embouchure with the pvc Dixon, and yes, it *is* possible to get a decent tone out of this stick. I suppose I do the same thing with my Delrin Seery--playing it and then finding out how good my Copley sounds. But I'd rather just concentrate on my Copley, learning to focus the airstream on it by listening to just how big and fat the tone can get. The pvc Dixon has it's limits.

[scooter587]

I've also noticed a tendency for people to try to push a lot of air through the pvc Dixon, when what it really wants is a super tight embouchure--in short, a fast but *low volume* of air. The breathy sounds drop way off on this flute when your embouchure cinches down to a pinhole....

As for size and finger hole spacing, I'd say the reach feels about the same as my other flutes, maybe even easier (perhaps because it's so light, there's absolutley no tension needed to hold the thing). Compared to my Seery, the Dixon holes are spaced the same, although there is slightly more separation between the hands (but the reach between index and ring for each hand is the same).