Bainbridge's Observations

[Terry McGee]

I thought I had mounted Bainbridge's "Observations on the Cause of Imperfections in Wind Instruments particularly in German Flutes" before, but could find no trace of it. So it's up now. You can read it while you wait for your copy of Robert Bigio's new book to arrive!

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Bainbridge.htm

"German flutes" meaning of course the flute, as opposed to the English flute or recorder.

Terry

[Jon C.]

I thought I had mounted Bainbridge's "Observations on the Cause of Imperfections in Wind Instruments particularly in German Flutes" before, but could find no trace of it. So it's up now. You can read it while you wait for your copy of Robert Bigio's new book to arrive!

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Bainbridge.htm

"German flutes" meaning of course the flute, as opposed to the English flute or recorder.

Terry

Thanks Terry, as I look over at the pile of German flutes and shake my head and sigh... My book will ship out tomorrow...

[le_koukou]

Thanks Terry, this is great reading.

Interesting to see that Bainbridge was in the opinion that the kind of wood does not matter much. According to him the embouchure cut is much more important and must fit the player (and not the other way around). I wish I could try several embouchures with various shapes and sizes. That would be ideal.

[talasiga]

Interestingly he refers to the amateur flute player as the Amateur with a capital A whereas he does not show similar honour to the professional.

I think this can be explained by the fact that amateur's etymology is traced to a word meaning lover. The unpaid lover is worthy of our romantic honour whereas the paid one not so.

Seriously, I am glad he does not decry the round embouchure. I believe the round embouchure allows greater freedom (variety) in how one holds the flute without it affecting the attack. (Some of us do dance in performance somewhat). Any comments?

[Jumbuk]

(Some of us do dance in performance somewhat). Any comments?

On one leg?

[Denny]

(Some of us do dance in performance somewhat). Any comments?

On one leg?

traditional pose for Ode to a Stork (the one legged raga)

[Flauta dolce]

I believe the round embouchure allows greater freedom (variety) in how one holds the flute without it affecting the attack.

This is interesting, could you explain what you mean by "attack"? Thank you.

[Jack Bradshaw]

Seriously, I am glad he does not decry the round embouchure. I believe the round embouchure allows greater freedom (variety) in how one holds the flute without it affecting the attack. (Some of us do dance in performance somewhat). Any comments?

Yes, quite. The caveat being that the edge angles of the round embouchure are the most difficult to optimize (least edge distance at each angle) of the three. I suspect that the ( "typical" ?) round embouchure would be expected to have one or two "sweet spots" which could be quite critical and a well made one playable as Tal describes (and yes, I have tried playing them while dancing)

[Cathy Wilde]

What's wrong with dancing while playing?

(... rama, note I said "with dancing", not "with my dancing" )

[talasiga]

What's wrong with dancing while playing?

....

Rien.
I tend to when playing especially under pressure, in performance situations, mostly unconsciously. People say, " I also loved the way you moved - are you a dancer?" But all I was doing was keeping time with my body.

I speculate that one can move around more carefree with a round embouchure whereas with the others one needs a more consistent angle of approach. I always need to be careful when playing my Seery (elliptical embouchure tweaked by McGee) to keep my head planted pretty much. Bansuris and Tipples seem less fussy. You can see many professional bansuri players like Hariprasad Chaurasia - how much they can be changing the angle to the embouchure - how much play there is in the way the neck and head approach the flute at any given moment.

I believe one reason that even larger than Irish flute bansuris don't result in so much neck and shoulder pain is the less rigidity demanded by the more or less round embouchure.

I don't know if my reasoning is correct but I do know what I have experienced. I am interested in serious comments on this if it is appropriate to this topic. I am interested to know whether a flute maker such as Terry may understand what I am saying.

Thank you for your understanding Jack.

[Sillydill]

Thanks Terry, informative read!

I agree with Bainbridge, Two Heads are Better!!!

Flutes are like people, without a good head on them they are fairly useless!



My all wood Copley head fits just right on my Old Dead German! It is a vast improvement over the original head and doesn't taste like nickel!