Converting the Philistines

[Nanohedron]

'It's an Irish flute. If you went to a symphony orchestra
around 1840, flutes looked something like this.
It's made of African blackwood, like an oboe
or a clarinet. When these were replaced by the
modern silver flute, they went into pawn shops
and Irish musicians bought em.

This flute was made recently, but it's a model
of one of the old flutes.'

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......

I've said the same thing almost word-for-word. I kid you not. Of course, it's only for those who seeme truly interested. It takes a lot of time to recite, and my pint's looking at me.

I also say, "...a reproduction tuneable concert pitch eight-key post-classical pre-Boehm simple-sytem conical bore African blackwood Ruddall/Rose-inspired design transverse FLUTE." That usually sets 'em reeling.

I just tell 'em I put my bassoon in the wash, and it shrank. They laugh, but they don't know why.

I once told a very curious little girl - a Boehm player, herself - that I killed an oboe to make it. Her eyes widened for a bit, and then she got the joke.

[m31]

This all seems too familiar, like when I'm at the checkout counter of a grocery store. A young lass works the cash. She asks, what's this? A squash. What's this? Bok choy. And this? Star fruit. Oh.

Meat and potatoes anyone?

[TheSpoonMan]

Sideblown reed instruments? Hoy!

http://www.asza.com/iala.shtml

http://www.asza.com/ibawu.shtml

[chas]

Doc, everybody knows clarinets are black. Next time take a boxwood flute. Then they'll just ask what that "flute thing" is that you're playing.

[Denny]

Sideblown reed instruments? Hoy!

http://www.asza.com/iala.shtml

we ain't doin' no sucky flutes...

[Jack Bradshaw]

Sideblown reed instruments? Hoy!

http://www.asza.com/iala.shtml

we ain't doin' no sucky flutes...

Yaaa....we guts enuf sucky ones awready !

[Matt_Paris]

Me: Yes, it's really a flute. This is how they were made just before the modern one was invented.

He: I find that hard to believe. Look, it's set up just like a saxophone or clarinet.

Me: Close, and very perceptive of you. It's what's called "simple system" configuration in the flute world. Old-style, you see.

He: No, that can't be a flute. *walks away*

(This conversation actually happened a few weeks ago)

It reminds me a conversation that happened to me:

Me: yes, it's really a saxophone, a soprano saxophone.

He: no it's not curved, it must be a clarinet

Me: the two instruments are very close to each other, but a clarinet has a cylindrical bore and a sax a conical one, and the key systems are quite different. And some soprano saxes are actually curved, bass clarinets are curved, too.

He: no, that can't be a sax. *walks away*

Well, it was close to that

[C age ing]

Sideblown reed instruments? Hoy!

http://www.asza.com/iala.shtml

http://www.asza.com/ibawu.shtml

Putting on pedant's hat, they aint free reeds.
In a free reed instrument, the reed itself produces a note of fixed pitch.
They are beating reed instruments, where the reed beats against a column of air which is of variable length and thus pitch by varying fingerings. Hmm. No symbol for smug basmati.
Removes pedant's hat, looks at melodeon, shrugs and wonders whether to play shrunk oboe or sideblown saxophone as it is made of metal.

[Il Friscaletto]

Anyone ever see that clown, Andre Rieu, on PBS? He's a classical violinist who hosts these really elaborate, cheesy concerts. Cool thing , though, is that right behind him sit two people playing simple system flutes. He is German, and the concert a watched was in Germany, after all.

:)

[Ramin]

This reminds me of when I saw "Heaven Can Wait" as a youth. I couldn't get over him playing a Golden Clarinet.

[KateG]

Harpmaker wrote:

"If you really want to have fun and mess with their minds, or enjoy the "What is that?" type of question, take a mountain dulcimer along with..."

Been there, done that. Playing mt. dulcimer in public is guaranteed to stop traffic. 98% of folks haven't a clue what it is, and then there's the 2% who have one in there closet, have never bothered to learn how to play it but want to tell you all about it.

Play your flute with a mt. dulcimer in your lap and you'll never lack for attention of one sort or another.

[cathal morley]

Don't mean to be the penultimate pedant, Il Friscaletto, but Andre Rieu is Dutch, not German. Not sure how this affects his flute-life (or anyone else's) but the old boy an sure play a mean fiddle!

[withak]

My mandolin has been accused of being a banjo before. I also had some guy on the street ask me if it was "like a bass".

Me: "No, not really."

[Doug_Tipple]

Anyone ever see that clown, Andre Rieu, on PBS? He's a classical violinist who hosts these really elaborate, cheesy concerts. Cool thing , though, is that right behind him sit two people playing simple system flutes. He is German, and the concert a watched was in Germany, after all.

I like to watch the musical productions of Andre Rieu. I have seen the flautists playing the wooden flutes, but I assumed that they were playing modern, Boehm-style blackwood flutes. If you look closely, you can see these being played in orchestras in the USA, as well.

[doogieman]

Hey Matt_Paris - Have you had your soprano refered to as you "Kenny G" saxophone?

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr