A flute with little holes ...

dessinchat · Post by **dessinchat** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:32 am

Hi all ! I haven't posted here for ages ! I was just to busy trying to play my flute and going from turning on to discouragement. I thought that I had difficulties with the embouchure because as soon as I wanted to play more quicly, I lost some notes ...
and finally, it has been a revelation . A new friend that I have met on myspace ( you can hear him at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... cc0838e63a

has lent to me two of his flutes ... and I have understood what is wrong... it's not the embouchure, nor my fingers too short, it's my fingers tips which are too little and I need a flute with little holes ! I have a flute made by Léhart, a very flute indeed, but some of the holes are big and my fingers don't cover them enough ... they even sometimes go in the hole ( the second finger of top hand ) and the second finger of bottom hand has really difficulties to cover the hole

So my question would be :
What flute do you know which would have little holes

. I was looking at the Casey Burns flutes but he speaks especially of little hands and not of thin fingers

Do you have ideas for me ??

chas · Post by **chas** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:44 am

The smallest-holed flute I have that's good for Irish music is by Phil Bleazey. It's based on a very small-holed Rudall and Rose.

Going up in hole size a little and in sound somewhat are small-holed models by Peter Noy and Patrick Olwell.

I had a small-holed flute by Casey Burns, and I'd agree that it's more of a small-hands flute than a classic small-holed flute, although the D and G holes are extremely small.

tin tin · Post by **tin tin** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:49 am

I assume you're using the pad of your finger and not the very tip of the finger to cover the holes?

An "Irish" flute with very small holes is Terry McGee's Grey Larsen Preferred model. According to Terry's site, the biggest hole (right hand, middle finger) is only 8mm.

Some background on this model:
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Grey.htm

A sound-clip:
http://www.greylarsen.com/store/glpreferredflutes.php

They're usually in stock here:
http://www.irishflutestore.com/Terry.html

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:50 am

You would do well with Casey's flutes, IMO.
YOu might call him and discuss your needs.
He's great at these issues.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:51 am

Second Tintin's post too.

dessinchat · Post by **dessinchat** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:21 pm

Tintin wrote:I assume you're using the pad of your finger and not the very tip of the finger to cover the holes?

An "Irish" flute with very small holes is Terry McGee's Grey Larsen Preferred model. According to Terry's site, the biggest hole (right hand, middle finger) is only 8mm.

8mm ! yes it's cool ! on mine, this hole is 12mm ...
and for most of fingers, I use the tip, except perhaps for this middle finger right hand which is a little more straight between the 2 others ...
And the middle of the left hand is so curved that it's why he falls sometimes in the hole

If I can , i 'm going to insert a picture so you will see :

I must admit that I find also that my right hand is not very relaxed and that perhaps a small hand flute would be fine. ...

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Wed May 30, 2007 12:43 pm

My Casey Burns small hands model is on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0125975864

The holes are mostly small, except RH2 (hole #5) is not wide (across the flute) but is a bit elongated along the length, which might still make it hard for you to cover. I can cover it easily with my pinky finger, but I'm 6'2" with an average hand size.

Kevin Krell

dessinchat · Post by **dessinchat** » Wed May 30, 2007 1:04 pm

Thanks, I saw it ... and also this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1
I would have been interested in the second one because I do prefer the mopane color . All the flutists I have seen here have blackwood flutes so I find that it would be cool to get a beautiful brown flute

I don't realize if I really need a small hand or not ... I saw the page where he advices to measure the hand and I find 21cm between the tips of thumber and pinky ... I think my problem is mainly due to the size of my finger tips ...
Well, I have inquired for this second flute and he doesn't ship to Europe ...

too bad !

SteveB · Post by **SteveB** » Wed May 30, 2007 1:47 pm

Salut dessinchat,

I used to play a McGee flute that had a similar hole sizes to your Lehart. It suited me just fine until I switched from piper's grip to standard grip. This resulted in the same problem you face (ie. my fingers going in the holes). I switched to a Copley flute, which has holes that are somewhat smaller than the McGee but is by no means a "small-holed" flute. I found the Copley dramatically easier to finger.

My point is that if you find the Lehart a stretch, you may not have to go right to a "small-holed" or "small-hands" flute. Something with toneholes just a tad smaller may fit the bill.

cheers,

SteveB

Sillydill · Post by **Sillydill** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:21 pm

Dear Nicole,

I think you need to have an idea how small the holes on your flute need to be.

The commonly available small holed flutes are: McGee (GLP) and Bleazey.

If you are open to somewhat larger holes (> 8 mm), then Jon C., Aebi, Cameron, McGee (Rudall Refined) and Noy all can make flutes with smallish holes that would be good choices.

All the Best!

Jordan

P.S. Don't feel bad. I've got short fat fingers!

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:22 pm

You might, with L2, see if you can come down, not on
the tip of the finger, but on the pad.

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:23 pm

dessinchat wrote:Thanks, I saw it ... and also this one http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1
I would have been interested in the second one because I do prefer the mopane color . All the flutists I have seen here have blackwood flutes so I find that it would be cool to get a beautiful brown flute

I must say that Casey Burns prices the mopane flutes at a good discount over the blackwood, so the price is more attractive. I suppose it's either easier to work, or perhaps easier to acquire in flute-sized pieces.

Kevin Krell

Sillydill · Post by **Sillydill** » Wed May 30, 2007 2:35 pm

Casey Burns doesn't make a small holed flute.

Doc had a Firth, Hall & Pond model from Burns, but I think it was just a prototype.

dow · Post by **dow** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:10 am

Hmmm... I THOUGHT I had posted on this thread, but it seems that either it's disappeared, or I'm losing my mind. Oh well, small loss either way.

I can vouch for the McGee Grey Larsen Preferred, as that's what I play. It has very small holes, but is capable of much more volume and power than you'd think by looking at it. There's a guy who's looking to sell one on the list. Look here:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=50231

The flute looks to be in very good shape. It's an all wood (no tuning slide) but Terry makes this style with a long tenon on the middle part that gives you plenty of room to adjust for tuning. My flute is the same as this one except for wood and I have a c-nat hole. They're also very light and comfortable to play. The hole size really lends itself to fast, crisp ornaments.

I can honestly say that if you can't cover the holes on a GLP, that you've GOT to have chipmunk fingers.

Sillydill wrote:Casey Burns doesn't make a small holed flute.

True, Jordan, but I measured the holes on the Folk Flute that I had when I got the McGee, and the they compare favorably to each other as far as hole size is concerned. The holes are larger on the Burns, but not a lot larger.

greenspiderweb · Post by **greenspiderweb** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:28 am

Nicole was saying that her lower hand was kind of stretched out, and by the looks of it in the picture, her top hand looks to be stretched quite a bit too.

Hand comfort means a lot, so I would suggest Dow or maybe some other helpful soul, the measurements between holes (center to center) to see how much different the GLP is from your LeHart. The hole size should be fine.