Top Makers

[jim stone]

Not surprised by Hans's Wilkes story. Never had an opportunity
to play one myself. But Rudalls (some of them anyhow)
can be demanding, especially the low D.
On the other hand Prattens can be a hand-full.
So, right, good to look before you leap, if you can.

First, suppose you have average sized hands (if they're
quite small, special concerns). And suppose you want
a flute that's loud enough to play in a session.
Then there are some easy playing top-rate flutes
out there that are almost certain to serve.
The nature of the beasts is that, if, over the years,
you want something very different, you can
sell them and recover your money. Indeed,
sometimes increase it. As crooked tune says.

So, no, just saying 'I want a Wilkes; it's top rate!'
is not a good idea. But a bit of research here
and perhaps PMing some of the 'wise ones'
can locate something for you. It it proves
not for you, you can sell it. Of course
there's no guarantee the inexpensive flute
you buy will suit you either, indeed, it's
less likely to, especially in the long term.

Of course this strategy takes time and money!
Not necessarily practical. And nothing is
foolproof certainly, no matter what you do!

[flutefry]

Let's say could obtain a record of the brand of tennis rackets used by everyone who played in the recent French Open. Not everyone will have chosen the racket after scientific comparisons of every available kind (but some will). Some will have got a better contract to endorse this racket over that racket (but some won't). Some will have chosen because the number one ranked player uses it (but some won't). Some will have chosen because their coach recommended it (but some won't). Some will have just switched rackets, and some will be just about to switch (and some will have used the same racket for years). Nevertheless, such a list does give a quantitative list of who is using what at a given time, and this useful information is better than no information. Nevertheless, just counting percentage of people who use this or that item isn't necessarily useful.

The argument that lots of people still buy American cars so they must be good wouldn't receive universal acclaim. Some things are cheap, easy to obtain, and easily maintained locally, which are good arguments to get them, even if they aren't good arguments for the intrinsic value of the item. Nor would saying that few people buy Lamborghinis so they must be bad convince many people. Some things are good, but hard to obtain, or expensive, or difficult to maintain. It may be that Korean cars will be the next big thing, even though their sales don't compare to American, European, and Japanese maker, and people are less likely to try them because they don't know much about them. Some cars that are good will have highly specific uses (sports cars), and have a more limited market. And some things will be good at many things, without necessarily being great at anything (family sedans).

Having said that, there's still value in such a list. It's just that you can't use the list alone to make your decision, and you have to do your due diligence. I think we all know this.

On a different subject, in the few areas where I have experience (bicycles, skis, tennis rackets, cars), it's true that items aimed at beginners/occasional/undemanding users tend to favour reliability over performance, and stability and consistency over power and response. More skilled people might value different things (finesse, power, control) even if these are higher maintenance, or come with tradeoffs (more power but less control, or better response, but easier to mess up). This doesn't rule out the possibility of high performance items being accessible to beginners. And it doesn't say that one can't persevere with learning starting with a set of racing skis and become a very good skier. It just doesn't answer the question whether one would have been better off to start with the more forgiving gear, and work up to less forgiving gear, or jump straight in with the best gear. The Puritan side of me says that good gear is often wasted this way, but that doesn't stop me from preferring the best gear I can get, whether it makes sense of not.

Hugh

[Terry McGee]

It's Osram right Terry?

]

Yes, but in these Global Warming days, I hope Matt has switched to the compact fluorescent model.

Actually, a spot of global warming would do no harm if it could be applied specifically to the Mayo region. I went for a swim off Achill Island in mid 2002 - it didn't last long!

Terry

[Terry McGee]

So, Terry, we're all a bunch of amateurs, eh? Not everyone on this forum fits that description, and it's very arrogant for you to assume so. Could it be that you're cheesed off that you didn't get enough praise on this thread? Apparently we, like the genetically predisposed, don't have your mouth.

Rob

Heh heh, sorry Rob. I spend so much time in the 19th century, I'm starting to write like them. "Amateur" when used by 19th century writers to describe flute players didn't have the perjorative modern sense in which you used it above, "a bunch of amateurs". It was in fact an expression of praise - one who plays for the love of it (from amare, L, to love, presumably via the French), rather than for money. In that period, professional musicians were pretty low on the social scale unless they were Mr Nicholson.

So far I have resisted using the other general collective noun for fluteplayers, which was "Gentlemen". It seems the first few courageous ladies to come out did so in the late 19th century.

And not cheesed off at all, though you'll notice that I do tend grumpy when I see "amateurs" taking too much notice of what their professional colleagues do.

I'd say, if you don't have my mouth, you may well be at a distinct advantage; I wouldn't regard myself as being genetically predisposed to flute (damn it!). Probably if I had been, I might now be known as a player rather than a maker! (Remember the old maxim: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. I guess makers fit in a bit further down the chain....)

I had an interesting experience while a flutemaker-in-residence at Boxwood, Chris Norman's flute week in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. Cahill McConnell was one of the tutors, so we enjoyed a great week of songs and tunes. At one time, Cahill came into where I was and tried out my flutes. Stunning playing, as you might imagine, and he was very positive about my instruments. I asked him what he was playing, and he handed over his extremely beaten up Rudall & Rose - all hose clamps, araldite and rubber bands. He warned that I wouldn't get a note out of it, but I did manage to get good tone down to A, which impressed him considerably. Lower notes were hard to play and airy. He then took up the flute and filled the room with music. I'm not sure that I could tell the difference in sound between him playing my show-room condition flutes or his old wreck.

Any of us would have had that flute fixed, but not Cahill. Genetically predisposed to flute, I reckon.

Terry

[Jon C.]

So, Terry, we're all a bunch of amateurs, eh? Not everyone on this forum fits that description, and it's very arrogant for you to assume so. Could it be that you're cheesed off that you didn't get enough praise on this thread? Apparently we, like the genetically predisposed, don't have your mouth.

Rob

Heh heh, sorry Rob. I spend so much time in the 19th century, I'm starting to write like them. "Amateur" when used by 19th century writers to describe flute players didn't have the perjorative modern sense in which you used it above, "a bunch of amateurs". It was in fact an expression of praise - one who plays for the love of it (from amare, L, to love, presumably via the French), rather than for money. In that period, professional musicians were pretty low on the social scale unless they were Mr Nicholson.

So far I have resisted using the other general collective noun for fluteplayers, which was "Gentlemen". It seems the first few courageous ladies to come out did so in the late 19th century.

Should have called them "professors of the flute"... If we wrote like they did back in the 19th century, we would be removed from Chiff & Fipple!

I'd say, if you don't have my mouth, you may well be at a distinct advantage; I wouldn't regard myself as being genetically predisposed to flute (damn it!). Probably if I had been, I might now be known as a player rather than a maker! (Remember the old maxim: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. I guess makers fit in a bit further down the chain....)

As I recall, you can hold your own in a session, Terry!

[rama]

let's change the question:

how many flutemakers are genetically predisposed?

[Rob Sharer]

Je suis francophone, mon ami Australien, et je comprends bien le sense du mot. For the record, "amare" is Italian; "aimer" is French, not to be confused with the English expression "to take aim at," which I believe was what I did. You parried my barb so gently that the hot winds of anger have gone right out of my sails. Touche! How do I do accents on this keyboard?

In the fine tradition of my future mother-in-law of yelling about something other than what caused offense in the first place, I really got the bad vibe from the "genetically predisposed" bit. Certain teratological accidents excepted, I don't really believe in genetic predisposition to play an instrument. Ever see Paddy Canny's hands? Bumblebees can't fly, and no one with those shovels can play lovely, gentle fiddle music. And yet, they both do what they do.

Perhaps I was given a complex as a child. I was actually told, as a rising sixth-grader, that there was something wrong with my lip and I would never make a flute-player. My two miserable years of forlorn honking on the clarinet drove me to the guitar, and I only discovered years later that the problem actually lay below the belt (no jokes now, lads, this is serious) - only girls played the flute in the *school name deleted* band in 1980! And while Molloy and his bloody lightbulbs are safe for now, I manage okay on the flute despite my lip. The lip does cause problems in other areas though....

Rob

[jim stone]

I was told, when I was 12, by my orthodontist that I shouldn't
play flute, because it would shrink my upper lip and make
me look like a woodchuck. I waited till I was 60 to begin.
At my age, it doesn't matter if I look like a woodchuck,
right? That was 53 years ago. I still hate that guy.

[Terry McGee]

Should have called them "professors of the flute"... If we wrote like they did back in the 19th century, we would be removed from Chiff & Fipple!

Professors of the flute were the teachers, like Clinton, Carte, etc. They seemed to enjoy a considerably enhanced social position compared to mere performers. Clinton continued to refer to himself as a Professor of the Flute well after he started making, so I guess makers were well downhill from there. Oh, well.

As I recall, you can hold your own in a session, Terry!

Too kind, Jon. Just because I'm not "genetically predisposed to flute" doesn't mean I'm going to let that get in my way!

Terry

[Terry McGee]

For the record, "amare" is Italian;

It is also Latin - amo, amare, amavi, amatum - but I guess the eur in amateur is from the French?

Ever see Paddy Canny's hands? Bumblebees can't fly, and no one with those shovels can play lovely, gentle fiddle music. And yet, they both do what they do.

I was certainly very aware of Jack Canny's hands. Jack was Paddy's brother and a fiddleplayer also; naturally very similar in style if not quite as adept in delivery. He was a bricklayer, and you can imagine what a lifetime of bricks and morter did to the hands. Jack built my first workshop in Canberra in the mid 1970's; his labourer on that job was also a fiddleplayer. We kept them supplied with Irish music issuing from a window in the house.

I hadn't thought of it before, but the workshop was designed by an accordion player (my father), and built by two fiddleplayers and a flutemaker (I did the roofing and ceiling).

Terry

[Jim W]

FWIW - my old Larousse's French-English dictionary lists amateur with translations lover, amateur, dilettante; then gives 'amateur de musique' as music lover.

[Rob Sharer]

So, do you reckon Jack Canny was genetically predisposed to lay bricks? Who made his hod, and should we amateur builders allow that infomation to influence our choice of tools?

Seriously, what a wonderful coincidence. I very nearly named another Clareman whose hands look distinctly un-musical; then we wouldn't have gotten the great yarn. Keep those coming, Terry!

Rob

[Gordon]

I think we're taking Terry's comment a bit too seriously -- it wasn't a P.C. gaff, just a comment. Jimi Hendricks was most probably genetically inclined to play guitar, or perhaps merely sent to earth with some mutant talent from another planet, whereas mere mortals, like, say Clapton, probably wasn't. But, given hard work and a love for the instrument, he did okay for himself anyway...

Gordon

[phcook]

As a French, I can confirm this:
the former sense of "amateur" is: somebody who loves something; for instance, we today use that word for arts: painting, music, etc. So that word is perfectly in line when used for describing somebody interested in music.

a latter sense is "dilettante", to describe somebody working not very professionnally.

[Terry McGee]

But, given hard work and a love for the instrument, he did okay for himself anyway...Gordon

And that's sure the message for us, isn't it. Don't beat yourself up too much if you're not quite as good as Matt, or Cahill or whoever. It probably isn't a level playing field.

Don't expect that if you had their flute you'd do better (trust me, Cahill's flute in the condition I saw it would make you take up the xylophone).

Do make sure your flute is functioning properly (especially if it has keys - I come across a lot of flutes that leak a bit here and a bit there, and it doesn't take much to turn a vibrant flute into a sullen stick). It mighten bother Cahill, but it might make all the world of difference to a mere mortal.

Do invest some time and energy into seeking the best response you can find from your flute. Experiment with different angles, rotations, larger and smaller flow rates, etc. Seek advice from experienced players on achieving a better tone. Better to come away from a summerschool with improved tone, agility or other investment, than just a new tune.

And, if you do feel you've worked pretty hard on the flute you have and are not being rewarded for it, look around, not necessarily for a "better" flute, but maybe a "different" one. A quick look at people you bump into today will remind you that lips come in all shapes and sizes. Not surprisingly, different embouchures suit different people.

Heh heh, I live in hope that one day, we will be able to invite players to kiss the office scanner and press Scan, and send us the file for analysis. Patented GOBCAM software will analyse your mouth shape, and send instructions via the EMBCAD 3-D draughting system to the HEADCNC manufacturing centre and we'll have a new custom head in the mail to you by lunchtime.

Hmmm, anyone know how you get lipstick off an office scanner?

Terry