Half-holing Small-holed Flutes

[crookedtune]

While monogamous, I bonded very well with my Burns Large-holed Ergonomic Standard flute. It's still my favorite, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

A few months ago, I joined the philanderers, (you know who you are), by purchasing a Sweetheart blackwood Resonance flute from a board member. It's been a very satisfying dalliance, with it's bright, focused sound, great high end, and lively response. It also has a more demanding embouchure, which has helped my playing on both flutes. I plan to keep both flutes. (It's cool. They know about each other).

One issue that has come up though, is that I find it much harder to half-hole on the Resonance. In particular, I can't get any kind of Fn, and only a weak G#. On the Burns, I can easily roll in and out of those notes.

I think I've heard that the Sweetheart flutes are based on a Firth & Pond design. Is this half-holing difficulty a common problem with smaller-holed flutes? Are there any tricks to get these particular notes?

[Rob Sharer]

Half-holing is much more difficult on smaller-holed flutes. It's exactly why keys were necessary! On the other hand, F natural on my Olwell Pratten is easy to half-hole, for the simple reason that you could lose a sixpence in the F# sounding hole. Cheers,

Rob

[jim stone]

Question: I have the devil of a time half-holing
F natural, no matter what the size of the hole.
Can't get a clear sound. Little trouble elsewhere.

How do you all do this?

[crookedtune]

It's pretty effortless on my Burns. I usually roll into it from the E below, (roll off to uncover half of the hole). I can also do this on my Tipple. It's only the smaller-holed Sweetheart that won't buy in.

With practice, you can actually finger it directly, (without rolling off), but I don't hit it that consistently yet.

[jim stone]

Thank you.

[Rob Sharer]

Coming from below, I roll my RH 2nd finger towards the embouchure end of the flute to get the Fnat. If I'm trying to just nail it coming down, I try to tilt my finger to strike the side of the hole (nearest me) and partially cover it that way. Cheers,

Rob

[jim stone]

thanks again

[Cork]

While monogamous, I bonded very well with my Burns Large-holed Ergonomic Standard flute. It's still my favorite, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

A few months ago, I joined the philanderers, (you know who you are), by purchasing a Sweetheart blackwood Resonance flute from a board member. It's been a very satisfying dalliance, with it's bright, focused sound, great high end, and lively response. It also has a more demanding embouchure, which has helped my playing on both flutes. I plan to keep both flutes. (It's cool. They know about each other).

One issue that has come up though, is that I find it much harder to half-hole on the Resonance. In particular, I can't get any kind of Fn, and only a weak G#. On the Burns, I can easily roll in and out of those notes.

I think I've heard that the Sweetheart flutes are based on a Firth & Pond design. Is this half-holing difficulty a common problem with smaller-holed flutes? Are there any tricks to get these particular notes?

I have both a CB large holed ergonomic standard flute, with tuning slide, and one of the newer Sweetheart Resonance blackwood flutes.

Yes, the large holed CB flute can be half holed successfully, but the newer Sweetheart, with its smaller holes, suffers, in that regard, although it otherwise is a fine flute. The original Sweetheart, as yet still available, better lends itself to half holing, with its larger tone holes.

[jemtheflute]

Be-drat and be-devil these danged keyless tubes - get a fully keyed flute. I'd have thought a small-holed flute would be more susceptible of reasonably acceptable cross fingering, though even on a baroque flute designed to optimise it, F nat is poor. IMO, half-holing sucks unless there really is no alternative.

[jim stone]

Well, it's doable, easier on some holes than others.
Bb is easy, G# is OK, even Eb I can do pretty
regularly. Now this recent advice give me
a way of approaching F nat.

Keys are better but maybe with some practice....

[Tootler]

Be-drat and be-devil these danged keyless tubes - get a fully keyed flute. I'd have thought a small-holed flute would be more susceptible of reasonably acceptable cross fingering, though even on a baroque flute designed to optimise it, F nat is poor. IMO, half-holing sucks unless there really is no alternative.

All very fine, but I was given my flute and I haven't the funds at present for a decent fully keyed flute - not even for, say a five key which would give me a fully chromatic instrument.

OTOH, I agree with you about cross fingering; better if a reasonable cross fingering can be found. As a recorder player, I very much prefer to cross finger. The problems seem to be Fnat and Eb for which there is no realistic alternative to half holing as far as I can see. Even with the recorder where cross fingering is generally much better than with keyless flute, low C# and low Eb have to be half holed.

I very much like my flute BTW.

Geoff

[jemtheflute]

Geoff, fair comment - of course, I've inveighed before about the (IMO!!!!) nonsense of keyless flutes - they really should have the Eb key as a minimum standard and I still can't quite understand why (despite variously and repeatedly vain explanations) anyone makes totally keyless ones rather than 1-keyers. A near alternative (and potential tweak) is to drill an offset Eb tonehole in a position that can be covered by R4, though it would have to be high (longitudinally on the tube) and small on a concert D flute. The baroque flute was slightly more successful than its recorder contemporary at cross-fingering the F nat because the embouchure can be changed to assist unlike on the recorder - and I don't think anyone really likes or finds easy those double holes on the lowest two positions on recorders - they certainly never seem to have caught on on transverse flutes, though they would work as well/badly.

[Tootler]

Geoff, fair comment - of course, I've inveighed before about the (IMO!!!!) nonsense of keyless flutes - they really should have the Eb key as a minimum standard and I still can't quite understand why (despite variously and repeatedly vain explanations) anyone makes totally keyless ones rather than 1-keyers.

I'm inclined to agree with you. I did in fact look into the possibility of a one key flute for future reference and although there is a reasonable range of A=440 baroque flutes around, they are invariably priced at over 1000 pounds - way out of my range - even in the future. Apart from the Aulos plastic one no one seems to do a 1 key in the mid price range (say 200 - 500 pounds).

A near alternative (and potential tweak) is to drill an offset Eb tonehole in a position that can be covered by R4, though it would have to be high (longitudinally on the tube) and small on a concert D flute.

I see what you are getting at, but I don't think I want to go there just now

The baroque flute was slightly more successful than its recorder contemporary at cross-fingering the F nat because the embouchure can be changed to assist unlike on the recorder - and I don't think anyone really likes or finds easy those double holes on the lowest two positions on recorders - they certainly never seem to have caught on on transverse flutes, though they would work as well/badly.

I'm not sure that is entirely true. I checked the Fnat on both my "good" tenor recorders (1 Moeck and 1 Mollenhauer) and they were spot on. There is scope for adjusting intonation on recorders by using breath pressure and this is a common way of bringing thirds into tune at critical cadences. One problem with bottom Fnat in most recorders is the tutor books and fingering charts tend to give XXX XOXO which is sharp. You need to put R4 down as well to get it properly in tune.

Geoff

[Rob Sharer]

Ahh, wonderful day when I can agree wholeheartedly with Jem (smiley would appear right here, if I were the sort that went that way). Keys really are the way to go, when one has reached the point where the half-holing question rears its head. As Jem said, Eb is a key every flute should have, if only to keep it from rolling off the table! More to the point, even on a Pratten flute with big holes, you really can't half-hole Eb with any authority on account of the E hole's having been shrinkified to keep it close to the F# hole. G# is as bad, if not worse; it's the leading tone in the key of A, and you don't get much of a thrill from a dribbly little half-holed G# at this important position in the scale. Letdown city. Cheers,

Rob

[KateG]

I will second Jem and Rob. Keys make G# and Fnat much easier. It was the weakness of those two notes on my small-holed Sweet rosewood that caused me to leave her weeping and seek solace in the arms of a Williams 8-key. (My only excuse for this infidelity is that the Williams and I were introduced by Ralph Sweet himself.)

Interestingly, I find my large-holed cylidrical bored Tipple half-holes so easily as to be virtually a chromatic instrument. (Shhh, don't tell the Williams).