Cross fingering beyond C natural

[pflipp]

I guess we all know the cross fingering for C natural. I also guess most of us know that cross fingering F natural (and lower) normally isn't very practical on an Irish flute. (Which is too bad, because F natural would provide us with the next "flat".)

Nevertheless, this still leaves us with two other interesting cross fingerings:

Bb - Can occasionally be used without requiring too much F naturals. (And if I understood that other thread correctly, the equivalent A# can be used to play Klezmer in F#...)
G# - Used to play in the key of A.

Going through my little inventory of flutes and whistles, I found support for these cross fingerings to vary noticeably. If there is any rule to go by, I guess it is this one: the bigger the finger holes, and the thinner the wall size, the least likely these notes could be reliably cross fingered.

Of course, a baroque flute will support all cross fingerings, including F natural. But I guess that even a strongly-toned, "signature Irish" flute could be made to support these fingerings. What is your experience?

[I.D.10-t]

One of the first tunes I learned was "The Moreen" in G minor with an E♭ in the third line. With no keys I have to half hole E♭ in the first two registers and cross finger for the third, but half holing does really shade the note. I should really practice and use harmonics and learn to incorporate them into my playing.

The thing is that the "Irish Flute" was never designed to be keyless. I think Peter Noy makes a flute that can be cross fingered like a baroque flute, but has the volume similar to the classical flute.

[chas]

Smaller-holed flutes cross-finger better, bigger-holed flutes half-hole better. The first thing one flute teacher did for/to me was give me a couple of A minor tunes specifically to learn half-holing the F. My Olwell Nicholson half-holes an Fnat better than any of my baroque flutes cross-finger the same note. Every baroque/rococo flute I've played has been optimized for one note or the other, with a natural separation between them of 20-40 cents. I've never mastered half-holing D#. I can half-hole G# on some larger holed flutes, and it's one of the better cross-fingered notes on small-holed flutes.

So my experience is that most flutes are chromatic with a D# key, with half-holing and/or cross-fingering and a supple lip.