Advice on buying a flute

Irish Flute
1

Hello All,

I’m sure this has been asked a million times before:

I’ve been playing the whistle for about a year and a half and am fairly happy with my progress. I do, however, want to move on to the Irish flute. I plan on buying something within the next year. So my question is, what should I be buying? I want a flute of good quality that I won’t be embarrased to whip out in a session. Do I need to get a keyed flute? My ambitions right now are limited to traditional Irish music. I’ve seen flutes made in many amterials. It seems Blackwood is the best, but are there other materials of similar quality? I’d appreciate any advice!

Fishie

2

hi fishie,

i started out on a delrin Seery a few weeks back, and i never want to part with this flute. it’s always ready to play and i don’t have to take it apart all the time. some people find it hard to fill, i think that’s only the case if you want to play very fast. i think i’ll get a Copley for sessions. it’s about the same embouchure as the Seery, but much easyer to fill and very responsive.
i believe my Seery will last longer though, somewhere in a 1000 years from now, in some pub, it’ll still be played…

3

The question comes up about once a week, I should say.
Just scroll back over the past few weeks and you will find plenty of discussion of beginners’ flutes.
Failing that you can see what those you wish to emulate are using. After you check if they are sponsored to play them, ( and so eliminate their example perhaps as not showing what they would freely choose to play ) you might be guided by their preferences.
It won’t make a blind bit of difference to what you sound like, however !
I like boxwood, myself.

You might suddenly find in a few months, Wanxil, that your new plastic flute is after all biodegradeable.
Player on getting a new flute often think it is "le dernier crie ",
( Perhaps one of you gentlemen of the French persuasion can check my gender and so on, if you don’t have cold hands )
only to discover its shortcomings over the next few months as they get to know its limitations better and and their playing improves.

4

Amended, a stupid post but I can’t quite grasp the offensive bit.

5

You asked so kindly for a check…
Just use “le dernier cri” (no “e”)

best regards

6

It all depends on how much you want to spend and how long you want to wait. I’d recommend starting with a keyless flute. I don’t know what your budget is, but I’ll assume you don’t want to wait for a year or two.
I’ll list a few good values (mostly instruments I’ve played) that I think would be good flutes to start (and grow) on.
If you’re not planning on spending too much, for $250 the Casey Burns folk flute is a good instrument, and a nice way to enter the flute world.
The M&E Rudall and Rose model is a nice polymer flute.
Copley flutes are nice, solid-sounding instruments with a short wait. Casey Burns also makes more elaborate models than his folk flute, and they can be nice instruments. I haven’t played any flutes by Martin Doyle, but they’re well spoken of, and don’t involve much of a wait. McGee flutes are now immediately available from http://irishflutestore.com/
There are, of course, lots of other nice flutes out there, but here’s a list that, I think, meets the self-imposed criteria above.
As for materials, blackwood and mopane are both very stable, easy-to- care-for woods. Polymer is pretty much indestructible.
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/ is a helpful resource.
Good luck!

7

let’s just ignore andrewK. i don’t feel challenged or anyting by this. he gives good advice, but sometimes he just wants to spoil it all. i’m just a newbie
help fishie find a good flute!

8

What’s your budget Fishie. We could be of more help if we had some numbers. :slight_smile:


Doc

9

I don’t see the humor in Treeshark’s post.
I though it was tasteless, offensive, and stupid.

10

Fishie –

A search for M&E, Seery, Tipple, Casey Burns will turn up a ton of discussions, recommendations and counter-recommendations.

I got a Burns Rudall in mopane (no keys or slide) as my first wooden flute. Well-made, pleasing design. It seems to play very easily, and as I gradually get the hang of it, the tone gets more complex and interesting, which makes me want to try more difficult stuff–good feedback loop. I’ll certainly be a while growing into it. I chose it partly because of Casey’s rep on the board as a fine guy to work with, and he is. I decided to buy this rather than his folk flute because I thought I might want to add a slide &/or keys later, and because of his offer to check out his more expensive models after a year or so of play.

11

Fishie old top, how much money are you willing to spend?

12

Tell us Lixnaw if you really believe that these sort of posts have ever helped an aspiring flautist to find what would really suit him / her ?
I do not believe it.
Particularly as these people don’t seem to have the patience or wit to do any research for themselves. Like all those who ask questions which would have been answered by elementary reading of, say, Terry or Rick Wilson’s sites, or even this one ! If they can’t go to sessions and find what they like listening to and try
such flutes it is a waste of typing time.

Reading all these identical posts repeatedly is like wombat day or racoon day or whatever you call the film.

13

Thank you very much, M. Cook.
I spent about 7 years failing to learn French as a child.
( I still am a child ! )
I doubt if any English Gentleman would attempt to speak French sober.

Happy Breizh Sonering !

14

Yes Treeshark !
As a Samuri would fall on his sword you should fall on your flute !

15

On reflection I think I should have said a Roman rather than a Samuri.
They had more exotic ways of doing themselves in !
But who cares ?

16

Come to think of it I need advice on Not buying flutes, but that is hardly a topic for a new thread !

17

Push my Gladius in under my Ars Lorica perhaps?

18

You will need the cooperation of Gluteus Maximus !

19

Rather than falling upon ones’ flute one might
swallow one’s whistle, as in this post from 2002.

Lately when my trainer, Davy Gamble, bounces a medicine ball off my gut while I do situps, something inside me emits a tone of considerable purity and sweetness. Finally I brought an electronic tuner to the gym–the note is a C, spot on.

I decided to have it checked out. Dr.
Weintraub, an expert endoscopist at Barnes
Jewish Hospital, performed the procedure,
assisted by two muscular nurses, Gertrude
and Brunhilde, who held me in place as the
scope navigated my innards.

“I see something up ahead,” Dr. Weintraub
announced, peering at the TV monitor. “It looks like a tube, with four,
no, six holes. There’s a red mouthpiece
and a logo: ‘G’ ‘E’ ‘N’…”

“I know!” I exclaimed. “It was the philosophy and neuroscience picnic. I was
guzzling beer and playing my high G whistle
at the same time. Later I couldn’t find the
whistle…”

“Well, it’s lodged in your duodenum pretty
good” Dr. Weintraub said. “I can’t budge it
with the scope.”

“I don’t want it out. I want to control
the pitch.”

“Maybe we can arrange that much.
Cross your right leg over your left leg
and swivel your hips. Good! Brunhilde,
punch Professor Stone in the solar plexus,
please.”

Whack!

Tweet!

“That was a D!”

“OK, now reverse, the left leg over the
right one..”

Whack!

Tweet!

“That was an A! Thanks, Doc! Let’s
try for the second octave!”

“This is one for the journals, alright.”

So there you have it. My digestive
system now doubles as a bagpipe. When
Davy bounces the ball of my gut I can
play B.B. King tunes, which really cracks
him up. Also I can sing duets with myself.
I do have to gyrate my hips, but, hey,
so did Elvis.

Next week Dr. Weintraub, Gertrude,
Brunhilde and I are going to work
on crans.

20

Thank you all for the responses, and thank for that list Tintin, it’s just what I need. My budget for now is in the $500 neighborhood, though I could increase that, based on recommendations. I don’t mind waiting 6-8 months for a decent flute. If I start with a keyless flute, will I have trouble moving to a keyed flute later, if choose to do so? (Is it better to take the plunge and start with a more complex instrument?).