IN the interests of reducing wading time and bandwidth, would it be possible to have an FAQ system so that clueless newbs like myself won’t ruin the C & F experience for the real players?
I’ll start with a suggested list for the flute forum:
What flute should I get?
Do I need keys?
What’s the difference between a Rudall/Rose and a Pratten?
What is a good starting place for listening to wooden flute music?
How do you learn music without reading from notation?
I play a Boehm flute. Can I play Irish music on it?/SHould I get a wooden flute?
There are definitely other common questions out there; this is just a sampler.
These questions do come up a lot, and while some of us don’t mind, it might not be a bad idea to have a central “first stop” on the road to further information.
I’ve never seen any agreement on the answers to any of those questions. I can only imagine what trying to write an FAQ document would be like. I think those questions get asked alot because there are no simple answers to them —people do research and can’t find an answer because there isn’t a simple answer so they come here and ask. I don’t think that us clueless newbs should worry about troubling the real players by asking important questions pertaining to playing an instrument. It is not rather complicated questions like these that bother them, I think it is the chit chat or something. And new people come along who can help answer them after a bit.
Well, to get the ball rolling, here are some answers to some of those questions:
) What flute should I get?
A: Depends on one’s price range. For under $500, the following makers have received positive reviews from forum members:
Tipple
Casey Burns
Michael Cronolly (M & E)
Mark Hoza
Desi Seery
Tony Dixon
FOr more information, conduct a forum search on these producers or contact them directly
FOr more expensive flutes, a good idea would be to play as many different models as possible. The following links (To Brad’s site or similar) contain directories of prominent makers. Also, the search function on the forum will provide many viewpoints on a particular instrument.
Do I need keys?
If you intend to play Irish music, 95% percent of the repertoire can be played without keys. FOr those tunes that require notes not normally in the scale of a keyless flute, it is often possible to half-hole or cross-finger acceptably.
Some makers of wooden flutes can retrofit keys to their products after purchase, should you decide to get keys.
What’s the difference between a Rudall/Rose and a Pratten?
(Beg permission from David Migoya’s recent post on this topic)
What is a good starting place for listening to wooden flute music?
One of the best places to here this type of music is up close and personal, in a live concert or session setting. But, modern recording techniques have enabled just about anyone to build a large collection of Irish music played on the wooden flute. For more information (pointer links to Brad’s site and similar)
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How do you learn music without reading from notation?
Music from many cultures is traditionally learned without any form of written notation. This involves the development of aural listening skills. In essence, one learns to internalize the melody of a tune upon a limited number of hearings. Then, one can transfer it to flute directly, without translating dotted notation into the melody first. An experienced player of Irish music can learn a tune upon hearing it as few as three or four times. FOr more on this topic, consult (Somebody over at thesession has a great website on this topic)
I play a Boehm flute. Can I play Irish music on it?/SHould I get a wooden flute?
While simple-system wooden flutes are more common, it is certainly possible to play Irish music to a very high level on a “silver” flute. (Cull material from innumerable web sources here.)
The above took me about 20 minutes to type. . . it’s not that hard, folks.
It could be done. Worm, if you received entries that people wanted to make, and put them all into a document (word or html or something) and sent it to Dale, I bet he’d put it into the site. I think a similar thing has been done on other music boards but it required input from lots of people. Putting it all on one person often doesn’t get anywhere.
Someone could always just start a thread with links to helpful threads of the past and ask a moderator to sticky it. That way, should someone find a helpful thread in the future, or should a new one crop up, it would be easy to edit and add to.
What about a page that links these questions to the database containing the previous discussions on the subject. The Newby could peruse the threads and if it still doesn’t answer their query they could then initiate a new topic.
I may have some time this weekend to work on a rudalmentary FAQ. Be warned - I;ve only been playing about 6 months. . . but it’s people like me who need an FAQ in the first place.
Jack - does C & F have a prefabbed database accessible by something more sophisticated than the generic search function? I think that’s a good idea. I see the actual articles as more of a “This is what the issue is” response than a “This is what the answer is” type of response.
Exactly! To set it up, someone would have to research each topic initially using the search feature, and then it would need to be updated if any pertinent topics come up. This would be a project that might be delegated to people (more than one person) who are participating in the forum of interest.
I think the way to work it would be to post initial drafts of the FAQ, and then follow-up thread in which those interested could point out relevant prior discussions. COuld be an ongoing thing.
The other thing to do is not reinvent the wheel - there are some good flute sites out there (Brad’s, Peter Laban’s tune sight, the geezer site, etc.) that would work well as exterior resources.
EDIT:
Other stuff to be covered:
How do I oil a flute?
What are the extra two holes for?
I saw this great deal on Ebay for a beautiful flute. It’s made by Pakistani traditional craftsmen. . .
Anybody remember the whistle annex? DazedinLA did that I think, wonder if that’s still up somewhere. It collected threads topically for easy reference.
