As I am in the process of obtaining a flute with a larger finger-spread, I have been paying more attention to how other people hold their flutes. On my folk flute I used the famous “Irish grip” - flat fingers, first pads. With a larger flute I may have to tend even more toward piper’s grip. And so I happened across a very nice video of THREE awesome flute players playing together (cool enough in itself!), all three using Irish or piper’s grip, or some personal variant. I just thought I’d share this because of the high quality of the music, but also because it seemed a little unusual to see three players and not a Rockstro within a rock’s throw.
yes he does look a tad uncomfortable and probably gets “away with it” because he he is a hefty fellow with strong musculature.
The player that looks most comfortable in the pipers’ grip in this video is the one in the middle, whose grip involves a LH thumb position closest to the description of one of the classical indian bansuri grips described here:-
See article author’s grip
and his teacher’s (Hariprasad Chaurasia) grip.
Pannalal Ghosh also employed a similar thumb but the picture in this link does not show him in play.
Really interesting video - and follow up pointing out the use of the left hand thumb of the middle player (thanks Talasiga for noting that). Just tried bringing my thumb around from underneath the flute to more of a ‘chin pin’ position. It really feels comfortable and steadied things up considerably.
now that I ponder a bit, I don’t think its that unusual if you consider his location: Scotland.
Hans has also, sometimes, understood my posts, found them useful and thanked me for it. Also situated in Scotland.
I also remember that, some years ago, during a discussion of modes, BigDavy understood something I said, found it useful and also thanked me for it. BigDavy is also in Scotland.
now that I ponder a bit, I don’t think its that unusual if you consider his location: Scotland.
Hans has also, sometimes, understood my posts, found them useful and thanked me for it. Also situated in Scotland.
I also remember that, some years ago, during a discussion of modes, BigDavy understood something I said, found it useful and also thanked me for it. BigDavy is also in Scotland.
Recently at a set of workshops I went to I was advised to change my right hand grip to something closer to pipers grip. In fact I went the whole hog and I now cover the holes with the pads in the middle of the finger. Once I got used to it - and there was the inevitable going backwards first - I found I was able to get a good strong low D, E and F# where they had been somewhat week before, especially D and E. It also makes finger shakes easier - a very effective decoration of long notes in slow airs.
I must say that John Wynne looks a tad uncomfortable (or at least I would be!) - it just goes to show that there’s no “right” style for everyone.
I have more than once been warned against that particular position for the very reason someone gave above. You are setting yourself up for neck trouble in time but it seems to be not uncommon among traditional Irish flute players.
