At the moment i am trying to choose a flute, a person i know gave me a loan of a keyless cotter which is nice but there is a bit of strech on the right hand. being a beginner i am not aware of weither or not you can get the holes for the fingers any smaller is this a big factor with different makers.
I have to admit i am out in the cold here when in comes to flute makers and all the jargon. i am much more at home with the box and fiddle which are my main instruments, however i really do love the flute and would like to take it up but i would just like some good advice on this matter medb
Have you looked at Casey Burns’s flutes? I have “girly” hands but the standard model is very comfortable for me. He has a small hands version too. I love my CB folk flute. Absolutely, almost embarassingly, love it.
To build breath control and stilll not spend too much you can get a PVC flute for about 25 dollars OR make it yourself for 1 dollar..
I recommend the smaller flutes G / A / Bb for a cold beginner because you can be playing airs and marches within a few days, and jigs within a year or so.
Later stepping up to the bigger D - for sessions and jams - is not such a big undertaking. In fact I have seen older folks slowly adapt to that change over a few years. That is remarkable when you know that our lungs DO NOT GROW any better after we reach maturity. IOW to get really good on the flute you have to start young.
Of course and older person can play but they have to make more and longer breaks which can end up sounding like a three wheeled locomotive.
Which ever - best of Irish Luck to you Miss Ennis!
Try a Casey Burns flute. He can arrange the holes for small hands, and will also offset them ergonomically. You can’t go wrong with them . . . they have a reputation of not being difficult to play and, if you decide to go with a different model later, you can resell it easily.
He’ll help you figure out what would work for you.
And just ignore that discouraging bit about lung size and the inability of adults to get “really good” at flute. Until we begin measuring lungs of potential wind instrument players, I won’t believe it’s a critical factor–probably how you use them is more important.
The vast majority of people who learn anything, from driving to cooking to math, won’t turn out to be virtuosos, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to park on a hill, avoid food poisoning, and pay their utility bills. Not everyone is an Einstein or a Rachmaninoff. Most everyone else is just normal.
Learn and play because you love the flute. The end goal is irrelevant–what you do today, along the way, is all that matters.
Why would a person spend 250 dollars on what they could get for 25 dollars and then later decide they didn’t want to learn it anyways.
Used low quality flutes sell for next to nothing today because of health concerns.
DONT BUY A USED FLUTE ! You never know who’s mouth has been on it, and you never know what kind of diseases they had – this applies even more so to wooden flutes. Having a problem with that? Go read about fungus / wood / leather etc. Why do you think my parents warned me about such a thing 45 years ago after I decided learn to play IT?
They were right then and they are still right!
Buy PVC because when you disinfect it the treatment WORKS!
hey less of the old there ! ! I may be in my late 20s but i tell you i am sure going to surprise the person i bored the flute from when i return it to them. I have only had it about a month and i am playing a polka and the jig fig for a kiss on it’ alothough i would like my breathing technique to be better if i could have played the violin that quick i would be beaming! What is a bit of a mystery to me is the layout of his flute ie the flute holes in comparision to that of the cotter. And as i am based in Ireland it will be difficult to try one where i am pratically next door to where eammon is based. for some reason i asked about pvc flutes i think that is when my lecturer put his foot down and said go to a flute maker but he did say something about seery flutes would they be pvc flutes just curious. I was not too sure on this point could you fill me on where you might get these. thank you for your help. But believe me it is never too late to learn to play an new instrument.
Why would a person spend 250 dollars on what they could get for 25 dollars and then later decide they didn’t want to learn it anyways.
Used low quality flutes sell for next to nothing today because of health concerns.
Good point.
On the other hand, if someone has small hands, a cylindrical D flute is going to be uncomfortable and perhaps even impossible to play. A G flute won’t be as easy to play with others.
I think having a “nice” instrument also contributes to sticking with your practice. If you have something you really enjoy holding, feeling and playing you will pick it up more. If you had to sacrifice a bit monetarily for it, you won’t want to make that wasted money.
I don’t tend to worry about germs so much. If you disinfect everything to death, all you do is weed out the competition and leave the supergerms to run rampant.
Used low-quality flutes sell for next to nothing because they’re low-quality.
I don’t tend to worry about germs so much.
Not many germs are going to live long enough to be a problem in a flute–they don’t survive very long. Our entire environment, not just your flute, is covered with organisms. I’d be far more concerned about the potential contamination of eggs and fresh chicken with salmonella and coworkers with influenza than some as-yet-undiscovered disease threat from a flute.
The medical literature is not filled with reports of disease transmission via flutes.
If you’re concerned about the contents of your flute, clean it well before using it. Peek inside with a flashlight and make sure it’s not visibly moldy. Keep it clean, oiled, and in an appropriate environment so that it does not become mildewed, and you should be fine.
Certainly, though, if you’re preoccupied with contamination, then a PVC flute is probably best for you.
Walk into Custy’s in Ennis, they usually have a few Seery flutes in, he does Delrin (not PVC) and timber ones that are fairly small holed and quiet flutes.
Quality wise you’re better off with one of Eamonn’s to be honest.
Seery Flutes are great but the man is English, and he cannot get PVC pipe because it is not sold in the UK, so he cannot buy it. His sticks are probably made under contract in China of Delrin.
PVC is standard issue here in the USA for domestic water pipe. There are two grades, Schedual 40 ( low pressure thin walled ) and Schedual 80 ( higher presssure denser and thicker walled ) The 40 1/2" is great for higher flutes like G - A -Bb but the thicker walled 3/4" 80 makes an nice loud but hungry C or D etc.
I’m no expert on makes of Flute or fingering systems since I know but one, the same as the TW. However if you are a neighbor of Mr Cotter you should tell him you want to ‘try out’ a flute and it can be made of house pipe. BTW Irish 3/4 copper water pipe would be fine but you have to have the blow hole covered in plastic to protect your health. IOW DO NOT PUT YOUR LIP ON BARE COPPER !
Please, more! Your recent posts have been the best entertainment on the board since the whole Talbert/Spillane debacle. Don’t disappoint us!
I do have to give you some credit, though.
I am spoiled. You got that right. However, it’s not my mom that spoils me, but yours, and it’s more than beer money… Jail… it’s funny you should mention that, that’s where I met your mom in the first place.
Seery flutes are made out delrin, which is superb, much, much better than PVC. Desi does a great job of machining his flutes make them pretty much just like wooden flutes. Desi does NOT have his flutes made in China (where the heck did you get that idea, toasty )
As for Eamonn Cotter, he makes superb flutes, but I highly doubt he’s going to make you one out of house piping! I could be wrong… :roll:
Toasty is, however, correct about not putting your lips directly on a copper flute (I’d recommend not putting anything on a copper flute!), your lips might go green, and that would be very, very bad!
Assuming you are as Irish as the name suggests why would you be pushing Seery’s junk when you know there are excellent Flute makers in Ireland …and the best of them are not well known nor expensive!
If anybody would like are real Irish flute then go look in the NPU monthly or CCE literature for one. Co Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo for starters not to mention the North.
The reason why I’m saying good things about Seery flutes is because they are good flutes at a good price and I’m not racist or nationalist so where the flute comes from doesn’t make much difference to me.
And yes, there are lots of fantastic flute makers in Ireland who sell their work for great prices. Hammy Hamilton, Eamonn Cotter, Sam Murray… and many more. You were the one disuading her from buying a good wooden flute, not me.
I say, if you can afford it, definately buy a good wooden flute. You won’t go wrong!
Well I would not be recommending her to buy what she could make out of an old shovel handle IF I knew she could get it done, bbbut she probably cannot so I am not.
OTOH if she really wants a PVC flute she could buy one from Doug Tipple USA and have it mailed her. Nothing wrong with that except like the Seery the tuning would be slightly off because of the difference in climate…
So I say buy the new 2000 euro silver keyed model but on Hire Purchase ( Oirish for Loan Finance ) then if it fails or she gets tired of Eamon An Cnoic she can quit making payments. No big deal, she wins every way.
But her being an Irish lass I bet you a sack of Uillleann Pipe Chanters she has already thought of that one.
Mention of which reminds me of one fellow who I met away back someplace near Scouser land who had a fine Flute which wasn’t paid for … if you get the drift … ahem anyways he couldn’t play anything on it but if you wanted to hear a Piper there was no equal But that was back then, now it’s now, and everything has changed including herself being fertilizer.
Desi Seery does make a “small hand” delrin flute, too.
Peter - Are Desi’s wooden flutes that much different from his delrin flutes? I’d not call the delrin flute quite in any way. Tom Doorley sounded pretty decent on the one he played on the first two Danu albums.
Still, if I was in Ireland, I’d go check out a Murray, Cotter, etc.
I agree that the whole wooden flutes will make you sick is a bunch of hogwash…might as well go live in a bubble if you’re that worried about germs.
Please, more! Your recent posts have been the best entertainment on the board since the whole Talbert/Spillane debacle. Don’t disappoint us!
Jail… it’s funny you should mention that, that’s where I met your mom in the first place.
Chris
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