Aulos Stansby Question

Irish Flute
1

I’m thinking of buying an Aulos Stansby Baroque flute at A=415. My question is this: Is D at A=415 equal to C# at A=440? I have playalong cd’s that I can pitch shift by half steps, but if the Stansby is somewhere in between it won’t really work. Thanks.

Kim

2

Very close but not exactly. I would bet, though that you would not have problems.

Here are the frequencies each will play. I put in notes clear to the A below middle C, just to make sure my calculations checked out. Note that the A=415 looks like it is within 1Hz of being 1/2 step lower than the A=440. Probably close enough that you could adjust the slide, or lip it up a bit. But I’ve not tried it myself; there might be other considerations.



___A=440_______________A=415

a___440_________________415

G#__415.3047____________391.7078

G___391.9954_____________369.723

F#__369.9944_____________348.972

F___349.2282_____________329.3857

E___329.6276_____________310.8987

Eb__311.127______________293.4493

D___293.6648____________276.9793

C#__277.1826____________261.4336

C___261.6256____________246.7605

B___246.9417____________232.9109

Bb__233.0819____________219.8386

A___220_________________207.5

3

Thanks Shannon! This chart is great. I’m going to buy the flute. Yay! A new flute!

4

I’ve got an Aulos Stansby (the white one) which is at lower pitch. I haven’t played it much lately, but it’s a nice Baroque flute for being plastic, probably nicer than some wooden Baroque flutes. Maybe I’ll have to get it out and play it some more! You’ve inspired me.

Enjoy yours, and let us know what you think of it!

Jeanie

5

When I was learning to play in tune, I just used my electronic tuner to tune my A to G#, B to A# and so on and there was no problem at all. I once played my baroque flute at A415 with someone playing a modern flute at A440, and that person could cheerfully transpose a semitone down and we could play in tune It’s easy to use the embouchure to change the tuning of individual notes, and one can adjust the overall pitch by pulling out the head joint. On my two baroque flutes, I needed to have the head joint out by 2-3mm (1/8") or so to have the instrument play exactly a semitone down from modern pitch. So you won’t have problems.

Hugh