Hey y’all!
I’m new here, posted once or twice on the messageboard, mostly on the whistle part of it.
I’ve just come across a seller who makes bamboo flutes with seven holes, being six in front and a thumbhole, but don’t really know about it and couldn’t find any info about it on the web ( or just didn’t search the right way, which would be bad =/ )…
It plays an “easy fingering” natural scale, just like whistles, and I bought it just to get the embouchure to, maybe someday, make my dreams come true and buy a “real” (orchestral) flute, but may be interesting to learn it, since I liked it’s sound…
Can anyone give me any clue or hint about where to find material for it?
I bought 2 of them, one in C and one in G, if possible, maybe until the weekend I post some pictures of it, they’re quite simple, but since they were really cheap (not even 10 dollars both) as long as they hold for 3 - 4 months =]
Thanks for all![/b]
if it is just like whistles…
1st X is the thumb
C X XXX XXX
D X XXX XXO
E X XXX XOO
F X XXX OOO
G X XXO OOO
A X XOO OOO
Bb O XOO OOO
B O OOO OOO
Hei, Andre,
With six holes on top and with one hole underneath, it seems as though you have a recorder.
Is it end-blown, or side-blown?
It’s side-blown, that’s why I plan to learn the embouchure (or the basics of it, at least) in it =]
Honestly, I must admit, that I have never seen, or heard, a side-blown flute with six holes on top and a thumb hole. That sounds more like an end-blown recorder. So, could you give me a description of it, please?
Nope… Recorders have seven holes on top and a thumb hole. 
I remember seeing a D fife that had a thumb hole for C nat. And some makers will add a thumb hole for Cnat on flutes.
The south american quena also has a thumb hole. It’s a notch flute, not a transverse flute, but it requires some sort of embouchure. This thumb hole is different: it does not produce the minor seventh like on flutes, but an alternate fingering for the octave. I have seen once a transverse flute with the same fingerings. For a C flute, it would give:
C x xxx xxx
D x xxx xxo
E x xxx xoo
F x xxx ooo
G x xxo ooo
A x xoo ooo
Bb x oxx ooo
B x ooo ooo
C o ooo ooo or x oxx xxx
Well, the part that goes “a side-blown flute with six holes on top and a thumb hole” describes it well, especially if we add that it’s made of bamboo 
I don’t know much about flutes, REALLY, but I can assure you that this description fits it very well, and that it is different from my recorder (which is also made of bamboo). Althought I can’t take out even a single note from them (they’re 2, a C and a G) yet, since I bought today and have no experience I’m assured it plays, the guy who makes them and sold me played right in front of me and I liked the sound of it.
I’ll see if my girlfriend brings her camera and we take some pictures of them, maybe saturday I can post one or two pictures here =]
My McGee GLP has a C thumbhole. If you look down the flute from the head, and have the toneholes at 12:00, then the thumbhole is at about 4:00 or 4:30, and midway between the L1 and L2 holes (apologies to southpaws). It makes for a very in tune C natural, and is a breeze to use, once you get used to it. Some of the other members here have them as well.
No Sweetheart,
it just sounds like you haven’t ever seen
a transverse simple system flute
with 6 finger holes and a thumbhole.
There is nothing potently catalystic about a thumbhole
that it turns a transverse flute into a recorder.
Terry McGee put a C nat thumbhole in my Wicklow D flute for me some years ago. It is still a flute. Believe me - I am not joking
(except for the Sweetheart affectation to catch yer attention!)
…could go either way, couldn’t it
Igrid Burg is a maker of bamboo flutes in Albuquerque New Mexico. “She designs flutes for all levels of musical ability, and she teaches people technique for using music and breath to aid in stress management. Central to her method is the blending of physiology, vibrations, concentration, and expression.” Digging through some of my old music stuff from years ago, I ran across a page of instructions for her seven-hole diatonic spirit flutes, which are really whistles. I remember buying two from her at a street fair in Tucson. However, doing a quick search, I see that she is still very much involved with making bamboo flutes and giving demonstrations of how the flute sound can be used in healing. Here is a link to a newspaper story in today’s paper about a festival in Salida, Colorado, which is a beautiful little town right in the middle of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Mention of Ingrid’s flute playing is near the bottom of the article.
Ingrid Burg’s flutes
Here is the diatonic scale with the thumb hole indicated first:
DO X XXX XXX
RE X XXX XXO
MI X XXX XOO
FA X XXX OOO
SOL X XXO OOO
LA X XOO OOO
TI X OOO OOO
DO O OOO OOO
As with recorder fingering, the thumbhole is used with partial opening for other accidental notes and notes in the second octave. At the time that I purchased her flutes, they were known as Bamboozle Flutes. Looking at the fingering chart above, jokingly, I think that they were well-named.
Sorry, what do you mean? I was describing something different.
You talk about a “Cnat thumbhole” (becoming a Bb thumbhole on a C flute); I was talking about the quena system, with an alternate fingering for the octave. This seems more likely to me, since Andre is in South America, and that he didn’t pay a lot of money for these flutes.
I have several “popular” or “tourist” instruments that have this system, coming from Brasil, Peru and Bolivia.
I just got out my quena to confirm that the finger that I indicated in my above post for the seven hole spirit flute is the same as the fingering on my professional blackwood quena (that I recently bought and can’t play).
You are most likely correct for a flute that has been designed to be keyless.
I was thinking from a conical 8 key perspective. (what we call a “D”) The C# is somewhat flat on many of them and venting the C nat hole will benefit the intonation of the C#.
Sorry!
Oi Andre, tudo bem?
Pardon the off topic folks, but I had to say hello.
My previous job was with a botany professor-- who asked me to take
classes in Portuguese so I could read / transcribe his field notebooks.
My Portuguese classes were taught by a wonderful lady from Porto
Alegre. So just seeing the name of that city brings back wonderful
memories. Tenho saudades do Brasil! 
Have you ‘met’ Glauber Ribeiro? (flute player from Brazil now living in
Chicago) I recently got his CD “Wellsprings 2: Joyful” . It’s not Irish
Traditional music, but is beautiful flute playing.
OK, back on topic, sorry for the digression
Caroluna, or perhaps in Portuguese that should be Cara Louca 
Edited to correct my spelling, o meu Portuguese e’ muito enferrujado
If it is possible to generalize on the topic of thumbholes for simple-system, open-holed transverse flutes, I think that the concensus is that small thumbholes, as is used on recorders, quenas, and some whistles, are not necessary, with the minuses outweighing the pluses. One of the obvious minuses of having a thumbhole on a transverse flute is that the hole must be completely covered most of the time, and any small venting of the hole will affect the tone production of the other notes. Having to have your thumb fixed to a certain position on the bottom of the flute greatly restricts the positional freedom that you otherwise would have without the thumbhole. The C natural thumbhole on the low D flute is a possible exception to this conclusion.
I think that instruments with a fipple or fixed embouchure have a greater need for a small thumbhole which can be slightly vented to help bring in some of the notes that would be otherwise difficult to play. With the embouchure hole on a transverse flute, the experienced player has greater control of the production of the notes so that the additional control of the venting of a thumb hole is not needed.
I stand corrected, and my thanks to you, Matt_Paris. In my defense, however, let me admit that I have not had a recorder in my hands at any time within the past ten years, or so.
Live and learn, as a saying goes.
Yes, a C thumbhole makes a great deal of sense on a six-hole flute, although I admit to never having seen such a thing. The Irish flute I have been using for about the past ten years can produce a C natural, with a fingering such as OXX OOO, but it need to be humored somewhat in order for it to be in tune.
Ironically, my Irish flute (with no lower thumbhole) was made by Ralph Sweet, of Sweetheart fame.