Casey Burns offsets the finger holes on his flutes to make it easier to reach. I have found this to be more of an inconvenience than helpful. Since I play mine all the time, I have gotten used to the position, and it’s really hard whenever I play a freind’s flute. I can’t cover the holes consistently! Also, he makes the bottom hole so small that half-holing Eb is simply not possible.
I don’t mean to say I’m not totally in love my flute, but it seems that it could be better without the different hole-positions. Have any other Burns flute owners pund this to be a problem?
Second this. If you play a flute
with inline holes a fair amount, and
also play the CB flute regularly,
I think you will find you can
go back and forth without much trouble.
This is the beginning of FLOA, of course.
I find, FWIW, that a good way to
get the Eb is to put the ring finger
out straight, not curved, just
plump it down straight, aiming
for the crease of the hole with
the inside of the finger.
With some practice one
can get the Eb pretty well,
I believe.
Peggy, Max is a very good flute player, and he plays his Burns flute great, and I can totally see his point (besides, he never said the flute was bad, quite the opposite).
I think Casey makes his ergonomic flute for people with smaller reach, I too don’t find the Ergo flute comfortable for me, and the flute Casey made for me has the tone holes in line, his flutes are great, and there is nothing wrong with preferring the tone hole one way or the other.
following your logic, would’nt playing the flute lefty make you even a more versatile and there for a better player?
eilam.
I said only that there was an advantage in learning to adapt to one’s flute rather than becoming stuck being able to play only one kind. Nothing in that extrapolates to attempting the impossible by playing lefty.
Lots of people play more than one flute–witness all those who have them in different keys. What happens then? They don’t just stop and say they can’t play it because the holes aren’t in the right place; they adapt.
I’m sure that Max is a fine flute player. It appeared that he has a flute he’s discovered isn’t particularly suited to him, but he thinks it’s a good flute, and I was merely trying to find some bright spot in it. Glass half-empty; glass half-full.
Casey Burns offers in-line holes, as well, and I believe his Prattens probably have whopping big ones. The easiest solution then would be to buy a new flute and sell the one he has. I just didn’t think his allowance would extend that far so soon. Until such time, making the best of it and going after learning something useful from it isn’t such a terrible idea.
Sorry to have upset you. No offense was intended to Max, but just in case, I’ve deleted my post.
I have just begun to play the CB Ergo flute, it was easy for me to adapt because I have the ergo tipple. I had problems at first half-holing the smaller holed Eb on the CB, but am now getting the hang of it, I’ve learned to half hole by not sliding my finger, (or rolling my finger as you do NA Flutes), but but a straight up and down movement, squeezing the air down instead of sliding it out the side of my finger. I squish the hole instead of rolling aside. I had read somewhere about half-holing this way and it seems to work with this flute.
I feel your pain, I go from my CB to my German Meyer which has amazingly small inline holes and am able to half-hole easier than the CB.
It just takes a time to develop a feel for how the air is piped through that hole and how you can control it. Many people also say they have problems with getting through the second octave on the CB, but I don’t have any problem in that area, so I guess it’s really up to the player, given time.
I love my CB flute and would like to loosely quote R. Carlos Nakia, (Great NA Flute Player), “you can’t be taught the flute and expect to play all flutes because each one is different. You can try, but essentially the flute teaches you it’s own eccenticities and foibles. Give it the chance to do so.”
As far as not being able to play your friends flute, perhaps you could swap flutes for a week and get a good chance at getting good sound from it. I’ve never found a flute yet that I couldn’t get the hang of with practice.
It’s such a beautifully simple and elegant flute, I imagine you, like I, have a hard time putting it down, so with time you will be playing as you like and will laugh at your former difficulties.
Edited to fix my stupid spelling mistakes
Hey guys, thanks for the replies. No, I’m not going to sell my flute (although I am getting a new one!!), I love it way too much! I hope I didn’t make it sound as if I’m displeased with it, I just think that the offset holes are more of a disadvantage than an advantage in the long run. But overall, the Folk Flute is a terrific flute, especially at the low price of 250. If it wasn’t for that, I would have had to wait a lot longer to get a flute, or settle for a cheap one.
Hey Eilam, I’d love to come over and try your Casey Burns sometime, if you don’t mind. I didn’t know that he made flutes with holes in line as well.
Many people also say they have problems with getting through the second octave on the CB
Really? I never had that problem, even at the beginning.
Santa (who is a guitar player) brought me a Casey Burns folk flute for Christmas. When we placed the order, we had a choice between “ergonomic” and “small hands.” Previous posts in this thread lead me to believe there’s some confusion between the two.
I opted for “small hands,” since I’ve never been able to make the reach on a regular Irish flute.
I’m a little “challenged” in adapting to the flute, but through no fault of Mr. Burns. I have some bone and flexibility loss in the middle finger of my left hand (from an autoimmune type of arthritis). Even so, I’m not finding it impossible to play–just a steeper learning curve than going from Boehm flute to whistle.
I’m VERY pleased with the tone and craftsmanship. Naturally, I’m already considering planning an upgrade that possibly would include repositioning the left-hand finger holes to a place easier for me to reach. (It’s either that or look into getting my hands rebuilt.) Since I never expect to try out anyone else’s Irish flute (knowing already that my hands won’t reach), I don’t think relearning finger positions from flute to flute will be an issue.
I expect I’ll still keep the Boehm flute on hand for flat key signatures and tunes with troublesome accidentals.
Okay…I said to myself I’m not getting into this…nope…not gonna…nope…
So. Here’s my two cents.
I have played woodwinds for almost 10 years, mostly Native American flutes and other types of flageolets. No matter what you play, the flute has to fit your hands. Its easy to say that a flute player simply must force there hands to the flute or (something horrible might happen…you might be forced to play only one kind of flute for evermore).
Well, better to play one type of flute than to develop hand/wrist/finger problems and play no flute at all. There are many kinds of flutes in the world, and “Irish” flutes just have traditionally large finger spacing (hence the advent of keys and the Baroque flute). The point it, forget what other people say, find a flute that is right for YOU. Being able to play 100000 flutes is pointless in my book. Why? Because, even the best flute players tend to stick to one or a very few flutes…because…to play each flute to the max the player has to learn the “personality” of each flute.
To get certain “emotions” or fine phrasing takes a good player, lots of experience, and what seems to get left out the most often: “intimate” knowledge of the particular flute. If you want to play a certain note on a flute bad enough, you will find a way (and most likely become a better player because of it). It is often said that the best players in the world can and do play “broom sticks” and sound great on them. Its because the “broom stick” has qualities that they value.
Don’t like the way the holes are placed in you Casey Burns flute? Just give Casey a call and tell him. You will be surprised at what he will do for you! He’s a great guy.
I bought a second hand CB flute which was the small hands model with in-line holes. The holes were rather small, and so I called Casey, told him I had bought the flute second hand, and asked him how much different the sound would be if it were one of his s in his regular models. I also mentioned that I had lst about 1/2 inch of my left hand ring finger so that was the reason I thought the small hand model might be best for me, though my hands are otherwise large.
The upshot was, Casey told me to send him back the two middle sections of the flute, and he would replaced them with two new sections with normal hole spacing and a 3rd hole offset 5mm. toward tje hand to accomodate my short finger. He also said to send back the head joint so he could check it out and, if I wished, put a “dimple” in just behind the blow edge to ease airflow.
For all this, he charged me nothing. …nada… zilch!
What more can I say? Actions speak louder than words.
When I ordered my CB,I asked for holes in line,and they are still just slightly offset.It’s barely noticable,but it’s there.I don’t regularly play other flutes,but when I do I don’t have much trouble finding the holes.The first time I played a wood flute other than mine I did have that problem,but I quickly got used to it.Last night I had the oppertunity to try a Grinter,which was awesome,but what I’m saying is,though the holes felt quite different from what I’m used to,I just found them once,and then they were just there.
I’m in a hurry here,please forgive any sloppy typing!
-Kelly
Since I don’t even know anyone else who plays Irish flute, this problem of not being comfortable finding the holes on another flute is not going to keep me awake at night. Love my CB with the offset holes! Don’t need another flute!
(“want” is a whole different thing…I want them all)
Yah, I’m not really a big fan of flutes in which the holes are not perfectly in line. My friend made one, and the holes were a bit out of line, and it drove me crazy. I’m so use to them being perfectly align, that it was very uncomfortable for me…
