quick question. I may have an opportunity to purchase a Casey Burns small hand Flute. Has anyone with average size hands played one of these Flutes and if so did you feel the spacing was to tight?
Ben Shaffer
I had an old one, no offset holes or anything. The spacing was quite comfortable. I found the E note extremely weak (the A a little weak) as a result of the close spacing of the holes.
I’ve had several of them come through over the years. Spacing isn’t crampy at all. Nice flutes.
They aren’t quite as powerful as the regular models but I found them to be nice players.
If you don’t have a physical reason to go with the small-handed model, I’d get one of Casey’s regular models.
Doc
I bought one of these so that new flute students with small hands could have something to start on. Too many were arriving with flute like objects, and were discouraged right off the bat. I think it’s a great flute for beginners-easy and forgiving to play, round fat tone.
I wouldn’t say it was cramped ( a D whistle is half the size of a flute after all), but I do find that when I play it (big hands) that it takes a while to get used to the altered spacing.
I agree that if you have normal hands, you get more with a flute designed to optimize the sound rather than to minimize the stretch. But for those who need it, it’s great.
Hugh
I’ve done a little bit of redesigning on my smaller handed flutes recently - moving all of the holes of the right hand down just a bit. It makes the holes have to be a bit larger, but within reason for the G and F#. The improvement is the E which is now stronger.
Casey