I have a flute key related dilemma. Well, several really.
Due to an injury some years back, and related ongoing issues, I had to change the way I hold the flute. I now use what is essentially the piper’s grip - left hand on the side of the flute, more or less opposite my chin. Not super uncommon. I also rotate the left hand section away from the embouchure and right hand sections, in order to keep from having to hold my left elbow way up in the air.
Problems:
Obviously I have no thumb access to the standard Bb key.
With a standard key lever placement rotating the left and right hand sections significantly out of line the way I need to have them causes issues with keys not being where I can reach them or interfering with one another.
Question, anyone have experience with this sort of set-up that they can share? Pro’s and cons to the RH set-up vs. the LH set-up? I can imagine it’s sort of like the Long F/Short F situation where it depends on what note one is transition to/from, but perhaps there are other considerations I am not thinking of?
I should mention that while I’d expect to play mostly ITM on a keyed flute, I do have other musical interests outside trad, so facility beyond the usual ITM keys and modes is a consideration for me.
With regards to my second problem, I’d be interested in the key mounting and touch locations of those who significantly rotate the LH section away from the RH section - for me this would be having the LH section nearly at the 10 o’clock position relative to the RH section being at 12 o’clock.
Any experiences you can share regarding either of these issues would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
While I can’t comment on the precise set-up you’re considering, perhaps my experiences with planning and using truly custom keywork through necessity may still be useful here? In which case, I’d simply encourage you to try whatever you think you need with confidence. It’s not about pros and cons, but bespoke solutions where regular ones simply don’t work (so all likely pros), and I think we both have the experience to make these calls. As you probably know, my keyed flute departs significantly from any standard layout with one-piece body incorporating holes out of line in both directions and unique entirely right-hand keywork thoughtfully shoehorned into place (thanks, Dave Copley!) between these. And it’s perfect… for me! If standard layouts are similarly useless to you, so yours can be perfect for you, and like you I want keys for more than just trad repertoire.
How about a double touch? Piper’s grip player, here. I didn’t even know double-touch Bb key setups existed until I’d already gotten my last flute, and boy, did I regret not getting one, because my right thumb could have activated it with ease (the right touch is usually longer). Sure, I got around the problem with crossfingering, but the result wasn’t joyful to the ear for a picky git such as yours truly.
I only recommend the double touch Bb for purposes of considering other players after you: resale, inheritance, swapping at a session, etc. Whatever one’s grip, everyone wins.
Maybe only useful as a temporal solution (until a new keywork) but – would cross-fingering work? It does work on some flutes (if the holes are not too large), like this: xox xxx. It does work on my David Angus flute for example, which has very small holes. Would probably not work on a pratten style flute but worth a try. I play anything – even classical music – on a keyless flute but I designed it to fit my hands and with a very large E-hole to facilitate half-holing the Eb. Works for me but probably not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m still considering getting a baroque flute for all the classical stuff but I fear the Eb-key might interfere with my usual pinky-position on the flute.
I feared that cross-fingering would only work with rather small holes. The holes on my David Angus flute are almost as small as on a baroque flute, therefore almost all those cross-fingerings work pretty well.
I’m happy share my own experience since I was the owner of the flute you mentioned, and my first instrument was the clarinet, which I played for about 10 years (a long time ago…).
Overall, I find that it works better on the clarinet than it does on the flute. I think the main reason is because the angle of the left hand is not the same: fingers are really perpendicular to the instrument on the clarinet, whereas the angle is sharper on the flute while the key itself is still more or less perpendicular to the body of the flute. As a result, I felt the action of the key wasn’t as agile.
In addition, for ITM this key can sometimes get in the way of cuts and taps: this wasn’t really a problem for because at the time I didn’t play much ITM (mostly classical and baroque music), but it’s something to consider.
Finally, it has more or less the same limitations as the short Fnat, as you pointed out, and personally I wouldn’t want to rely solely on this key for Bb. (On the clarinet, it’s mostly used for fast chromatic passages as there are several other, more convenient fingerings for Bb.)
I sold this flute to another member of this board last year. If he reads this post he might want to share his own experience with the flute.
Edit: Besides that, I found Maurice’s keywork excellent, the best I’ve tried so far on a flute. He’s also a super nice guy and I’m sure he’d be happy to discuss how to address your needs.
My idea may seem sort of wonky depending on where you live. I live near Chicago which has a rich landscape of experienced woodwind repairers. When I had a similar problem with the too short Cnat on a M&E keyed flute I went to one of those guys, showed him my issue and he soldered an actual clarinet key to the too short and too bent for me Cnat. It looks a little different if you are looking close but never bothered me.
Now you may not want to go that route if you have a lovely historical flute. And it certainly depends on access to an expert in woodwind repair. My guy had been in the business for 35+ years and had done all sorts for work for instruments from kids band level to pro.
Years before I had to have something done on a Rudall Rose and brought it in. The whole shop was quite excited. They had never seen one in person before. We forget how unusual we and our instruments are sometimes.
Yes, I am the proud owner of the Maurice Reviol flute being discussed here. I love the clarinet style Bb key on it. It is wonderful relief for my left hand thumb which is pretty inept. Maurice does outstanding key work and he is open to adding keys to flutes from other makers as well. He makes an interesting LH thumb key that’s easier to roll into. This flute is pretty large holed which appeals to me, being a former trombone player.
I have an older Casey Burns 5-key with a RH Bb key on top. It replaces the Cnat key so C is played with cross fingering, but if anyone can squeeze both keys up there, hat’s off to them. I also had an extension to the long F key added by someone local so my LH pinky could reach it. It was inspired by an oboe key. Then there are the right hand Bb touch options by other makers.
Aaron Olwell recently made an adaptive key for Seamus Egan and Aaron might possibly make it available for others in the future.
Terry McGee expressed gratitude a few weeks ago for flute makers who are dedicated to preserving historical accuracy in their flute making and also to the community of flute makers who like to experiment with ways to make things easier for us. It seems to me that there has always been experimentation going on as we can see from pics of Nicholson’s flutes for example. Whatever gets us to enter in to the music more easily without thinking about it seems to be a good thing.
