About a couple months ago, I submitted a topic of repetitive stress, tendintis type pain from which I was suffering in mainly my left hand/arm but also in my right. Folks kindly sympathized with my plight and gave tips on how to get through it.
Update: my solution was to change flutes to a Casey Burns mopane large-hole slideless–and it worked. Even though I play daily, sometimes hours a day, almost all the pain is now gone. I still have some little twitches and stiffness occassionally, e.g. I was a bit ‘sore’ from playing for 4 hours at a house session last Sunday. However, I have no real concerns about not being able to play due to pain.
With Casey’s flute, the holes are quite large and in-line, i.e. no offset like on his standard ergonomic model, with the one major advantage that I can see is the holes for each hand being closer together. Another fluter at the session had a new flute from Casey custom made for her; he used a Xerox of her slim small hands to create the best hole pattern for her. I tried that flute and loved it–a bit softer than my stout beast, but an awesome flute. I’m told Casey did the customization for no extra charge.
Anyways, just wanted to let folks know that Casey’s ergonomics seem to work very well indeed, a possible condiseration if you are having difficulties with pain from playing.
Cheers, and thanks, Casey.
Jason
PS My latest clip of “Sunset” reel on my webpage below is played on the Burns if interested in hearing it.
I play the same flute. Mine is the “ergo” model in that there is a very slight offset of the holes, (not completely in-line).
I have minor arthritis in my left hand, (lowest joint of thumb, mostly). I’ve only played a few flutes, all intermediate level, but I’ll say this is the first one I’ve been fully comfortable with. There’s no pain, and I can keep a relaxed grip.
I’ve recently been chastised for being a new player making recommendations, so I’ll just say I like it, and leave it at that.
i am glad they work out for you. if you are interested, noel hill gave me a new stretch for the arms. if you are interested, i can post it here.
i will keep casey in mind when people talk about arm problems!
haha. dont take any chastisement! just let us know you are a new player. i have learned a lot from new players.
i find new players have many valid things to say. i once even learned a lot from people who couldnt play music at all.
i played them two examples: the first they thought sounded horrible, the second they thought sounded good.
before they said it, i thought the first sounded good and the second bad.
it turns out they were right! afterwards, i changed my playing accordingly.
this was only a few months ago. and let me tell you, just a few months ago i was godawful. by listening to everybody, i have learned how to get much better, much quicker than if i had only listened to those who i deemed worthy.
if you can learn from people who know nothing, or who are beginners, then you can learn from the top players. if you limit yourself to those who think you know more than you, you prevent a lot of opportunities to learn. i prefer to look for those who have something to teach me. whether it is someone on a forum, someone who knows nothing about music, someone at a session, or a winner of the tg4 musician of the year award, everyone is worth listening to.
Hi Akiba
Its very interesting to hear that someone has the same sort of problem as I do.
I’m fine playing my Low D whistle but my flute seems to aggravate the tendonitis in my forearm
Anyway what I’m curious about is the hole spacing on your Casey flute and how it compares with my own Rose flute which is a bit of a stretch for me and may be part of the problem.
If could you measure the hole spacing for me (metric or imperial) it would be much appreciated.
OK, I’m measuring from the middle of one hole to the middle of the next hole, from closest to the embouchure hole down:
hole 1 to hole 2: 3.5 cm
hole 2 to hole 3: 3.5 cm
hole 4 to hole 5: 3.4 cm
hole 5 to hole 6: 3.3 cm.
Remember, I have CB’s large-hole model, i.e. his Pratten flute, with large holes, e.g. 5th hole is 11mm x 13mm, but I have no problem with the holes and I have medium hands.
It’s good to see a post that points out that what’s generally ergonomic isn’t universally ergonomic. Depending on what bothers your joints, you might be better off with inline holes. I’ve had a few flutes with “ergonomic” hole layouts that have consistently bothered me.
I hope you’re not playing the flutes left-handed!? (I presume you have either the hands or holes reversed.)
I don’t mean just the bass flutes, though; I’ve had a few D flutes with offset holes that have also bothered me. I had assumed it was just that my hands were used to inline holes, but now I’m thinking that some people’s hands are just better suited to inline holes, while others are suited to offset holes.
If you are truly interested in a Burns flute, I’d think it’d be worth a shot at contacting Casey directly, let him know what you’re looking for and why, then perhaps he can take a photocopy of your hands and customize your flute based on your exact hand size and particular flute playing challenge as he did for my colleague here in the Bay Area. Of course, I’m not speaking directly for Mr. Burns, but again, it’s worth a try.
Good point, chas. I have not played a flute with offset holes since I first started playing the flute back in high school almost 30 years ago. I’ve played a flute with inline holes since I was 15. So, you’re probably right, inline holes may be more comfortable, i.e. ergonomic, for me as well.
Then again, I wonder with Casey’s expertise if he may not be able to find just that right formation for me, which in turn might help to optimize my playing and minimize any discomfort or damage. May have to find out one of these days.
There’s other things that affect the ergonomics besides the hole spacing, size and offset. There’s the weight of the flute, the balance of the flute, the finish and how that affects slipperyness. I find the diameter where the left hand grips it to have a big effect. Generally a smaller diameter is more comfortable for me. I’m very tempted to carve out a bit for the left hand from one of my larger diamenter flutes as Nicholson did as an experiment.
Cheers
Graeme
I’m a new player (about 1 year) on my Tipple 3-piece D and I have had to overcome r-hand finger stretch issues to cover the large holes and also L-hand cramping which forced me into using pipers grip on the l-hand for about 9 months until I got inspired and made a crutch out of come cpvc and I sliced it to attach it to the flute effectively increasing the diameter about 1 inch for the left hand. I had bad cramping in the base of the left thumb after about 10 mintues playing. With the crutch I can play as long as I want and have been able to use standard grip full-time now.
The r-hand finger stretch to hit the low D has gotten better over time & with practice, but still my slowest finger by far. This may be exacerbated by the fact that that finger was injured when I was young and never did fully recover. nice to see that practice has strengthened that finger and it has gotten stronger & faster, but still not as good as I would wish. I wonder how a small hole flute would do for me. Maybe someday I’ll get a chance to try one out.
