I’ve been trying to make my flutes easier to control,
following some advice from Nicholson as presented
by Terry McGee.
I’ve put white adhesive tape in three places:
where my left thumb goes, where my rt thumb
goes, and where my pinky touches.
This stuff is rougher than the flute and
my grip is more secure. Also I’m retraining
my rt hand thumb, so by putting the tape
where I want my thumb to go, I feel where
to put it.
I’ve also bought transparent hose at the hardware
store and made ersatz bopeps. These go round
the flute where it rests on the left index finger’s
base. Provides extension and also it’s rougher.
The result is good, I feel. The flute is more
secure, I’m better able to relax, and I’m probably
less liable to injury cause my fingers are much
less involved in steadying and controlling
the instrument.
I’ve even done this on my G flutes, smaller
jobbies, with good results.
I wanted to share this experience; also
wonder if anybody has suggestions
for better stuff to stick on. Nicholson
used seal skin for the rt thumb, I think,
but I want something easier on
seals.
I thought the Nicholson used shark skin for his tumb pads. Shark skin is scaly (slick in one direction and coarse in the other). They’ve caught sharks out of the Mississippi there in St. Louis, so get a stout pole and head for the river.
This beats the long arduous trek north to club a seal.
_Some more environmentally friendly possiblilities would be:
The adhesive antislip strips used in bathtubs.
The adhesive corn pads, those round pads with the hole in the middle (we use them on my daughter’s viloin to help her consistently place her hand).
I also recall a tacky rubber mat (exteamly thin) used to keep things from sliding around on car dashboards and in tool boxes._
BTW: What are your thoughts pertaining to putting a wooden head on the Copley?
‘Nicholson used seal skin in a cavity where the right thumb presses outwards in the three-point 19th century grip. At the base of the left index finger, he had a depression cut, effectively making the flute thinner here, not thicker. He recommended using the tips of L1 and L2, but the flat of L3. You see a lot of old flutes with fingernail grooves on L1 and L2.’
Forgive my caring; anyway seal skin (which is better left to
the seal). But maybe sharkskin will work. However I wish to
leave sharks alone, hoping they will return the favor.
'He loveth best…
Thanks for these interesting suggestions. I do want to emphasize
that this sort of thing REALLY helps, IMO.
Flutes are slippery devils; holding them properly is
an art, I’ve been at it for years, and Nicholson’s
idea of physically modifying the flute to make
it grippable makes sense–though I’m into
sticking things on, not thinning the wood.
Also I’m into stick ons that come off.
As to putting the wooden head on the Copley body,
Dave does make a wooden head with a partial
lining, which I suppose secures the tuning slide. I’ve
never seen/played one, but he’s written
me that the results are good. That’s how I’d do it.
Noooooo! Do not hurt the flute! The tape will get dirt around the edges and will scar the poor thing as the dirt (while being moved by your finger) will scar the poor thing! Put on those rubber knobby finger things that go over your fingers like secretaries have. Or have a gunsmith “checker” those areas. (You could also have them engrave a picture instead of checkering, that would be so cool….)
PS It is all about the sound, not the resale value.
You might try mole skin. Don’t worry it doesn’t actually come from dead moles (or live ones either for that matter )
It’ll be in the foot-care section of your drug store with the bunion pads and shoe inserts and whatnot. You may also find it at a camping gear store. Hikers use it to prevent blisters.
Comes in two types, too. One is the felt-y thin kind and the other is a thicker, foam-padded felt-y kind. Depends on what sort you think you’d need. Comes in colors. White and tan.
I never understood the purpose of that stuff, even after a great deal of explanation and demonstration. I still got blisters under it and everything got so wet and macerated that whole sections of skin ripped off with the moleskin. And if it didn’t, there was all this sticky adhesive everywhere to get bits of wool sock, dirt, rocks, and twigs stuck in, encouraging more blisterization, all of which would macerate and rip off. And then get infected. I swear, I still have scars all round my ankles.
Oh, I’m sorry. That’s kind of gross, isn’t it . . .
I bought something (for a Carillon application) the other day that might be of interest - very thin closed cell foam with an adhesive backing already applied. Thinnest I saw was 1.6mm (1/16"). You could easily cut out the shape you want and stick it on the flute. It should provide a cushioned, low slip pad. I don’t know what might be involved in getting it off again though (I’d guess in the worst case, you’d have to roll and crumble it off and then use alcohol to wash off the adhesive).
I’ve experimented with sharkskin (available in large amounts at zero cost from fish shops) - works well, but you wonder if it might go off in a warm climate. Also tried fine sandpaper, held on with doublesided carpet tape. Also works well - you simply can’t drop the flute!
The more I use it, the more I like the 19th century hold. It definitely frees up the right hand fingers, and gives the left thumb the freedom it needs to operate Bb.
It’s interesting what substances have popped up in this discussion.
The sticky-backed closed-cell foam and the mats that make things stick to your car’s dash have both been used for Northumbrian smallpipes pads.
FWIW, a I took a couple of lessons from the flute professor at the university where I teach computer science. The first thing she wanted me to change was my grip, to the lip/left-index/right-thumb approach. It seemed impossible at first. Making myself a much lighter flute of wood with more surface texture (bubinga) helped with the transition, but now it doesn’t seem difficult even on the Casey Burns folk flute.
My next project is to make a bubinga flute that isn’t a quarter tone sharp.
Once you have a lathe, a drillpress, a sander, and every drill bit known to God and man, making flutes doesn’t seem intimidating, and carving depressions to make them easier to hold seems very reasonable. It would make it rather a personal instrument.
I couldn’t get the flute steady enough the way
your teacher wants. This led to my using my
left index finger pressing on the hole to
steady the flute, which led to tendinitis.
This thread prompted me to e-mail Casey Burns and ask him about the non-skid materials he might recommend for use on one of his folk flutes.
He responded in lightning-fast time, bless him. I’ll paraphrase, since I’m uneasy about quoting him without his permission:
He too says sharkskin, which may be available from art supply stores may work, held on by carefully applied Super Glue(!) or double-sided carpet tape. An alternative to sharkskin is a piece of cloth-backed sandpaper (220 or 320 grit).
Now…what’s a bopep (ersatz or no)?
I had a wooden Boehm flute that came with a crutch for the left thumb. It was the only thing I liked about it, as it happens. I sold it because it had an open G# key and you had to play with your left pinky down all the time instead of just for the G#–a doubler’s instrument, I guess. I just couldn’t get my head around it.
My H. Bettony wooden Boehm looks like it might have been fitted with a crutch at one point–there’s some filled holes on the body where the little metal socket would go. The wooden Haynes, however, does not.
A bopep is a plastic piece that fits over a Boehm flute
where the flute rests on the base of the left index
finger. The chief point is to give your hand
more extention so it isn’t cramped.
These don’t fit wooden flutes, which seem
to be too wide–I tried to fit one on
and broke the plastic.
Instead I’ve bought clear plastic tubing,
cut and split it and I’m using two
of these, one on top of the other,
to work as an ersatz bopep.
Thanks for relaying the info from Casey.
I’ve put a thick rubber band around the bottom
of my flute where the rt pinky rests. This
certainly makes for a better contact.
So far I find this sort of thing really helps
control the flute–big improvement.
Jim is right a bopep won’t fit on a wooden flute without alteration…just jamming it on does not work. I tried heating one up and the plastic got nice and flexable and could then be persuaded to conform to the curvature of the flute. However, it needs to be glued or double stick taped in place and there is extra material …and well it wasn’t perfect. I finally took a belt sander and rat-tail file to the thing and made a small, perfectly fitting recepticle for the base of my left index finger and “waa-laa” no more cramping and greater stability. I did the same thing to another bopep that I placed on the flute where my right thumb goes.
After using the thumb rest for awhile I found that I move my thumb around over time as I play for awhle (sometimes on the side sometimes underneath, sometimes in between) One position was making my right hand tired - so I took it off.
Anyway, the nice thing about the bopep is that it is a rather sturdy mat black plastic that blends into the look of a blackwood flute. You can also make the plastic as rough or smooth as you desire. The bopep came with several shapes (three I think) so you can choose what might work for you.
It would seem that somebody who made (or customized) bopeps
to fit our wooden flutes might actually
get some business.
The doubled clear plastic hose doesn’t look
bad, in fact, though probably less good
(certainly more visible) than a real
bopep.
White surgical adhesive tape
does help my rt thumb.
First it’s rougher than the flute,
even though it’s less rough than
some of the options mentioned
above. Second, in my case it serves as
a reminder as to where my thumb should
be–I was wandering about in unhelpful
ways.
Well aesthetically adhesive tape isn’t
the best. On the other hand, it’s less
awful and less visible than one might
expect. Rubber bands look like, well,
rubber bands–but they work.
Colored bands might help.
