I have encountered a persistent, troubling problem in my flute playing in my almost 4 years of playing a keyless african blackwood flute (Casey Burns).
Usually, after playing 45 minutes or so, I can’t maintain the initial full tone, and the flute seems to clog up. It’s really annoying, and prevents me from enjoying playing with my fellow musicians for a full evening. I’ve tried cleaning out the head and other joints with a brush, applying oil to the embouchure hole, applying oil and/or lip gloss to my lips, drinking more water. Am quite perplexed at this point.
Periodically when playing any of my conical flutes, I will start noticing that the flute is becoming less responsive, the lower register becomes harder / impossible to hit solidly, and the tone becomes weak and without body.
This is caused by condensate having built up in the bore.
My solution is usually to cover all holes, tilt the end of the flute down at a pretty good angle, cover the embouchure hole with my mouth, and blow with great force. This blows the droplets of water out of the bore (and out of the end of the flute–be careful whose drink you hold it over! ), and suddenly everything is right with the world again.
The other solution is to swab out your flute every so often during play.
Me too. The flute flag can be very useful under these circumstances,
because you can swab the whole flute almost instantaneously
without dissassembling it. Alos sometimes I take off
the head and shake it. Best
These are both good suggestions, and will probably solve your problem (if you haven’t been swabbing). Another thing to consider is the possibility of a tiny crack somewhere. I’d been told by a respected flutemaker that high humidity, such as occurs during sessions may cause a hairline crack to change somewhat, which can cause the symptoms you describe.
And it always happens at the worst time – i.e., right when you’ve screwed up your courage and decided to start a tune in a session or worse, in a gig when you’re taking a solo turn. WHY IS THAT???
Anyway, I generally give it a good “blow out” like James described, but sometimes an authoritative vertical shake or upright knee-bounce works, too (as long as you’re not wearing, like, velvet pants or shorts or something, eeeeew!). In fact, I now routinely bounce mine on my knee between tunes.
Also, I’ve occasionally found condensation “bubbles” in fingerholes or under keys – so if Step 1 doesn’t resolve the issue, you might want to blow into/under those, too.
Cathy, you reminded me of something that happened at a session several months ago.
We were playing “The New Policeman” which has a lovely little rocking pedal figure in the B part featuring a e - d alteration. Everytime I’d hit that e, I would get this weird little warbling burble in the sound–all through the tune.
It drove me crazy(er)!
I can hear you chuckling from here, what had happened of course was a bead of water had gotten itself “stuck” in the E tonehole and was vibrating in the wind everytime I’d hit that note.
And if that doesn’t work … dhigbee is dead on. One other thing to check is whether your joints are swelling/leaking as the humidity rises in the flute. If you take the flute apart and the joints are wet after playing in, there’s a chance that a little Teflon (aka plumber’s) tape on the tenons will make you a very happy person.
Trust me, I’m chuckling with you.
And wait a minute. It happened on the E. Could you possibly play a Hammy? (I only ask because E in general on mine is the first place trouble really shows up, and this does not happen on my other flutes. Don’t know why, but …)
I don’t know anything about flutes but I know a little about bagpipes. Sometime after cleaning & oiling the pipes you can hold the bore (drones, chanter) up to the light and you might some cotton lint stuck on the side of the bore or in the chanter holes. I guess it gets hung up on a rough part in the wood. If you start chasing a note and it goes sharp (adjust) then goes flat, I check for lint or something. Sometime the lint is really stuck and you have to blow hard to get it out. If the lint absorbs water or blocks the hole (just a little) the note will be off. Bagpipe reeds (around here) have to be adjusted when playing because of moisture. so we are constantly adjusting the reed. Hope this helps.
James, I know – when mine is on it’s INSANE! In fact, it seems to finally be settling down after six weeks or so in Ireland – I sent it over to Hammy for a tuneup, but after its first few days home it just started going AWOL in the middle of tunes for no apparent reason (this never happened to me on my other flute). One minute a reasonable sound, the next … nothing, or a sort of squawky flutelike-facsimile. It was so darned strange! I was fighting it all the time. And a dicey E seemed to be the harbinger of doom in each case … on bad E days, I knew I was in for a rodeo.
So I took it to my flute lesson and my tutor opined that it was reacting to the humidity change. Indeed, it contracted so much (even humidified) that a ring fell off the barrel. But God bless him, I think he’s right – I boosted the humidity to 48%, and the last few days have been wonderful. It’s booming along like a cannon.
So suffice it to say I no longer want to throw it out the window.
Anyway, this is a long, circuitous way to say that when conditions are right (give me 80% humidity! ) for this flute, I don’t think I’d trade it for anything.
And it also serves as a cautionary tale to anyone taking a flute to or from a far more- or less-humid clime than ourselves … don’t be surprised if it takes a while before it settles in.
So there you go; that’s my experience for the day.
Oh, and ‘other James’ ( ) … good advice on the lint, etc. It’s funny, how even the littlest things can throw these guys out of whack. Aerodynamics, I guess … Thanks!
Just let me know when and where you’re going to throw it out the window, and I’ll be there to catch. Then drive off furiously pretending nothing happened!
I’m curious about the ring though… Did it go back on? I’m almost kid at Christmas time in anticipation for getting my Hammy. It ‘should’ ship sometime in the latter part of this week. I wish Hammy could put a lojack on it so I could track it’s exact location!
Just to stir the pot and relate that Fintan Vallely recalled that one of the best flutes he’d ever played had its bore full of gunk and unrecognizable detritus, and seemed to never have been cleaned.
I blow out my flute regularly as a preemptive measure.
I’ve got some photos for you; I just have to move them from my portable drive and send them to you, hopefully by the end of today when I’ll actually have a USB port to plug the drive into (am finally getting a computer here at work that’s newer than 1995).
Yeah, it’s a pity you weren’t roaming the back roads of Kentucky last week or the week before …
Do bear the humidity thing in mind, though. As John pointed out, it’s like, 80% humidity over there and it could take it a while to “settle.”
And Nano, ! I suspect there’s a certain point where the gunk actually retains moisture in all the right places! Of course, as I recall Mr. Vallelly also relates stories of people pouring a bit of Guinness down the bore … and John Skelton has a photograph of a French fellow squirting a garden hose into his bombarde (I think it was his bombarde) to “loosen it up” before a gig …
), and suddenly everything is right with the world again.
) for this flute, I don’t think I’d trade it for anything.
) … good advice on the lint, etc. It’s funny, how even the littlest things can throw these guys out of whack. Aerodynamics, I guess … Thanks!
