What so you think about this Dixon flute? Is it a good flute for a beginner?
I play whistle (high and low)
Cheers,
The Dixon is a good choise to start out with. I did that as well, it’s well worth the money. If you learn to get a good sound out of it, then you will have quite a good embouchure, cause it’s a bit hard to play.
However, don’t expect to be able to do any band, recording or session work with it. The tuning is not very good and it’s a bit quiet. But a good choise for a beginner, no question about that, but you’ll probably want to upgrade soon.
Cheers
Hi, I’m also thinking of picking up a flute after playing the whistle for around 9 months now. I was looking at these flutes in particular:
- Dixon flute that Stef had posted.
- This bamboo flute I saw in the Lark in the Morning catalog:
http://larkinthemorning.com//product.asp?pn=BFL001 - Another bamboo flute from the same page:
http://larkinthemorning.com//product.asp?pn=BFL025
I’m looking for something to try out which does not sound terribly bad but which fits in the same price range as these flutes. I’m still tempted to buy a Patrick Olwell flute though it’s a bit more expensive, but the thought of waiting 6-9 months for it to come seems very discouraging.
Has anyone bought any of these flutes (or others that cost about the same) that you would recommend or shun in particular?
~nash
Do you know Hamilton practice flute…?
http://homepage.eircom.net/~hammie/practice.htm
Have a good day,
Nash,
I’d shy away from those bamboo flutes. Stefpat’s choice above is good, and both Calmont music (a board member) and Al Mount (another board member) make good basic flutes for the $50 range. For around $250, both the Dixon conical (3 piece) and the Sweetheart basic are good starter flutes.
I tried playing on really bad bamboo flutes when I first started, and it was discouraging. I ended up making my own flute out of CPVC, and on my first try it was better than either of my bamboo flute!
Eric
Yes. Nice flute. I’ll post a reviewlet once I know how it compares to a “real” flute, i.e. when my wooden one arrives, in spring 2004.
It’s only EUR 50, though, so even if you aren’t happy with it, you didn’t lose much money. And you can strap it to a backpack, like a tent pole, that’s great for traveling 
Sonja
I’m getting started with an Alan Mount flute and it’s working out very well. I’m not in a position yet to make comparative judgements but it is just what I was told it would be, perhaps better. Tuning is pretty good and sound more than you have any right to expect for the price.
What do you think about…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2573000962&category=10183
Cheers,
Stefpat; first of all that is a flute made in Pakistan. The company sells them for about 15 dollars. If you want their email address I will send it to you.
Please dont order the Dixon. Tony makes some realy nice flutes but that aint one of them. It is a very discouraging flute. Maybe if you ordered the lip plate with it you would have better luck than I did but there are better choices. Alan Mounts flutes are great, offset holes and very easy to play, I think the Hammy would be great also. There are many threads on this subject in the archives and a search would give you much info to help you decide. There are some bamboo flutes worth having, Olwells of course, Sunreed and a few others. But give yourself a break and get one of Alans` flutes and enjoy a realy nice road to travel.
Tom
The wait for an Olwell bamboo is about a month, not a year, like his wood flutes. (Although he will soon be taking a winter break from bamboo flutes to catch up on wood flute orders.) Another respected bamboo flute maker is Steve Cox. www.tallgrasswinds.com
I would also shy away from the Dixon PVC cylinrical flute; his conical model, while more expensive, is also much better.
For starters, though, a bamboo flute pitched in F is a nice option (much more manageable finger stretch, takes less air).
Once you’ve got a handle on the basics on this flute, you can upgrade to a decent D flute.
Micah
Just this week i heard good things about Hammy’s practice flutes. Still a good option.
There are a lot of options… Alan Mount and Hamilton’s student flute being the best economy.
There are some great bamboo flutes out there… Olwell is reputed to be the best though word is that he’s not taking any orders until Spring. Other alternatives for bamboo flutes are SunReed, Erik the Flutemaker, Tallgrass Winds and Woodsong.
Avoid Lark in the Morning mail order. If you happen to be in San Francisco or Seattle and visit one of their shops you can usually hand select a decent instrument. Otherwise you don’t know what you’re getting.
Cheers,
Aaron
Update. He hasn’t been taking orders for bamboo for a while now. The holiday has started.
Stefpat,
IMO, if you’re considering a practice flute with the intention of eventually getting a good conical wooden flute for ITrad forget about Bamboo and just get a cheap PVC flute, I have a Dixon and it’s fine. You’ll spend more on a Bamboo flute and it isn’t going to sound any more like a conical wooden flute than a PVC. Then if you decide to keep at it (flute playing) get a good flute from one of the respected makers, it probably doesn’t matter who, and stick with that flute and practice plenty. All the top flute players reached the standard that they’re at by spending hours playing not because they used a particular make of flute.
Cheers, Mac
Thanks for all the information! I came across this flute while going through the Flute forum archives:
http://members.aol.com/hurdyplay/Flute.htm
Has anyone played a Moore flute or heard anything about it?
~nash
Haven’t played one, but looking at it it appears to be a cylindrical PVC flute with a tuning slide - in other words, very similar to the Dixon 2-piece (aka the Dixon Duo when shipped with both flute and whistle heads).
I have a Dixon Duo. An OK low whistle (rather quiet) and an OK cylindrical flute (sounds OK, not to hard to play) to start with, as others have said. And I play it enough that I feel I’m getting my money’s worth from it.
But having had a chance to try a friend’s Hamilton keyless, I also know that there’s a pretty big difference in sound and playability - even in my unskilled hands, the Hamilton sounded much better (and was easier to fill).
I suspect any halfway decent cylindrical model is OK to start with, especially if you’re just getting your toes wet before deciding if you want to go further. But I know that if I’m at all serious I’ll end up with a better flute, sooner rather than later. At this point, I’m still more serious about whistling (and have a large amount of improvement possible there). But as soon as find myself spending more of my limited practice time with the flute, I’ll be upgrading.
So: how serious are you, and how limited is your cash? Because I think if you are serious and can afford it, you might want to spend a bit more and get a decent conical flute.
Don’t go there!
The cylindrical Moore flute was my first flute experience, and I was so close to being turned off flute playing altogether. Luckily for me I bought a decent conical flute (a Seery), and discovered that it was possible to make music on a flute.
To put it bluntly, Moore flutes are crap. Very hard to play and very badly tuned, and playing it (or trying to) for any amount of time will give you a bunch of bad habits that you will have to unlearn once you get a “real” flute.
Jens
Do you speak about Hamilton practice flute or “real” flute,
Cheers,
Another good option in the cylindrical PVC category is the Doug Tipple flute. He sells them on eBay, and they’re under $50. That’s what I started on, and it’s a pretty good flute. One warning, though – it has very large tone holes, and one or two of them are a bit hard to cover fully. If you don’t cover it all the way, you get a horrible sound. However, I got used to that very quickly, and once I started to get the embouchure figured out, I was able to get a heck of a big sound out of the thing.
Oh, and one more good thing about them is that the waiting period is just how long the mail takes to get it to you. When I ordered mine, he e-mailed me to say that he was about to go make it, and it was in the mail the next day.
The flute I got from him is the older 6-hole model. He has more recently started making one with the extended foot, which he calls his 8-hole flute (although of course you only use the same 6 holes for tone production, and the bottom two are just for venting). He even has invented an interesting tuning mechanism for these, although my flute doesn’t have it and is nicely in tune. I’m not sure how useful the tuning slide would be, but it certainly is clever.
Steven
Thanks again for all the opinions mates! I’ve been convinced against getting a Moore. Steven, I’m leaning towards an Al Mount flute to start with since I’ve heard raves about it in other threads in this forum too.
Alan, please mail me back! Thanks.
Sudarshan