I’ve seen some flutes for sale in f. How does that work? Tried to find a fingering chart to give me a clue, but can’t find one.
Is there specific music that these flutes fit with?
On an f-flute, all holes covered is an f-natural - going up, you get f-g-a-bflat-c-d-e… You can play any music written in D on it with D fingerings but all the notes will sound a third higher. Otherwise, play music written in F (one flat).
Pat
P.S. Dave Copley makes a GREAT flute in F!
F might be my favorite flute key. There seems to be something magical that happens with the physics. THey just sound great.
Doc
Yep, easiest to think of it as a transposing instrument, up 3 semitones. And it’s generally played as such in trad music. Of course, you can memorize the transposed concert pitch fingerings if you like (à la alto recorder), if your brain works that way. 
MTGuru has done it again. Just to clarify/expand a bit (or obfuscate?), a fingering chart for an F flute would look exactly the same as one for an equivalent D flute, including the note-names/notation for the fingerings. 6-finger note sounds F, written D, called D, etc. If you wanted to know what those fingerings actually sound/are named in concert pitch, you could systematically write the actual pitch note-names on to your D chart - written/fingered D sounds F, written/fingered E sounds G, etc… Same pertains for Bb treble band flutes/fifes et al. Flute Band music parts would be written with the appropriate transpositions.
So you can either simply play stuff you already know just as you would on D flute (see clips below), knowing it will sound a minor 3rd higher… or you can transpose tunes that may be awkward on D flute down a minor 3rd to get them to sound at “normal” pitch on the F - e.g. a tune in 2 flats (Bb) at concert would play like a tune in 1 sharp (G) on F flute - much easier, save there may be problems with tessitura demanding octave folding.
Here are some clips on my YouTube demonstrating a couple of F flutes I did up and sold last year (there are more clips on them than I’ve linked here - you’ll find them if you want them…):
German 4-key F Flute demo
English 5-key F Flute demo
(On all of those, I’m just playing as I would on a D flute - no special tune adaptations/transpositions.)
Very much like your version of Rts of Man, a tune I usually don’t much like.
And a terrific performance as well.
Jem, you old obfuscator, that was a pretty good explanation of a confusing concept that seems to appear over and over. But I am reminded of the calipso tune sung by Harry Bellafonte in 1954 called “Man Piaba”. My elementary school teacher was in love with Harry Bellafonte and played this tune frequently in class.
"It was clear as mud, and it covered the ground, and the confusion made my brain go 'round …
http://www.akh.se/harbel/lyrics/man_piaba.htm
i’ve got 3 or 4 of these babies around here.
anyone interested? not much, some keyed some not.
Including a Healy keyless that pretty much booms.
I play a little Spanish model that was made for me years ago.
dm
My goodness! What kind of teacher would play such filth to children?
I have a Sweetheart in F - good value for the money and great fun to play. I tend to play it when playing with others on tunes that are already in the related keys of C, F, BFlat - that means I am often reading the sheet music and playing the notes as written on the music (if using the sheet music at all…). It means learning a different association between position on the Staff and fingered notes, but it is quite useful - and playing it as if it was in D to get the minor third out on tunes I already know in the D flute is always an option too.
Using the second (simpler) approach, the Glasgow/Tam lin works for the people I play with when I play it “as if in B minor on a D flute” but use the F flute to do so - then they come out in the key that our fiddlers are using (D Minor). Similarly popcorn behaviour played “as if in B minor” on a C whistle comes out in A minor which is what our fiddlers like for that. Needs some figuring out, but is often the only reasonable option to play along on some tunes without havng to haul out the Boehm flute, and even then sometimes there just aren’t enough notes at the bottom end.
And just playing the normal flute repertoire on the F flute normally is also great fun - the higher pitch gives everything a bit more projection and makes it easier to blow. Doesn’t work in a session though.
F Flutes appear on many a good Flute Album, Notably Matt Molloy but others too. I have a rather beautiful Boosey Prattens original, eight keys and it plays itself. I’ve never seen any others like this, that is eight keyed, in F and ostensibly a mini version of the D (I know some modern makers have emulated them) has anyone else seen an origianl boosey/rudall eight keyed F?
See pic; it’s at the bottom of the pile!
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii286/holmesway/ManyFlutescomp.jpg
I haven’t actually seen one, Norman - though the late Paul Davies once told me he had a similar thing (dunno what make) for a while, after he gave me back my family heirloom six-keyer which he borrowed for a while because he rather liked it - thought it was the best F flute he’d met until he found the 8-keyer… (I really should do a clip ion my own F some time. The ones on YouTube were “passing through”.) And I seem to recall Chris Wilkes saying he had an 8-key one too at some point - dunno if he still has and I didn’t see that either. They were never common, but there do seem to have been a few out there.
Of course, Jean-Michel Veillon makes extensive use of his Lehart F flute on most of his recordings.
here’s a couple of pics of my boosey pp 8key in ‘f’
It looks like Heally will make keyed F flutes on special request. No idea how many keys he’d go up to though.
That looks like a beauty Rama, I was beginning to think I had the only one, must be worth around £15,000 or more!
In Galicia these are called “Requinta” and are played along with Galician pipes. Search that term on YouTube and you will see some examples in use. The traditional ones usually have one key, and are essentially the European simple system flute, in F - nothing special.
Hammy Hamilton and Dave Copley make great F flutes as well.
I’ll be getting myself a Copley F or an F/G combo one of these days if I can keep one in the shop long enough to bond (it would take about a half hour for irreversible bonding).
Doc
Another band flute maker, I remember seeing their site when looking for keyed Bb band flutes.
They have a 6 key for £750.
http://www.millyard-molem.com/images/F_low_res.jpg
Can be made just, equal, high or low.
Some day I’ll get a 6 key Bb…
Edit to add it seems Ormiston flutes also makes a keyed F.
http://www.ormistonflutes.co.uk/flutes.html
thanks, it’s quite a blast to play. found it in a junk shop. i didnt know they were so rare - guess i got lucky. interestingly, the case comes with a little belt loop presumably so it can be attached to your belt as you march along and play the flute …
wish i had that lovely lot of flutes of yours…