Over the last few days I have posted a large number of new tunes to flutesite.com, in particular until now I had nothing out there for Waltons whistles, which was a shame as they are good whistles.
Also a question arose in an email conversation as to what flutesite.com is and will be. I think everybody here understands what flutesite.com is, but just in case there is a question, I just wanted to point out that it’s not a commercial enterprise; there is nothing for sale and never will be at that site; I do not make any money from the site, rather I pay money to make it available; that site is my hobby and personal obsession and is the point where two large parts of my life meet, my music and my fascination with computer systems of all kinds.
No issues, no big deal, just wanted to clear up any confusion.
That said, here are the new tunes I’ve posted over the last few days:
James, I’d like to tell you that I’ve enjoyed your site very much over the last couple of years. The ability to hear one musician play one song on a range of brands of instrument provides a comparison that is just plain hard to find out there, particularly for those of us who live far from civilization. I’ve also appreciated the email replies you sent when I sent you a truckload of newbie questions about flutes.
So, thanks.
Oh, and if you’d like to spruce things up a bit, you know, get a bit more traffic and generate additional interest, I suggest you start selling flutes and whistles (preferably ones you’ve made yourself).
So why can’t we get cross fingered notes on a small tone hole
Irish D flute except for Cnat and (only just) Bb?
Why can I get all (except the 2nd of course) cross fingered on
a little whistle but not on my Sweet C flageolet?
If this is covered nicely in another topic,
please let me know.
BTW James,
I really enjoyed that piece on the Baroque transverse flute
Personally speaking, I would prefer to hear the one piece
played on all your different flutes.
This would be the best comparison for me.
Preferably a lament.
your site was very useful to me when i started, because it provided pictures and information on a variety of flutes. It served to validate my choice to buy an M&E and also a Sweetheart traverso. So thanks!
Thanks to all for the kind comments. I’ve had a lot of fun and satisfaction from getting flutesite.com to where it is today, and it’s very much a work in progress.
Talasiga, some of the Baroque cross-fingerings do work on Irish flute / whistle. Instruments vary, but in general, you can pretty much always get C-natural and B-flat to work. G-sharp may or may not work; cross-fingered F-natural pretty much won’t work on any Irish flute or whistle I’ve tried, but it can usually be half-holed pretty well. E-flat, which is handled by the single key on the traverso, pretty much cannot be half-holed with any dependability, so you can pretty much say it’s not available without keys.
Experimentation is necessary, and what works on one instrument may not work well on another.
Here are some fingerings to try:
C-natural
try (o x x | o o o) or (o x o | x x x) or (o x x | x o x) or in the 2nd octave use (o x o | x x x)
B-flat
try (x o x | x x x) or (x o x |x x o) or in the 2nd octave (x o x | o o o)
G-sharp
try (x x o | x x x) in the low octave, 2nd octave try (x x o | x x o)
or (x x o | x o x) or (x x o | x o o)
Also I like your idea of having a recording of the same tune on every instrument for comparison. Look for that in the coming weeks…
The size of the tone holes. On Baroque flute they are very small, and cross-fingerings work well.
On Irish flutes they range from larger to very much larger; the larger the tones holes generally the fewer the cross-fingerings available to you.
With whistle vs. recorder, it is the size of the fingerholes along with the bore profile that makes the difference. Recorder, of course, depends heavily on cross-fingering for its chromatics, and they work quite well and are well in tune on a good recorder–they actually work much better on recorder than they do on traverso, where the player has to do careful embouchure adjustments on the fly to assist the weaker cross-fingered (“shaded”) notes.
