As some of you know, I’ve been playing the whistle for a little less than a year, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’ve also recently begun bagpipe lessons. Well, I’m also interested in learning the flute (yes, learning 3 new instruments does sound like somewhat of a bad idea), and picked up a Sweetheart Renaissance fife, figuring that it would be a good transition to learning flute, since it’s pitched/fingered exactly as a whistle in D. Problem is, I can’t seem to get a good or consistent tone out of it.
When I do manage to get a tone out of it, it always seems way too breathy, and I feel like I may be wasting most of the air I’m expending in the process. About 2 or 3 times I’ve managed to get a clean, pure tone out of it, but I can never seem to replicate it. When I do get a tone, I generally find it only works for a few notes, and others fail completely (the low D has been, in my experience, the easiest to play, and as I go up the scale, it gets progressively more breathy and eventually the tone cuts out altogether).
Does anyone else have one of these fifes? I’d love to hear some sound clips of it being played by someone who knows what they’re doing… Are these considered more or less difficult than most fifes/flutes? Any advice you all might have to offer me would be greatly appreciated. Also, please note that I am in the process of reading through the entire “Things we tell newbies” thread.
High-pitched flutes/fifes are really demanding embouchure-wise.
It’s a lot easier to start on a lower pitched instrument, e.g. a standard D flute
and use that to transition to the renaissance fife.
Definitely helps to get something playable. You
might check with us here or do a search. Flute is demanding
enough with a reasonably good instrument.
In my case embouchure really came online after a number
of months of practice. It was only after a good deal longer
that I could play a high D instrument.
If you mean to do this, really worth thinking through what you will do
and, if possible, investing in a pretty good flute. These can be sold
if the whole effort goes south.
As for the keyless flutes, $300 is really more than I’d care to drop on a starter instrument. I’d put my limit around $100, though I’d prefer even less, of course. My brother has a standard Boehm flute that’s circulated through our family a bit, without anyone ever really playing it. I’ll likely snatch that from him and give it a go. I remember trying to play it 20 years ago and being able to get a relatively even tone out of it, but I could just be mis-remembering things…
Second the fife comment - small embouchure instruments are very demanding.
The Böhm is your best bet, I’d think.
Or: get the money together for a Casey Burns Folk Flute. OK, they’re (now) $375, but if you have a quality instrument, you’ll just want to play it so much more.
I made the mistake of buying low quality Irish flutes and then rectified that with a Folk Flute, which I still have and play every day, nearly 3 years later.
I’m not saying that quality has a certain price - a $100 flute might rock - but there are some price points below which you’ll have to be lucky to get a flute that works for you, especially if you’re a beginner. Tipple flutes will be the exception, not the rule
Speaking from experience - and I crossed over from playing a Böhm for 15+ years, so I knew what to do with a flute to start with. If you start on a flute that is hard to play, you’ll just get discouraged quicker. IMHO.
And it’s not as if you’ll be stuck with a flute you can’t get rid of, if you don’t like it. You’ll lose a little of the buying price, sure, but you’ll spend a lot less than $100 selling it on if you really decide you don’t like it.
(Note: I’m not affiliated with Casey in any way, but after I split the head on my FF (I have the original 2-piece mopane one) and he replaced the head free I can only sing his praises.)
