I brought my bamboo flute by Erik the flutemaker to my tin whistle class and Bill Ochs took a look at it. He verified that the hole spacing was a little wide and that it would be uncomfortable to learn on. It could be played, just not the best for a beginner (like me) to learn on. I’m thinking about taking private flute lessons from him as well as taking the second half of the beginning tin whistle class at the Irish Arts Center. Anyway, not sure what to do at this point. Bill said he has a flute maker that he uses that he can get me setup with. I’m not sure who it is or what sort of prices I would be looking at but I trust his judgement on these things so I will be looking into it. Any other suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
If I were you I would pick up a 3 piece flute from Dixon. I would not bother taking lessons on anything less than a flute that you can adjust tuning and are able to turn the embouchure towards you. Believe me “been there, done that” if you know what I mean.
If your serious about learning and sticking with the flute you may want to invest in a longer term flute. For the price I don’t think you can beat a Copley or Hamilton. Skip Healy makes that a two piece flute and I know people have gotten one or two peice flutes from Olwell.
If all these are out of your range than I would go for an Olwell bamboo but that’s what I did and when your working on your embouchure it helps to be able to roll the embouchure in a little without affecting your grip and finger placement.
- Good luck
I would say that you aren’t going to go wrong with anyone Bill Ochs recommends.
If the prices turn out to be out of reach, check Hammy Hamilton–his flutes are some of the finest and his prices very reasonable.
If Hammy’s are still out of reach, the M&E Rudall and Rose has a great reputation and is a wonderful, powerful flute, as is his standard model and the Seery Pratten. All are available for under $400 U.S. dollars.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Bill will not steer you wrong. He make his living teaching not performing so his guidance is based on experience.
I would recommend you slow down a notch and take the next whistle class before you buy a flute. This will give you at least 12 tunes that you will already have memorized before you pick up the flute.
The fingering on the flute and the whistle are very close and it will be much easier to learn once you have the tunes in your head. (even if yours is as hard as mine to get the tunes into it.)I recently bought a Dixon 3 piece polymer and am working on my own trying to learn how to play it. I am finding that it takes some time to get the “Embouchure” (shape of you mouth) correctly to reach the notes you want. I may take some flute lessons with Bill next year.
I have taken whistle lessons in the past and can recommend his class to anyone interested
On 2002-10-02 14:24, Wizzer wrote:
Bill will not steer you wrong. He make his living teaching not performing so his guidance is based on experience.
I would recommend you slow down a notch and take the next whistle class before you buy a flute. This will give you at least 12 tunes that you will already have memorized before you pick up the flute.
I already mentioned to Bill that I want to get done with this tin whistle class and at least start the next before starting with the flute (for monetary, time, and overstaturation of information purposes) However, I have to budget money for these things so if I can get the proper flute to learn on before starting on the classes, I will try to do that. Then I won’t have to lay out so much at one shot. I’m actually picking up tunes pretty fast (faster than I thought I could at any rate) but even if I only have a few tunes down cold on tin whistle, I figure I can work on those few on the flute to work my air control and embousure (I know I spelled it wrong, I don’t have a dictionary handy 
)I’m going to talk to Bill about it and see what he thinks.
You know, at some point we are going to have to get a tri-state area C&F picnic or something going on so I can meet everyone in this area
Thanks
-Jim
The Dixon 3 piece polymer should run you about $190.00us plus tax and shipping. You can get it thru the whistle shop or as another poster stated thru Tony Dixon himself.
Let Bill know your budget limitations and he will make some recommendations.
I’ve been emailing back and forth with Bill and he recommends a Olwell Bamboo ‘F’ flute to start with. I dropped an email to Pat Olwell last night to find out the current price and how to get payment to him.
-Jim
The F is a great idea! Size is much more manageable, and so are the air requirements. I think Tom Dowling has an Olwell F also, so you could ask him what he thinks also. He usually lurks the whistle board. I’d tell you to ask Tom what he thinks about lessons with Bill Ochs, but I already know what he’ll say - the same thing I say: you can’t go wrong with Bill Ochs.
P.S. - I’m definitely up for the picnic. Make it at Bear Mountain State Park and we could get some of the more upstate NY’ers also.
P.S. - I’m definitely up for the picnic. Make it at Bear Mountain State Park and we could get some of the more upstate NY’ers also.
I live about 40 minutes from Bear Mountain and that’s a really popular destination for my motorcycle club rides so I know that area well. I wonder how many people would be up for a little whistle/flute get together. Hmmmm, the wheels are turning…
Hey, don’t forget those of us south of you! I think there are several of us around Philly (I’ve also seen a couple from Delaware) who might be interested in a get-together.
Where’s Bear Mountain State Park? This Spring I will be in Rochester.
Erik makes his flutes with wide spacing between RH2&3 because he plays with his pinkey on RH3 rather than his ring finger like most of us.
Some other bamboo makers out there do the same.
Something to keep in mind.
On 2002-10-04 14:18, avanutria wrote:
Where’s Bear Mountain State Park? This Spring I will be in Rochester.
Hey Av! It’s right on the Hudson, about 35 or 40 miles north of NYC, 5 or 10 miles south of West Point. If it happens, we could find you a bed at our house.
On 2002-10-04 14:18, avanutria wrote:
Where’s Bear Mountain State Park? This Spring I will be in Rochester.
When will you be in the area? Maybe we can set something up for the spring.
-Jim
On 2002-10-02 14:24, Wizzer wrote:
I would recommend you slow down a notch and take the next whistle class before you buy a flute. This will give you at least 12 tunes that you will already have memorized before you pick up the flute.
Bill agrees with you that starting the flute after the second class would be advantageous so that’s probably what I’m going to do. I ordered the Olwell Bamboo F flute already so I will be set for that. Meantime, I can work on the whistle and the scales on the flute and work on my air control and such. If I can do scales and simple tunes on the flute by the end of march, I should be in good shape for lessons to start. I’ll be able to hit the ground running as it were.
Thanks for the advice.
-Jim