I own a keyless Grinter blackwood flute. It’s a great instrument. I have a question on the fingering. Is it common that different flutes have different fingerings for certain notes. For instance the mid c natural sounds best on the Grinter using oxo xxo the standard oxx ooo just doesn’t sound right. Also anyone with a grinter, I can’t hit the high E usually fingered xxo xxo, does anyone know how to finger the high E on a Grinter? Is it just my flute or are all Grinters this way. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t trade this flute for anything but all wood flutes seem to have certain quirks. I just want to be able to maximize the flute.
I dunno about Grinters, we’re still waiting for my wife’s, hopefully another six months. However, I have one small-holed Rudall-style flute for which XXOOXX is the closest thing. It’s rather sharp; a combination of lipping and either partly covering RH1 or partly venting RH3 can bring it into reasonable tune, but that’s really a lotta work for a note that isn’t played all that much. OTOH, it gives a really in-tune second-octave G# with XXOXOX, so it plays really nicely in A.
C is a fascinating note with lots of pitch nuance. Grinter Prattens work well with oxx ooo. Olwell’s best with oxx xoo, other R&R types with oxx oxx. Not unusual at all to have a different finger combination to sound best on different flutes.
I second what Shoner said, and also want to add the (perhaps obvious) point that the player has a lot to do with this as well. Work on the 0xx 000 fingering for low c – you might find it’s you that isn’t playing it strongly, or at pitch. This is not meant as a swipe, just a reality that you may be being “too easy” on that fingering.
Grinter may have also tuned his flute more like the old flutes, which used keys; in this case, the “whistle fingering” mentioned above might simply not be as strong a note as a keyed C.
My advice is to contact Michael and see if he has a preferred fingering for his flutes; the answer to your first question, do different flutes finger differently from another is, yes, sometimes they do.
Gordon
I’ve found many flutes have the best Cnat when played oxoxxx, so you’re Grinter isn’t far off from that. But as Gordon recommends, I’d suggest contacting Grinter to see what fingering he had in mind when he designed the flute.
Loren
So Grinter finally got around to putting out a Pratten style flute? I’m out of the loop once again as I missed that development, although I know he had been talking about it for several years.
So how does it play, sound?
Loren
Are they ever different between my flutes! And oddly enough, my current favorite C-nat. (in most circumstances) for my Hamilton is, get this:
oxo ooo
Is that weird or what?
( o x o | o o o ) is way too sharp on my Hamilton for a C-natural in the first octave, though it’s passable in the 2nd.
( o x x | o o o ) is a very well-tuned and well-voiced C-natural and is what I use most on this flute; ( o x o | x x x ) works but is a bit sharp and not quite as resonant, but there are times it is the right one to use. It also gives a well-in-tune 2nd octave C-natural.
For your high E, another fingering worth trying is ( x x o | o x o ) in addition to the more common ( x x o | x x o ) and ( x x o | o x x ).
–James
C-nat’s are a bear, especially if you play az few flutes, each with different preferable fingerings for the C-nat. Pretty much the reason why a C-nat key is preferable–sounds right on with any good flute, and for fast tunes, just cruise by with the OXX fingering…and on my flutes that’s plenty good.
but then I don’t have other musicians staring me down…what the heck was that note?
i have a keyed grinter and i get the third octave E by xxo xxo and holding the g# key open. i can get almost there without the key using oxo oxo but the clarity is not as good.