Out of curiosity, and attracted by the reasonable price, I purchased a Hall Crystal Flute in D (low D).
I received it in just two days, and this is my first reaction: if I can get a sound out of it (and I underline “if”) it sounds quite good. But the problem is: it is very difficutl to get a sound out of it. Unless I use a weird embouchure that is much different from the one I use for my Copley and Boegly and for my former Tipple.
So my issue is: not only the Crystal flute appears to me to be difficult to play, but I am afraid that it can lend to bad habits as far as the embouchure is regarded. But I am a beginner. so…
are there any other owners of a Cryustal flute who can comment on that ? Thanks.
I wouldn’t worry too much about bad habbits (others might dissagree). You will probably spend most of your time on that Copley & Boegli anyway, playing around with other instruments won’t make your embouchure go away, you may even learn a thing or two. When you switch between flutes that are so fundamentally different as you describe you will rather learn two different embouchures, so don’t be afraid to play around with it. That’s my opinion anyway.
Happy New Year, and may the coming year be full of fabulous
whisky 
I agree with Henke. I recently started messing around with (reeded) woodwind instruments. Someone cautioned that it would hurt my flute embouchure, but I don’t find that to be true. It takes a few minutes to move from one instrument to the other, because they’re so totally different. Muscles are pretty adaptable, as long as you show them what you want to do.
God bless Rhonda Larson, she can keep them all. They are such a big “why?” to me.
Anyway, besides needing a poutier embouchure, consider the possibility that you’re not getting good tonehole coverage, either – the drawn toneholes with their raised edges mean you have to seal them very, very well which makes producing a sound pretty tough, too. You could try moisturizer on your fingertips but of course that makes the “crystal” pretty gooey and ruins the “aesthetic …”
:roll:
OK, rant over. Sorry!
The women postal clerks at USPS have taken to wearing green rubber gloves when they handle my dirty packages. I was thinking that they might be just the thing for playing the crystal flutes. All the years I worked as a bank teller I never wore gloves, but I suppose the money was cleaner then.
With regard to the crystal flutes, I never had any difficulty playing them. The embouchure hole, being rolled upward rather than cut downward as in most transverse flutes, takes some getting used to.
I have a Hall Pyrex low D flute, and it’s ok…I play it sometimes.
It uses roughly the same embouchure approach as any flute, but because of the way it is made, it feels very different to play, as there is no lip-plate to help you in lining up the embouchure.
It does play but isn’t a very responsive flute. In terms of volume it’s quite soft–I don’t imagine one of these would ever see use in a session.
What it is is a fun musical toy, and on that level, it succeeds pretty well. It just can’t be expected to be anything but what it is.
–James
P.S. One cool thing about these glass flutes is to watch the patterns formed by the condensation of your breath as you play.
“…lining up the embouchure..” That is also my question: do I have to place the lower lip a bit into the hole, as you do usually with silver and Irish flutes, or do I have to place the lower lip BEHIND the hole,
as other suggest to do with the crystal flute because of the rolled up glass of tht hole ?
Thanks
I think what I do is a bit of both, sort of squish your lower lip up over the edge of the thing.
It’s not particularly comfortable, but it does work.
–James
I like my Hall Crystal Flute. I like the pure tone of it. I play a silver flute and a yamaha fife and regularly switch among them and other instruments while playing at church, by myself, and with friends. I don’t have many problems switching embouchures. I have had the dry finger problem. As we get older, moisturizer is always a good idea. I get plenty of volume, less than a silver flute, but plenty nonetheless.
I spoke to the Hall Crystal Flute people by phone once. The cost of coloring the flute was prohibitive. So, I keep thinking “Condensation” rather than “Spit.”
Let us know how it goes once you get more familiar.
ps. I’ve dropped my flute from a height of 6 feet onto a rattan rug/hardwood floor without injury. I’ve bumped it against hard surfaces without injury either. I don’t recommend any of this.
James. I tried to put my lower lip over the edge of the rolled up embouchure hole, as you suggest,
and it works.
I can get a decent sound out of the Crystal flute now, and it is better every time I try.
It is no an easy flute to play for a beginner, but I like the sound: it is quite pure, a bit less
“reedy” than the Copley, perhaps a way in the middle between a traditional Irish flute and a silver flute.
The volume is lower than the Copley and the Tipple, and - for now - also the responsivness.
But I don’t think it is so much a “toy”, it has a nice sound.
Well, I’ll grant you that “toy” was a bad choice of words. I guess what I was really trying to say is that it’s not a particularly well-suited instrument for my style of play.
It’s a toy for me because I treat it as one–if I spent serious time with it every day, I am sure I would play better on it and it would play better for me.
But my Hamilton would miss me. 
I’m glad my suggestion about the embouchure helped.
–James