Hall Crystal flutes inline or offset

Hi, I have a Hall cyrstal flute that I am currently using for playing Morris Dancing music . Most of the music is in D or G so it’s ideal. The flute I have is currently the low D with offset fingering. I love these as they are so beautiful with a unique sound. I am looking at getting another one with a different pattern on, I wondered if anyone had tried the inline one as I am used to classical inline flute? Is there much of a diffenence? Is it any easier to reach the last hole?

I have one of their inline piccolos. But of course, it’s easy to reach all the holes.

I’ve never tried a larger Hall Crystal flute, but I imagine the finger reach would be very tough if it isn’t offset. Cylindrical simple-system flutes in D tend to have very tricky finger stretch. That’s why, for example, many Chinese dizi flutes in that range have you cover the final hole with your pinky instead of your ring finger.

(Then again, Doug Tipple’s flutes are cylindrical, and the holes aren’t offset, yet somehow the finger stretch on them isn’t too bad. No idea how he manages this. :stuck_out_tongue:)

At any rate, offset fingering is designed to make finger stretch on cylindrical flutes easier, so I highly doubt finger stretch on an inline Hall Crystal model would be easier than on your current model. It would probably be more difficult to reach the bottom hole, if anything. And I’ve seen YouTube videos of people playing inline Hall Crystal flutes in D and covering the final hole with their pinkies - probably because they can’t reach it any other way.

Anyway, glad to see Hall Crystal flutes getting some love! They’re very cool instruments, especially for the price.

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