Hello everyone. I played a concert flute for about 7 years, but even that was 10 years ago and most of my limited knowledge has gone out the window. My dear mother and sister bought me a wood six hole keyless flute for Christmas and though I have a key for it now I am still a bit clueless. Other than playing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” and “Oh Holy Night” I am rather up the creek without a musical paddle. I quickly found that my regular old flute music just wouldn’t suit this new treasure since it has such a limited range. So what do I do? Will I be forever limited to “yankee doodle”? I want to be able to play music from Phantom of the Opera and such as I used to. Will this not be an option with this instrument??? I have always loved the rich sound of a wooden flute and am thrilled with this beautifully engraved peice of musical art, but I really want to be able to really play from my heart and soul…help, please?
Just a thought off the top of my head, but it would probably do you good to listen to some masters of the simple system flute, and you’ll find a few really great players among the Irish, my favorites being Matt Malloy and Seamus Egan.
I’m sure others will be giving you advice more to the point, but you should be familiar with the possible range of tones and expression.
I think the problem you’re butting your head up against right now is that it isn’t really a chromatic instrument, even though you can cross finger into G. It’s designed primarily to play in one key (two sharps), but that still encompasses major, minor, and other modes each with a different “feel”–bright for the major keys, dark and moody for the minor (or at least that’s how I think of it).
But you risk raising some argument if you suggest that a simple flute isn’t capable of producing variety.
Do you know who made your flute? If not, what kind of wood, does it have a tuning slide, etc.
As already mentioned, a keyless wooden flute won’t easily play all those unique sharps and flats for you (or Fnat or Cnat) without cross-fingering or half holing notes. With practice, you should be able to play a decent amount of classical music, but many of the accidentals will sound “different” (shaded or muted) and you’ll likely never get a really decent D#.
If your flute is made by someone who can add keys, then you can play what you want. Baroque style wooden flutes (one key for D# and very small tone holes) are chromatic. If it’s a large hole flute, you’ll need about 4 keys minimum to be truly chromatic unless you can half hole or cross-finger some notes well.
On my keyless Seery, I can play everything from Scott Joplin to Bach to Beethoven…as well as Irish tradional music which is the main thing I play. However, I do have to pick and choose a bit because without keys some of the passages are just too much of a pain without keys. For more chromatic music, I use a baroque flute.
Thanks for the help so far. This is just a simple wood flute that my Mom and sister got for me at a Renaissance Faire in TX so I have no way of knowing anything more. It has a beautiful rich sound and I just adore it. It does not have a slide or a cork for tuning. It simply is what it is and will be limited to what I can make of it. I am another one of the people that just loves the Titanic song with the wood (akay, so it is a whistle and not a flute as I am finding) and wanted to be able to play that song. My main question is what music can I find in a key that I can play? Is guitar or piano sheet music going to be better for me to work with for now? I understand that cross fingering will have to come in the futute, but after only playing for less than a week I don’t think I am quite ready for that.
I don’t know who mvhplank is (did I spell it right?) but if he thinks that Molloy and Egan are state-of the art flute players then he’s probably never heard Mike McGoldrick, Niall Keegan, or Brian Finnegan. In fact, a keyless wooden flute with small holes, in the right hands, is fully chromatic. Any keyless wooden flute can easily play in G major, A major and C major as well as D major – and all the related minors.
Another example of a person with limited experience and dubious accomplishment offering advice in a forum under the cover of anonymity?
Uh, I’m a “she.” The avatar is me. And I’m not posting anonymously–you must not have noticed my signature, where I put my (feminine) first name.
No, I’ll freely admit I haven’t heard of the musicians you name.
I did not claim any expertise, simply offered an opinion, knowing someone else would come along to add theirs. I bow to your obviously greater knowledge and experience, even if you didn’t fully read and understand my post.
Amy - is your flute bamboo by any chance? Bamboo flutes can be wonderful, and you really ought to check out Brian Finnegan of Flook (which I may have mispelled) as David suggests. Bamboo actually half holes better than most traditional wooden flutes (made of rosewood, blackwood, etc.) in my experience because the bamboo walls are thinner.
Also, how long is your flute? If it’s around 23 or 24 inches it’s likely in D which is concert pitch (all fingers down is D which matches the D on a piano). If it’s a different length, it probably isn’t in D.
David - can you really get a good, solid D#/Eflat on a keyless flute - one you’d sustain for a bit on both low and middle D? Maybe I just need more practice, but my D#s are something I prefer to be really quick, short notes.
I do find it difficult to get any sort of Eb on my keyless flutes. But luckily the Eb isn’t a critical part of the tunes I play, with the exception of the first part of Moving Cloud. So on a keyless I’ll just return to the D each time rather than use the Eb for the second return.
Part of learnjing to play off notes (Fn, Bb, A#) with a keyless flute is to work around them. For instance, Mason’s Apron only really requires the A# as a leading tone for so you needn’t give that note much time–in fact you can often pass over it or skip it entirely, working the tune so as to avoid it. Fn is generally not a problem since half-foling is easy – as in Dogs Among the Bushes, Cook in the Kitchen, or Ace and Deuce of Pipering, where the Fn is important. Bb isn’t very difficult either, as in some of Paddy Fahey’s tunes. Those notes can be half-holed easily on an accomodating flute.
Paddy Keenan told me a while ago that if I learned to play without keys my playing would become a lot more flexible-- that slides, grace notes, and ornaments in general would become easier in time.
On the surface, I think it might look like it has a limited range, but that’s only because you haven’t seen what the flute can do. The traditional music played on it expands in complexity, interest, and beauty while working inside the bounds of the instrument.
You’ll see this when you hear Brian Finnegan. You’ll fall over in rapture and shed glad tears knowing that he’s doing all of it on a flute . . . just like yours.
As David explained, there are a number of keys which can be played easily by cross-fingering, so you’re not really going to be “limited.” Your old flute music might not be readily adaptable, but . . . that’s ok. You can explore new worlds! There is a wealth of wonderful new music, the likes of which you have yet to imagine, waiting out there for you. You just have to discover it for yourself! You’ll be able to take a simple tune, improvise, ornament, and transform it into something magnificent!
There are some tunes available over on www.madfortrad.com, which offers nice flute and whistle tutorials, with some sheet music. Sheet music also available on Chiff & Fipple, www.thesession.org, and a number of other websites. (I think a whistle thread has a lot of them listed right now.)
If the good Mr. Levine thinks that Matt Molloy is not a very skilled flute player, then I would like to hear how this arrogant man sounds himself. I think Mr. Levine should take a more humble approach to his music. Matt Molloy is an extremely skilled fluter, capable of everything from the slow airs and dance tunes of his own tradition to very advanced baroque and classical music. Mike McGoldrick, Niall Keegan and Brian Finnegan are very skilled flute players as well, but they are not “better” than Molloy. I think Levines whole attitude towards the music is strange.
I do not think, Henke , that David Levine was knocking Matt Malloy but rather discussing what a player such as Brian Finnegan, a keyless specialist, can do without keys. That is the whole point of the thread.
Of course Brian can play wonderfully well with keys if he is pushed to do so !
Yeah, thanks Andrew, I must say that my previous post was a tad exaggerated, I had a slight hang-over at the time I posted it. It was just that Mr. Levine said it in a way that suggested that he thought Matt Molloy and the other guys playing large holed flutes are lesser flutists than the guys that plays small holed ones and that seemed a bit strange to me. I do love the way Brian Finnegan and the others play aswell but I would not say that they are eighter better nor lesser flutists than Molloy and Egan…
This flute is only about a foot long I would say…all one piece and I guess it could be bamboo…though by the carvings and marks on the inside I think it is of regular wood. There isn’t a cork or anything on the end–just solid wood. I am really not wanting to get all into listening to music with just flutes, though I appreciate the suggestions. I just want some sheet music I can learn to play this instrument with.
if there’s not a cork at the end, it’s most likely bamboo - they can burn and/or carve the outside and they can be simply stunning looking. And, if it’s about 12 inches it’s quite possibly in high D so that’s convenient.
With practice, you should be able to half hole notes like Fnat, Bb, G# and possibly D#. Bamboo is thinner walled than wooden flutes, and that leads to easier half holing. Simply try sliding your finger off of a tone hole - for example F# is XXX XOO, Fnat would be XXX XoO where the little “o” is half covered.
So, except for the difficult D#, you should be able to play almost all music with practice.
I play a lot in Am so I have become very proficient at half holing the f natural and can play it fairly spot on and it makes for a great slide down to the e. I agree with the versatility of a keyless.
