I made a pvc flute following the instructions on Doug Tipple’s web site. Since I’m a rank beginner, it’s hard to tell the difference between imperfections in the flute and imperfections in my technique. The first octave D scale seems to have pretty good intonation. The C natural note is sharp if played 0XX 000. The most in tune C natural fingering seems to be 0XX X0X. I haven’t encountered this particular fingering on whistle. It’s certainly possible that it’s my embouchure. But I’m trying to understand which tone hole placement or size might contribute to a need for this fingering. If the top tone hole is giving an in-tune second octave D note, then I’d guess this hole is not an issue. Could the size of the lower three holes (larger in Tipple’s design than in some others) sharpen the C natural note without impacting other notes that use those open holes? Thanks.
Hello Dan,
I think that you can expect to find some variations on how the C natural note is fingered on 6-hole simple system flutes. I think that OXX XOO is about as close as you can get on my flute. No doubt that you could probably tweek this note by changing the size and position of the first three holes. Keep in mind that you can also half hole this note, although I rarely do that.
You can also drill a C natural thumb hole quite easily. Simple use the same size drill, and drill the hole halfway between holes one and two. You can locate the position of the thumb hole around the flute wherever it feels most comfortable, just as long as the distance to the end of the flute is the same. I have a C natural thumb hole on my personal flute, although I usually keep it covered with tape and use the cross-fingered C natural most of the time. I have made a number of flutes in different keys with thumb holes in this postiion, especially for Boehm flute musicians who occasionally want to perform on a simple-system, “ethnic” flute.
Best wishes,
Doug Tipple
Doug is of course the expert! However, just to point out that on very many whistles including Generation, oxx xox is the optimum C nat fingering for tone and intonation. When, quiet a few years ago, I experimented with conduit tubing cylindrical flutes, I found that fingering was the best on them. It is also quite a good one to use anyway, once you familiarise yourself with it - very easy to use in scale passages and for C nat rolls.
Incidentally, Cnat played oxx ooo is poor on most conoid bore period wooden flutes too - their normal C nat fingering is oxo xxx, though some later C19th ones and Prattens in particular do work well with oxx ooo.
I like Tintin’s comment, that Cnat fingered as OXX OOO could be thought of as being the “blue” note of the six holed, ITM flute.