Keys on flute query

Irish Flute
21

[quote="dhigbee
But I want tonal uniformity, comfortable fingerspacing, the ability to easily play accidentals without compromising the ability to slide and ornament, plus sound colors and textures of my own making! (In other words, my Nirvana of flutes…)

Dana
(Always searching for Superflute)[/quote]


If your Nirvana of flutes has tonal uniformity and comfortable fingerspacing, the ability to easily play accidentals, etc., you really ought to think about a wooden, open-holed Boehm… set you back about 11K, but… Most of your other descriptions can be faked on a Boehm, but most conical flutes don’t allow for (or want) tonal uniformity, and lord knows the keying system is not for the lazy, once you’re into multiple flats or sharps territory.

My earlier response, BTW, was entirely about Cnat fingering(s), and not about Eb, or other incidentals. I was also only talking about ITM, which doesn’t demand these incidentals for most of it’s almost unlimited repetoire. One-key baroques are wonderfully simple chromatic flutes (with the Eb/D# key also used as a necessary vent for F# and other high notes into the third octave), but if you’re bothered by slightly weaker notes among strong, and only want equal-temperament tuning, not to mention ballsy and loud volume overall, a traverso probably really isn’t for you. Not to mention that the best sounding ones are in low pitch.

If you really must play Ebs, or Bbs or other non-ITM notes on a 19th c. based flute, I fully agree that a key is probably what you’ll need, and if you need an Eb/D# key, you probably will want an Fnat, long and short, and a Bb, and G# as well. And then, hell, long as you’re there, you might want to go for the Cnat. key. But I was under the impression that the original question was for ITM, and how important are keys, especially the C nat. And I still say that it’s not at all.

Gordon

22

Interesting post re C natural,Gordon (your comments about using different fingerings in the context of playing the ‘same’ note in different keys,almost alludes to the flutes ‘Baroque’ ancestory!).
I suppose it boils down to the sort of music that you want to play-yup Eb IS practically impossible to half hole on a small holed flute,F natural can be weak,esp. in the lower octave.
I remember a recent thread,where it was stated that the great Irish Fluteplayer Seamus Tansey had not only removed the keys from his antique Rudall and Rose flute,but that he had also shaved off the wooden blocks as they got in his way!!( :astonished: )
I think that I would go with the ‘good keyless is better than cheap keyed’ argument,but if you want keys-then go the whole hog,if you can afford to,or play Traverso!
(and develop ‘FLOA’ in the process! :smiley: )
Edit;I wrote the above after reading only the first page of this thread(!)thanks for developing your ideas further above, Gordon.

23

Ah well, see that’s the difference then, I didn’t assume the originaly poster had strictly ITM playing in mind, right or wrong there, I don’t know.

I think I’m safe saying many people who read this forum and ask questions (myself included) are interested in playing music that falls outside ITM - Scottish, Bretton, less traditional arrangements of ITM tunes (think McGoldrick, Keegan, Healy, Finnegan, etc.), so my comments were made with that in mind. Heck, some folks here might even like to play (gasp), jazz or poplular music on their wooden flutes :boggle:

Plus, there certainly are a fair amount of ITM tunes out there where keys are quite helpful.

Loren

24

No doubt, Loren, but for the Cnat., my feelings about cross-fingering still applies. I find them more useful, equally strong, and more interesting. But then, I’m one of those foolish folks who play trad almost exclusively on a keyless (or I largely ignore the keys on the keyed antique), baroque on a one key, and most anything else on a keyed flute and, on occasion, a silver . But on a keyed conical, playing classical or something in A(Scottish tunes, for eg), or F natural, I still tend to use the C nat. finger variations over the C key, depending on what works better per flute.

For ITM, Kevin’s observation that alot of the older players removed their keys, or plugged them, is true (or they’d broken and were useless, first…); it was this idea that made the keyless Irish flute happen in the first place; makers in about the '70s asked why put them there if no one uses them? For imprecise folk music, half-holed F naturals, Bbs and G#s work fairly well, and they’re relatively rare, anyway.

Still, if I used these notes with any frequency, in ITM or other music, I’d prefer a key over a half-hole (which is distinctly different than a Cnat. fingering), except in rare cases where a slide into a note sounds nicer than a note half-hole.

Gordon

25

Ha! I already have one. :laughing:

Dana

26

Why am I not surprised? :wink:

Gordon

27

Actually, I’ve been actively considering getting a simple-system flute to play traditional/folk music, and possibly to knock around on easy Baroque music. Having small hands is a big issue. Piper’s grip hasn’t worked too well for me.

But there’s just something special about having your fingers in contact with the air stream…

Dana