I’ll soon get a six-keyed flute, but I expect I may have
to learn myself how to use the keys.
No flute teachers here.
Is that doable? Are there places to get
info? I suppose I can appeal to you
all in my hour (week, month) of
confusion. Best
Yes, just like everything, take it slow. Practice, practice, practice… Play Baroque music if you like it, or play those G minor reels from O’Neills, whatever floats your boat.
Hi Jim!
I was worried about how I would learn to use the keys before my keyed flute came - but actually, it was very easy. I just printed off a fingering chart from one of the many available on the Internet, and practiced!
The G sharp and C natural are the easiest, and came first for me.
I then consciously played tunes that required keys - Les Poule et Pais for both Fnats and B flat, Neil Gow’s Lament for his First Wife for all keys except G sharp.
In the beginning, it was the Eflat which really gave me trouble, but I’ve now had my keyed flute for 6 months and the Eflat feels comfortable and really natural.
As you know from previous posts, I love my keys (and feel guilty for that)
pamela
I think if you think of them as keys to help you play accidentals, then you’ll find they’re all in the right spot. Meaning, when you’re playing the odd accidental in the usual keys (signatures) we play in, the Fnat is ergonomically placed, as is the Cnat. If you’re trying to play in some weird key, though, you begin to appreciate other reasons for the shift to another kind of fingering system.
That said, it’s fun to play regular ol’ D tunes a step down in C. Good workout.
I bet if you were to look around Terry McGee’s site, you’d find a nice fingering chart. If I weren’t so lazy I’d put a link in myself. But, I am. 
Stuart
Much encouraged. thanks to all, Jim
How about a short list of typical session tunes for us “newly keyed” folk to practise so we can get used to employing the keys? For example, two tunes employing G#, two tunes requiring Fnat., etc. 
Most session tunes don’t employ accidentals in the basics, but here’s some worth learning for using keys (Chief O’Neill’s Favorite is fairly common, I think):
-Caisleann an Óir (sp?), aka The Castle of Gold, by Junior Crehan: hornpipe in A myxlellaneous, uses some G#s. Lovely tune.
-Her Golden Hair Hanging Down Her Back, also by Junior Crehan (lovely title): hornpipe in Dmaj with some G#s in the B part. I like to follow the above tune with this one as does Mick O’Brien in his May Morning Dew CD. Great combination, hard to top.
-Chief O’Neill’s Favorite: hornpipe in D, basically: uses some Fnats in the B part depending on who’s playing it. Some people decry this as an innovation, but it seems to be widespread in use. I play the Fnat; it’s how I learned it.
-Give Me Your Hand, an old air in G: one Fnat.
-The Drunken Sailor, 5-part hornpipe in mainly Am: uses the Fnat and Eb keys. This one’s a workout in the last three parts. I obdurately crossfinger my Cnats, but you could use the Cnat key in that one. I’ve probably missed some Cnats in the others already!
-Ríl Bhéara, aka The Beare Island Reel (is that an Ed Reavey tune?), a tastily chromatic reel that begins in Emaj and shifts into Em: uses G# and Eb keys. I love this one, but you won’t likely find it as common currency at sessions.
-Sweeney’s Buttermilk, a reel in Bm that has a place for G# in it in the A part…optional, I think. I only stumble about at home on this one in a dark corner yet. It can be played in A, but that’s not the usual session key.
Most of the more chromatically tweaked tunes are, again, less likely to be played at sessions unless the fiddlers are chomping at the bit. 
OK, the box players, too. 
But I play these kinds of tunes just for the exercise, and the fiddlers get a surprise when you can unexpectedly jump in along with them.
What I need to work on are “fiddler’s” tunes: Cnat, Gm, Dm, etc. 
I love to join in on the occasional oddly keyed tune (Julia Delaneys - Ddor, Crabs in the Skillet - Gm, etc) that the fiddlers usually have all to themselves. It takes practice, though, to play this stuff at speed. Julia Delaney’s is a blast. Tam Lin i stay out of, not sure why, i just don’t like it much.
Nano you are a treasure. It is when I read your posts and a couple of others that I am truely sorry for my stobern refusal to learn to read music.
I also am thinking about keys and have an east Indian plastic flute with 8 of them which playes pretty darn good for 35 bucks but I have never touched the keys until last night. What a concept. I have also filled up my scrap paper stash with words I have read in your posts. I love obdurately. I used it on the guy I am training horses with today as in;
I abdrately take two steps back for every step I take forward. He didnt bat an eye. He either knew what it ment or didnt, I`ll never know. Anyway I wanted to thank you for this list of tunes and the info you gave with them. Very nice thing to do. Just another reason why: YOU GOTA LOVE THIS PLACE!!!
Tom
Actually, Junior Crehan wrote this tune in G dorian. Play it in that key and you get a nice workout for your long and short F keys, plus the opportunity to use your Bb key on the highest note in the second part.
No, it’s not a Reavy tune. I think it may be by one of the Dwyers (Finbar, Richie, John, etc).
One complicating factor in a lot of the “fiddler’s tunes” is that many of them make heavy use of the G string on the fiddle and thus are full of notes that are below the range of the flute. So in addition to mastering the keywork for the tune, you also need to figure out where to pop things up an octave. Sometimes it works well and the tune comes out sounding okay, other times it doesn’t - in which case you can decide to leave that tune to the fiddlers and get up to refresh your pint or hit the jacks when they start it up in the session.
Here are some tunes you can play that will give you a good workout on the long and short F keys:
The Broken Pledge
The Shoemaker’s Daughter (Reavy)
pretty much anything by Paddy Fahy
The Yellow Tinker
The Graf Spee (in C major)
The Bunch of Green Rushes
The Tempest