I am new to the forum, though I have been lurking about for a while. I like to watch a bit at first before striking out to make friends.
By way of introduction, I am a musician who loves to dabble in many instruments. My longtime love is the oboe, but I enjoy playing folk instruments like fife, dulcimer, Appalachian style autoharp, etc.
I have recently taken on the whistle and a Tipple flute. I am looking for an economical flute to play so I am considering the M&E and the Casey Burns flutes.
I have enjoyed reading your posts and have learned much from them. Thank you for sharing your passion. I look forward to learning more from this community.
Welcome to the forum. The Casey Burns folk flutes are a great value in a wooden flute. For Delrin, I also recommend the flutes from Garry Somers ( http://www.somers-flutes.com/prices-contact ) at a good price for a full-featured instrument.
Thank you for the recommendation. I followed your link and looked at the flutes. They are certainly handsome in appearance. They have a good reputation from what I can find.
The reason I am looking at the Casey Burns flutes and M&E is because they have both been mentioned as having a comfortable finger reach. Do you know how the Somers flute compares?
I live in the South East. Is there any place one could lay hands on the various flutes or is every purchase by reputation alone?
I don’t think that finger reach is really an issue with any of the standard, D-flutes. The conical bore od most flutes let’s the makers place finger holes in reasonable locations.
If you can manage the reach on a Tipple, than a standard conical D flute should not be a problem. M&E is a pretty standard layout. The Casey Burns flutes are available in even more ergonomic fingerhole positions for especially small hands. I myself to do not like the offset holes for the 3rd fingers (easier reach - similar to offset G on a Boehm flute), and prefer all fingerholes to be in-line.
Thanks for the advice. I am managing the reach on the Tipple but just barely. Speed is not an option since I have to carefully place my fingers to get a good seal on the holes. I will be looking more for an R&R than a Pratten style flute. Smaller holes alone may help.
Since some flutes are more small-hand friendly than others, I would be happy to hear any suggestions. Since I am new to the forum I cannot receive personal messages so just post to this thread, please.
Hi Scouter, I too am new to the forum. I’ve been playing fiddle for over 40 years, and decided to take up the flute as a second instrument. I will be starting as a rank beginner–although i know a wealth of tunes, I know nothing about playing the flute, so this will be a challenge. However, I live in northern New Jersey, which is Mike Rafferty (RIP) country, so I have many experienced players to get advice from, once I get my feet wet.
I know a lot of flute players, and have been asking around for a long time now. I was originally going to go with a delrin flute, and based on what I had been hearing, I was torn between a Forbes and a Gary Somers, both of which came highly recommended. However, I got a rec from Kevin Crawford and Margie Mulvihill-both great players and teachers, to go with a blackwood or mgugre flute made by Martin Doyle in Clare, and just ordered one from him. This meant going over budget, but from what I can tell, his flutes hold their value and if it does not work for me, I have no doubt that I will be able to sell the instrument for close to what I paid.
That said, I’ve heard that the delrin flutes play beautifully, and are an excellent value. Experienced players often have one in addition to their primary instrument.
Casey Burns makes a smaller handed version that is excellent. Somers makes two versions. The Pratten has larger holes. Dave Copley also makes good flutes that are smaller holes. Any of the three would likely meet your needs.
Also medium to small-holed Rudall-style flutes are easier to
finger, and generally have a lovely, focused sound. People who
can handle larger bored/holed flutes sometimes prefer them anyway.
I’ve had a great first year with my Sweetheart resonance rosewood flute. The holes are smaller and the two piece design means it’s nice and light. No tuning slide but that’s never been a problem. Nice warm sound with a good amount of chiff, great for slow playing, but loud enough for a session if that’s your goal.
I grabbed mine used for $450. Check out the Irishflutestore.com for availability. Blayne’s usually got a few used ones lying around.
At a web page Casey instructs to pick the small-handed variant if the widest you can stretch the hand is less than 19 cm. For me this width is roughly 20 cm, so it is at the lower end of what he recommends for the standard spacing. I have one of his Folk Flutes with the standard hole spacing and there is no problem at all for my fingers to reach the holes. At least for me, this recommendation seems to fit well.
I’d expect also the variant for smaller hands to fit my hands quite well, though, since most flutes seem to fit a quite wide range of hand sizes.
Wow, what a wealth of information. I am going to have to review my thinking now that I have had some feedback from all of you. It has reassured me to know that most flutes in the R&R style will fit even smallish hands.
Charlie, thanks for mentioning Martin Doyle. I had not visited his site, but I have now. Stay in touch so we can share notes on our progress.
Muep, my reach is also 20 so I am in the same boat. I am glad that you have tried the standard spacing and found it comfortable.
Burns, Copely, Somers, and Doyle would probably all work as long as I stick to the Rudall and Rose configuration. Alas, I will engage in more research in light of the new information. Thanks to all!
Also consider the weight. I started with a delrin flute (Not a Copley, which I love) and while it played well, it gave me significant tendonitis. Switching to a keyed wooden flute actually made the tendonitis disappear. (The wooden one is feather-lite in comparison).
Delrin is approximately 11% denser than African blackwood. So, unless you got a much lighter wooden flute (boxwood?), your blocks and keys would probably add up to more than the difference.
The delrin flute was also considerably more thick than my current flute (A Murray, which is notably slender), which could explain things but in terms of weight but also in terms of required grip.
