I keep hearing about keyed instruments alleviating the need for cross fingering. What the heck is cross fingering? I’m a trumpeter, 3 valves and a spit valve make fingering very simple. Using all my fingers to play poses more of a challenge.
On a simple system (six hole) flute, some notes
require cross-fingering.
For instance, C natural is played
0xx 000
or 0x0 xxx
(where 0 is open and X is closed).
There are other notes like this, too.
The C natural key enables
one to play C natural
x00 000 plus the key down.
Release the key and the same fingering sounds a B.
So C natural no longer requires cross fingering
(though we often cross-finger it anyway).
Lifting fingers up one at a time on a D flute produces the 7 notes of a D major scale, and can be indicated this way (X= closed, O=open)
XXX XXX (D)
XXX XXO (E)
XXX XOO (F#)
XXX OOO (G)
XXO OOO (A)
XOO OOO (B)
OOO OOO (c#)
There are however 5 other notes in a chromatic scale that have to be “cross-fingered”, which means a fingering not in the basic scale. In old flutes with small holes 4 of these 5 notes could be cross-fingered. except Eb which needed a key. On most Irish flutes, only C natural (OXX OOO, or OXO XXX) and Bb (depends on your flute, but you can try XOX XX0 or XOX XXX) are reasonably close when cross-fingered, although the upper octave G# can be lipped up with a (XXO XXO or depending on the flute XXO XXX). An alternative strategy is to partly cover the hole (half-holing) G# (XXD OOO) and F natural (XXX XDO) where “D” = half-hole, but Eb still needs a key. So as flutes evolved towards bigger holes, extra holes covered by keys were added so that the missing chromatic notes could be played by depressing a key rather than by half-holing. The advantage is that one has to move fewer fingers, but it still takes a lot of practice to get proficient with keys.
I see that Jim and I cross-posted!
they were sometimes called “fork fingerings” in the old texts because of the fork utensil look of the fingers on the accidentals.
For example:
Bb XOXXXX
G# XXOXXX
F nat and Eb can sort of be half-holed on some flutes. Cnat can be half-holed on the first hole as well though I don’t know why one would do so.
Doc
Fork fingerings? Spoon keys? Lip plates? I’m detecting a pattern here …
You haven’t had your dinner yet?
Nah, he’s trying to dodge the washing up! 
Or is it an allusion to that old British schoolboy howler:
“There’s many a cup twixt the slip and the lip”.
Terry
Thanks. It makes much more sense now. But spoon Keys??
from Rick Wilson’s site
<–clicky
part way down…search for salt-spoon