Hi everybody. I’ve been reading here quite a while but haven’t posted in a couple of years.
I’ve got a question about hand size and flute playing. I went to Casey Burns’ web site and tested whether I should get a small hand size flute. The test was to measure finger spread from pinky to thumb with the hand spread as much as comfortably possible. Under 7.5 inches and you go with the smaller hand flute.
My hand was under the 7.5 inch spread. Could some of you profficient players measure you hands and post the dimensions? Are my hands really small? See Casey Burns’ site for details.
Are some of the large holed Pratten style flutes out of the question for me? I had a Dixon Polymer and found it painfully unpleasant to play. I’m willing to try again but should I?
I don’t have a ruler handy, but I checked my spread against a piece of standard 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper, and I estimate my spread to be about 8-3/4 inches. Note that I wear a size 12 (US) shoe, and am about 6 feet tall as well, so long extremities are expected (please, no off-color jokes)…
Unlike fyffer, I was lucky enough to have a ruler handy. I can do 8.5", but it’s not comfortable. 8.0" is just fine, though. Seery, Dixon 3 piece, sweetheart - all were very comfortable for me to play.
I’m 5’8", which used to be average US height but now is a tad on the shorter side - I’m heading towards hobbit fast!
If you hand spread measures less than 7.5", I think Casey is correct in suggesting the small hands model — unless you’re wanting to use piper’s grip which may allow a larger holed/spread flute.
Gee, this was eye-opening for me. I have long fingers, but my spread was just under 7.5. I do find a Pratten style difficult to play, but I haven’t given it a real effort. The thing is, I measured my hands against my flute teacher’s once and they were about the same as his, and he, of course, plays his Olwell Pratten brilliantly. I am very comfortable with my antique R&R style boxwood, very. However, I can also say that I have Casey Burns’ regular flute in mopane–it was my first wooden flute–and I had no problem at all with it.
8.5" handspread. Weird, because my hands are definitely small, and to top it off my pinkie measures only 2" in length (I have dinky pinkie syndrome). I play a normalish-sized flute, but then I also use the so-called “piper’s grip”. No problem for me. Maybe it’s because no one ever told me I couldn’t do it!
Thanks for getting back on this. I guess I do have small hands compared to all of you. Pipers grip? I’ll definitely go for the small hands folk flute later this year. At that price, I can give this thing another try.
[Disclaimer: Non-proficient player posting follows.]
Fascinating thread! I’m so glad you asked this! It really puts things into perspective. It’s one thing to hear people say that a Pratten Whopper can be gotten used to by anybody, because they managed it, but it puts it in a different light to hear it from someone whose hands could cover Nebraska.
Perhaps recommendations should come from someone with similar size hands. I wonder if short, but wide hands have an inherent advantage over long, but slender hands.
Tonight, I notice that my hand spread has changed! I’ve been working on getting used to a McGee 5088 Rudall, which is somewhat larger than my Burns small-handed boxwood Rudall.
Interestingly, my left hand, which has not had to spread out, but just reach a bit further with the 4th finger, is now comfortably at 8. The right, which has had to spread laterally a considerable bit, is now at 8-1/2. They used to be the same.
There is also a distinct Vulcan gap on the right, between the 3rd and 4th fingers.
I don’t think you can go wrong with the small-handed model. It will be very comfortable for you. My hands are larger than Casey’s 7.5 inches, but I don’t find the s-h flute awkward. On the contrary, it is very nice.
Well I’m a 5’6" woman with somewhat largish hands. My right hand spread is a tad short of 8", while my left hand nearly hits 9" – a result, no doubt of playing the mountain dulcimer which requires a lot of lateral stretching in the fretting hand.
My Sweetheart flute is very comfortable, but I find the gap between the right hand middle and ring finger holes to be a bit awkward on my old one-piece Tipple. A piper grip is more comfortable on that flute, but I haven’t mastered making it tight or quick.
My right measures 8.5" while my left measures 8.25" -
but I guess it has a lot to do with flexibility too, as I’m 5’2" with very skinny fingers, but a big spread playing the piano. I’m comfortable on Rudall Rose flutes - never tried a Pratton, so I can’t say. The difficulty for me isn’t stretch, but can be hole size if a flute has very large holes.
I suffer from the dinky pinky syndrome myself. It doesn’t bother me with the Irish flute, but with guitar, where the pinky is really important, I was seriously handicapped.
I am interested in knowing how Fyffer’s recent trip to Ireland to perform as a marching fiffer turned out. I see that he is back in the USA. Obviously, he must have survived all of the stout (or is it Guiness?) on St. Patrick’s Day.
Interesting thread! The reach on my right hand is 8.5", on the left about 8.75"…I have HUGE hands for a short woman…but my palms are more long than they are wide, so it makes the reach somewhat less (which I never thought about before.
My biggest problem is that I need small HOLED instruments…my fingers are very skinny (barely wear a size 5 ring…more like a 4 3/4…my pinky is only a 3 1/2) so some low whistles and flutes are hard for me because of the size of the holes themselves.
