Here are a few videos I recorded today. Don’t expect much, the sound quality is that of a built in laptop mic. I have also been battling a cold for a few days so I haven’t played properly since last weekend, and I still have a bit of a respiratory problem because of the cold so I found myself stuggling for breath on more than a few occations, so please bare with me. It might take a few weeks before I can record anything properly, so I decided to post them anyway, hopefully they’ll give you all an idea of the flutes capabilities at least.
Silver Spear/Rolling on the Rye Grass
Give me your Hand (first time I played this for probably a year today, but I thought it was nice to display the tone)
O’Mahoney’s Reel (lots of rythmic errors, but again, bare with me)
And re. jemtheflute: I’m not surprised you didn’t fancy the top-end drams, they’re usually too complex for a newbie, gets overpowering. There are acctually malts that have lots fresh fruityness, including apples, in some drams those are the dominant flavours. Cragganmore comes to mind as a pretty fruity dram, there are probably better examples.
Anyway, even though it’s OT, it’s nice to talk about
whisky
Hi Henke,
I remember seeing that left handed flute also and was struck by how similar it is to my recently restored William Hall & Son, it looks like even the keys are the same manufacturer. I have been playing this flute exclusively in our local sessions since I received it back from Jon C. , he called it “a train wreck” when he first saw it but gave it a go anyway. It is in perfect tune, and effortlessly competes with two fiddles, banjo, a button box, a whistler, a guitar player and a bodhran in our twice a week sessions here in Montana. It is amazing how a flute with smaller holes and bore can produce such a sound! I do not understand it, but I sure do like it. I am posting some ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics uploaded to Picasa’s photo share site. You’ll notice the barrel replacement looks lighter in color, but does match very close in regular light and will darken in time. The flute is all cocus wood, and the keys are sterling silver.
–before http://picasaweb.google.com/hollhort/HallSonFlute?authkey=UBgP4pTnzVI#
—after http://picasaweb.google.com/hollhort/WHallSonFlute#
Yes, that almost look like the exact same flute, but right handed of course. Are you sure it’s marked “William Hall & Son” and not “Firth, Pond & Co.”??
William Hall did work with Firth & Pond for a good number of years, this must be one of the popular designs he brought with him. But it’s tempting to assume that the flutes where made very close to each other in time.
Well, folks, do tell me what you thought of the videos please!
Now I’m finally heading home to oil my flute, and of course to oil up the old throat with a few drops of rich, estery
whisky
Yep!. Its William Hall & Son. Check out all the info on Terry’s website about W. Hall & Son, if you have not already. http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Hall.htm
and all the other great info about Firth, Hall &Pond http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Firth&c.htm
and lots more,
And the wife and I both really enjoyed the youtube videos,I’ll play around and try to figure out how to get a video up there of my flute. You can sit in anytime here in the Helena session’s, we know all those tunes you played.
All the best, Doug.
If you played with the tuning slide pulled out about 20mm, the tuning would be a lot better and it’d be at about A=440 rather than A=460…
cheers
Graeme
I know.
It plays at A-440 with the slide extended about 15mm (not measured) with my embouchure. I don’t bother to extend it when I’m playing solo. Do you think the internal tuning suffers much?
Status report: Girlfriend away for the evening, lone time at home with some Bowmore
whisky
Yes. Extended 15-20mm so it’s at A=440 the tuning is quite good. G appears a little low and F# as usual quite flat (flatter even than justD F#) But with the slde fully in as with your clips it’s not so good!
Must have been a misunderstanding. I have no problem at all with your remarks. The only thing that puzzled me was the way you put it frankly.
You said-
“Extended 15-20mm so it’s at A=440 the tuning is quite good. G appears a little low and F# as usual quite flat (flatter even than justD F#) But with the slde fully in as with your clips it’s not so good!”
I haven’t played it tuned to A=440 here. How do you know the internal tuning is acctually better at that pitch?
Anyway, I think this is beyond the capabilities of my ear at present, so this fine tuning stuff I leave to my fellow chiffers and of course the great RTTA.
As long as my ears don’t hurt from bad tuning and my throat don’t hurt from bad whisky…
I was just curious as to why you played it with the tuning slide all the way in at about A=460 when it would be much more in tune at A=440. I know you didn’t actually play it at A=440 but RTTA can show what would happen if you adjust the tuning slide. eg if D and B are in tune with each other then when you push the tuning slide in 20mm B will be about 40cents sharp compared to D etc etc.tr
I suspect your flute is very like my own favorite; a Monzani made by Henry Hill in 1832. It too is at A=440 with the tuning slide out about 20mm, has medium sized holes, and even an angled G# key. If you enjoy playing yours half as much as I enjoy mine you’re very lucky to have it.
Cheers
Graeme
Fine.
I haven’t followed the whole RTTA debate. But I know one thing: It sure is nice when people are able to tell what they think about a flute from listening to its sound, character and rough tuning to the ear. Not just plug it into a program and talk about how well in tune it/I is/am or would be at a certain pitch. I can do that myself you know. This stuff has gotten way to scientific for my taste, but I guess I have to read up on the whole debate before I post my thoughts.
I’ve never played a Monzani, but I’d love to get the chance one day. They seem like very nice instruments. I’m glad you enjoy your flute as well.
Not to wander too far off topic, here, but I’ve already gone through a table of “Units, constants, and conversion factors” and I simply can’t find a definition for dram. That is, I’d like to have some idea as to what a dram measure could be equal to, say, in term of fluid ounces, or milliliters, or something like that, please.
Here in the US, a typical whisky measurement is known as a shot, which can vary in volume, from one fluid ounce to one and a half fluid ounces, depending on whichever establishment could pour it.
Henke, that’s some very nice playing there, and the flute looks beautiful. I wonder, however, what’s going on with the tuning in the first octave in particular. The F# and A are really out of tune, especially in the first clip. I find this particularly strange because the second octave sounds, to my ear, fairly good. You get good tone and seem to have a good embouchure so it’s confusing why the flute would be so out of tune. Did you try adjusting the tuning slide? Did it improve things?
Thanks for your nice words. Did you read the previous posts? We did talk about this, and it’s all down to my carelessness to not pull out the slide to where it plays at A=440, and that my untrained ear tend to have a problem with caring about those things. I do hear when I’m out of tune in a group setting, when I can hear myself against others, but I’m not as good with hearing individual notes in a scale.
However, it’s very nice to have someone tell me what they think and not what the RTTA thinks
Cheers, to bad it’s still way to early for a
whisky
