I’m asking this question here because this seems to be the most serious minded forum of the ones I read regularly but this could pertain to any type instrument. I just want to hear what folks have to say on this subject. Getting the thread locked because of contentiousness would rock!
How exactly does a person outgrow an instrument?
Nice one 
I see a few options:
Or so I’ve heard 
. But I think there really can be. As long as an instrument is basically OK, you can learn to play on it. And when you start working on the finer properties of your play, you may find them harder to produce on your instrument, compared to another one of, say, ten times the price
So far for the well-expected answer. As for the well-expected counterargument: of course a lot of us “up” our instruments far before we’ve outgrown them. Hobbies should be rewarding and need not be rational 
I’m not sure I like the term “outgrow” so much.
Sometimes instruments can have inherent limitations; just as an example, a keyless flute is great for most ITM, but should you acquire a burning desire to learn either B-flat fiddle tunes, or Bach’s Sonata for Flute in E-Major, a keyless flute won’t be of much use to you in either case.
–James
I think it may be that some flutes don’t have that much in em, rather like
beginner’s Boehm flutes. Easy to play but maybe not so interesting to
someone intermediate or advanced.
I’m an absolute beginner and I can see myself ‘outgrowing’ the Dixon flute I bought a month ago.
It’s a cylindrical plastic flute and sounds fine played solo. However (as I discovered last night), the F# is miles out, which is a problem when playing along with someone else. My wife has a tenor recorder and we were trying some tunes together - had to lay down the dixon and pick up the battered old Boehm that I started learning on.
Interestingly, both the Boehm and Jem’s ‘simple flute’ were spot on with the recorder. So the ‘commercially made’ Dixon was out, and Jem’s ‘amateur-made’ flute was perfect.
So as soon as I start playing with other people, I will have outgrown the Dixon low D.
Edited to clarify; by "Jem’s amateur’ flute I meant it wasn’t a commercially manufactured instrument.
I know he’s a pal of mine ‘n’ all, so some may think I’m biased, but I have to tell you, Jem would think that the bias - in keeping with my natural contrariness - worked the other way, and I’m far more horrible to him than if he wasn’t a friend. 
Still ‘n’ all, I can’t accept the description of Jem’s simple system piccolos (if it was one of these you were referring to) as “amateur”. They’re bloody good instruments, made to a professional standard at a decent price and sound **!?*ng brilliant! (Good for embouchure, too, as he keeps telling me.)
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Jem’s picc was “perfect” in terms of tuning. What I would expect.
I bet it blew the windows out, too. 
wow! a four d’uh post!
I can be more blindingly obvious if required …
… and the fee’s right …
worth every penny, it was
I have been corrected for being too reasonable in my previous posting. Thought I’d make it up.
Some other good reasons to “grow out of” instruments:
)Hope this helps Still, softie me wants to stress: there are no serious comments among the above.
If we’re talking inferior flutes vs. higher quality (not even getting into keys, and how many), then, of course, a flute can be outgrown by an advanced or advancing player who needs/desires a better quality instrument. The argument here, then, is to start on the best you can get/afford, not start on something that is fundamentally inferior, so that you will, by necessity, outgrow your flute.
But if we’re talking about moving on to a more complimentary flute for what you are after as a player, personally, then it can be said a player ‘outgrows’ a flute when they find another flute that better fits what they want in a flute, or as a player. As a guitarist, I found that I liked Strats more than Les Pauls; I certainly didn’t “outgrow” a Les Paul, I just found I liked playing Strats more, and therefore played better on them.
A second flute, particularly of a different style, is a help, too - playing circumstances change, and no one guitar, um, flute is perfect for every occasion. I tend to play my Hamilton with other players around, as it has a particularly loud voice, and my Hernon Rudall when I’m on my own. But either will serve, and ultimately, you tend to prefer one flute over all others.
At least until you don’t.
There is also the fact that flutes cost money, and usually the better the flute, the more it costs.
Now I’ll grant you that, especially when you’re talking a performance-level instrument, simple system flutes tend to cost less than their Boehm-system counterparts…you can easily pay $8000 and up on the Boehm-system side of things. But wooden flutes can still be expensive, and not everyone thinking about starting a hobby can spend what the finest flutes, even the keyless ones, cost. Then you also have the waiting lists, and the fact that rarely will someone start a new hobby if they have to wait a year or more before they can.
These are some of the factors that lead people to purchase a flute at the start that they may wind up wanting to replace with a better one later on.
Finally, choosing a flute is a very personal decision, and requires a certain degree of thought and of experience. There are two broad families of wooden flute design which each have their own unique characteristics, and in addition to this there are the differences from maker to maker. At the start you might not know the difference between an Olwell and a Wilkes (just to pick two names out of the hat), and wouldn’t have any experience to help you make the choice. I think that’s a decision best made after you’ve already played for at least a couple of years and are starting to get a feel for what each kind of flute sounds like.
Just my $.02.
–James
I’ve edited my original post to clarify, no criticism of Jem’s flute was intended.
I agree, they are very good, and very loud (actually, that’s my one complaint; they are tooo loud. Can we have a quieter model, please?).
Get quieter model lips.
[Actually, easy for me to say - one for me to practice, too. 
]
The bottom two octaves have dynamics to spare and can produce almost a wispier. Jem’s piccolo can be one quiet tooter without losing integrity of the notes.
To me it seems that flutes need to be pushed, where as a piccolo (or any short flute) needs to be reigned in.
As for the subject, as one learns how they like to play they develop preferences. On the whistle forum it is often said that a whistle was thrown into a drawer and forgotten about because it didn't play well just to find that years later it actually played great. It was grown _into_.
In developing one's playing one "grows" in different directions. A flute that once was temperamental becomes a flute that is expressive. An easy blower becomes dull and lifeless. Some people use a nail gun, others a hammer.You don’t outgrow a flute, but with time and experience, you learn what makes a flute special to you. The one you own may not be it. It’s that simple.
-Speaking IMHO on instruments in general: An instrument may be above or below a beginner’s early skill level. Early on two borrowed vintage Martins sounded clearly the tone and dynamics my laminate-top beginner guitar lacked and I realized I’d outgrown the starter.
-That being said a person can go back after playing a superior instrument and make the old one sound better than before. It’ll have the old limitations but improved skills will maximize its potential, skills which might not have developed without the move to a more responsive instrument.
-A beginner on a top-notch guitar will sound better in short order than on the starter, but I’m not sure the same applies to flute. I bought a flute far above my skill level and developing the embouchure & air supply to support it has been laborious but fruitful at last in the form of a lovely, reliable burr. Still, the path to it could have been smoother with an easy player early on.
-I’ve played guitar forty years and recall the progression to a top-notch instrument thus:
-Four years playing a quality laminate-top
folk guitar with decent tone but limited volume/dynamic range
Gave it up for deeper tone and fuller dynamic range
-17 years with a quality mid-grade solid-top. Not a beginner guitar but
outclassed in tone and dynamics by pro-grade instruments. Gave it up
for a more responsive instrument.
-19 years seasoning/playing a top-grade instrument from
a small maker. Its a corker, suitable for any acoustic task.
Not seeking or aware of anything better, only different.
Bliss-The bliss of playing a fully-found, responsive and well set-up
instrument, pretty much a musicians grail.
Its been my observation that many initially purchase an inexpensive instrument, wondering if they really want to get into playing that instrument and deal with the learning curve. Many do, and then find that they would just like to have (and they can justify the expense of) a more expensive instrument, sometimes with all the bells and whistles. Thus many will get my Folk Flutes initially and then upgrade to a flute with rings and slides, and sometimes keys. Sometimes they want more out of the flute as their skill level increases - and they also want different flavors, such as having both a Pratten-like honker or something slightly more refined like a Rudall-like flute, or having flutes made by the various modern makers with their own idiosyncrasies. Interestingly, most keep the first one as their old standby, something to enjoy while camping or hiking and in the case of a few of my clients, mountain climbing!
I’ve experienced this from the other perspective recently. About 6 years ago I decided to end a 30 year hiatus playing guitar. A new challenge to keep the grey matter growing. Traded a flute for a mini-Taylor and got my fingers used to the fingerboard again. I really wanted to play Swing and would really like to learn Gypsy Jazz styles, so I found one of these inexpensive Gitane copies (D-255) of the old Selmer Mac guitars with the small oval hole, cutout, moveable bridge and tailpiece. I found one with a small flaw, easily fixed, on eBay for under $500. This guitar has served me well, and it has good tone, improved with some tinkering such as raising the bridge height, curving a hollow on the underside of the bridge, and using appropriate strings. But it sounds more like a standard dreadnaught and is kind of lifeless near the bridge, where most of the music is played. I desired something better - but this seemed enough for a while.
But when I found myself with some inheritance money last winter, I placed an order with Shelley Park in Vancouver BC for one of her great handmade guitars. Specified a slightly shorter scale length (660mm vs. 670) and a narrower neck profile for my smallish hands. Its a Favino-inspired design with lighter bracing, made with bear-claw Sitka Spruce for the top and East Indian Rosewood for the back and sides. The thing just sings and sounds like the old Selmers from the 40s!
Still I am at the baby step stage with the music. Upgrading has been good in that I now have a guitar that is easier to play, hands-wise, and this has sped up my learning curve. I am interested in another guitar by her, one of her short scale Rhythm guitars with the large D hole. But for now I am content with this one and enjoy playing it daily. I may have to win lotto or people need to order more flutes, before I can justify the expense of another one!
There is much to be said for getting the excellent instrument at the start. But many just aren’t sure that they want to do this in the long term so buying something on the cheap seems to be appropriate. Its important that we makers then provide something that fits this criteria that plays almost as well if not as well as the more expensive instruments. Thus I make my least expensive Folk Flutes with the same reamers that I use on my more expensive models, tune and voice them the same way, and save costs by doing them in large batches and not offering additional bells and whistles or customizations, and sometimes don’t finish the outsides to the same degree. A good quality instrument is more likely to keep the player engaged. Thus flutes with cylindrical bores only give an approximation of what playing one of these tapered bored wooden flutes is like, especially in how the fingerholes feel to the hands.
Casey
People acquire instruments in a variety of ways. Sometimes the provenance is completely unconnected to the quality of the instrument. Inheritance is one avenue that springs to mind.
The legendary ‘fifty dollar Porsche’ is another: Being in the right place at the right time.
My first classical guitar was given to me, and was dreadful. When I bought one, I knew the shopkeeper who was stringing up a large lot of upper student models and selected out six for me to try and choose from. It’s gotten nothing but better over time.
Flutes follow this pattern as much as any other instrument. If you look to many of our legends, various stories emerge. Cathal McConnel of the Boys of the Lough had a legendarily disreputable flute. May still have. Having Hobson’s choice can certainly send you on a flute search. . .or not.
My point being that it isn’t always Compulsive Flute Acquisition Disorder.
Bob