hi! i have one question for forum members.when i play my flute with pipers grip i found very uncomfortable position to play g sharp key, because the metal body of that key is on lower position that i like to be, so i must bend my little finger more that i like to do.does it happen to all players with pipers grip who play keyed flute? is it possible to ask flutemaker to put on flute ’ g sharp key for pipers grip’?
marin
Keyed flutes are designed to be played with normal or Rockstro grip. The Bb key for instance is virtually impossible to use with pipers grip. I don’t know if there’s any way to design a keyed flute which would be fully playable with pipers grip.
Talk to a maker. Most of them can be talked into designing new things, some will not even charge extra for it. One thing which will potentially make it more difficult is that most makers don’t acctually make their own keys.
I have seen quite a few players who use normal grip in the left hand and piper’s grip in the right.
This would eliminate the problem of using the G-sharp key.
That said, unless you have extremely small hands, or a flute with an unusually wide reach, I’m not sure what piper’s grip gains you on flute.
The reach is not much different (and maybe worse in the left hand) on Boehm-system flute. I’ve seen seven-year-olds play normal Boehm flute without any discomfort or difficulty.
–James
I’m wrestling with a similar proposition, maracirac. And in my case it’s not about difficulty reaching the key; it’s more like it’s just not in quiiiiite the right place to use efficiently, and it messes up my LH3 hole coverage a bit.
Alas, I don’t have the answer. I’m thinking about having a new G# key made with a bigger touch for my Murray when it goes in for restoration this summer (it’s the tiniest G-sharp key in the world!). My big McGee Pratten has a nice, well-angled and bigger key, which is more accessible … Meanwhile, on tunes that need G#s & Bbs, etc. I use “normal” grip, & on nice major and half-holeable tunes I prefer a slight piper’s in both hands. I find it more relaxed and comfortable for B rolls and the like (at least until I get those two-handed rolls sorted out, anyway!).
Needless to say, additional illumination is welcome!
you can certainly make a keyed flute that works using a piper’s grip. for instance, i’ve seen a good number of patrick olwell’s flutes that are set up this way. aran olwell (patrick’s son) uses a piper’s grip and just made himself a really nice keyed flute that works for him.
just talk to the maker before they build it and tell them that you use piper’s grip and they should be able to accomodate you. even better, if you visit their shop, they can measure your hands and build it that way as well.
hope that helps,
b
I use normal on the left and piper’s on the right. Have only been playing about 1 year, so take that with appropriate grains of salt.
I evolved this grip mainly because I have fairly long fingers. On the RH, I can’t reach the flute to brace it with my little finger unless I use the second joints of the RH fingers to cover the holes. My “ideal” spot to cover the holes is right on the joint between the last two bones of each finger - “ideal” in the sense that this is where the holes naturally fall if I brace the flute comfortably with the RH thumb and little finger. However, there is not enough flesh at that part of the fingers to reliably cover the holes, so I spread my RH thumb and little finger a tad to bring the joints closer to the flute.
God, that all sounds incredibly complicated! It is actually quite simple though. I am still able to use a “normal” LH grip beacuse the hand angle automatically brings the fingers in closer to the flute so there is no problem covering the holes nearer the finger tips.
I only recently got a keyed flute, and I am still working on using the keys. With my grip, I don’t have a problem reaching the keys, just remembering where they are when I need them!
Thanks, Brendan! I was hoping that was the case; I didn’t see why it couldn’t be.
[quote=“Cathy Wilde”]I’m wrestling with a similar proposition, maracirac. And in my case it’s not about difficulty reaching the key; it’s more like it’s just not in quiiiiite the right place to use efficiently, and it messes up my LH3 hole coverage a bit.
Alas, I don’t have the answer. I’m thinking about having a new G# key made with a bigger touch for my Murray when it goes in for restoration this summer .
well, i think that bigger touch and on slightly higher position is the answer.
i have big hand ( i am 1,95 high) and i must bend my little finger a lot to operate that key with top of my finger,so my problem isn’t small hand or finger, but oposite, to big ,clumsy fingers.
The Bb key for instance is virtually impossible to use with pipers grip. I don’t know if there’s any way to design a keyed flute which would be fully playable with pipers grip.
not all corect henke. last year i saw eamonn de barra from group slide with his new (then) flute. it was grinter 6 keyed, and has b flat key designed for pipers grip player.it is operated with left hand.
marin
Seth Gallagher flutes have the Bb touch on the rt hand.
I think these flutes are popular with people
who use piper’s grip.
The Gsharp key is a nasty key, often. It needs a big
touch and I think loosening the spring can help.
I consider it the key most likely to be out of
position.
<— There’s how I apparently hold a flute in a normal situation… 
Yikes, that’s instructive.
Anyway…
I have very long fingers for a woman, but of course my hands aren’t quite as big or strong as a fella’s, thus making for a strange combination. I first started experimenting with this grip after falling in love with the ease with which Turlach Boylan’s hands work (he’s a big guy too, FWIW), and he averred it was the only way to go (at least that’s what I think he meant).
Even more interestingly, I played Boehm flute for 35 years perfectly happily with the Rockstro hold; can’t imagine anything else. But there’s something about the size/shape & hole placement and A & B rolls on simple system flutes that makes me prefer a slight piper’s grip.
And yes, I totally agree about the G# key placement on simple system flutes. It’s only logical for how the flutes are built and tuned, but ergonomically and leverage-wise it’s just plain bizarre (remember where I’m coming from, though). If you compare the G# and Bb keys on a Boehm flute to their simple system counterparts, the Boehm keys have much bigger touches (shoot; the Bb’s a little platform you can hit with half your thumb!); plus the Boehm G# key arm is even angled for easier access (of course, there’s no long F to get in the way, either). Better yet, Boehms have a right-hand Bb touch as well.
No wonder Boehms and the plateau-key system rocked the planet when they came out, and no wonder so many simple-system flutes were “recycled” to poor folk musicians!
But heaven help me, I love it so. Even when I curse the oddly placed G# touch on my Murray that happens to be the size of my pinky fingernail.
She said, casually tossing another horse into the cart and hand-cranking the Deere 7020 into life…
“What about it?” she said, casually reaching across the Atlantic and flattening GaryKelly’s computer monitor with her index finger …
Forgive me, I’m just a poor strapping farm girl. 
OMG! 
… Are those … COBWEBS in there amongst the springs?
Where’s the froggie?
I found some even odder stuff lookin’ for that one!
There was a web page that told of making key extensions (for the G key) due to the loss of the end of the left ring finger to a lawn mower. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work for a G# touch.