As we know there are plateau keys (holeless) and open hole keys (with a
small hole
in the middle of them) on Boehm flutes. I have two question for people experienced
with these. First, do the open holes facilitate slides? Second, I play with a flat right hand,
the fingers out straight. Can one cover the small open-holes in this position. It seems one
is meant to come down on them with the pad of finger, and I’m extending a bit beyond that.
Thanks for any advice.
Hi, I’ve been playing silver flute in a folk ensemble so have had lots of opportunities to try what you ask about. For me the answers are no slides and not able to cover holes with flat fingers. Go ahead and use the finger tips. I think the key open holes are made to increase the volume for those listening.
A really really good technical player might be able to slide some notes using the open holed keys, but not me. I find I can sort of slide a note on the left hand (both octaves) A to B by glossing the finger over the pad between the A key and the B.
Lewis
thanks
Haven’t we been here before, Jim? 
Boehm Flute Question: Plateau keys v open-hole keys (24 July)
Slides on the Boehm flute? (10 July)
Yep, sure have. I’m not sure that repeating is going to generate different answers. I thought it had been covered successfully.
Ah thanks! A senior moment. I’m looking at an ebonite Boehm Rudall on Ebay,
and it has open-holed keys. Reviewing these threads is very helpful. Some of the info I got
in this thread is helpful too, especially about difficulties playing such flutes with a straight fingered rt hand position. Probably not for me. Thanks again.
https://youtu.be/-k6ls-jdGxY?t=137
https://youtu.be/_mBMm9ximzE?t=107
I wonder how this would be useful al all with Irish Music, but there it goes…sorry if it was posted before
I usually play my silver flute, especially if I’m needing to keep up at a session, but also spend nearly as much time with my low and high whistles, my olwell bamboo flute, and some other keyless flute things as well.
My own Boehm flutes do not have holes in their keys, but I’ve occasionally borrowed a friend’s whose flute does have open holes (when mine needed repair, etc). The first thing I tried was slides… I was so excited to try… aaaaand… nope. Couldn’t do it. After a bit got a LITTLE of it going but really nothing like certain People Of YouTube.
I can “slide” from A to B on my close-holed flute in a convincing enough way. Haven’t figured out many tricks to accomplish much else yet.
Second, I am SUPER LAZY about how I hold my flute, which means that when I go to play a flute with holes, it’s rough there for a while.
Third, as you probably know, one of the most obvious fingering differences between the Irish flute and Bohem flute is the way in which one achieves F#.
X X X X O O = F# on simple system D flute
X X X O O X = F# on Bohem system C flute (or XXXOXO)
This all well and good, except to my fingers, at this point, if they feel open holes underneath, they’re automatically going to be giving me simple system fingerings and if they feel closed holes, they’re going to give me bohem-system fingerings. It’s hard to unlearn that! #accidentalaccidentals
I play both simple-and Boehm-system flutes pretty much daily, so feel reasonably confident about this opinion 
… the holes in “open-hole”/French-style Boehm flutes’ keys are not designed for slides; the keys kind of obviate that. The holes exist for tone/resonance/clarity and especially fine bits of tuning and venting. And yes, fingertips really must be used to cover Boehm flute holes effectively to keep unwanted tuning and venting at bay.
However, you can buy little corks or silicon plugs to fill the holes if you have trouble covering them and want to play your Boehm/French model flute flat-fingered. You could also use silly putty, but that can mess with the pads; it’s worth the $3 to buy a set of plugs. https://www.fluteworld.com/Plug-Set---Medium-Silicone-Rubber--101050-.html?t=0&s=key+plugs&searchtype=0
