I notice that some tunes seem to beg for a more punctuated, rythmic (i.e. Leitrim/Roscommon) approach, while others sound quite nice with a more subdued style. Personally, while I love listening to and playing the more loud, aggressive styles, it seems more congruent with my personality to play in a style more associated with Jack Coen and Mike Rafferty (i.e. East Galway).
I don’t really hear the above Galway type players hitting the hard low D note. They don’t get that honk that I hear elsewhere. Two very good examples (IMHO) of the hard D can be found in Brad’s very helpful link regarding glottal stops (http://www.firescribble.net/templestops.mp3), and in the clip (which I can’t seem to find at the moment, but have saved to my hard drive) by Marcus Hernon which I found somewhere in this forum. The Hernon one is a video clip of him playing a flute he made for someone. Listen to that honking low D note.
AND FINALLY A QUESTION: I’m not sure getting that really popping hard D sound is something that I would include in my playing, BUT (a) I absolutely love the sound of it and (B) I can’t get it. So, is there something qualitatively different one does with emboucher or breath to get the hard D sound? I’ve tried using a glottal stop, but the sound isn’t there, which leads me to think it’s an emboucher issue. I mean, that clip by Brad has such a nice bottom D. I’ve recorded myself playing the tune and it sounds pretty similar…until that D note, at which point it doesn’t sound like i’m hitting it square. To use a baseball analogy, it’s the difference between hitting the ball squarely in the middle of the bat, and thus barely even feeling contact with it (Brad), and continually hitting foul tips (me).
I think the hard bottom D became much more popular after the 1970s, when Matt Molloy started recording with the Bothy Band and on his first solo album. When you listen to most of the older players, the bottom D tends to be more in balance with the other notes. But it also depends on the flute. On most of the Rudall flutes the bottom D has to be brought up to pitch through a combination of changing your blowing angle and focusing the embouchure; giving it a hefty punch also helps bring it up. That, coupled with the fact that the D hole is usually the largest tone hole on the flute, makes the bottom D ring out louder than the other notes and gives it a different tonal quality.
I haven’t played Pratten-style flutes in so long that I can’t describe the technique for getting the hard bottom D on that kind of flute, but you don’t have to change the blowing angle as the note doesn’t need adjustment to bring it into pitch. Probably just focusing your embouchure more and giving it a good punch will do it.
You can cut the D with an A first, like uilleann pipers do, to help give the effect of a piping bottom D, but it’s really not necessary on the flute (it IS necessary on the pipes; if you don’t cut with the A you’ll get a soft bottom D on the pipes, which sounds quite different).
I just loged into http://www.firescribble.net/templestops.mp3 but got the old familiar “no such site” or something like that. What is the site location for that clip? I was there once but lost it.
It’s the open end of the bore if you have a flute with a short foot. But for an 8-key flute or a keyless or 6-key with a regular long foot (which has the holes for C# and C), I would call the “D hole” the first open hole (the one you would close to get C# if you had keys). When all six fingers are down, that hole marks the end of the air column. It’s usually the biggest hole on the flute.
BillG, try again; the server must have been down when you tried the link but it’s up now, I just tried and it works fine.