Okay, so I have head from another C&Fer regarding honks. I believe the phrase was, “I just don’t like irrelevant honking.” So my question is this: How does one make ‘honking’ relevant in a tune? Just where does one actually put in the emphasis? Is there a formula of sorts? I know it can be overdone (guilty as charged), but what, and where would be the acceptable frequency and placement of such an accent?
Arbo
(yes, I honk…)
Every thirteenth weak beat on even days of the month.
rob
Be like the goose. Nay, BE the goose. Become one with goose-nature. Let your spirit soar along the ancient skyways of the gooses, and sound your barbaric honk o’er the roofs of the world. Then you shall truly honk, O Arbo.
I honk when I think I should, or could. I have no formula, it’s more a matter of situation.
Arbo, quit STARING at me!
0.05 seconds after the light changes.
Do not honk gentle into that good night,
Old flutes should honk and rave at close of play;
Honk, Honk against the drying of the pint.
Though wise men at their end know when the honk is right,
Because their tunes had forked no honking they
Do not go gentle into that reel at night.
Good men, the last call by, crying how bright
Their frail bleats might have danced in a green bay,
Honk in rage against every G, E and D in sight.
[I’ll spare you the rest. 
]
– Dylan Thomas the Flooterist
I don’t try to honk, but sometimes it just happens when I’m really into a tune. I wonder if it’s in the right place? Regardless I don’t think my nach Meyer can honk in the manner your flute can. (Is your flute fixed?)
You, sir, are a genius!
Honk whenever you get the chance - honking is always relevant, why be shy. I aspire to play in the manner of Conal O’Grada, Ciaran Somers and Pat Mahon - these are mighty flute players. Check out Conal playing here and nearly drowning out not one, but two pipers and a fiddle, about 1:18 secs into the clip Conal turns the volume up to 11 and starts to honk in ernest:
loud is better 
There is a difference between honing and playing powerfully. I’d say Conal honks a good bit, Ciaran Somers and Pat Mahon not that much.
It’s all about style.
Do I sence a honking little devil here? In the words of Johnny Mac, you can not be serious.
i honk when i like to 
…Which is reminding me of the time I went to huge fetish dance/party at a Walmart-sized dance club in Toronto. The organizers had sold something like 1,100 tickets, and security for the evening was being provided by off-duty cops hired by the organizers. The gay leather crowd was there, ditto the straight, various straight fetish, goth, fashion and ‘industrial’ subcultures, the trannies and cross dressers, uniform fetishists, latex entheusiasts, flagellants, furries, and dozens of other varieties of pervert were all present. Even the kids from the local fashion-design program showed up, because their told them they’d see a tonne of creative design…
If the cops working the event missed the words ‘uniform fetishists’ in my list of attendees, they rapidly got up to speed. Unfortunately for the cops, there were quite a number of individuals there who think that cop outfits are pretty hot, and amid the chaos, they rapidly began to get a little out of line. Indeed, some of partiers were wearing cop uniforms–some in rubber, some in leather, some in the original cloth–as their costumes. While I was lining up in the corridor waiting to get to the bathroom, I heard the cop stationed in the coridor say, in tones that could not have got much frostier, “I am NOT a participant!” as he got ‘honked’ for what was likely the 20th time that evening.
Actually, he seemed pretty good natured about the whole thing. Better natured, anyway, than I’d have expected any cop to be while being inappropriately honked.
Arbo, thanks for starting this thread - it is well worth it just to have engendered Aanvil’s superb DT parody! Love it, Aanvil!!! Ask not for whom the flute honks…
Fernhill next?
Honk and the world honks with you
Toot and you toot alone
Reverse that, maybe?
When ought Arbo hold his bray?
On jigs and reels, what do you say?
He means no harm
when he peals with alarm.
Arbo’s big toot on his flute is okay.
If to honk is your game, then take heed,
And apply this Thumb Rule with great speed:
Since you play like you talk,
That accent from ‘New Yawk’
Should supply all the honking you need!
That’s when they break into the Five Mile Chase, a major honkfest of a tune. There is a time a place for all ornamentation, sometimes honking isn’t quite right in a tune, in other cases why the heck not. to honk perchance to dream…
it’s all about taste, i would agree i like to hear a flute played hard, it brings out the dynamics better.
better to honk one candle and curse the wimpy half hearted sorta bottom D.