anyone here rather use the RH touch for Bb over the “standard”?
i have a flute that i’m considering adding a Bb key…
thanks !
My Nach Meyer has both and it depends on the piece I am playing but I use the LH thumb key most of the time. I could do without the RH touch but it is nice to have the option.
You are considering adding one or the other I take it?
My R&R has the extension Bb touch as does my Rampone Zeigler-style flute (amongst other extras). I like having the option, but in practice predominantly use the primary thumb-key, even in tunes/pieces with a lot of Bbs/A#s. I find the extension touch handy for rolls on A in a flat key signature, though, e.g. in The Twopenny Jig. My advice - unless you play with a hold that makes the thumb key seriously awkward for you, and assuming you can’t afford to go for the double touch anyway, stick with the thumb key. If you use one of the “pipers’” derived holds or have L thumb mobility problems, then maybe the R1 touch would be better. For example, an F major arpeggio is probably much easier with a thumb key than with the extension.
my R&R has both, and i use them both, but i was wondering how much of it is habit…and weather, since i’m not going to add a C#…having just the long Bb would work better once i’m used to using only that?
I play with a piper’s grip so I find the right-hand Bb touch to be a wonderful thing. It takes some getting used to, esp. if you don’t use Bb that much, but for my purposes it’s grand, especially in F tunes. 
Eilam, I thought you already had a flute with a RH Bb touch, or…??
Some old timber pipe by a pair of chancers called George and John…
Rob
my R&R is the only flute that i have that has the double touch…
but i also really love this J.Gallagher Pratten that has the G# and short F…i was thinking of having john add the Eb long F and a Bb…was not sure weather to go with the standard or RH.
i use the standard key way more, but i think that it’s habit…maybe the RH is better positioned?
you can never have too many ways to play Bb 
I have a R+R with thumb and RH Bb touch. I use both of them, using similar logic as choosing whether to use long and short F-sometimes it’s easier to coordinate fingers if the movements are divided between the hands. And I often cross finger Bb…
Still for ITM, I don’t really use the Bb keys at all…
Hugh
I had just a Bb right hand touch on the seth gallagher flute.
I liked it a lot. Also I find half-holing Bb pretty easy
on a keyless flute, though a key is a bit better.
Not sure I quite see a need for two Bb keys.
I have a RH Bflat on my McGee GLP with C thumb hole. Needing the thumb for the CNat hole rules out the bflat thumb key, but this works fine for me… Having started in the Boehm world, I would have been happy with either. And the simple system made me apprecate the genius of the modern boehm setup for the thumb bflat key. (i.e. leave it down for bflat instead of BNat without affecting any other notes…)
I’m not able to use the regular Bb thumb key on account of my unconventional grip. That said, I can do some spiffy things with my RH Bb key that I can’t imagine would be quite so easy with the regular key; I have a really groovy C to Bb move that merely entails opening both keys for C (gives a lovely, hard C) then sliding my finger down the key shanks to release only the C. This doesn’t come up too often, but there’s one piece I play in particular that greatly benefits from this technique. Cheers,
Rob
p.s. Here’s the keywork in question:
Care to show us photos of your unconventional grip?
thanks rob,
on my R&R i have the double touch Bb, so the two keys (RH Bb and C#) are close together like on you flute…i turn the RH joint a bit out sothat my RH elbow has to be up a bit and that keeps the keys from being in the way for my RH first finger (it looks like you have your turned in a bit?).
on this flute i though to skip the C# key altogether, and maybe only have a RH Bb? but may go with double touch?
who made your flute? it looks nice.
e.
That would be a very good reason to have the right-hand Bb touch. Had I thought of it I would have asked my flute’s maker for one, or better yet (as in resale value) a double touch. As a “piper’s gripper” myself, I can’t use the left-hand Bb touch and have to crossfinger the Bb in both octaves.
Actually, when I play the RH holes point up at the ceiling, so the LH is turned out away from me.
Aaron Olwell made my flute…and you bet it’s nice!
Cheers,
Rob
p.s. Podge, search for my name on YouTube to see a vid of my grip.
FWIW (Eilam, Rob), I usually keep my tone-holes on the same spine line and hold the flute with them pointing straight up - and I don’t have any problems at all with either the long C or the extra Bb touch getting in the way of my R hand forefinger on either my R&R or my Rampone. of course, I don’t use a pipers’ type hold and I don’t have to lift my elbows significantly. (Not making any value-judgements here, just comparative description of experience. 
)