Anyone have any pictures of these different hole shapes? I get “round”…but oval vs. boxed off oval vs. whatever, I have no idea. Standard wooden flutes used in Irish music have a round hole, is that what it is? Too much information for my poor brain!
I’m still trying to play my PVC flute (and discovering that (a) it takes a fairly strong embouchure and perhaps this is where I went wrong with trying a concert Boehm flute? and (b) the less I play my clarinet, the better my sound on flute is…eek!).
I’ve just read Terry McGee’s articles once more, and what confuses me a bit is that people here in the forum seem to prefer the elliptical or oval hole for playing Irish music, some wrote that a wooden flute won’t sound ‘Irish’ with the boxed oval or rounded rectangle as McGee calls it.
McGee seems to favour the rounded rectangle - isn’t this the opposite of what has been written here in the forum???
P.S.: I suppose it would have been easier if I didn’t have a choice…
One thing I’m convinced of: you won’t have a great deal
of trouble playing the classical oval. It may take
getting used to, but, you know, I picked it up
at the age of 60, my first flute. These
aren’t teribly difficult to master–given that the
nature of flutes is that they take
work. I’d go for the
sound you want and then learn to play
the flute, even if it takes you a couple
of months. Best
