True, “whole hog” could imply eight keys (or more, as apparently as many as fifteen keys were eventually fitted to the conical bore flute).
However, a six-key flute does it all (and even better than a four-key flute), as far as traditional ITM goes.
Moreover, maybe those extra, rarely used, and potentially leaky seventh and eighth keys could simply not be worthwhile.
But that is only my opinion (just to help save you headache, and $).
Actually, for ITM, I’ll probably not use any keys. The keys are for the other kind of music.
So why buy the whole hog, when all you want is an occasional pork sandwich. Most of the tunes we play are in the key of D or G. With the four keys making it fully chromatic, I would be able to play those occasional other tunes as well.
Sure, to be honest, I would really like to have 6 keys. Actually, we play fiddle tunes quite often that require low C; so an 8 key might be nice. But those extra keys add weight and complexity to an otherwise (wonderfully) simplistic instrument.
Jay
I also sometimes wonder if I really need keys. The objective that made me choose a simple system flute was to learn to play ITM with it, so it seems it’s almost not necessary to have keys in that context.
The price of putting so many keys in a simple system flute to play other kinds of music makes me wonder if for that purpose it wouldn’t be easier, cheaper and more convenient to have a Boehm flute.
Besides the price problem, to play other kinds of music and also in an ensemble, isn’t it troublesome to have the usual tuning in D? I know you could have, for example, a simple system keyed flute in C for that purpose, but if I was to pay such an amount of money for that maybe I’d rather invest in a silver flute instead and try to keep both techniques. Is that too troublesome and I’d better dedicate to just one system?
Cheaper?: It is only cheaper if you compare a custom build 8key wooden traditional flute with a student Boehm flute. Professional Boehm flutes are just as expensive, or more, especially if you want a wooden body or extra wooden headpiece.
Easier?: This is debatable and much a matter of practise.
Convenient?: Well a Boehm flute just sounds so different, and feels so different to play. If you love playing and hearing the trad. wooden flute then a Boehm flute may be too far from what you love.
D-tuning?: The six hole D tuning is traditional and also no different than a Boehm flute. Most fingerings are very similar, with exception of F/F# and C.
A simple system C flute may be fine for folk music and someone used to learn by ear or trained to swap between D and C whistles. But a C flute is bigger and may not suit your hands, the stretch being too big. Also it is yet another flute to adjust to. I think it much more convenient to play a 8key trad. wooden flute than a number of six hole flutes, each in a different keys. The whistler’s approach does not work too well here.
You can get Bansuri flutes in all kind of keys, but you don’t get bansuris with keys. And bansuris are relatively inexpensive, so players don’t mind having a range of them.
~Hans
Should I get keys?
If you ask this question (as a topic) in the ITM forum
I would answer a resounding NO
because as at this point in time
ITM can be pretty much fluted with the following combo
(which is over generous):
D flute
Eb flute
small G flute (optional high flute)
When you ask the same question here in the FLUTE FORUM
(which is not ITM specific)
I answer a resounding YES
unless you are only going to play ITM.
Also if you like the one key Baroque flute cross fingerings for chromatic coverage
but are afeard of the embouchure stuff
I think some modern makers give you modern mouth holes for this style of flute. See Terry McGee for instance.
Thanks Hans for all the explanations. I’m quite ignorant about all this tuning stuff and I should be confusing concepts. So if the tuning of a D flute is the same of a Boehm flute, someone with a D flute could play normally in a non-ITM ensemble where everybody else’s instruments are tuned to C(irrespective of what key is the tune they are playing)?
Good discussion, thanks to all who responded on the board and in PM.
Sure, but AFAICT just to get in the game with a keyed timber flute will set you back at least US$1500, where you can get a good quality playable Boehm for a fraction of that. You can rent a Boehm just to see if you get on with it, where with a timber flute you don’t really have that option. If i lived in a community with sessions aplenty, i might be able to try one out, but alas i do not.
As it stands now, i’m still undecided on what to do, persuasive as many of the comments on this thread have been. 
Yes.
The confusion may lie here: we consider the simple-system flute to be in D, because that’s the scale that lies readily under the fingers. (Also, unless one has a keyed foot, D is the lowest note.)
All well and good, but it’s a C instrument, in the sense that when you finger a C or an E or a G# or whatever, that’s the note you hear. Compare this with a clarinet or a sax (or any other transposing instrument)–one might finger a C, but one hears, say, a Bb. (Or think of whistles: a D whistle is a non-transposing–C–instrument, but if you pick up any other key whistle, your fingerings stay the same, but the notes coming out are different.)
Any non-transposing instrument is called a C instrument, regardless of its lowest note or easiest scale, etc. So in that regard, the simple-system flute and the Boehm flute are identical.
By the way, with regard to Boehm flute affordability, good intermediate (not student, not professional) ones cost around $2000-$4000. (Pro flutes start at about $6000.) And there’s a world of difference between a $700 student model and a $2500 intermediate model.
Also, having switched exlusively to simple-system flute after years of Boehm flute playing, I think they’re rather different instruments. They require distinct embouchures, and the fingering technique is only partly transferrable. You’re in it for the long haul on either instrument to become fluent in all keys. All that said, a Boehm flute is probably the more logical choice if you’re planning to play classical or popular music after the mid to late 1800’s. If you want to play ITM and bebop, you are probably best off with two flutes, a keyless and a Boehm.
I only play ITM with my flute.
I play with a 6-keyed flute-- so that I can play a G#, Eb or an Fn whenever I want to.
For tunes like The New Century, Handsome Maidens, Graf Spee, Splendid Isolatiion, loads of Paddy Fahey and Paddy O’Brien tunes (The Old Road to Garry, etc), keys are indispensable. To say otherwise displays an ignorance of tunes like these – or a very high level of accomplishment (a la Catherine McEvoy, Michael McGoldrick, Martin Doyle or Brian Finnegan). For the rest of we mortals, including Harry Bradley, Matt Molloy, June Ni Chaormaic, the keys have it.
Sure, you can skip those tunes I mentioned. You can only play in G and D if you want, or play those tunes and fudge the parts where you need keys. But you’ll be missing a large part of ITM.
Plenty of vitamins and a wealthy benefactor might help as well 
My musical goals are more modest, i’d say. I like ITM, bebop, baroque, charanga, etc, but there’s no way i’d have the time to put into fluency in all of these styles. Even mastering one of them is hard enough, and the likelihood of that after age forty with a family and professional life is pretty minimal.
Reading this thread has definitely given me some clarity, and after recording myself yesterday, i can say honestly that right now my need to focus on basics is greater than my desire to be able to play accidentals. So i think i’ll remain keyless for the time being. Maybe i’ll revisit the notion in another six months or so, but for now it’s likely that the keys would be more of a distraction than anything else.
I’m curious now, how do the above-mentioned fluters play these tunes without keys? Cross-fingering? Half-holing? Work-around?
The opinion comes up regularly that all you need for playing ITM on a flute is a unkeyed D flute. Talasiga as he states is over generous in including a Eb and a G flute. Leaving aside the Eb and G for a moment, when I look through my collection of Irish Trad music books I see plenty of tunes which are impossible to play on an unkeyed D flute.
I wanted to know more precisely how many tunes, so I counted through the Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. I like this collection since it includes a fair proportion of airs and not just concentrates on dance music. I left out the Old Dances of non-Irish origin, which includes a few polkas, schottisches and popular waltzes (28 tunes). My count came to 537 tunes, which were distributed to key signatures in the following manner (I only looked at key signatures, not modes, as key signatures give an indication of the scale notes used. I also did not bother to investigate any gapped scales):
scale: tunes / percent
Bb: 7 / 1%
F: 16 / 3%
C: 59 / 11%
G: 236 / 44%
D: 185 / 34%
A: 34 / 6%
So you see a vast majority of tunes are written in the scale of G and D, but a significant minority in C and A.
The distribution is a little different for different types of tunes. Especially Airs have a broader distribution. Of 149 airs in the Roche collection I find:
scale: tunes / percent
Bb: 4 / 3%
F: 10 / 7%
C: 31 / 21%
G: 59 / 40%
D: 33 / 22%
A: 12 / 8%
Whereas Reels and Jigs and Hornpipes concentrate in G and D and less in C. (I could include the figures, but this is already getting too long).
Maybe these figures show that you can play a lot of ITM on an unkeyed D flute, perhaps 80% of tunes. You could extend this to 95% by including the tunes written in scales of C and A, but you would need at least a Fnat key and a G# key, and sometimes also a low C key (the low C# is also needed for some tunes in D). In order to play all 100% of ITM you need an 8 key flute.
To claim that as a flute player you need no keys for ITM is erroneous. An unkeyed D flute will let you play a big majority of ITM. But it leaves out a significant minority of beautiful music. That many flute players are content with a flute without keys arises IMO out of economic considerations. But it limits the ability to express all of ITM.
As to Eb and G flutes: an Eb flute is fun, but for ITM it may only be important if you want to join an Eb session, where the usual G and D tunes are played a semitone up, by fiddlers tuning their fiddles higher. There probably is no ITM in the key of Eb. - And A G flute is perhaps best for busking on the street, but not much use in a group to play ITM in key of G, which goes usually lower than G and is much better played on a D flute.
~Hans
If you like to play baroque you most definitely would be best served with an 8 key traditional wooden flute. Plenty of accidentals, keyless does not get you anywhere there. And baroque music sounds so much better played on a traditional flute, and not a Boehm flute. The conical wooden flute was the flute of the era.
~Hans
Baroque era music i thought was best played on a one-key? Anyway i like all those styles of music but i don’t really play any of them – realistically i think i need to pick one and stick to it and for the time being i have the most time and technique invested in trad. And, yes, while there are some great tunes that require keys, truth is i could probably learn a couple hundred more good tunes that don’t require them. So i think i’ll put the key thing on hold for a bit.
Yes, my mistake. The 8 key conical wooden classical flute developed out of the 1 key conical wooden baroque flute, which developed out of the keyless cylindrical renaissance flute.
~Hans
In any case, i’m sure an 8 key would sound preferable to a Boehm for baroque – and it drives me crazy when i hear modern vibrato used in baroque music, but that’s another topic entirely…
Really, it’s a tough call. I like Baroque music, and have played it on a one-key flute. However, although the occasional cross fingered note somehow lends, er, flavor to the sound of the music, too many cross fingerings make mud out of it. Frankly, I just had to restrict my one-key playing to just a few key signatures. Moreover, just because I do like the music, despite the one-key instrument, I soon found myself playing the music on a Boehm system, and, although it is not authentic, the modern flute allowed me to enjoy the music, much more than cross fingering could. Besides, the modern embouchure allows for far greater flexibility, unlike the small round hole as found on one-key flutes, and which really allows one to explore the music all that much more.
Vibrato?? I never play with vibrato, none at all. Yuk!!
Hey Doc, what kinda wooden head did you get for the Boehm? I don’t suppose it’s one of Maurice Reviol’s?
YOU DID NOT BOTHER TO EXAMINE GAPPED SCALES.
(oh Rumpole where are you?)
Well your lack of botheration poses a potential problem here (note I said “potential”)
For examples:-
a gapped scale song like Mattie Groves (with no 6th, otherwise Dorian/ see also “sawmill mode”) could, if it is rendered with kenote C, be correctly notated in the following key signatures
Bb/Gmin OR Eb/C min
Still Eb flute coverage
D Sarang melody type (“Sarang” is an indic name for a gapped melody type which is the second mode in the major pentatonic scale - namely no 3rd or 6th with minor 7th) which can be easily played on a D flute, can also be played on a F flute and a G flute and may be notated in both
F/Dmin OR G/Emin key signatures
Still D or G flute coverage
song eg “oro Se Bheatha” (forgive spelling)
major pentatonic melody type like Auld lang Syne and Dawning of the Day, if done with A tonic, may be notated in
A/F#min OR D/Bmin OR E/C#min key signatures
Still D flute coverage.
minor pentatonic melody type such as “Bonnie Light Horseman” if rendered with E tonic may be notated in
D/Bmin OR G/Emin OR C/Amin signatures.
Still D flute or G flute coverage
major pentatonic melody type like Auld lang Syne and Dawning of the Day, if done with D tonic, may be notated in
D/Bmin OR G/Cmin OR A/F#min
examples 6 - 108) pending interest …