I am thinking of learning to play the flute. I play whistle a little bit and I have been making them for years. I am learning mainly because I am interested in making the instruments. I am also interested in playing in sessions, but I don’t know many tunes yet.
Would it be better for me to get a Boem flute? Would a nice wood Irish flute be better to learn on? Ultimately, I plan to make Irish style flutes, but I want to learn to play passably first. I have made a couple of flutes, but I find that 1) I have to contort my arms to reach the holes, and 2) I have problems getting a consistent sound from it. I am probably doing it all wrong…
I am budgeting around $150 for my first instrument. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what would be a good one to get?
Also, I have 3 Tilbury whistles (worth $180) that I could trade for a good beginner flute. They are D, C, and Bb.
Much better to play Irish music on a non-Boehm initially, IMO. The reason you are having trouble
with tone is that you haven’t played enough. It takes patient practice, often months of it,
to get a consistent tone. If you are having trouble holding the flute, a lesson from a flute
player will help, even if the teacher doesn’t play wooden flutes. Good idea to start with
a lesson–but you don’t need lots of lessons.
Ya, I am planning to take at least a couple of lessons. I need to get some face-time to discuss how to hold the instrument and what a proper embouchure looks like. My main problem is time to practice.
Have you looked up the James Galway masterclasses on embouchure on Youtube?
That’s probably a good a (free) way as any to get to understand what embouchure should look like.
If you mostly play Irish music, the Boehm flute is not ideal. I have 3 Boehm flutes, and all of them, the F natural key falls on the first four fingerings, rather than F#. A proper irish flute in the key of D is a diatonic instrument, rather than fully chromatic, although you get this with extra keys in a non-Boehm system. There are huge advantages to the Irish flute keying system. I wish I knew this before shelling out $$$ for Boehm flutes. Equally, the Boehm flute demands a good airstream/column support, and is very unforgiving, whereas Irish flutes, tend to be less squawky in this manner when you’re starting off.
Still, the Boehm flute is great for wide ranging repertoire. It requires more air than conical flutes of the same length. As a newcomer, you will want an undercut free blowing headjoint, probably oval in shape, large, rather than circular and small. For $150, you might see if you can get a second hand flute. You can certainly get a second-hand Boehm flute for that price, and it will probably be in better condition than an Irish flute. Plastic/PVC is a great way to go
Nice pointer! Thanks for posting that. I think I still need a little face-time, but that is a very cool set of videos!
I think I am only really interested in playing Irish tunes and early American folk music, for now. I am also interested in bluegrass, but there does not seem to be much flute in that style.
I play bluegrass, old time, blues., country and western, rock n’roll… ‘Irish’ flutes have real possibilities in all sorts of music, especially
folkish music, and I feel we do need to develop the instrument in these directions–that is, if we
are so inclined. I sometimes have had to fight my way into ensembles (rarely, but sometimes)
but so far skepticism ends when the skeptics hear me play. What instruments are and aren’t
acceptable in bluegrass is in flux (piano, harmonica). I play pretty much the notes a mando
player would play. Also I’m using an alto A flute and a G flute in these ensembles, sometimes.
Thanks for the feedback Jim too. I didn’t know people played bluegrass on wind instruments.
Spalpeen - glad the vids helped. Bear in mind - Galway’s method is only one way. There are others. This year, I’ve been playing all kinds of flutes and reed instruments … as a consequence, my embouchure has really drifted. It feels like I’m almost back to beginning again. If you can stick with one flute, it’s a better way to learn consistency
re; early American folk music. I’m not familiar with this genre, except what I’ve picked up from Robin Holcomb’s classical (well, folk-classical) works for piano. Seems like you need an ‘irish’ flute then.
If it helps, I’ve just ordered a McCarty whistle (he makes his from Utah) in black walnut, endemic to the USA. It’s a bit more expensive than your budget - it might be a good flute if you want an original woody bodied sound. Otherwise - the recommendations here are cool.
More power to ya, then! (Or should I ask, ‘which one’?).
Anyway, it comes down to semantics. Bill Monroe once had an accordion player in his band, so the instrumental lineup is surely malleable. That said, you’d be hard-pressed to earn your cowboy hat playing a flute in most ‘traditional’ bluegrass bands today.
Seems strange someone keeps recommending a Mcarty here to others with no knowledge of the flute yet when loads of folks on here who play Irish flute well are giving the usual recommendations of proven Irish flutes and Tipples. My own opinion is if Mcarty’s were good instruments we’d know about them by now. James if and when your Mcarty arrives I’d like to here you play it. Until then the usual proven advice is the most sound: Tipples and then the beginner slideless flutes by various folk or even a german thats proven to play in modern pitch are better option than an unknown just plain common sense.
Also in your post you say whistle I thought you ordered a flute.
The bluegrass ‘ensembles’ I play in are bluegrass jam sessions. I’ve played bluegrass in a sort of pick-up street band, too
but of course a traditional band wouldn’t accept flute (part of being traditional) and I can’t play in
a particularly good bluegrass band no matter what, not being good enough. I honestly don’t know where bluegrass ends
and country begins, anyhow whistle is used by some groups that sometimes do bluegrass. What really matters (to me, anyhow)
is what instruments sound like when playing a particular type of music.
The spirit of old time music (as opposed to bluegrass) seems to include that people picked up what instruments they had,
so I expect flutes and fifes were sometimes used. The problem folks sometimes have (though it’s rare)
I suspect is thinking of flute as airy fairy. Our flutes are gutsy and I think people who play in these
venues often like how they sound, once they hear them. Whistle is less likely to get static,
initially, in my experience.
Irish ornamentation works well in other venues, one really gets chops playing ITM. I especially like
the improvisational aspect of the standard bluegrass format.
finally it’s a matter of musicianship and chutzpah. If you can play reasonably well in these styles,
these instruments rock, IMO.
Here is Chuck’s website link: http://whistlemaker.com/
You can see that he has the machinery and skill to make flutes and whistles.
With regard to black walnut being used as a tonewood, I don’t think that you will find many makers of flutes using it. It’s great for turning bowls or making furniture, though. However, I do have a fondness for walnut. When I was twelve years ago, my parents bought a house that was surrounded by walnut trees. For a couple of months every summer we had to listen to the thump of falling walnuts hitting the roof day and night, and then I had to pick them up from the yard and gutters. My dad loved to eat black walnuts, so it was my brothers and my task to remove the green outer covers without getting too much stain all over us. The squirrels buried the walnuts everywhere they could find loose dirt, so there was no shortage of young walnut trees. The thing that I dislike about walnut trees is that they leaf out later in the Spring and drop their leaves early in the fall, so it looks like winter quickly in a woods with a lot of walnut trees.
It looks like a good one. The head-piece drills look like a good way to try and get started.
Many 17th and 18th century folk tunes appear to be Americanized Scottish and Irish tunes. For example, “Streets of Lorado” = “Pills of White Mercury” and “Johnny Gone For a Soldier” = “Shule Agra”.
I will probably buy several flutes and learn to work them all.
I think I am finally over my bad case of Whistle Over Acquisition (WOA) Disorder. (ya right)
It can be less expensive to spend more and get a better flute at the beginning, than to spend less money
on a less good flute that one will replace with another. Flutes can be resold.
If you are serious about this, there are flutes selling for 3-4 hundred that are
quite nice. Might make sense to consider them (e.g. Casey Burns folk flute,
Copley delrin, Forbes delrin…) People do regret money spent on
less good flutes, sometimes. Some good flutes are being sold
here used.
More power to ya, then! (Or should I ask, ‘which one’?).
