I am having problems with the lower octave F, E, and Ds on my flute. It was playing fine one day - the next day the tone on these notes was gone. This, of course, just feeds into my total insecurity as a flute player.
Can there be something wrong with the pads or an internal crack I can’t see? I have checked and rechecked the pads but they don’t seem to be leaking.
Any ideas or experience with this phenomenon?
Thanks!
tenons cork wrapped or thread?
might check them.
What Jim said. Make sure the joint is greased adequately, too. You don’t want air leaking there, either.
I had a similar problem. Cathy helpfully mentioned that it might be moisture buildup, and I believe she was correct.
Even though you may shake or swab out the flute after use, condensate still accumulates as the flute cools. Try drying it out again before use.
I sometimes have trouble with F, E, and D --my embouchure gets stuck. I haven’t been playing long. If correcting moisture and tenon problems doesn’t do it, the root of the problem is most likely to be me.
You mention the lower octave. What about the second octave, same problems there??
If the notes are clear all the way down to F#, and cause problems from F down to D as you say, then it sounds to me like the problem might be the F-key.
Try and wrap it with a rubberband (á la Cathal McConnell) or temporarily seal the hole with a piece of tape under the F-key to be really sure…
good luck,
Jeroen
HI Kate,
I will second the idea about the moisture build up-it can easily disrupt your flute playing in short order. You can be playing along fine and then you can’t get a good sound out of it, or it will be muffled. Swab it out, and you can go again.
That’s a good point Peggy mentioned about the moisture continuing to form as it cools down, so a swab out before playing makes sense too.
It also doesn’t hurt to warm up the head of the flute in your hands before playing, or as much of the flute that you can by hugging it (did you hug your flute today?). This will help the condensation to not form prematurely or it will at least help in the beginning, until the flute temperature warms as you play.
I’m new to flute, but I found this out playing low whistle first. And the first thing to be affected by excess moisture are the low octave notes on the whistle, so it just may be the same with the flute. I hope this is your problem, as it’s easily fixed!
It can be helpful while playing to close the finger holes
and blow sharply into the embouchure hole.
Also the flute flag is a product that enables one to
swab the entire flute at a stroke, in a couple of seconds.
I had this happen to me with my Burns folk flute. If I didn’t play it for more than a day or two I would lose my low end. I covered all the holes and blew into the emboucher to check that the flute was sealed, and the cork shot out!
I greased it up and now it those low notes are nice and strong. It seemed strange to me that the cork was thread lapped, is this usually the case?
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try out some changes while the wee ones sleep this afternoon. - Kate
As others have mentioned, could be a number of things: Leaking pad(s), leaking socket/tenon joint (cork or thread lapped), crack, leaking Headjoint stopper…these would be the most common.
Rubberbanding keys shut to check for leaks as suggested can work quite well, however sometimes the key cup will bottom out on the far side of the tone hole, so even when banded, the pad for that key may leak.
Try to eliminate one cause at time, socket/tenon joint first, visual crack inspection next, then rule out leaky pads, and finally check the headjoint stopper.
Good luck,
Loren
I used to have a similar problem with condensation under pads when I played the oboe (decades ago), and we used cigarette papers to absorb the extra moisture. Sometimes blowing through the open holes, or the embouchure won’t clear the problem - but cigarette papers are very absorbent and thin so you can just slide them between the pad and hole on a keyed flute and watch them blot up the moisture.
A whole new industry for cigarette papers in our soon to be smoke-free world!
We know what you really used those papers for–
psychedelic oboe!
Padre, the cap on my CB boxwood is wrapped with thread, so I suspect it may be the case. I suppose those threads need attention as much as the rest do, because a little grease on mine improved the tone drastically. (Thanks for mentioning this!)
The problem with a cork stopper is that with changes in temperature and humidity the stopper is going to become loose, shift positions, and leak air, and this will, obviously, affect the playability of any flute. You can use thread to add dimension to the side of the cork stopper, but a better solution is to use masking or drafting tape to the sides of the cork, trimming off any excess with a knife. The tape has adhesive on one side and is smooth on the other side. That means that it is very easy to size a stopper cork so that it has just the right compression to stay in place and seal perfectly. And you won’t need any cork grease, as the smooth side of the tape will slide easily in the flute bore.
Doug wrote:
“The problem with a cork stopper is that with changes in temperature and humidity the stopper is going to become loose, shift positions, and leak air,”
If the cork is sized properly in the first place, and good quality cork is used, then they will typically last for years without problems. If cork was really that dimensionally unstable, the wine industry wouldn’t have used it for so long. I’ve seen plenty of older flutes come in with original corks, in good condition, from 20+years ago.
That said, I’m a fan of Delrin stoppers for newer flutes.
"You can use thread to add dimension to the side of the cork stopper, but a better solution is to use masking or drafting tape to the sides of the cork, trimming off any excess with a knife. "
I must respectfully disagree here, many of these tapes tends to break down over time, particularly when exposed to trapped moisture, and then create a mess that needs to be cleaned up in the headjoint.
My advice would be to replace the cork if it gets loose, and be done with it. It’s not like corks are an expensive or difficult to obtain item.
Best,
Loren
I’ll show my ignorance now, but I feel this is a “safe” place! What kind of grease or wax do you use on the joints? Mine are threaded.
Thanks, Kate
Actually, no grease or wax is necessary, although many like to use that stuff. We don’t use any wax or grease on the thread lapped instruments we make, repair, or restore.
Loren
Hi, Kate!
Synthetic heavier-gauge thread tends to be popular with some folks of late. Polyester is the ticket, apparently, and you shouldn’t have to grease it as it supposedly isn’t apt (or as apt) to swell from moisture.
Have you made any discoveries with your flute’s troubles, yet? Say “Hi” to Jode and the bairns for me!
Jason
Hi, Kate!
Don’t rule out a leaking tuning slide, either (look for moisture buildup on the slide after you’ve played it a while; a lot of moisture is an indicator it’s leaky). If that’s the case, Teflon tape (thanks, E!) or beeswax/linseed oil (you can make your own block by melting beeswax with a few drops of raw linseed oil and letting it cool into a block – thanks, John!; I poured mine into an Altoids tin and that works great as a container) or a good greasing (check your maker’s instructions about whether it’s supposed to be a dry slide or not first, tho’ – thanks, Hammy!) can help there.
And plumber’s teflon tape wrapped thin on the joints can help, too, especially now that it’s winter and your flute is drying out in the forced-air heat. Are you keeping the flute in a 60%+ humidity box?
Finally, hair-rubber bands on your keys can indeed be your friends. The Eb and F keys seem to be my biggest “trouble children” across the board.
A side note: If I’m in need of them, I make sure to remove all Teflon tape AND rubber bands after every playing session. Don’t want the wood to swell for some weird reason and be taped or banded down so it can’t expand!
My experience is that my flutes want to shrink pretty much all over in the winter and dry air; the ones made in Ireland/the UK suffer the most – I guess because the wood was seasoned in a more humid climate?
FINALLY, a tiny crack, maybe hiding under – or at the edge of – your tuning cap? is not out of the realm. Do the low notes get better after you play it in for, say, 30 minutes? Could be that the wood expands enough thru your warm breath and its resultant moisture buildup to help close a hairline gap somewhere. (Sometimes a fresh coat of oil can also clear up a flute’s playing in this situation, although only temporarily and it’s not good to oil too much)
From what I understand, a lot more flutes probably have wee cracks than many of us know, and the winter is when they really show up.
(And of course, there is the moisture-buildup thing mentioned earlier, too, but that’s cleared up with a simple shake, blow-out or swabbing)
(Oh, and if you use cigarette papers under the keys (I do it, too, duuuuuude 
), make sure you don’t get the gummed side under the pads.)
Anyway, that’s my experience with these crazy things so far – just remember that wood is an organic material, and it changes with the weather. Good luck!
Cat.
P.S. And if none of this works, check the placement of your right &/or left ring fingers; I can lose those notes if I get lazy there.
I use Bol-Wax. It’s available in the plumbing section of your hardware store–the waxy ring which seals the base of a toilet to the drain pipe. They’re about 98 cents. It looks like raw beeswax, but it’s very thick petroleum jelly and urethane. It also looks like it might be toxic, but it’s not. It’s nondrying and won’t get gluey.
You’ll need very little of it for your flute, so you’ll have extra to use around the house. The stuff is practically impervious to water, so much so that it can be used for emergency plugging of leaks in sailboat hulls. I plugged a leaking window during the last hurricane–a stream of wind and water was spraying sideways through a small hole–and it held up in Category I winds.
That’s the stuff Casey Burns used on his threaded joints when I visited his shop last Spring.
Cheers,
Aaron