Nope, you didn’t find one. Those are flute-like objects, not playable flutes. The best part about the purchase would be the case, and even that’s in some doubt.
Please, please, please do NOT buy one of those no-name flutes!
Flute isn’t like whistle. Although it may look like all you have to do is drill holes at the right place, that is absolutely not true. You can take a metal cylinder and drill holes to produce a whistle (well, kind of–apologies to you whistle-makers). You cannot just drill holes in a piece of wood. There is far, far more to go into it than that. Making a flute requires finesse, or it’s not playable. Period.
- How difficult is the transition from whistle to keyless flute?
If you whistle, then you know where the notes are and you know the tunes. That’s a big hurdle you’ve already crossed.
Playing a flute is different. More is required of you, since there won’t be a fipple. You basically have to learn to be the fipple . . . and then some. It can be a little bit frustrating at first, because you’ll spend a little time trying to figure out how to do this–and even trying to figure out how to hold it!–but it’s do-able.
Doing it is very worthwhile, as flute is a reward in and of itself. Learning it won’t be an overnight thing. It’s going to take years, and that’s ok. It will give you a long-range project to work on, and all along the way you’ll be rewarded with little improvements.
You’ll enjoy it, so don’t hesitate to try.
Just don’t try it with one of those eBay crap flutes.
Either get a Casey Burns Folk Flute or a Tipple. My recommendation is to go with the Tipple. I don’t personally have one, but I’m going on what Talasiga and others have said about them. For the price, even if it’s awful you’ll still be way ahead of the game, but it will be great, not awful.
They’re indestructible, so you won’t risk damaging it when you start fooling with it, and you won’t have to do all the usual wooden-flute care stuff right away. You can just play. And you WILL be able to get good sound out of it, from what I understand.
Then, after you’re getting addicted to flute, you can start thinking about getting a wooden one. By that time, you’ll have been reading the Flute Forum enough that you will have seen a lot about flutes and you’ll have some ideas about what you might want.
Right now, you may be thinking that flutes are so expensive that you need to balance getting the best flute for a reasonable cost–something that will last you years, if not a lifetime. That’s probably not the way to go. It’s more cost effective to go with a Tipple, then to see where your inclinations lie.
I’ll tell you something else about those eBay flutes . . . you’ll never, ever be able to sell them again. At least not ethically. You can sell the Tipple, but I sincerely doubt if you’ll ever want to. And you certainly won’t need to to fund another flute.
The extra two holes are on the foot–they’re for venting only. You don’t play them. You can’t even reach them.