A long time ago, I was utterly defeated by my friend Deena’s flute. However, I never lost the interest. I don’t have the lung capacity for a flute yet but I’d like to try a piccolo-type to see if I can handle the mouthpiece. If you have something for sale or loan, that isn’t too expensive, please let me know!
Beth,
As I understand it, they are two different animals. Flutes take more air as a general rule, but the piccalos demand a VERY tight control on the embrochure…more even than the flute.
If anyone can claim otherwise, I’d be interested too! anyway, just my own experience…
B~
Well, then I’ll just focus on the inexpensive bit!
I bought a cheap high D bamboo flute from a local maker (spiritsongflutes) for $20 and I am having a wonderful time with it – se my post “One week with a cheap flute” in the flute forum.
Also, Yamaha do a cheap fife for about $8 – I’m looking at buying one for fun.
F.Veg.
Cooperman makes decent plastic fifes and very inexpensive maple fifes to learn on–I’m talking less than $20 for either.
Hmtrad.com has them at
http://www.hmtrad.com/instr/winds/flutes/fifecoop.html
If you have an interest in flute or fife this is a good way to get your feet wet.
Now before any of the Whistle Gestapo jump me on that, let me add it won’t take you nearly as far as a $300 polymer Irish flute would. But for the price you can’t beat it.
Best to ya,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
I haven;'t even spent $300 on my nearly two dozen whistles, I am definitely looking for a starter “do I like this” type of instrument. Gestapo, I understand that it won’t be the best! 
Edit - just looked at the Coopermans. Is Bb the standard key for a fife? I would have expected them to be high D, and flutes to be G or low D…
[ This Message was edited by: avanutria on 2002-08-19 00:14 ]
I bought a spirit song flute like fatveg. I got it today at Portland Saturday market. It’s a great buy for the money. I bought one in B flat for $25. He had higher keys for less. The maker has a web site (some of it still under construction) at http://www.spiritsongflutes.com. Good luck!
Jenny
Why not a simple fife? The Whistle Shop has two very inexpensive ones. I can’t vouch for the Yamaha, but I had the American fife which is a heavy nickel affair and I just couldn’t get the knack of getting it to sound. I mean, I got a sound but lost it while playing and had to find it again… so I’m saying that I don’t know whether this was the fife or, well, me.
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/newitems/newitems.htm
They’re both new items, under the heading for miscellaneous instruments.
Well, I’d like to be able to easily play the irish tunes I know on it, so I’m only concentrating on one new thing at a time.
I don’t even know if my right wrist will be able to sustain the transverse angle…
Thanks for the link though, keep the ideas coming people! You’re the best.
I bought a Dixon High D Duo. Comes with both a flute mouthpiece and a pennywhistle fipple. I am having a great time with it. And I think the price is just right. You can get one from The Wistle Shop.
Craig
Beth, check your private messages.
I have a high bflat flute/piccolo-fyfe style thingie, four keys. Taht I don’t mind parting with for a reasonable price.
Fifes and piccolos IMH experience are much tougher to play well than flutes. It was mentioned above that they require a much tighter embouchure–and mine sure does! They can also be much shriller in the second octave…as mine is, and the embouchure angle seems more critical on it than on my other flutes. I recommend an inexpensive folk flute in G. I used to have an Olwell G that was many times easier to play than my old concert flute. I think the Spiritsong recommendation is a great one. Maybe you could get one in A. I’ve got a Sweet keyless piccolo in blackwood that I still pick up and mess with from time to time when nobody else is in the house, but sometimes I wish I had that money for more whistles.
Lisa
What exactly is embouchure anyway? And my apologies to anyone who thinks this thread should have been on the flute board.
Embouchure refers to the way you hold your lips and the muscles in your face and chin to shape the airstream that produces the sound on a flute or fife.
I think B-flat is a pretty standard key for fifes, by the way.
If you learn on the flute first, adjusting to a fife embouchure can be a challenge, but I would think that the reverse isn’t likely to be true–anyone who can control the tighter embouchure requirements of the fife should have no trouble adapting to the flute.
Best wishes, whatever you decide to try!
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
Unless if something better comes along before November, I’ll probably end up with a Dixon piccolo from Thom’s shop. I do want something in D and will probably go for the lesser air requirements to start.
On 2002-08-18 23:48, fatveg wrote:
Also, Yamaha do a cheap fife for about $8 – I’m looking at buying one for fun.
I had one of these when I was a teenager. The Yamaha so-called fife is not a fife. It is a recorder with a flute headjoint.
Beth,
I for one am glad you posted here instead of the flute forum because I otherwise wouldn’t have seen it. I’m getting the idea that lots of whistlers are also working with fifes and piccolos. Since I’m a relative beginner on the thing, it will be enjoyable to share experiences with you. I’m curious about how that Dixon will work out.
Lisa
The Cooperman plastic fife is a good instrument and very reasonably priced. I would recommend against getting a maple fife because those I have tried varied considerably in musical quality and ease of playing (although they looked identical), ranging from “poor” to “lousy”.
A new player needs all the help he can get from his instrument. It is a big mistake to give a novice an instrument that even an expert would have trouble getting a decent response from. I wonder how many beginners have given up on learning to play simple flutes and fifes without ever having experienced the revelation of making sounds on a good instrument.
A word about fifes: B-flat fife is the standard pitch for military fifes (meaning that B-flat (the so-called “bell note”) is sounded when all six holes of the fife are covered. This is the most common pitch.
These military fifes are usually 1-piece and are designed to be played in the 2nd and 3rd octave, at the expense of the 1st octave which has too weak a sound to be useful.
NOTE: The big exception to the above paragraph are Skip Healy’s fifes, which are best described as small Irish flutes, and have excellent volume through all three octaves. They are two piece instruments, and have a modified Boehm “parabolic” bore in the headpiece. Made of Grenadilla, with silver rings, ferrules and tuning slice, they cost about $175 minimum, last I looked, and are a bargain at that.
The Japanese (and possibly others I don’t know about) make plastic fifes and piccolos, some of which have chromatic ability by virtue of extra holes for thumb and little finger and some double holes (for for ease in half-holing), but they are not cheap! However, you might find a used one someplace. I have such a piccolo, made by Aulos, which is quite good, (or would be if I had ever been motivated to get used to it!) but I would heartily recommend a newbie avoid such an such an instrument.
Mal
On 2002-08-19 13:52, Walden wrote:
The Yamaha so-called fife is not a fife. It is a recorder with a flute headjoint.
That answers a question I’d had about it. It looked like your average school issue musical instrument, and that confirms it.
Before that sparks a debate on whistlers hating recorders, I am but one beginner whistler and I just always thought it sounded boring and more like a toy than anything. Just IMHO.